Picked all four games right this weekend, but big deal -- so did pretty much everyone. All four favorites and all four home teams won. Not sure but I believe they all covered the spread, too, depending on when you placed your bet. Maybe Arizona didn't, with that bizarre game. Watched 'em all, so let's recap.
Kansas City at Patriots: Great tweet about this game, I'd credit it if I could find who said it. "Kansas City is a field goal offense in a touchdown league," or something to that effect. Hasn't that always been the case with Andy Reid teams? All the times his team has lost in the playoffs because it didn't score quite as much as it should have. Kansas City came out strong and played fairly well, but going into Houston is a little different than going into Foxborough. You've got to score touchdowns.
Post-mortem on Kansas City: they didn't use Knile Davis all season, gave him a shot in this game, and he hurt the team with a costly fumble. I'm not sure what to make of this backfield next year. Jamaal Charles will be back, but a year older and another knee injury on his resume. Both Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware played very well at times. I've got Charles and West in dynasty and I'm wondering if I should try to ship both off to the guy who has Ware. One thing is clear, this team needs another wide receiver.
New England won without running the ball. At all. I think this is about what you'll see out of them the next two games, too. They're favored in Denver and it's not surprising. This Denver team doesn't look capable of scoring enough.
Packers at Cardinals: We ran the trivia question last week about active quarterbacks with the most regular-season wins without a playoff win, and some were probably surprised to find it was Carson Palmer. I admit I didn't realize it, you think of him as this seasoned, solid veteran, which of course he is, but since so much of his career was spent with the Bengals, we should have known. And he really played poorly. A couple of nice throws: the first touchdown to Floyd in the back of the end zone, and the overtime throw across his body to Fitzgerald. But he was fortunate not to throw a bunch of interceptions, and obviously the touchdown that looked like it would win the game in regulation was dumb luck. Awesome game for his great wide receivers, which enabled him to get that first playoff win.
I actually went to bed in fourth quarter, and saw the Packers had a 4th and 20 from their own 4 on my phone. So when they picked that one up on possibly the most amazing downfield throw ever, I came stumbling downstairs in the dark to watch them then complete their second Hail Mary in two months and force overtime. And I kind of sympathize with the idea that both teams should get the ball on offense in overtime. The tweak that you can't win on a field goal isn't enough; it's a half-measure, which of course the NFL is famous for. Maybe after they get done adjusting rules so people know what is and isn't a catch, which you know is coming, they'll adjust the overtime rules, too.
Post-mortem on the Packers, they do a really good job of finding wide receivers. I wonder if they wouldn't have been better off giving Jeff Janis more work sooner rather than using James Jones and Davante Adams. Meanwhile it seems they need a running back, too.
Seahawks at Panthers: A bizarre game that leaves everyone uncertain as to who the better team actually was. My general sense is that Carolina just sat on its huge lead so I don't place much stock in them being shut out in the second half. But given how well Seattle played after halftime, you have to think, man, that's a great team that probably should have won this game by simply not making a couple of poor plays in the early going. Without Russell Wilson's pick six, we're probably looking at Seattle knocking off Arizona next week and going back to the Super Bowl.
In this playoff fantasy league I'm in I made the mistake of starting Cam Newton over Carson Palmer. Didn't look like a mistake with 5 minutes left in the Arizona game, but football is crazy sometimes. But I did well enough on the weekend that I'm in fourth place overall just 10 points off the lead, and the top three teams only have Palmer left at quarterback; I have Newton. So I'll spend the week wondering if I should also start Palmer and make up the ground elsewhere (I am the only team with both Gronk and Edelman), OR if I should start Newton over Palmer again and hope he makes the difference for me. And I guess I'll root for Carolina, since I'd then be the only team with a quarterback in the Super Bowl.
Seahawks post-mortem, that's a good team that the remaining playoff teams are glad they won't have to face. And I think Marshawn Lynch will either retire or leave Seattle at the very least. and it'll be Thomas Rawls next year.
In any case, what the Carolina secondary showed while Russell Wilson was lighting them up in the second half is that they have some holes. And the Cardinals have three great wide receivers. Can Palmer play well enough to get them the ball? That's the big question. I suspect Newton will have to do a little more with his legs, and we should get a really good game between two teams who were maybe a little fortunate to get there.
Steelers at Broncos: Well, this was kind of ugly. Defense is nice and all, but it would have been nice to see something out of Peyton Manning and his receivers to make me feel they can score enough to beat New England last week. And instead we saw an old, off-the-mark weak-armed quarterback and some drop-prone receivers and separation-less tight ends doing just enough to win at home against an offense missing its best wide receiver, and even then only because its tailback fumbled on what looked like a game-clinching drive.
Too harsh? Not a pretty game for Denver's offense. Their defense is great, but shutting down Tom Brady's passing offense? Don't see it. I've made my feelings on C.J. Anderson versus Ronnie Hillman known many times, so I won't get into that, beyond wondering what exactly Gary Kubiak sees that makes him put Hillman on the field these days. Saw him kill one drive with a drop of a pass that would have gone for a big play followed by losing 5 yards by being too tentative at the line. Not a good running back. Yes he had a couple of decent runs to set up Anderson's touchdown, so thanks for that. But he needs to be on the bench next week, while Denver hitches its wagon to Anderson.
Post-mortem on the Steelers, they need help in the secondary. Otherwise, really good team when healthy, and one that probably wins this game if Antonio Brown hadn't sat out with his fake concussion just to make Adam Jones look bad. Yes I'm kidding.
We'll take a longer look at these matchups over the course of the week, but it sure looks like the Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl, and probably facing Cam Newton. Unless Palmer plays as well as he did for most of the season, anyway.