2011 Wildcard Playoffs Thread

[bostonguy]

The playoffs begin this weekend. Here are the 4 games.

Saturday:
NO@Seattle 3:30 CST
NYJ@Indy 7:00 CST

Sunday:
Baltimore@KC 12:00 CST
Green Bay@Philly 3:30 CST

[bostonguy]

I like

NO, Indy, Baltimore, Green Bay



NO should have very little trouble with Seattle. I expect this game to be over by or a little after halftime.

If the Jets can run the ball well and keep Peyton Manning off the field, they have a great chance. If they have to rely on Sanchez, season over.

The Chiefs have a good team but the Ravens are for real. KC will play their asses off but they will lose by 10-13 points. Ravens are just too good.


Philly/GB will be the best game of the weekend. If the Packers can limit the Eagles big plays, they will win. If they can't, this will turn into a shoot out and whoever has the ball last will win.

[SAtown]

It'll be tough to go into Indy and win, especially if Manning is 5-1(*) vs Rex Ryan's D's. Sanchez did alright in the AFCC last year, but they need to rely on running this time around.

You still can't pick against Indy at home in the playoffs.

NO v Seattle
NYJ v Indy
Baltimore v KC
GB v Philly

[Killakobe81]

I say ...
Saints, Colts, Ravens and Philly win ...with the Packers the best shot at pulling an upset, if they can turn the game in to a shoot-out. As good as vick has been, I would take the pack in a shootout ...

Philly loves to blitz and Packers can beat it with their schemes ...

[LnGrrrR]

What, no upset picks?

I'm going KC, NY, New Orleans and Philly this week. (And yes, part of that is because I want to see the Colts and Ravens get knocked out. :lol)

[bostonguy]

What, no upset picks?

I'm going KC, NY, New Orleans and Philly this week. (And yes, part of that is because I want to see the Colts and Ravens get knocked out. :lol)

I dont want any part of the Ravens or Colts either Lng. I just shiver thinking of Manning getting another opportunity to face this young D. The Ravens scare me even more. I just can't expect neither team to fall. :lol :depressed

[DeadlyDynasty]

The playoffs begin this weekend. Here are the 4 games.

Saturday:
NO@Seattle 3:30 CST
NYJ@Indy 7:00 CST

Sunday:
Baltimore@KC 12:00 CST
Green Bay@Philly 3:30 CST

Saints 31, Seahawks 17
Colts 27, Jets 24 (OT)
Ravens 23, Chiefs 10
Eagles 34, Packers 27

[DeadlyDynasty]

I dont want any part of the Ravens or Colts either Lng. I just shiver thinking of Manning getting another opportunity to face this young D. The Ravens scare me even more. I just can't expect neither team to fall. :lol :depressed

As they should. NE will undoubtedly be favored big in any game they play, but the Ravens will be a tough out. Baltimore is the only team not to get their ass kicked this year.

15-10 loss @Cincy...had a 10-9 lead in 4th.
23-20 OT loss @NE...Were up 20-10, fell asleep in the 4th again.
27-21 loss @ATL...were up 21-20 with 2 minutes left
13-10 vs PIT...were up 10-3 in the 4th.

They finished the year on a 4-game winning streak, with 2 of those wins (Cincy and New Orleans) being more important b/c they could've choked away 4th quarter leads again but they hung on. The only thing that worries me about B-More is Flacco. He's a good QB but he still has that scared shitless look about him.

[SAtown]

Best time of the fucking year!!! Can't wait

[Trainwreck2100]

Saints 31, Seahawks 17
Colts 27, Jets 24 (OT)
Ravens 23, Chiefs 10
Eagles 34, Packers 27

Don't the new overtime rules start this year

[DeadlyDynasty]

Don't the new overtime rules start this year

tbh I don't really understand them...they look retarded

[SAtown]

tbh I don't really understand them...they look retarded

If they are using the new rules, your prediction would still be possible, assuming Indy receives in OT, only scores a FG, and the Jets fail miserably on 4th down before FG range or miss a FG altogether.

Basically, the team that receives in OT can either score a TD and end the game immediately, or score a FG (or score nothing) to keep the game alive. If the other team only scores a FG, the game keeps going, if a TD then Game Over.

IF the scores are still tied after one possession each, then Sudden Death rules apply

[bostonguy]

As they should. NE will undoubtedly be favored big in any game they play, but the Ravens will be a tough out. Baltimore is the only team not to get their ass kicked this year.

15-10 loss @Cincy...had a 10-9 lead in 4th.
23-20 OT loss @NE...Were up 20-10, fell asleep in the 4th again.
27-21 loss @ATL...were up 21-20 with 2 minutes left
13-10 vs PIT...were up 10-3 in the 4th.

They finished the year on a 4-game winning streak, with 2 of those wins (Cincy and New Orleans) being more important b/c they could've choked away 4th quarter leads again but they hung on. The only thing that worries me about B-More is Flacco. He's a good QB but he still has that scared shitless look about him.


I agree about Flacco. That D is damn good,Ray Rice is a stud, and they have damn good wideouts. It comes down to how Flacco does. They are more than capable of winning in Foxboro. They did last year and almost this season. Baltimore may be the 5th seed, but they can certainly win on the road.


The Steelers don't scare me one bit because Brady owns them. That D HATES playing against Brady especially in the postseason.

[SAtown]

Looks like the new rules start this weekend:


N.F.L.’s New Overtime Rule Means Extra Choices
By JUDY BATTISTA
Published: January 5, 2011

INDIANAPOLIS — Peyton Manning said he had forgotten how the new playoff overtime rule would work until Colts Coach Jim Caldwell mentioned it this week.

No matter. No N.F.L. coach worth his polyester shorts would not consider trying to score a touchdown on the opening drive of overtime with Manning as his quarterback.

Under the new rule, which starts with this weekend’s wild-card round, the team that receives the first overtime kickoff would win the game on that possession only via a touchdown. A field goal then would not end the game in sudden death but would give the opponent’s offense a chance to score. If the score is still tied, either team could then win with a score of any kind.

So, should coaches defer the opening kickoff? Is a long field-goal attempt on the opening drive preferable to trying to convert on fourth down? Or is punting the better option?

The nuances of the new rule have confused fans and sent coaches into extra meetings to discuss strategy.

Coach Mike McCarthy, whose Packers teams have gone to overtime in four of their last six playoff games, said that he and the team’s director of research and development talked after the rule was passed last spring. They discussed strategy again this week ahead of Sunday’s game against the Eagles.

Ravens Coach John Harbaugh, whose team plays the Chiefs on Sunday and was one of four to vote against the rule change, said he discussed strategy this week with his assistant coaches and with General Manager Ozzie Newsome.

“There is more value in the second possession than there has been in the past,” Harbaugh said Wednesday. “On the second drive, they basically have four downs to move the ball down the field. That second drive has a real good chance to move down the field percentagewise more than it normally would. So you have to keep that in mind. You might see some teams defer.”

The rule was created to avoid what N.F.L. officials feared most: a Super Bowl decided in overtime by a kicker, with only one team touching the ball.

The league encountered just such a outcome in last season’s National Football Conference championship game, which the Saints won in sudden death on a field goal on the opening overtime drive, leaving Brett Favre and the Vikings’ offense on the sideline with no role to play.

So the competition committee devised a formula: each team would get a chance to move the ball if the team with the first possession did not score a touchdown. If each team gets a chance and the score is still tied, overtime reverts to the old sudden-death rule.

Still, there are tricky possibilities: a safety on the first overtime drive, for example, would win the game because both teams would be deemed to have had a possession.

Most coaches were opposed to the new rule when it was adopted because it created another layer of decision making and the potential for second-guessing. And they were upset when owners later decided not to extend the rule to the regular season, because that meant they missed opportunities to test strategy and to scout how opponents would handle overtime. Players were not thrilled with the original change, either, because they feared an increased risk of injury with longer regular-season games.

As it turned out, 19 regular-season games went to overtime. Just two were decided on the first possession, and both were won on a field goal. In the other 17, both teams touched the ball. The competition committee noted that starting in 1994, teams that won the overtime coin toss went on to win the game 59.8 percent of the time, 34.4 percent of the time on the first possession.

The rule diminishes the importance of field goals, which does not please one of the most clutch kickers in N.F.L. history, the Colts’ Adam Vinatieri.

“The way I look at it, your offense is supposed to score,” he said. “Your defense is supposed to keep the other team from scoring. If they do that, you get the ball back anyway.”

Coaches essentially may find themselves having to make up overtime strategy on the fly. Saints Coach Sean Payton, an outspoken opponent of the change, said this week that he would probably wait to see how his team’s wild-card game Saturday against the Seattle Seahawks was going — whether his offense was able to score touchdowns, whether his defense was stopping the opponent — to determine how to handle overtime.

Like Payton, McCarthy, who has a strong defense and a strong quarterback, will gauge how the game is being played before making any final decisions on overtime, although he said that the team had reviewed the variables that could be presented in the game.

Overtime decisions may be most challenging to coaches who have stingy defenses — the Ravens and the Jets, for example. When the rule was approved, Jets Coach Rex Ryan caused a stir when he said he might consider deferring the opening coin toss to put his defense on the field first. By Tuesday, Ryan had changed his mind and said he would take the ball if the Jets won the toss. He planned to review the rules with players this week.

Tony Dungy, the former Colts coach who is now an analyst for NBC’s “Football Night in America,” said that if he were a coach with a strong defense, he would at least consider deferring.

“Coaches are going to be much more apt to defer and take the wind because you know if you can at least hold a team to a field goal, you’re going to get the ball again,” Dungy said this week in a conference call.

“In the past it was hard to make that call, even if you had a great defense — to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to give the other team the ball’ — because you might not get it back. I think they’re going to play through that in their minds, especially if you have a team like the Jets who is a defensive team. I don’t know that you’d give the ball to Peyton Manning first, but you’d sure have to think about it.”

Mike Mayock, another NBC analyst, said he expected that whoever won the toss would take the football.

Manning has a better solution.

“I think the coin toss is still very important in overtime,” he said. “I always try to do whatever I can to win in regulation and take the coin toss out of it.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/sports/football/06overtime.html

[bostonguy]

I hate these overtime rules for the playoffs. It shouldn't have changed.

[LnGrrrR]

They add more strategy, but I won't know how I feel about then until it actually happens.

[SAtown]

When the Jets score the opening FG in OT, and let Peyton Manning back on the field, I'll know exactly how I feel about it :lol

[DeadlyDynasty]

I hate these overtime rules for the playoffs. It shouldn't have changed.

Exactly...if they didn't like the system already in place then they should've used the regular as a trial run, not important playoff games. Utterly stupid, imo.