- You can tell Houston just clinched their first playoff spot ever. A team that has beaten team after team just allowed Carolina to demolish them, including a play taken from the movie Little Giants. I hadn't realized until yesterday that Houston is honorarily part of Puerto Rico.
- I'm not sure which New York team is less deserving of a playoff spot, the Jets (lost 45-19 at Philly) or the Giants (lost 23-10 to the Redskins at home). I'm going to say the Jets are less deserving (best wins are Dallas and San Diego), but the Giants are infinitely more disappointing (3-4 at home, including losses to Seattle, VY-led Philly, and now Washington). On the plus side, Eli gave us the full-fledged Peyton Manning hysterics after his red zone pick to Josh Wilson.
- Do you think Scott Pioli is hoping the Chiefs lose their next 2 games, so he's not pressured into giving Romeo Crennel the head coaching job full time? I mean, just look at his tenure in Cleveland for a host of reasons why that's a bad idea. But the man is a tremendous defensive coordinator, and the players absolutely respond to him. And how can Todd Haley get a job after this? He wouldn't play Kyle Orton over Tyler freaking Palko, and the players would not play anywhere near this hard for him. Add in him chasing away an offensive coordinator a year and his generally terrible and immature demeanor and I don't see how he comes back from this.
- Poor Matthew Hasselbeck. I am genuinely sorry to see him struggle. He did so much for the Seahawks organization, but he's just a shell of himself these days. Seattle absolutely made the right decision to move on from him this offseason, as he wanted a multiple year commitment and they wouldn't give it to him. But playing so poorly as to be benched against the hapless (well, not anymore) Colts? Ouch.
- You think the Oakland coaches might make more of an effort to cover Calvin Johnson next time Detroit needs a 98-yard touchdown drive in the final 2 minutes? Between catches and a pass interference penalty, Johnson accounted for 92 yards on the game-winning drive.
- Caleb Hanie, by all accounts, acquitted himself quite well when pressed into emergency duty in the NFC Championship game back in January. So when Mike Martz was quietly complaining this offseason that he wanted a veteran brought in, people didn't give it much credence. Well, 4 games into the Caleb Hanie Experiment: The Remix, Martz may have been on to something: Hanie is 0-4 with 3 TDs and 9 INTs since replacing Jay Cutler. Of course, Martz is the same guy who brought in Todd Collins as his veteran last season, and also the guy who won't change his offense at all to account for things like a backup QB, a backup, braindead RB, and a terrible offensive line, so let's not give him too much credit.
- Well the Tebow magic thudded back to earth for a week. Really, Denver fell victim to what they've been doing to other teams during the 7-1 stretch. See, Denver was putting pressure on teams as they got into their winning stretch, as teams were afraid to give Tebow a chance to beat them late, so you have teams doing silly things like running out of bounds fighting for first down yardage (Marion Barber in the Chicago game). Well, in the second quarter against New England, Denver committed those type of brain cramps as the New England offensive engine started churning: Tebow committed a costly fumble on a read option play, Denver didn't run out the clock down 24-16, giving the Patriot offense another crack, and then Quan Cosby tried to field a punt with <15 seconds left in the half, and muffed it, handing the Pats a free field goal. Other teams had been making these mistakes and the Broncos had been taking advantage. This time, the Broncos made the mistakes and felt the pressure, and the Patriots were able to put the game out of reach before the 4th quarter.
- Finally, I'm not a Baltimore Ravens fan, but I'm disgusted at the uneven efforts the Ravens have put forth against teams they should handle easily (Tennessee, Jacksonville, Seattle, and now San Diego). Much has been made of the fact that the Ravens haven't played 1 home playoff game in John Harbaugh's tenure, and this is why. They blow games they should win, and other teams (like Pittsburgh) take care of their business and thus get the home playoff games. If I were a Ravens fan I would be a raving mess after yet another no-show on the road against an inferior opponent.
- Finally, I'm not sure who looks worse right now on Monday Night: Ben Roethlisberger, or the power grid supplying the 49ers' stadium.
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