Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers: A+
Alright, let's just get the easy stuff out of the way, though it certainly wasn't easy for these two teams to get here. The 49ers had to face two of the best passing attacks in the NFL with Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan back to back after dealing with some serious questions about their defensive durability in December. The San Francisco defense did what it had to and came alive in the second half of each game, but it was this offense under Colin Kaepernick (and OC Greg Roman) that has really shined lately by finding multiple ways to win. Last week's pistol was... so last week now that Kaepernick has proven he can stand in the pocket and kill a good secondary with his vertical attack (hello again, Vernon Davis!). As for the Ravens, I called it best last week when I said they were looking like this year's Giants. Nobody, but nobody thought they would make it past the divisional round with Peyton Manning in Denver, much less past Tom Brady in Foxboro as well a week later. Why would they? The Ravens went 1 - 3 in their final four games. Right now, Baltimore's defense is looking more and more like the dominant unit it has been for so long, but consider these playoffs Joe Flacco's coming out party. He heads into the big dance with 8 TDs, 0 INTs and a 115 passer rating capped off by the most road wins (6) by any QB ever in the postseason. Extra kudos to new OC Jim Caldwell who earned his controversial keep with this spectacular turnaround.
Give the Falcons credit for finally getting over the hump by notching a playoff W under Mike Smith and showing some real power against very good teams. It took everything Atlanta had to beat the surging Seahawks in the divisional round, but they did it with poise after coughing up a 20 point lead. Matt Ryan's final 30-second drive there was nothing short of legendary, and the Falcons' defense almost got the job done against the hot hands of Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick. "Almost" is still the operative word here though. The Falcons suffered from some of the highest expectations of any team entering the postseason in 2012 given their league-best record and history of playoff gaffes in similar circumstances. They both counteracted and played right into that perception by starting out hot for two weeks and then collapsing in the final 30 minutes. This week's loss to the 49ers stings more than most considering the Falcons blew multiple opportunities in the red zone in the fourth quarter down by just 4. The Matty Ice Man giveth and taketh away.
Cincinnati Bengals: D-
Despite ending the regular season with a great string of games, the Bengals regressed back into their bad habits in their only outing in Houston. Cincy's best strength, its pass rush, got very little muscle on Matt Schaub and let Arian Foster run wild, though at least the defense put up a touchdown. Andy Dalton's offense, on the other hand, was stifled from start to finish with a particularly poor long passing game. In fact, the Bengals were in negative passing yards until a good way through the second quarter and went 0 for 9 on third down. The most infuriating part of all of this to me has to be Jay Gruden's play-calling though. RB Benjarvis Green-Ellis was showing some serious early success against the Texans' front seven by averaging nearly 6 yards a pop, but his number was called only 11 times. What a waste of a playoff spot from a team that should've been better.
Denver Broncos: C
To be honest, I'm still not really sure what to think of the Broncos' first playoff appearance with Peyton Manning at the helm. On the one hand, Denver looked to be just one poor guy's defensive breakdown away from the win, Joe Flacco is better than we thought, and the Ravens have been playing their best football of this season all around at the right time. On the other hand, the Broncos might not have been in the game at the end at all if Baltimore hadn't broken down twice against Trindon Holiday in the return game, and Manning turned the ball over three times in critical situations in a very characteristic playoff choke. Plus, Denver was playing a cupcake schedule on that 11-game win streak, so we don't know how big the Baltimore mole hill really was to climb. Being somewhat forgiving without awarding an "incomplete," I go "meh" here.
The Packers got bitten by the injury bug yet again this year, which had them playing less than consistent football going into January, but their veterans on either side of the ball really didn't help Aaron Rodgers out much when push came to shove anyhow. Green Bay looked like its brilliantly efficient self against the very hobbled Vikings in the Wild Card round with Rodgers having another effortless day in the passing game. But they reverted to their more troubling, very unbalanced habits against a 49ers squad that already bested them once this season. Let's not discredit Colin Kaepernick for becoming the special player he's proven himself to be, but the Packers' defense was flat out embarrassed at Candlestick with no answer for the QB read. Rodgers soon resigned himself to some lackluster checkdowns and looked defeated well before even the third quarter was over. These guys need to rediscover that scrappy Super Bowl 6th-seed mentality fast if they want to stand up to the new bullies in the NFC next year.
Houston Texans: D+
It's probably not fair, but I've got to carry over some incomplete class assignments from the regular season for the Texans. Less cryptically, Houston had not one but two chances to lock up a first round bye heading into the postseason against (in all fairness, also playoff-bound) Minnesota and Indianapolis, but they absolutely fizzled and it came back to haunt them quickly. Despite the aforementioned Bengals' awful performance against the Texans in the wild card, Houston still barely eked out the win after Andy Dalton botched a late go-ahead TD pass. To give the Texans a small nod, they held up better against the Patriots in January than they did in December with a strong effort from Arian Foster, but that was a pretty low bar to begin with and they still lost by 2 possessions. Houston had most of the tools throughout its roster to succeed this season, save maybe Matt Schaub, so Texans fans have to be disappointed that they didn't even get a truly emphatic win in January. Is it time for a T.J. Yates-fueled controversy?
As inspiring as the Colts' season has been, they really didn't have much of a chance during Ray Lewis' final home game in Baltimore. Not to mention the fact that they were the only team in the playoffs this year with a negative point differential, which you knew had to catch up with them some time. Catch up it did in a 9 - 24 first round loss, but I suspect this won't be the last time we see Andrew Luck's Colts in the playoffs by a long shot, and next time he'll have this experience under his belt with a more veteran supporting cast to boot.
Minnesota Vikings: C-
I'm grading this one on a curve too, given Christian Ponder's sudden injury-related benching just hours before kickoff in Green Bay. At the very least, one can only assume Joe Webb won't even be riding the pine at the Metrodome while the Vikings pick up a more solid backup option for next year. But I'm still weirdly pretty impressed that Adrian Peterson was able to put up over 90 yards anyway against the Pack even when that defense could have put its whole secondary on him.
New England Patriots: B
I was tempted to grade the Pats a little lower since they only showed up for 1.5 games this postseason, but they did suffer some big injuries in the secondary and running game in their second half against Baltimore. Those had to hurt in more ways than one in tandem with Rob Gronkowski's absence. New England had an expectedly dominant outing against the Texans by playing its quick and explosive offense to a tee and taking advantage of a worse-for-the-wear Matt Schaub on defense. But the Pats hit the wall again against a physically dominant defense that refused to relinquish the game tempo the following week. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick looked declawed after that whole half time clock mismanagement, and to the delight of meme-lovers everywhere, Brady was back to Bradying following some bad receiver drops and big pressure from the Ravens. Much like Aaron Rodgers' Packers, I think the Pats gave up on this one a lot sooner than they should have in the third quarter, especially since they almost surmounted a similarly huge deficit against the 49ers just a few weeks ago and this was their Super Bowl ticket. At least he practiced this one:
Despite having to endure Pete Carroll, who didn't love cheering for the Seahawks this year? They were the unlikely comeback kids in the playoffs, erasing 14 and 20 point deficits against the Redskins and Falcons, respectively. Who's to say where they could have gone if Carroll hadn't "un-iced" Atlanta kicker Matt Bryant in the fourth quarter of the divisional round? I loved watching Seattle's secondary come to life against RGIII and Matt Ryan, forcing uncharacteristic interceptions from both and just giving the 'Hawks a chance to win all season long. I loved Seattle's decision to go with rookie third-rounder Russell Wilson as starting QB even more when it paid dividends with two weeks of solid postseason play. Who could have guessed a guy not named Griffin or Luck would be the only rookie QB still standing in the second round of the playoffs? Even though Seattle ultimately fell short of a defensive stop in the end, they put up a valiant fight with everything they had.
Washington Redskins: B-
This one's a struggle to grade. I really should separate out the first quarter and the players' efforts in general (which is the grade you see here) from Mike Shanahan's awful decision-making (F!!!!!1111). I have no interest in beating a dead horse since the whole "RGKnee" thing has been overblown and overplayed, but in terms of living up to one's playoff potential, it sunk the Redskins' ship this year and maybe next year too. There are much worse scenarios than riding Alfred Morris and Kirk Cousins to whatever shot you've got in the second half while the Seahawks are without pass rusher supreme Chris Clemons. But we'll never know now, will we?
No comments:
Post a Comment