womenwatchingfootball

Traditionally, as soon as the regular season is over, the coaching carosel kicks into high gear. This season, three coaches jumped on early in the season. To this point, we’ve had 4 more head coaches hitting the highway.

The most obvious choice was Detroit Lions head coach, Rod Marinelli. This was a no brainer after an 0-16 season. The next head coach could be lucky because there is no where to go but up.

The Cleveland Browns also said goodbye to Romeo Crennel. He was considered a defensive genius with the Patriots but could not take the Browns to the next level. My guess would be Crennel would return to a defensive coordinator position.

The New York Jets fired Eric Mangini. The Jets missed the playoffs again and looked lack luster in the final game of the season. Mangini is actually being considered for the Browns job.

In a kind of surprise, the Broncos fired Mike Shanahan. He had a lot of sucess with the Broncos but they parted ways. Shanahan has expressed his desire to coach again, soon. My prediction is he will end up with the Jets. They are moving to a new stadium and really need a big name head coach with Brett Favre’s future undecided.

As always, the off season will be interesting. Happy New Year to all my faithful readers as we enter the most exciting time of the season.

Sorry about yesterday. It was my turn for the stomach bug. I really couldn’t focus enough to type. Let’s get right to the matchups.

The first game is on Saturday at 4:30PM eastern time. It’s the Falcons at the Cardinals. This is the Cardinals first playoff appearance since the 1999 season. The Falcons have the better record but the Cardinals are a division winner, so they get the home game. Atlanta is favored by 2 points according to the betting lines.

The Saturday night game is Indianapolis at San Diego. This is another game where the visiting team has the better record. The Colts are also riding a 9 game winning streak. Peyton Manning has been looking better with every game. LT is already complaining of an injury so he has an excuse for the weekend. The Colts are favored by 1 point but I think it’s going to be a lot more than a 1 point game.

The 1PM eastern time game on Sunday is Baltimore at Miami. Both of these teams qualified for the playoffs in the last week of the season. These teams matched up in week 7 with the Ravens winning 27-14. Baltimore is favored by 3 points.

The 4:30PM game has the Eagles visiting the Vikings. The Eagles took care of the Cowboys last week to make the playoffs. Minnesota’s head coach, Brad Childress, was an offensive coordinator under Philly coach Andy Reid. The Eagles are favored by 3 points.

There have been many coaching changes in the last 2 days. Tomorrow I’ll look into them more deeply as they will effect next season. 

Before we get into the playoffs, let’s mention that the Lions did go 0-16 for the season. Obviously they need to make major changes. We’ll have to keep on eye on that.

The NFC is set. The Eagles beat the Cowboys in a “win and you’re in” game. Actually it wasn’t a game at all. Philly had the game from beginning to end.

The Giants and the Panthers have the first round bye. The Eagles, the Vikings, the Falcons and the Cardinals will all be playing next weekend. The schedule hasn’t been set yet.

The AFC (do we really have to talk about the AFC) the Dolphins are in. The Ravens and the Colts are both in. The winner of tonight’s San Diego/Denver game will also be in.

Even though the Patriots won their last 4 games, their season is over. They went 11-5 and will be sitting home for the playoffs. It just doesn’t seem right seeing how whoever wins the west, will have a worse record.

Hopefully by tomorrow, we’ll have the matchups and game times set for the opening weekend. Then we can dissect and analyze the games. I do have to admit that I’m happy for Chad Pennington going into New York and beating the Jets after what the Jets did to him. I’ll be rooting for him.

Well, tomorrow is the final day of the regular season. Seventeen weeks, coming to a close. It has really flown by.

Let’s see who’s already in the playoffs. In the AFC, it’s the Steelers, the Titans, and the Colts. There are 2 divisions and 1 wild card spot left to be filled.

In the NFC, the Giants, the Panthers, the Falcons (yes, the Falcons) and the Cardinals are in. There is one division and one wild card spot left.

It should be an exciting day tomorrow. By this time tomorrow, all but one spot will have fallen into place. The Sunday night game between the Chargers and the Broncos game will decide the AFC West.

I’m really excited for tomorrow. I have nothing planned and do not expect to be going anywhere after 1PM. I love it when teams control their own destiny. Win and you’re in and all that stuff.

I’ll have a recap tomorrow of all the action and next week, we’ll look at the playoff matchups.

It’s the question that’s on everyone’s mind this week. The Lions, who already set a record by going to 0-15 look to make history this week by going winless.

To make matters worse, they travel to the frozen tundra of Green Bay. Sunday’s weather will have high in the mid 20’s with snow showers in the morning. It’s a little different from the indoor Ford Field.

There is no playoff implications for the Packers. They should be playing for pride and not to be the one team that the Lions beat.

One year ago, everyone was wondering if the Patriots could go 16-0. Actually, most of the country was rooting against it. Everyone wanted to see the Patriots lose. They won that game but as you know, they couldn’t get it done in the Super Bowl and the perfect regular season is history.

We’ll see on Sunday if history can be made. Only this year, it won’t be a good thing, it’ll be the worst possible scenerio. They are already guaranteed the number 1 pick.

I’m guessing that people will tuning in for this one, if only for a little while, to see if the Lions will win or lose.

If you take a look at the standings, you’ll notice that the west divisions of both conferences are much worse than the rest of the league. Each division winner of west divisions will either be 8-8 or 9-7.

There are teams in other divisions that might end up 11-5 and will miss the playoffs. It just doesn’t seem fair. But, that’s the system that the league has been using for a number of years so they’ll have to deal with it.

On the other hand, if you are the wild card team playing the division winner from the west you have a better chance of winning. Unfortunately, the division winner will get to host the game.

It seems strange to me that both western divisions are as bad as they are. Does it go back to playing games on the east coast at what feels like 10AM to their bodies? Is there really something to that?

Well, the system is the system whether it seems unfair or not. It doesn’t seem right that teams with a better record will be going home when Arizona, Denver or San Diego will get a home playoff game. Maybe they’ll surprise someone, who knows.

The NFL decided to enact the flex scheduling for next week. I had mentioned yesterday about the unusual schedule with mostly 1PM games and just a couple 4PM games.

Three games have been moved from 1 o’clock to 4 o’clock and 1 game has been moved to 8:15PM.

The Jets/Dolphins game has been moved to 4PM. This is a crucial game where both teams could make the playoffs or neither team could go.

The Jacksonville/Baltimore game has also been moved. If Baltimore wins, they are in. If they lose, they are out.

The Dallas/Philadelphia game is a 4 o’clock game too. It’s an important game for the NFC playoff race.

The Denver/San Diego game has been moved to 8:15PM. Once again, another important game. I’m starting to see a pattern here.

Next Sunday will be the day that you want to sit on the couch, with a table full of snacks, to watch as many games as you possibly can. I can’t wait.

Well, I’m going to start out by being a homer and thank the Seahawks for beating the Jets. The Patriots did their part by beating the Cardinals 47-7. The Dolphins beat the Cheifs so if the Patriots can beat the Bills and the Jets beat the Dolphins next week, the Patriots will win the AFC East.

Baltimore is still in the hunt by beating the Cowboys last night. The Cowboys are in danger of not making the playoffs.

The Lions are the first team ever to be 0-15. They lost 42-7 to New Orleans. That secures the number one overall pick in next year’s draft.

In the most meaningless game of the day, the Bengals beat the Browns 14-0. The Browns have lost 5 in a row now.

The Bucs have lost 3 in a row and have pretty much ruined their playoff chances. The Falcons won, keeping their hopes alive. The Falcons went into Minnesota and ruined the Vikings chance to clinch the division.

I was looking at next week’s schedule and all the games are on Sunday. There are 3 games at 4 o’clock and all the rest of the games are 1PM starts. There’s still a lot to be settled so it should be exciting.

Tonight’s game between Dallas and Baltimore is an important game that has playoff implications in both conferences.

Both teams come into the game 9-5 and in second place in their respective divisions. Both teams need a win to keep pace and keep their playoff hopes in their own hands.

The Ravens just kicked a field goal as time expired in the first half to go up 9-7. They have three field goals and Dallas has a touchdown.

Tony Romo needs to turn it around in the second half. He has 59 yards passing and 2 INTs. He’s getting outplayed by Joe Flacco.

Stay tuned to the second half of tonight’s game and make sure you tune in tomorrow because it’s starting to get real interesting.

The Colts made another comeback last night beating the Jags 31-24. They scored 17 points in the fourth quarter for the win.

It’s the eighth win in a row for the Colts. They clinched a wild card spot with the win last night too. That leaves only 1 wild card spot left for all those teams that are tied at 9-5.

I really don’t know how the Colts keep coming back game after game. I remember watching the game against Houston where it looked like the Texans had the game wrapped up but the Colts pulled it out. How do they do it every week?

Can they keep up this streak? They have 1 regular season game left against the Titans. If they can beat the Titans they would take a 9 game win streak into the playoffs. But, being the last game of the season, both teams could be resting players.

The Colts are definately the comeback team of the year. The even had to come back against the Lions for the win. We’ll have to stay tuned to see how the Colts make out.