We here at A Lot Of Sports Talk wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best to you as we get ready to head into 2014. (Is it us, or did this year go even faster than usual?) Getting ready for the holidays and the new year also means getting ready for the NFL playoffs, and the cheer – or misery – that it brings to football fans. Last week brought a lot of those emotions out, and here is what we now make of things in the NFL going into Week 17 as we bring to you the Christmas edition of the Tuesday 10-spot.
1. Will New England fans be heard from when Arizona goes 11-5 and misses the playoffs?
Remember, in 2008, when the Patriots were able to thrive with Matt Cassel in at quarterback for an injured Tom Brady and finished 11-5? Do you also remember when Patriot fans – as well as other football analysts – howled at their omission from the playoffs with an 11-5 record, and lobbied for a possible rule change to invite the best six teams in a conference to the playoffs, regardless of division affiliation? Do you think those same voices will be heard from if Arizona defeats San Francisco this Sunday and misses the playoffs despite an 11-5 record? Methinks not. But that should not take away from what a great season it has been for Arizona, and if they do defeat the 49ers and New Orleans were to lose at home to Tampa (unlikely), the Cardinals would be in the postseason. Bruce Arians, somehow, might be doing a better coaching job in 2013 in the desert than when he won AP Coach of the Year last season, taking over in an interim basis from the recuperating Chuck Pagano in Indianapolis.
2. The St. Louis Rams will be the “it” team in 2014.
Speaking of teams in NFC West, no team may lament the end of the season being nigh than the one in the Gateway to the West. Winning four of its last six games (including victories against the Colts, Bears and Saints), the Rams have a shot at .500 with a win in Seattle this Sunday, and things will just get brighter as they own Washington’s first-round selection in 2014 – which could turn out to be the number one overall pick in the draft, depending on results in East Rutherford (Washington-NY Giants) and Nashville (Texans-Titans). Now the question is will the Rams, in a draft class stocked with potential at the quarterback position, use their first-round selection on a signal-caller, or will St. Louis have enough faith in Sam Bradford that he will recover from his ACL injury suffered earlier this season and finally live up to his expectations when he himself was the No. 1 overall pick in 2010.
3. Luke Kuechly might be a superhero in disguise.
In Carolina’s 17-13 win over New Orleans to take control of the NFC South, Kuechly went for 24 tackles and also had an interception in the second half as he was covering all-everything tight end Jimmy Graham in open space. Richard Sherman of the Seahawks and Robert Quinn of the Rams are making strong cases, but Kuechly should be the league’s defensive player of the year for 2013.
4. The race for NFL MVP, on the other hand, is wide open still.
That is, if you’re officially desensitized to the passing numbers put up in today’s pass-happy NFL. If not, then Peyton Manning is your winner, hands down. But if you are anesthetized to 50-touchdown, 5,000-yard passing seasons (like I’m quickly becoming inured to), then the race for MVP is still up for grabs. My top four, as of the end of Week 16, is as follows: Jamaal Charles, LeSean McCoy, Peyton Manning and Cam Newton. Thoughts?
5. There’s no point in risking Tony Romo’s future this Sunday.
Best case scenario if Tony Romo plays: the Cowboys defense allows 40 points, Romo’s back holds up enough to keep America’s Team in the game but Dallas can’t outscore Philadelphia and the Eagles win the NFC East.
Worst-case scenario if Tony Romo plays: the Cowboys defense allows 50 points, Romo plays like he does in the last two make-or-break Week 17 games (five turnovers in the last two Week 17 games combined) and Philadelphia wins the NFC East.
6. Rex Ryan should stay on as Jets coach in 2014.
Word on the street (from Ryan himself, apparently) is that the embattled coach will not be back with Gang Green after the season is over. As sad as that will be for the New York media, Ryan’s dismissal would hurt the franchise more than they would let on. Through foot fetishes, brash boasts, one memorable butt fumble and a change in management, Ryan has been a success for a historically downtrodden franchise, twice taking the Jets to within a game from the Super Bowl and, if the team wins on Sunday against Miami, to four seasons with a .500 record or better in five years. This season’s team was supposed to resemble the 1996 New York Jets (1-15), with an offense bereft of talent. But by keeping the team together apparently with spit and duct tape, this might go down in history as Ryan’s best coaching job yet in the Big Apple.
7. The aura of invincibility at CenturyLink Field is still intact.
So all of a sudden, the Seahawks are in trouble because of a close home loss to a division rival that now has 10 wins on the season? Yes, this was Russell Wilson’s first loss at home and Seattle managed to lose a game despite picking off Arizona’s Carson Palmer four times, but that shouldn’t do much in giving any of the other NFC contenders any more confidence in coming out of the Great Northwest with a victory…or make the crowd up there any quieter when it ratchets up the noise in the stadium to an head-splitting 130-plus decibels.
8. The rest of the NFC should hope the Bears defeat the Packers on Sunday.
We have maintained the thought for weeks that if Green Bay managed to whether the storm of playing without Aaron Rodgers and is still in the playoff hunt by the time he returns from his broken collarbone, the rest of the NFC would be sorry. That is what exactly may happen, even though Rodgers has still not yet been cleared to play in the do-or-die game with Chicago for the NFC North crown. A Green Bay win sends them to the playoffs. As for Rodgers, he’s the one quarterback in the NFC that I trust in winning playoff games on the road, including against Seattle. (This is the perfect time to remind you that the Pack did indeed beat the Seahawks in Seattle last season…umm, well, not according to Lance Easley.)
9. I still trust the Kansas City Chiefs…but only just.
Trust me, it’s getting harder and harder to support that sentiment with each passing game that they lose to a playoff contender. (Playing at San Diego on Sunday may not make things better either.) Despite that, the Chiefs still have 11 wins, sport a quarterback with playoff experience (Alex Smith), have an MVP-caliber player at running back (Jamaal Charles) and still are awaiting a game-changer to recover from injury and return to the lineup (defensive end Justin Houston). And as the Ravens proved last season, momentum heading into the playoffs isn’t necessarily a prerequisite to making a Super Bowl run. Its defense, once the scourge of the league early on this season, has been hemorrhaging yards as of late, but it still ranks fourth in the league in scoring defense (18.9). Kansas City will be on the road when the playoffs start, and with their league-best 6-1 record away from Arrowhead Stadium, that might actually be a boost to its Super Bowl prospects.
10. The No. 6 seed in the AFC Playoffs will be…the San Diego Chargers.
The scenarios to make the playoffs for each of the four teams still alive for the second Wild Card spot in the AFC spot read as long as the Code of Hammurabi. I’ll spare you the specific permutations and tell you what I think will happen on Sunday. Miami will lose to an inspired Jets team looking to finish .500 and Baltimore won’t be able to recover from the hiding it suffered against New England in time to beat Cincinnati, thus allowing the Chargers to sneak into the No. 6 spot if they beat the Kansas City Chiefs. Miami and Baltimore both play in the early window, so if they both lose, Qualcomm Stadium would be electric with the knowledge that a win would put the Bolts in, and that momentum will carry the Super Chargers to the win…and into the postseason.
