NFL Divisional Round: Cowboys Disappoint; Chargers Shock the World

The favorites held up their end of the bargain on Saturday, but then on Sunday all hell broke loose. 

Nobody expected the Colts to lose.  Nobody.  I don’t remember seeing a single expert pick against Indy. 

As a matter of fact, the Colts were the only NFL-NFL_Playoff_Picks_Divisional_Round-110108">unanimous choice among Bleacher Report NFL writers.

But that, as some blowhard told me on ESPN tonight, is why they play the game.

Indianapolis Colts 24, San Diego Chargers 28

I have to be honest with you: I feel extremely cheated by the outcome of this game.  I was looking forward to New England vs. Indianapolis. 

There hasn’t been a sports disappointment this big since the Patriots knocked off the Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game in 1985, or the Houston Rockets knocked off the LA Lakers in 1986. 

In those examples, the fans were robbed of a great matchup, and were instead treated to complete blowouts.

This is a disappointment of epic proportions.

Can’t fault Peyton Manning, who actually played one of his better playoff games.  The blame falls on the Colts’ overrated and undersized defense. 

Fraud Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders was nowhere to be found...except for the play when he couldn’t get up.  

To me, the Defensive Player of the Year should make a couple of big plays in his team’s biggest game.  Bob Sanders didn’t, and his team gave up a three-point fourth quarter lead to Billy Volek and Darren Sproles.

Of course, you boo a 13-year-old girl and I guess you get what you deserve. Nice job, Colts fans. 

As LaDainian Tomlinson would say, that wasn’t very classy. I guess it comes from the head coach.

The Chargers had better get healthy real quick, or next Sunday is going to be a coronation of an 18-0 football team instead of the classic AFC Championship Game we were cheated out of by the maybe-retired Dungy, the soon-to-be-retired Harrison, and the embarrassing Colts’ defense. 

New England Patriots 31, Jacksonville Jaguars 20

Welcome to the NFL, Laurence Maroney. 

For a while, I thought the Patriots had dug up Corey Dillon, dunked him in the fountain of youth, and put him in Maroney’s uniform. A very impressive game for the running back nobody was talking about coming in.

Maroney outplayed Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor.  He was the best running back on the field Saturday.

Clearly, he’s been saving his best football for the winter, because this isn't the same player we saw in the fall.

You have to respect the Jaguars' effort.  They were outmanned, but they hung around longer than expected.  The problem was their defense had absolutely no answer for a Patriots’ offense that looked unstoppable. 

The Jags were effectively able to take Randy Moss out of the game, yet even with that the Patriots really didn’t need to dress a punter—that’s how good they were on offense.  

There was no point in this game when I was worried that the Patriots were going to lose.  The final score shows a relatively close game (by Patriots’ standards), but trust me, it wasn’t.

That said, in a losing effort, David Garrard finally earned my respect (which I'm sure is all he really wanted to do this weekend).

The Patriots went into the game Saturday with a simple plan—make Garrard beat us.  Garrard unexpectedly played well enough to get the job done.

Garrard looked good in spurts this season, but never did he inspire championship-level confidence.  Saturday he proved that he's ready to jump into the upper-level of quarterbacks in the NFL. 

Not on Tom Brady or Peyton Manning’s level, but certainly just outside of that neighborhood. 

Congratulations to the Jags and their fans on a great season. They just ran into a bulldozer in Foxboro.

Green Bay Packers 42, Seattle Seahawks 20

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