Cheers to another great Sunday of sports viewing. There is nothing quite like sitting on the couch all day with your buddies, eating wings and pizza, and drinking Mountain Dew, while watching hours of football. While the Pats-Colts game may have been a bloodbath and was far from suspenseful, we also got a UFC fight on Fox Sports, along with one of the craziest playoff games we have had in recent memory. Let's break down the NFC Championship game.
The Seahawks, playing at home, against a nicked-up Aaron Rodgers, were favored by 7.5 points and were picked to win by the majority of NFL experts. But I looked at this game a little differently.
Sure, the Seahawks were playing at home at CenturyLink Field, one of the toughest places to play in all of sports. But are the Seahawks really as good as they were last year? This year's team lost to the Rams, and almost lost to the Raiders and the Panthers. This year's team doesn't have play-makers Golden Tate or Percy Harvin. This year's team was 27th in passing yards per game. This year's team wasn't putting up the same kind of points that it was in 2013 or in 2012.
Rodgers was dinged-up. But could he be milking this injury for all that it's worth? Could he be getting shot up with whatever pain killers he needs to feel numb for 60 minutes? Could he play like the most physically-gifted and talented quarterback in the NFL today that he is, and get the Packers off to a good start, and make Seattle have to play from behind all game?
My answer to all of those questions in the last paragraph was yes. This Seattle team still has a monster defense. They still should be favored, as they are the home team. But +7.5? That is far too generous a point spread. It should have been +3.5. Regardless of the spread, I picked the Packers for the reasons mentioned above.
And the Packers did what I expected, and more in the first half, going in to halftime with a 16-0 lead. Many were shocked. I was not. But did I feel safe about my pick? Heck no.
That 16-0 lead should have been higher. On four trips in to Seattle territory (three coming in the redzone), the Packers scored only one touchdown, settling for three field goals. As I watched those series', the thing that caught my eye was Mike McCarthy's dismal play-calling. When the world knew they were running, they ran. He did not call a single play-action pass play in the redzone. Play-actions work to perfection on the goal line, and even if they don't, they mix things up and the next time that you run the other team might be cautious of a pass play, thus allowing your team to run it in. Bad play-calling.
In the second half, there were several points you could point to as plays that cost Green Bay the game. Most notably, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix not knocking down a prayer of a pass that allowed Seattle to convert a two-point conversion, and Brandon Bostick blowing an onside kick recovery that would have ensured a Green Bay NFC title. As Al Pacino says in his famous Any Given Sunday speech, "life is just a game of inches, and so is football." This is true. But if you are going to pinpoint the problem of Sunday's game, look no further than play-caller Mike McCarthy.
This game in a lot of ways reminded me of the Baltimore-Denver match-up in the divisional round of the 2012 playoffs. Denver controlled most of the game, but in the last 5-10 minutes or so, Denver played too conservatively, sitting on the ball, and running, taking away from what their offense does best: letting Peyton Manning pass and pick apart a defense. The Ravens' beastly defense focused in on stopping the run, and while Denver was able to keep the clock ticking, they were unable to retain possession of the ball, and had to punt it away to Baltimore, giving the Ravens' a shot, leading to one of the worst plays by a safety in playoff history.
Why did Denver lose that game? The same reason Green Bay lost on Sunday: playing too conservatively and not letting your machine of a quarterback do his thing. Especially after the touchdown on the fake field goal play, when Seattle had enormous momentum with the 12th man roaring, you have to do something about that. You can't just be content with punting the ball away. But Mike McCarthy was.
I am no Packers fan. I don't watch the Packers as much as their fans do. So I am biased, because I haven't seen enough of them to have a fair opinion. But I do know that this wasn't the first time I watched his team make this mistake. And if I worked in the Packers' front office, if I'm not firing McCarthy, or taking away his play-calling duties, I'm putting him on a short leash. Because Sunday was in the league of Mike Smith-bad managing.
Hindsight is always 20-20 but realistically, the Packers really should have won on Sunday. Looking at things from the Seattle side, this game really exposed them. They can't throw the ball. Their defense, still good, isn't otherworldly. They are human and they can be beaten. Really, they are very lucky to be playing next Sunday. If they do win next Sunday, and the Seahawks are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, and Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, and Pete Carroll are speaking in the microphone and thanking people, they should be sure to thank Mike McCarthy for one of the worst-managed NFL games I have seen in quite a while.
Why did Denver lose that game? The same reason Green Bay lost on Sunday: playing too conservatively and not letting your machine of a quarterback do his thing. Especially after the touchdown on the fake field goal play, when Seattle had enormous momentum with the 12th man roaring, you have to do something about that. You can't just be content with punting the ball away. But Mike McCarthy was.
I am no Packers fan. I don't watch the Packers as much as their fans do. So I am biased, because I haven't seen enough of them to have a fair opinion. But I do know that this wasn't the first time I watched his team make this mistake. And if I worked in the Packers' front office, if I'm not firing McCarthy, or taking away his play-calling duties, I'm putting him on a short leash. Because Sunday was in the league of Mike Smith-bad managing.
Hindsight is always 20-20 but realistically, the Packers really should have won on Sunday. Looking at things from the Seattle side, this game really exposed them. They can't throw the ball. Their defense, still good, isn't otherworldly. They are human and they can be beaten. Really, they are very lucky to be playing next Sunday. If they do win next Sunday, and the Seahawks are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, and Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, and Pete Carroll are speaking in the microphone and thanking people, they should be sure to thank Mike McCarthy for one of the worst-managed NFL games I have seen in quite a while.
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