Postseason Report -- Week 2

By Brad Oremland Sports Central Columnist

Five Quick Hits

* How long has Dick Stockton been doing games? He should know what a flea-flicker is by now.

* Joe Gibbs is back, and all football fans should be grateful. Let's hope Daniel Snyder gives him a chance to succeed.

* Joe Buck slighted some of the finest quarterbacks in recent memory on Sunday. Referring to the great QBs of the early '90s, he mentioned Steve Young, plus Troy Aikman, an aging Joe Montana, and John Elway at the low point of his career. I think Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, and Warren Moon are all entitled to at least as much respect based on their play at that time.

* Not to go after FOX here, but their camera people have been terrible throughout the postseason.

* Remember two years ago when people were criticizing Bill Belichick for trading Drew Bledsoe and keeping Tom Brady?

Quarterbacks get too much publicity as it is, but this week's playoffs games were all about quarterbacks who stepped up to get the job done. Jake Delhomme has stayed cool under pressure all postseason, and as a result, the Panthers are a surprise visitor in Philadelphia next week. Tom Brady, the most clutch player in the league right now, got his team past the scary-good Titans not by throwing all over the field and making miracle plays, but by doing enough to win against a tough defense, just as he has all season.

Peyton Manning's performance in the playoffs this year has defied description. It has also erased any doubt, in my mind at least, that Manning is the game's best quarterback right now. Finally, on Sunday night, the much-maligned Donovan McNabb made plays with his arm and his feet and somehow gutted out a come-from-behind victory against the Packers when the stakes were highest.

Back to Manning for a moment. This blaze of glory will be one of the things people remember when Manning is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At his induction ceremony, people will recall with puzzlement the notion, based on only three games, that Manning couldn't win big games. I mean, Manning is now 2-3 in the postseason for his career. During the same time, Brett Favre is 2-4 in the playoffs. You just don't judge players on such a small window.

Peyton reminds me -- and I never thought I would say this about anyone -- of Dan Marino, my favorite player of all-time. No one in the game today -- not even Favre -- is as much like the great quarterbacks of the '80s who possessed incredible knowledge of the game and flawless fundamentals. I'm thinking Marino, Montana, and Elway here.

Barring injury, that's the kind of company Manning will be in by the time his career is over, because he's just hitting the prime of his career. Peyton is 27; Young was 33 when he won his first Super Bowl. So was Jim Plunkett. Phil Simms was 32. Elway was 37. Appreciate Manning's career, football fans. It's going to be a great one.

* A kind of sixth Quick Hit: Peyton Manning has thrown more TDs in his career than Troy Aikman did. He also has fewer interceptions. I swear.

Divisional Roundups

Panthers at Rams

There are four teams remaining in the playoffs now, and I had three of them in the top four spots of my Week 17 Power Rankings. The missing one was the Panthers, at 16th, and it's obvious now that I had them too low. But I still think the Rams were the better team, and they should have won on Saturday.

John Fox and his staff outcoached the Rams. St. Louis had two weeks to prepare, and they were playing at home with everything going their way. And they blew it. They let themselves get pulled into a game of trading field goals. Mike Martz underused Marshall Faulk -- again. Lovie Smith's defense never found a way to stop the run. All of those are things Martz and Smith should have been working on for the past two weeks.

The king of coaching mistakes, of course, was Martz's decision to play for overtime rather than trying to win the game at the end of regulation when his offense was having its way with everything it tried. The Cardinals hired Dennis Green this week, and Martz's surprising call immediately brought to mind Green's failure to go for a score at the end of the NFC Championship Game when he was coaching Minnesota in January 1999. The Vikings played for overtime, and they lost.

On Saturday, the Rams played for overtime with the same result. If Martz didn't have enough faith in Marc Bulger -- and Faulk; the Rams had a timeout -- not to turn the ball over in that situation, then the team has even bigger problems. Carolina has done everything they needed to in the postseason, but this game was St. Louis's to lose, and that's exactly what happened.

Titans at Patriots

The two most similar teams in the playoffs met on Saturday, and the home team won. Sound boring? For three quarters, it might have been. But in the fourth quarter, both teams came to life, and New England did what it has done all season. The Patriots improved their home record to 9-0 and Tom Brady brought his home TD-INT ratio up to 8-0 with an opening-drive pass to Bethel Johnson.

Johnson has been exactly what the Patriots were looking for when they drafted him in the second round last April: a lightning-fast deep threat to spread the offense and diversify last year's short passing game. Johnson had two catches in Saturday's game and they were both huge. The first was a 41-yard touchdown catch that gave New England the early edge in a defensive battle. The second was a wild scramble for a first down on 3rd-and-13. Johnson's Barry Sanders impersonation, on which he probably ran at least 50 yards, kept the drive alive and seven plays later New England scored its second touchdown.

What set the Patriots apart in this game? It wasn't just Johnson, because the Titans completed long passes, too. It wasn't just Brady, because Tennessee's Steve McNair is a clutch QB with a lot of playoff experience, and he had a 90.2 passer rating on Saturday. Both offensive lines did a good job, though New England's shined more brightly. Antowain Smith, statistically, did better than Eddie George, but he hardly broke the game open.

And, although I really liked Rodney Harrison's game, both defenses played well. It's hard to pinpoint why the Patriots won, and you could make a decent argument for luck. But I'll go with preparation, a week off, and coming up big at the best times.

New England probably had more quality depth than any other team in the NFL this year, and they had a week to rest and prepare before Jeff Fisher's boys came to town. The banged-up Titans, in contrast, were just one week removed from a tough, physical game in Baltimore that went down to the last minute. Jeff Fisher is one of the best coaches in the league, and McNair is one of the best quarterbacks. But Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, respectively, outdid them both by just enough to send the Patriots to the AFC Championship Game.

Colts at Chiefs

Both defenses looked awful in this game, but two players -- Peyton Manning and Dante Hall -- made the game a joy to watch anyway. Both quarterbacks had all day to throw, and both took advantage, but Manning was the one who made all the plays at all the right times. How do you go two games in a row without punting? How do you do it in the playoffs, against good teams? How do you win when you get no sacks and give up 176 rushing yards to one player? You have Manning go 44-of-56 for 681 yards, 8 TDs, and no interceptions.

Other Colts played well. Edgerrin James had 125 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Brandon Stokley kept the K.C. defense spread all game. The offensive line was fantastic. But it all came down to Manning.

Some people -- mostly ESPN anchors and Packer backers -- have been talking about Green Bay as a team of destiny. No; if there really are teams of destiny, look at the Colts, and look at Manning. I'm not going to pick against the Patriots this week, but if Indy's offense plays the way it has the last two weeks, I can't see the Colts losing in Foxboro on Sunday.

An observation: the Chiefs had a very good offense, but Indy's defense did nothing to stop it. Kansas City's biggest problem on offense may have been dropped passes when receivers were open. K.C.'s terrific offensive line dominated the Indianapolis D-line, including the vastly overrated Dwight Freeney, who, as far as I can tell, makes about two really good plays a game, and just overruns all the others.

Packers at Eagles

In recent weeks, I've whined quite a bit about the lack of respect given to Donovan McNabb, and I'm going to do it again now, but I swear that this will the last time I do so in my columns for at least six months. Against Green Bay, McNabb recovered from a slow start to finish with 248 passing yards and 107 rushing yards (a postseason record for QBs).

McNabb threw two touchdown passes -- and the pass known simply as "Fourth-and-26" -- with no interceptions and finished the game with a 90.5 passer rating against one of the NFL's better defenses. He made some bad plays, but -- in keeping with the theme here -- came up big when he had to.

McNabb had a great fourth quarter, but you know who kept Philly in the running all game? Free safety Brian Dawkins. He had an absolutely terrific game, making tackles, creating plays in coverage, and of course, coming up with the interception that led to the game-winning field goal. Two other big players for Philadelphia were Freddie Mitchell and Duce Staley. Mitchell has received accolades for Fourth-and-26, but he made plays throughout the game, including some great blocks in the first half. That's the kind of play that helps a team win championships.

Before we go any further, though, was it really necessary for FOX's Pam Oliver to interrupt McNabb's conversations with teammates and defeated opponents immediately after the game to conduct one of the meaningless postgame interviews we're all used to? Wouldn't it have been more meaningful to see McNabb talking to the Packers or celebrating with his teammates? To balance my criticism of FOX, though, I'll note that I think Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson are terrific on the network's pregame show.

Anyway, Green Bay's offense had a pretty nice day against Jim Johnson's highly-regarded offense, but couldn't put points on the board. Dawkins was the one player on the Eagles' defense who consistently made plays, although CB Bobby Taylor did a pretty good job in coverage. The Packers' offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage against Philadelphia's fine defensive line, and normally reliable LB Nate Wayne missed a lot of tackles in the first half.

The Packers were game, but the Eagles are the best team in the NFC, and now they're headed where they belong -- the conference championship game.

The Crystal Ball

Colts at Patriots

I don't want to pick against the Colts. I don't want to pick against the Patriots. And so I'm going to predict the first tie in NFL postseason history.

No, just kidding. But in all seriousness, no one wants to pick against the red-hot Colts, and if they play the way they have the last two weeks, I don't think the Patriots can beat them. The flip side is that the Patriots, I firmly believe, finished the regular season as the best team in the NFL, and I'm hesitant to think otherwise so soon after. New England hasn't lost at home all season, including two wins over Tennessee and shutouts against Dallas, Miami, and Buffalo -- all in the second half of the season.

The Colts, though, have won eight of their nine road games this season and are undeniably the hottest team in the league right now. A nation of football fans has learned that destiny is great quarterbacks coming into their own on the field. Edgerrin James is in top form, and there's reason to suspect that while the Colts will be able to replicate their 34-point performance against New England in Week 13, the Patriots won't be able to manage 38 points again this time.

Despite all that, and with serious uneasiness, I'm picking the Patriots. The defense has been inspired at home, allowing only 36 points in the last seven games in Foxboro (an average of five points per game). Indianapolis won't be able to get its running game going, and that will limit the effectiveness of Manning's playaction. The Colts will get their scores, but they won't be able to devastate Belichick's defense the way they did against Denver and Kansas City.

On the other side of things, the Patriots will do the same things they've been doing all season, and I think it will be just enough to win. Pats by a Vinatieri field goal.

Panthers at Eagles

I'm taking the Eagles in this one for the simple reason that no team whose helmets have whiskers on them has ever won a conference championship game. Also, because I still think the Eagles are the best the NFC has to offer this year and I think the Panthers have been overachieving throughout the postseason. It has to catch up with them some time.

The wildcard is the coaching matchup. Andy Reid and his staff were badly outcoached in the NFC Championship Game a year ago, and John Fox has done an excellent job this postseason, so that could push things into Carolina's favor. I think Reid has learned his lesson, though, and will have his team prepared. The keys will be shutting down the Panthers' ground game and not falling behind early. The Eagles don't want to have to dig their way out of a hole for the second week in a row.

If I'm Reid, I play for field position early and wait for my defense to make a big play. Bobby Taylor can cover Steve Smith one-on-one, which should free Dawkins to roam the field and move up to stop the run. A clock-eating, field goal-oriented game won't throw off Philadelphia the way it did St. Louis, and the Eagles can play that kind of game and expect to win.

For Carolina to have a chance, they'll need McNabb to turn the ball over at least once, and they'll need to establish control of the game by running the ball, but keep the defense honest with a couple of long pass plays. The game should be close, but I see the Eagles taking it by six at home.

Super Bowl XXXVIII: Patriots over Eagles.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.