Surprise, Surprise

I'm uber late on this post. In fact, this is the 11th hour. Let's just say I had a very bad week.

In review of last weeks divisional games, there were a few surprises. First, the most unexciting game of the week, Seattle's win over Washington. Not much to say except all went according to predicted. Washington played a tough game, but in the end Seattle proved to be too much for the Redskins. Seattle's very quiet and amazing season continued. My record 1-0.

Next, Golden Boy Tom Brady and Company lost for the first time. Denver is extremely tough at home and Jake Plummer didn't fall apart. A few bad calls, and being outplayed for most of the game lead to a 27-13 Denver win. A pass interference call in the endzone against Asante Samuel changed the game. It shouldn't have been called but you can't dispute an official's penalty call. Later in the game, Champ Bailey intercepted a Brady pass and ran in back from the back on Denver's endzone down the field to the opposite endzone. Ben Watson, ran all the way from the other side of the field and laid out Bailey just before he reached the endzone. The ball came loose and flew out of bounds. After a replay, the evidence was inconlusive according the officials that the ball went out in the endzone, which would have resulted in a touchback and New England would have the ball at the 20. Instead, Denver had the ball at the 1 and lead to a touchdown. Even with the two bum calls, Denver played extremely well and deserved the win. Without the two bad calls, the game would have been much closer and gone the other way but it didn't and Denver won because they outplayed New England. Now I'm 1-1.

This game was the last game but I wanted to leave the biggest shocker for last. So, the Chicago - Carolina game went as predicted, except for the score. Steve Smith's big plays crushed Chicago. I only said there'd be one, but a Smith had two huge touchdowns on a 12 reception 218 yard performance. This led to a 29-21 Carolina win. The shocker was the amount of points these two defensive teams put on the board. That's 2-1 for me.

The biggest surprise of the weekend was the Steelers victory over Indy. The Colts were the heavy favorites and Pittsburgh only won there first road playoff game in a long time last week against Cincinnati. So no one expected a 21-18 Steelers win. Unfortunately, the Colts seem to fold against a more physical team, which was exactly what happened. The Steelers were more physical and the Colts didn't adjust to the pressure. Peyton Manning and how people talk about how smart of a player he is, didn't adjust to the pressure. The game got very exciting at the end. Peyton was sacked twice including on fourth down to offically end the Colts last chance drive. Pittsburgh took control at the 2 yard line and ran Jerome "I haven't fumbled all year" Bettis to the right. The Colts plunged forward in Bettis' path and knocked the ball loose and Nick Harper picked up the ball and ran it back. Ben Roethlisberger made a touchdown saving tackle near midfield. Peyton took over made a few nice plays but the drive stalled after two passing miscues. Again, the pressure seemed to rattle him into making poor decisions. So it was left up to quite possibly the most accurate kicker in the league, who hadn't missed a field goal in the playoffs yet, to tie the game. Well, Mike Vanderjagt missed a 47 yard field goal by about 20 yards to the right. He wasn't even close and the Steelers pulled off the biggest upset of the year. Sadly, I ended the day 2-2. Total playoff record 6-2.