NFL Playoff Thread

Early forecast: rain in San Francisco starting Thursday and continuing into Sunday. And that's a very old, sloppy field that doesn't do all too well in the rain.

Have to believe that's an advantage to the 49ers in slowing down Giants receivers.

 

YES. Giants have won 4 one or done games against 2 average teams, Jets and Cowboys; 1 good team, Atlanta and against the league MVP and the team with the best record in the league.

In this run the Giants have their 3 best D linemen, Osi, JPP & Tuck playing together and relatively healthy for the 1st time all season. Boley and Kiwanuka are playing better LB because the front 4 is more than solid.

The O Line is as healthy in the last month as it has been all year. Now Jacobs is about to be co-captain of the all-mouth, weak play team, but the Giants still run enough to keep defenses fairly honest and Eli is the 4th best QB is the NFL this season (Brady, Rodgers & Brees).

Remember Jim Burt knocking out Montana? These Giants don'r hit as hard, but they'll hit Smith more often.

 

What drives me nuts about today's NFL is if you asked people who the best teams of the last 10 years were, they would rattle off the Patriots, Saints and Colts, and in my opinion, this is not even close.

The Patriots are in the conversation for what they did pre-Moss - when they had a defense and they ran the ball.

The Saints won a Super Bowl, but were thumped out of the playoffs the next two seasons in the first round. Green Bay won one, but then were chased out of the playoffs in the first round the next season. The Colts won their Super Bowl and have been 2-4 in the post season since then.

So since winning their Super Bowls, the Colts, Saints and Packers are a combined 2-7 in the playoffs. Add New England since their last Super Bowl win, and that number turns into 7-13.

But Pittsburgh is 4-3 with two Super Bowl appearances and one more SB win, and Eli Manning and the Giants are 2-1 after the GMen and Eli won their Super Bowl.

Hopefully people will stop being hypnotized by these teams dinking and dunking 60 times a game and then thinking this is a great team with a great offense. Doing it once is great, but to be considered a great team, you need to have more than one successful playoff run.

 

Eli Manning is 6-3 (6-1 in his last 7) as a playoff starter, his first loss came in his 1st year as the game 1 starter.

 

To nitpick, the Saints and Packers lost in the 2nd round this year.

And let's remember that after winning the Super Bowl, the Giants went 13-3 and lost their first round game. Easy to be 2-1 in the playoffs since winning the Super Bowl when they haven't even made the playoffs since that follow-up season. There's something to be said for the Saints even being able to continue making the playoffs. The track record of defending champions even making the playoffs isn't that great.

Winning a title is very hard. Repeating, or even getting back to the game, is exponentially harder. But you can't lose playoff games if you aren't getting there.

To your first point, I would say the best two teams overall of the last 10 years are New England and Pittsburgh (they actually have three SB appearances). The Patriots are in the conversation because of what they did pre and post Moss. They did go 18-1 and they are a competitor every single year. That's nothing to scoff at.

 

The Patriots are in the conversation?

Since 2001, they are 132-42 in the regular season (a .806 winning pct) with three championships in four Super Bowl appearances.

Since 2001, the Steelers are 118-57 in the regular season (a .670 winning pct) with two championships in two Super Bowl appearances.

If the Patriots are "in the conversation," the Steelers are not even close to it.

 

The Steelers have two titles and were in three Super Bowls. Why does everyone forget 2005? Must be because the game was so fucking shitty.

 

Haha, yes, I stand corrected. Two Super Bowls in two appearances.

 

And I should probably amend the tone of that post, in that I realize 93Devil didn't say the Steelers were the best team of the past 10 years, but they are among them. And on that point, I would have to agree. But the Patriots stand head and shoulders above everyone as the best team of the millennium.

 

Two Super Bowls in three appearances.

 

DAMMIT!

 

Lewis had a great quote this week that everything you do all year is to have the opportunity to play a game were the winner goes to the Super Bowl.

So regular season wins don't mean shit to me unless you are playing in the conference championships.

And pre-Moss Patriots were a much better team than the post-Moss Pats. When Moss came to New England, they forgot about the Dillons and Smiths who would help NE pound the ball. The Pats were 12-2 before Moss and 3-3 in the playoffs since they went pass happy.