NFL Playoff Thread

The Texans won a playoff game with a third-string quarterback and have been playing with a limited deck for months. There was no whining from that camp.

 

The Packers had a controversy during last year's Super Bowl because they had so many injured players, Green Bay wasn't taking them all to the Super Bowl.

Complaining about injuries is the lamest excuse. Maybe if their coach sits the injured QB to rest when a late season game is out of reach (Ben in S.F. last month), his ankle'd be in better shape when the playoffs start.

 

All they had to do to win that division was finish ahead of Tennessee, Jacksonville and Indianapolis -- combined 16-32, one winning record (9-7).

And by the time Schaub got hurt, the Texans were 7-3 and had a two-game lead (I think) over Tennessee. They went 3-3 the rest of the way, including losses to Carolina and the Colts. It's not like they kept right on rolling along.

That said, Saturday's win was a very good one. But good luck in Baltimore.

 

What part of "It's not an excuse" did you not understand? Injuries are part of the game. The Steelers lacked the depth to overcome theirs and it cost them an early end to the season. But if you don't think that injuries (and Ryan Clark's health issue) played a huge role in losing the game Sunday, you weren't paying attention.

 

You are free to talk about something else if you like. Or you can just whine about what others are discussing.

 

I have a sneaking feeling that Houston is primed to pop Baltimore.

 

They didn't go belly up like the Bears did, or like the Dolphins did when Marino suffered that Achilles injury many years back, or any number of teams that have lost their star quarterback at the midpoint. They rallied around a fifth-round draft choice who took his first regular season snap only six weeks ago.

 

No the whining comes in when we start to hear OOP and yinzers cry about injuries and Tim Tebow being lucky.....

 

Fuck Frenchy Fuqua! Fuck Louis Lipps! Fuck Steve Courson and the tree that killed him! Fuck...

 

I acknowledged having older players prone to injury and lacking the depth to overcome them among the Steelers' flaws. Not remotely the same as whining. To say the injuries had no impact, however, is foolish.

And nobody said Tebow was lucky yesterday. Nobody. Do you ever get tired of being wrong all the time?

 

There is no question that injuries hampered the Steelers. At the very least (meaning everyone else is still hurt), a healthy Roethlisberger beats the Broncos, because he can scramble and make plays and doesn't throw the interception and near second pick.
But the problem was the Steelers didn't make the adjustments they needed to on defense. They took a strategy of daring Tebow to beat them with his arm. In the second quarter, Tebow showed his arm needed to be respected.
The Steelers sold out against the run, containing Tebow and didn't get a great pass rush. The result was no safety help and asking too much of corners who couldn't play the position.
Injuries changed the dynamic of the game, but the rest of it was a lack of adjustment to the fact Tebow looked like a real quarterback and not the throwing runningback he'd been for most of the season.

 

Steelers had the ball with about 1:30 left; two timeouts? and the ball around the 30 IIRC. They could not get into FG position. Injuries or not, they had the game right there for the taking and failed.