There were a bundle of NFL teams that “had to win” last weekend in order to assure themselves a playoff spot – - or at least to keep alive the hopes for a playoff spot. In many cases, those “had to win teams” were paired against “who cares teams” and the outcome seemed obvious. Except it wasn’t. Lots of “had to win teams” simply wet the bed last weekend.
The Bucs needed a win to make the playoffs and were 2 TD favorites over the sorry-assed Oakland Raiders at home in Tampa. The Raiders won by a TD scoring 31 points on what seems to be a Bucs’ defense that is disintegrating week by week.
The Bears needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. As it turns out, the last second win by the Vikings rendered the Bears’ game moot, but there is no way the Bears knew that. They went to Houston to play a good-but-hardly-great Texans team and the Bears lost by a TD. The Bears’ defense gave up 31 points; even worse, when trailing by a TD in the fourth quarter they had the Texans pinned back in their territory. The defense then gave up an 89-yard drive for the decisive TD consuming more than 6 minutes of the remaining time.
The Broncos and Chargers game was a playoff game for all practical purposes; the winner continued to play – - in the actual playoffs – - and the loser went home for the season. The Chargers scored 52 points wining this game handily; but candidly, that was not all that unexpected since the Broncos’ defense has been horrible all year long. In Sunday’s game, it appeared as if the defense had sworn off tackling for Lent. The only problem is that Lent doesn’t arrive for another seven or eight weeks…
However, in the category of “win and you’re in” teams, the one that that added another element of soil to the already wet bed sheets was the Dallas Cowboys. Because of the way the Bucs game ended, this game too was a playoff game; the winner moved ahead and the loser went home for the season. The Cowboys lost 44-6; it wasn’t that close. They were dominated in every phase of the game you might want to measure except for “totally confused looks on the face of the head coach” where Wade Phillips may have set a world record so high that it may never be approached let alone broken.
No one on the Cowboys team played well on Sunday; there were only degrees of playing more or less poorly. However, a special mention has to go to Adam “Pacman” Jones for a brutally bad game. I don’t have a tape of the game to watch so this is from memory. “Pacman” committed a 15 yard penalty for a late hit leading to a score; fumbled and lost a kickoff leading to a score; fumbled a cross-field lateral on a kickoff to pin the Cowboys back inside their 15 yardline; gave up a long completion leading to a score. Other than that, he was worth every penny that Jerry Jones paid him to sign with the Cowboys and all the special attention he needed during his tenure in Dallas.
Other poor performances on Sunday included the Cleveland Browns failing to score a point once again. The last offensive TD by the Browns was on Nov 17. Yes, I know they have had QB injuries, but that is still mightily embarrassing.
The Titans also failed to score a point on Sunday. Granted the game was meaningless to them; they have home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs but a shutout? Not good…
The Bills failed to score a point on Sunday. Granted this game was meaningless to them because they lost seven out of eight games in a stretch from October through December but a shutout? Not good…
The Detroit Lions completed their plunge to the depths of perfect futility; with an 0-16 season now on the books, the Lions will need to wait until the NFL expands the schedule to 18 games in order to see if some other team can ever do worse than they did in 2008. Of course, the team that might go 0-18 in some future expanded schedule season could be the Detroit Lions…
I said a few weeks ago that the TCU/Boise State bowl game should be a good one. It was a one-point game and was definitely worth watching. The other game that looked good to me among the jumble of December bowl games is Oklahoma State/Oregon and it is on tonight. There should be scoring aplenty in that game. If you are into TDs, you might want to check your local listings…
Oh, the other game you might want to check for in your local TV scheduling is that Humanitarian Bowl game with Maryland and Nevada. With regard to ticket sales by the schools reported in the “dozens” the only thing I’ve seen is that bowl officials deny the reports – - but refuse to say how many tix the schools actually did sell. This game has the potential to be a “count-the-house” game. That could make it interesting for 10-15 minutes…
Finally, here is comment on the upcoming Orange Bowl game from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:
“The Cincinnati Bearcats are coming to the Orange Bowl Classic. People in Cincinnati are thrilled about that. People in Miami are pretending to be.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…