The Day After Yesterday! Week 17 Thoughts

[Cookie Icer]

My last weekend of watching football. I took advantage of this by eating nearly 50 buffalo wings, a lot of Chocolate fudge, and drinking quite a bit of Johnny Walker GOLD! Oh how I'll miss you Football.

1. Playoff picture set- The Playoffs are now locked down! The Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers have the first round byes in the NFC, New England and Baltimore in in the AFC. So our wild card weekend will look like this! The #3 New Orleans Saints host the #6 Detroit Lions, #4 New York Giants host the #5 Atlanta Falcons. For the AFC #3 Houston will host #6 Cincinnati, while #4 Denver hosts #5 Pittsburgh. NFC wise I don't see any upsets there. The Giants and Saints should have no troubles winning and moving on to the divisional round. AFC wise is the exact opposite. Pittsburgh should be able to topple a struggling Broncos team that has lost 3 in a row, while Cincinnati should be able to win on the road against an injured Houston team. My End of the Regular season/pre playoff prediction for the Superbowl. New Orleans over Baltimore. But I will be pulling for my 49ers every step of the way!

2. Black Monday lurks around the corner!- Some troubled head coaches have already been fired during the season. But many more are facing the chopping block and will be unemployed tomorrow. Andy Reid who has had a good run with the Eagles has been rumored to be coming to an end after his "Dream Team" failed to reach the playoffs. But With their strong finish at the end of the season INCLUDING still being able to win the NFC East up to week 16 I think will see him coming back. Mike Shanahan in Washington on the other hand I think will be let go after yet another struggling year. Rumors of Rex Ryan being let go have also risen up, but taking the Jets to two AFC championship games in the past three years will secure his job. Jim Caldwell in Indianapolis on the other hand. I don't care if your Colts were in the Superbowl just two years ago. Loosing Manning for the year is no excuse for such a huge collapse. Rasheem Morris in Tampa Bay? Yeah, I think the Morris experiment is done. After a strong 10-6 finish last year, this year was pretty much playoffs or bust for the Bucs. Mike Shermer in Cleveland might also be in trouble, but I think he will get another chance to prove himself, too early to see him leave. Leslie Frazier in Minnesota? The NFC North was tough, but 3-13 is a rough record to have and justify keeping around. Norv Turner in San Diego is out! Steve Spagolio in St. Louis is most likely gone too. Some brought up a potential departure of Ken Whisenhunt in Arizona, but I think a strong finish and ending the season 8-8 and 2nd in the NFC West have saved his Job. Some firings tomorrow will be expected, some just might surprise us.

SHOUT OUT PLAYERS!!
Matt Flynn (QB Green Bay)- Flynn did something today that Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, and Bart Star never did in Green Bay, he threw for 6 Touchdown passes! Un-freakin-believable! If this kid is still a back up next year I would be shocked! Oh and 480 passing yards on 31 of 44 pass attempts to boot.

Michael Turner (RB Atlanta)- Atlanta didn't do much in their season finale, only lead 42-0 AT THE HALF!! A large part of that was because of Michael Turner. 172 rushing yards on 17 carries and 2 TD. Will we see the Dr. Jekyl Falcons of today next week? Or the Mr. Hyde Atlanta team that was blown out against the Saints? We'll see.  

[Cookie Icer]

And Black Monday has once again brought to an end several head coaches jobs. So far the St. Louis Rams fired Steve Spagnuolo and GM Devaney. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers not only fired Raheem Morris, but his entire coaching staff, despite threats from pro bowler Rande Barber that he would retire if Morris was let go.

In other news, The Colts have fired General Manager Bill Polian and his son after the Colts went 2-14. No news yet on the future of Head Coach Jim Caldwell, BUT rumors say that since Caldwell was hired by Polian, that it is most likely he will be fired soon as well.

The San Diego Chargers were in no rush to let Norv Turner go after a second season of missing the playoffs. This does not mean he's safe as the Chargers owner said he will spend this week reflecting on the season and analyzing his options before he decides if he wants to keep Norv or fire him.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have immediately started looking for their replacement for Jack Del Rio. The New York Jets have given them permission to talk to their offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer for the HC vacancy. The Jags were also given permission to talk to the Falcons offensive Coordinator Mike Mularky for the job.

More news to come as they develop
 

[Sincerely Metalhead]

This is Baltimore's year! I can feel it! They've come so close in recent years and they are going to put the icing on the cake this year! biggrin  

[systematic_chaos]

9-7 kind of feels like a disappointment for the Tennessee Titans, but if you had asked me before the season started, I wouldn't have been surprised if we had finished 5-11, with a new head coach, a lockout-eliminated offseason, and what was presumed to be a downtrodden, washed up quarterback taking the helm.

Matt Hasselbeck stepped it up overall for us, and I think gave Jake Locker an excellent opportunity to learn. Locker got some time as well, and in the moments he has been in, it seems as though he could be our future QB.

Overall, it's our third straight season out of the playoffs, but we did much better than anyone expected.