A few thoughts from a weekend in front of the big new Sony Bravia HD…
(1) OK, so I’d make a lousy NFL owner. No question about it. I know, because, on Saturday afternoon, if I owned the Carolina Panthers, I’d have fired head coach John Fox at halftime.
Let’s be honest, five interceptions will cost any team any football game and Carolina QB Jake Delhomme did himself no favours by coughing up the football five times. However, had Fox been marginally prepared for the Cardinals, Delhomme would not have found himself in a position where he had to force so many second-half passes.
Fact is, the Panthers could still have beaten the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday WITH five Delhomme interceptions, if Fox and his staff thought it might be somewhat important to actually try to cover Arizona wideout Larry Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald came into Saturday’s game as the leading receiver in the NFC (1,431 yards). He might be the best receiver in football. He’s not a secret.
Meanwhile, his receiving partner Anquan Boldin was injured and not in the lineup. So suddenly, with one of the Cards’ two most important weapons out of the equation, Carolina still forgot that Fitzgerald was playing. The Panthers allowed Fitzgerald to catch eight passes — six in the first half — for 161 yards and a second-quarter touchdown. Had Carolina shut down Fitzgerald before halftime, they’d have shut down the Cardinals.
I hope this doesn’t sound presumptuous, but why didn’t Fox think of that?
(2) Evidently, in the National Football Conference, the 17-week regular season doesn’t mean very much. This coming Sunday a 9-6-1 team will journey to the home of a 9-7 team to play for the NFC title.
That’s right. It will be the 9-6-1 Philadelphia Eagles against the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals in the NFC championship game and the team hosting the game, the Cards, lost 35-14 at home to the Minnesota Vikings less than a month ago.
In a league where four injury reports are published every week just to keep the gamblers happy, it has now become painfully obvious the only reason the NFL’s regular season exists is for the benefit of the gamblers.
After all, when an 11-5 team misses the playoffs and a 9-7 team could win the Super Bowl, the integrity of the schedule comes into question and right now, it would appear the only reason they bother to play a regular season is so you and I can bet on it.
(3) Why is it that people hate Minnesota Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson so much? Seems everyone from Vikings head coach Brad Childress to the entire Minnesota media corps wants the Vikings to find a way to make it appear as if ol’ T-Jack never existed.
Which brings up the following question: “Because T-Jack had no support whatsoever from his offensive line in a 26-14 playoff loss to the Eagles two weeks ago, is he any worse at playing quarterback than Eli Manning — who had some support at home this past week and lost 23-11? With no help from his Hawgs, T-Jack DID put up more points against that Eagles defence than L’il Manning.
Just asking.
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