The Commish Recaps What Happened In The Division Round

3-1 again this week.  Not bad.  The toughest 2 picks probably lie ahead of me, but I would have thought a couple of these games this weekend would have more resembled the prize fight in San Diego.  It certainly was the biggest surprise to me, but certainly supports the historical “defense wins championships” phrase.  Next week we have TWO teams on the road that no one wants to play.   Both the Vikes and Jets have very good defenses, and I think both have the potential to shut down the offenses of their hosts.
 
Cards at Saints — Big blowout here.  Drew Brees and company, and I really mean AND company, as 5 different guys get in the endzone, including a special teams TD from  Reggie “Don’t forget about me” Bush.  The ‘Aints were knocking people around, and nearly knocked Warner out of the game for good.  Brees was solid if unspectacular, and this one went just like I expected.  The Saints move on to the NFC Championship game, which they host next week against the Vikes.
 
Ravens at Colts — what a freakin snoozer this one turned out to be.  The most exciting parts of the game were the two turnovers, which turned into 3 turnovers, which turned out to be nothing.  The Colts looked VERY beatable here, and without the Ravens shooting themselves in the foot, this would have been a very good game.  I think the Jets need to watch this film, and I think they’ll have their blueprint.  The Colts run D is weak, and the Jets are the #1 rushing offense.
 
Cowboys at Vikes — well, I thought that if the real Vikes showed up, it wouldn’t be close.  They did, and it wasn’t.  As a huge Brett Favre fan, all I can say is, this was an effing blast to watch.  D had a stranglehold on the spectacular Felix Jones, sacked Romo four times, forced a bunch of turnovers and made this one a laugher.  This Cowboys team was the one everyone thought was nearly unstoppable, that the Cowboys D was on a roll, and that they would go into the Metrodome and pull off the upset.  As a Vikes fan, and I’m sure for the Vikes themselves, this was the sort of game that they wanted and needed to have the confidence to to New Orleans and pull off the upset to get them back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the late 70s.
 
Jets at Chargers — another first half snoozer, but in the second half, the dominant D of the Jets held, and Shonn Greene and Mark Sanchez did just enough to upset the Chargers, who looked as though they thought they already deserved a spot in the AFC Championship.  Rivers was terrible.  Here’s one thought, even though it didn’t end up mattering: a fifteen yard unsportsmanlike penalty for kicking the challenge flag just took home my prize for the most ridiculously inane penalty I have seen the NFL come up with.   You have to love Shonn Greene.  Like my colleague Joe Thomas has pointed out, he’s their game changer right now on the offensive side.  Revis continues to be the defensive catalyst.
 
Decent week of football, but hopefully next week, both games will resemble the Jets/Chargers, and not the other snoozefests.
 
Here’s my quick predictions on next week’s games, with further analysis to come this week.
 
Vikes 38 – Saints 34
Jets 21 – Colts 20
 
I must be crazy.

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