The regular season drew to a close on Sunday, and you can count me among the many fans, pundits and scribes who were disappointed in the day’s action. We had sit-downs, shut-downs and, in a couple cases, games where one of the combatants seemingly failed to show up.
Who were the players dressed in Philadelphia green? Who were the players dressed in Giants blue? I thought the NFC East was stocked full of rough-and-tumble squads. How do the Redskins show more heart and determination in this final week for a lame duck coach than either of these other divisional foes?
I don’t know how the league can, or whether they should, address these issues in the future. I’m a believer in allowing teams and coaches to put themselves in the best position to win in the playoffs. However, it’s awfully difficult to sell hard-working fans and the myriad of corporate sponsors and broadcast partners that this type of ending to the season is good for business overall.
The Eagles could have owned the second seed in the NFC. Instead, they amassed a paltry 37 rushing yards against a strong Dallas run defense. That isn’t to say they didn’t have their chances, as defensive backs failed to secure several errant Tony Romo passes.
Still, Donovan McNabb passed for 223 yards and was sacked four times against a Dallas defense that’s played much better football in the second half of the season. McNabb passed for 227 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions in the first meeting with Dallas, thereby setting up a mighty interesting wild card game this weekend. Can McNabb and his deep threats connect in this showdown?
With the Colts sitting down their top options in the snowstorm in Buffalo, I expected to see more work from the secondary options such as Austin Collie. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a workload in the offing for Collie in the blowout loss in the season finale. He caught one of the four passes thrown his direction for 15 yards. Still, he’d have to be among the top five impact rookies of 2009. His role for 2010 is undetermined with Anthony Gonzalez coming back from injury.
The Bengals were also another team that struggled and then waved a white flag in their 37-0 shutout loss to the Jets. The Cincinnati offense was unable to get any traction against that top-ranked New York pass defense, and the running game sputtered. Carson Palmer completed just one of his 11 pass attempts for no yards and an interception before departing the contest. While you may not have expected him to play at all, you certainly couldn’t expect him to be this erratic. Can he rebound against Darrelle Revis and the Jets in the playoffs next weekend?
A bigger question in this contest is the availability of Chad Ochocinco, who was targeted four times and failed to record a catch before leaving the game with a knee injury. He’s been Palmer’s lone consistent receiver this year and will be pivotal to the Bengals’ chances.
Marshawn Lynch took a backseat to Fred Jackson a long time ago in Buffalo, but one would have expected him to see a larger workload in the backfield given the conditions and score against Indianapolis. He didn’t factor into this game at all, receiving just two touches for a total of two yards in the season finale.
The Saints played without Pierre Thomas, leaving Sean Payton to shuffle up his backfield. Mike Bell and Reggie Bush both played, but neither contributed much statistically. Bush was the big disappointment of the pair, producing five carries for 35 yards with no receptions.
Mike Sims-Walker ended his breakout campaign quietly, catching just two passes for 28 yards in a tepid effort against the Browns. He ended the season with one touchdown in his final six games while averaging 2.7 receptions and 33.7 yards per game.
The Cardinals pulled Kurt Warner early against the Packers and put Matt Leinart into the mix. With that being the case, it was anticipated the running game would take on a larger role. However, Tim Hightower (six carries for 24 yards) and Beanie Wells (six carries for 19 yards) failed to make much of an impact in this game, as there was absolutely no trust of Leinart’s downfield passing ability.
Staying in Arizona, the inefficiency of the Arizona passing game against Green Bay made Steve Breaston a bystander. Breaston caught three passes for 16 yards - a pedestrian effort.
As expected, the Broncos did a tremendous job against the Kansas City passing game. Unfortunately, they failed to account for the running game. Dwayne Bowe was positively invisible in this contest and finished with just one catch for six yards.
I didn’t know what to do with Kyle Orton this week, considering the lack of receiving options at his disposal, but he still passed for a ridiculous sum of 431 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions this week. I’m still impressed with his overall production, given that Eddie Royal and Tony Scheffler fell woefully short of expectations.
Joe Flacco of the Ravens produced a win to get into the playoffs, but he finished Sunday’s game against the Raiders with 102 passing yards and four sacks. He had some tremendous single performances in 2009, but also posted his share of games similar to this one. He’s now produced fewer than 200 yards in eight of his starts. Top receiver Derrick Mason finished with one catch for 23 yards.
Finally, one of our top fantasy heroes of 2009 failed to light up the scoreboard in the finale. Ray Rice watched teammate Willis McGahee run wild against the Raiders. Rice rushed for 70 yards on 14 carries with four receptions for 19 yards. He finished the season with 2,041 total yards and eight touchdowns.
