Things I've Learned From the '08 Season

Never bet against Peyton Manning:

The guy needs very little around him to win games. No run game? No problem. Soft defense? No problem. I’ve grown weary of the Patriots, Colts, Steelers, Chargers playoff party, and it looks like three of those teams will be back again this year (I have very little faith in Denver beating San Diego Sunday night). Without Mr. Brady, the Patriots were asked to give up their customary playoff armchair near the fire, but not without putting up quite a fight for it. The Colts stumbled early in the season and I pounced on the opportunity to write off Indy as “past their prime”, comparing their decline to that of the Bengals. How foolish of me.

Out of sheer bullheadedness, I predict that the Colts will have a hard time against a physically superior team, even the Ravens, but with Peyton at the controls and a mean pass rush to boot, the Colts could beat anybody their matched up with.

The two-back system works:

Power running teams that employed two or more backs, seemed able to sustain their dominance throughout the season, rather than watch their productivity peak at any specific point. There are some who think that Tennessee has peaked too early and are destined to be knocked out by either the fashionable Steelers or Colts in the playoffs. Even after beating the Steelers in Nashville, without Haynesworth or Vandenbosch, the Titans are considered by many the third most likely team to make the Super Bowl from the AFC. While LeBeau can out-scheme damn near anybody, the Titans could shock the world after posting the best record in their conference. Funny how that works.

The Giants could become the third team ever to have two backs rush for 1,000 yard seasons, and even sprinkle in a third back, Bradshaw, when they really want to pour it on. Carolina has two explosive backs who break off big chunks of yardage when they get in rhythm with an underrated offensive line.

First-round teams like the Dolphins and Ravens don’t allow much finesse in their games either. Their both hard-nosed teams that will give any of those other playoff contenders a bare-knuckled fist-fight in a back ally somewhere. The Dolphins got a little zany with their two-back approach with the Wildcat formation, while the Ravens found out McClain is bigger than the opposition and is apparently, a real pain in the ass to have to tackle 20 times a game. He, and the occasionally healthy Willis McGahee, not to mention a dash of Ray Rice, wear out defenses and chew up the clock. On both teams, the quarterback is the secondary focus to the offense, taking pressure off of the noodle-armed journeyman Chad Pennington, and the calm rookie, Joe Flacco.

Most teams really do peak throughout the season:

The Buffalo Bills tricked me this season. They beat some lame competition, ran off to a great start, and seized early control of the AFC East. I liked the way they looked on paper (when am I going to see a Bills game?), so I jumped on the bandwagon, talking smack and placing bets along the way. The played a couple of real teams and crumbled like bleu cheese. All of a sudden the Bills’ torch had blown out, and they stumbled around blindly in the wilderness the rest of the season.

Tampa Bay rolled off a few wins in a row and found themselves in a showdown for the division in Carolina. The Bucs, traditionally a defensive powerhouse, wilted against DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, and they haven’t been able to stop the run since. Garcia is a seasoned veteran who is no stranger to the playoffs, but the offense around him is not good enough to win without a commanding defensive presence on the other side of the ball.


Mojokong – learning something new.