NFL Regular Season Wrap-Up
With Week 17 in the bag, we now enter a new season, the NFL Playoffs. Check back early and often, as Tipping Glass will be posting often throughout the coming weeks with news, opinions, and predictions during the post-season.
First, a few thoughts on the regular season:
Sitting Starters:
Enough with talk of the NFL Competition Committee doing something about teams resting their starters after locking up their playoff seed. Enough. I’ve read sports writers who are outraged that the Colts, Bengals, Cardinals, Patriots, and Saints would even dream of trying to get healthy before the post-season began. How dare they deny us Manning and give us Painter! Mark Brunnel is still in the league?? Who is Brian Hoyer???
Um…do we forget the 13 hard-fought victories that the Colts and Saints racked up to get here? What are you going to do, take away draft picks because the they didn’t play their starters for the whole game, when they had the #1 seed locked up for weeks? How is that fair? Don’t tell me that the Jets shouldn’t be in the playoffs because they played two teams back-to-back that had nothing to play for. Steelers and Texans fans, maybe you should have won ONE more game this year and you wouldn’t have to rely on situations like that.
The fact is, teams should not be punished for late season white flags. It’s part of the game. I guarantee nobody is going to care come kickoff time on Saturday for the Wild Card games. Win early in the season, and you get the right to decide how to pursue your championship. Period.
Injuries:
I feel bad for Wes Welker. On his 123rd catch, in his 14th game of the year, he makes a cut, and his knee collapses. He put in a lot of effort and hard work to get the Patriots the AFC East crown, and now has to watch them make a Super Bowl run from the recovery room. Tough break kid.
I could mention a few other players who went down yesterday, but Welker illustrates that there is nothing you can do to prevent injuries on the field when your players are in there. While the fans might not like pulling these guys out of the game in meaningless situations, you can’t deny the coaches know what they’re doing. I guarantee Belicheck wishes he could have pulled Welker from the lineup one play early.
The Loveable Losers
Well, we once again talk about a lot of the same teams missing the playoffs, having double-digit losses, and high draft picks again. But I just want to remind everyone that for the 13th year in a row, at least 5 new teams are in the post-season race. Anyone who says halfway through the season that they know how it’ll all end are crazy.
Pittsburgh, sitting pretty at 6-2, follows with a 5 game losing streak, out of the playoffs.
Houston, written off at 5-7, rattles off 4 wins to finish with a winning record.
Cleveland, fighting for a #1 draft pick at 1-11, wins 4 in a row and possibly saves their coach’s job.
The NY Giants and Denver Broncos, 5-0 and 6-0, collapse to 8-8 records.
So when that idiot in the break room at work triumphantly declares that he KNOWS that Pittsburgh is destined to repeat as Champs, and that the Eagles are going to win the NFC East, and that the Titans aren’t going to win a game after starting 0-6…
Well, just read him this section, and look back at the past decade to find similar examples, and tell him to keep his opinion to himself.
And for all the fans of those Loveable Losers, just remember it happens every year. There is always hope that it’ll be a one-year turnaround. Don’t stop believing it could be you.
Next on Tipping Glass:
3 games that were played in week 17 will be repeated in Wild Card Weekend? What it all means.
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