NOR totally blew that gm vs SEA, SF was the easiest play on the board, I made a capping mistake on IND but was only for a 1/2 Unit anyway, and DEN was CRUISING to the cover & in typical fashion their "D" lays down in the 2nd half to make the gm more interesting. Just an overall disappointing start to the POs for me, but hope to end strong starting w/a sweep tomorrow.
PO POW 1-1, Teasers 0-0, Overall 2-5-1
DEN (-5 1/2) faces NE for the 2nd time this season w/NE needing a lot of things to go right to squeak by in OT @ hm. Much is being made of "Brady's" 10-4 record over Peyton. I put Brady in parenthesis because it isn't him that's beating Manning, it's Belicheat & his team, esp their "D". In most of their matchups, you can see Peyton's "D" giving up more yds & forcing less TOs than NE's. So Peyton's pass attempts are always greater than Brady's because his "D" (& sometimes fumbles by his "O" teammates) put Peyton's team behind early. When NE forced Peyton to become 1 dimensional, they were able to get a lot of INTs off him in his losses. Brady's teammates on "O" also fumbled far less & dropped fewer passes. Despite all these advantages Brady enjoyed, Peyton's teams either won, or kept it close in 8 of those 14 battles. Fast forward to their 2013 matchup. DEN went up 24-0 to start the gm yet end up losing 34-31. Does that sound like Peyton's fault? W/a lot of attention this wk on how poor DEN's "D" is, injuries there, and the memories of what could've been in NE earlier, I feel DEN's "D" again steps it up @ hm. Remember, SD looked incredibly balanced vs CIN & a lot of pundits felt it meant doom for DEN's "D". NE rushed for a million yds on IND's "D", but KC did the same with 20 different RBs the gm before. I don't think that's a sign that NE is now a great run team. The "D"s will determine who takes this one, & I feel hm field in the mile high air will carry DEN's "D". I'll go out on a limb & say Champ Bailey makes a difference here. Final jabs @ Brady: Drew Bledsoe came in for Brady in the AFC Championship gm in 01 to get NE to SB. And in 08 when Brady got hurt in the 1st gm, NE ended the season 11-5. Remember IND's record when Peyton got hurt? If DEN wins tomorrow Peyton would then have gotten to the SB w/3 different HC's & 2 different teams.
NE 24
DEN 31
3 Units
2 Units SEA (-3 1/2): I don't have much faith in Kaepernick who I feel is the weak link on SF's incredibly balanced team. I believe SEA has a lot of success against him @ hm because his passing is highly erratic there, while SEA's "D" contains @ the line & that great secondary knocks the snot out of SF's receivers. I hear a lot that SF didn't have Crabtree for their wk 1 matchup & that was the difference, but he was there @ SEA when they loss 42-13 in '12. And what receivers does SEA have? Golden Tate? Zach Miller? Also, Kaepernick's atrocious clock management esp in the 2nd half will hurt SF. Russell Wilson has looked extremely vulnerable recently but his passing is a little more dependable esp @ the Link. I also give the RB advantage to Lynch who is a far more fearsome runner than Gore.
GL to everyone, and as always, comments are most welcome.
PO POW 1-1, Teasers 0-0, Overall 2-5-1
DEN (-5 1/2) faces NE for the 2nd time this season w/NE needing a lot of things to go right to squeak by in OT @ hm. Much is being made of "Brady's" 10-4 record over Peyton. I put Brady in parenthesis because it isn't him that's beating Manning, it's Belicheat & his team, esp their "D". In most of their matchups, you can see Peyton's "D" giving up more yds & forcing less TOs than NE's. So Peyton's pass attempts are always greater than Brady's because his "D" (& sometimes fumbles by his "O" teammates) put Peyton's team behind early. When NE forced Peyton to become 1 dimensional, they were able to get a lot of INTs off him in his losses. Brady's teammates on "O" also fumbled far less & dropped fewer passes. Despite all these advantages Brady enjoyed, Peyton's teams either won, or kept it close in 8 of those 14 battles. Fast forward to their 2013 matchup. DEN went up 24-0 to start the gm yet end up losing 34-31. Does that sound like Peyton's fault? W/a lot of attention this wk on how poor DEN's "D" is, injuries there, and the memories of what could've been in NE earlier, I feel DEN's "D" again steps it up @ hm. Remember, SD looked incredibly balanced vs CIN & a lot of pundits felt it meant doom for DEN's "D". NE rushed for a million yds on IND's "D", but KC did the same with 20 different RBs the gm before. I don't think that's a sign that NE is now a great run team. The "D"s will determine who takes this one, & I feel hm field in the mile high air will carry DEN's "D". I'll go out on a limb & say Champ Bailey makes a difference here. Final jabs @ Brady: Drew Bledsoe came in for Brady in the AFC Championship gm in 01 to get NE to SB. And in 08 when Brady got hurt in the 1st gm, NE ended the season 11-5. Remember IND's record when Peyton got hurt? If DEN wins tomorrow Peyton would then have gotten to the SB w/3 different HC's & 2 different teams.
NE 24
DEN 31
3 Units
2 Units SEA (-3 1/2): I don't have much faith in Kaepernick who I feel is the weak link on SF's incredibly balanced team. I believe SEA has a lot of success against him @ hm because his passing is highly erratic there, while SEA's "D" contains @ the line & that great secondary knocks the snot out of SF's receivers. I hear a lot that SF didn't have Crabtree for their wk 1 matchup & that was the difference, but he was there @ SEA when they loss 42-13 in '12. And what receivers does SEA have? Golden Tate? Zach Miller? Also, Kaepernick's atrocious clock management esp in the 2nd half will hurt SF. Russell Wilson has looked extremely vulnerable recently but his passing is a little more dependable esp @ the Link. I also give the RB advantage to Lynch who is a far more fearsome runner than Gore.
GL to everyone, and as always, comments are most welcome.
