411's NFL Round Up 01.21.09: Conference Championship Edition

Posted by Emmett Wilks on 01.21.2009

The Conference finals are in the books, and the Super Bowl is set. Join the Round Up as we break down the conference title games, and take a look around the NFL's coaching carousel. All this, plus news and notes in this edition of the Round Up!

Hello to everyone. It was a sad, sad day for Eagles nation on Sunday evening. No matter how many times it happens (4 in NFC championship game, and 2 Super Bowls) it never really stops hurting. It's an depressing feeling. One that allows you to walk, talk, and appear normal, but empty inside. But I digress, so, now, onto the Round Up!


QUICK NOTES

Call me one of those firmly in the Kurt Warner for the Hall of Fame column. Warner has the championship pedigree. He has now lead three teams to the Super Bowl. That's two more than Dan Marino and Steve Young. And three more than Warren Moon and Dan Fouts for that matter. His numbers aren't too bad either, but certainly not extraoridary. He has a 93.5 career QB rating, 8.0 yards per completions, and is 65.1% on his completions. Yes, he has only been a healthy starter for 5 full seasons, but in those seasons he has averaged 31 TD passes. He has lead two different teams, 7 years apart, to the Super Bowl.

It really should not be a big surprise the Eagles have publically supported the return of coach Andy Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb. Really, what other positions do the Eagles front office have right now? This team was one stopped drive away from going to the Super Bowl. For this organization, taking that last step forward will be three steps back if McNabb and Reid were to be dumped. You won't be able to find a QB to plug in to McNabb's spot and win, and the odds of a new coach pulling a Mike Smith or a Tony Sparano are highly unlikely. This team is ready here and now.

Plenty of gossip circulating around the Cowboys this week. One report now has players consistently showing up late for meetings and even for the bus/plane for away games. This is a mind-boggling notion to me. It never even occurred to me to be late to a meeting in high school, and was inexcusable at a little division III college. Yes, these are grown men and this is their careers. But how many of us in the work force would ever go to a staff meeting late. It's just unconscionable to me that this was ever allowed. And the reported punishment for players who were late. A $100 fine. I could even pay that. Under Bill Parcells, the fine was $5,000 to $12,000 for late offenses. But there's more. QB Tony Romo did apparently burn teammates other than Terrell "Look at Me" Owens." According to multiple sources, Romo consistanly threw forced passes in practice, which carried over to the games. Clearly, the Cowboys are in a world of drama, drama, drama.


Romo was at the lead of a lot of bad press for the Cowboys

I think the football fans theorizing that the Panthers dismissal of Sal Sunseri as defensive line coach to appease unhappy defensive end Julius Peppers are nuts. No player, except maybe John Elway or Peyton Manning could, should, or will ever have an influence on coaching staff decisions. This is not the NBA. The NFL is not a "players league". Peppers is a very, very good player. His athleticism and natural abilities put him in a very elite category. But he is not a transcendent, defining a generation type players who could conceivably be calling the shots. The Panthers made their coaching decision because they felt that Sunseri was not getting the best out of the players a change needed to be made. Not because Peppers was unhappy. No player, especially one who needed a big bounce back season this year to even be worth mentioning as news worthy, is worth dictating your assistant coaching staff.

COACHING CAROUSEL

That thud you may have heard last week was me falling out of my chair, stunned by the firing of Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden. Looking at the situation on paper, it really wasn't all that shocking. A 60-57 record, never really fielding a legitimate Super Bowl team since he won one (with an inherited team) in 2003. But Gruden was still thought to be "safe," despite the late season meltdown that saw the Bucs drop their last four games and miss the playoffs. His players disagreed, and resentment from the Bucs locker room were heard in the owners box. Players did not like his management and personal style, which was a integral part of his dismissal. He was very quickly replaced by former secondary coach and d-coordinator for 5 minutes Raheem Morris, who at 32 is continuing the youth movement in coaches this year. I know nearly nothing of Morris, except he is inheriting an aging defense and a team without any real, long-term solution at quarterback. While they were a good team, the Bucs weaknesses were present at the end of the year, and may be more difficult to fix than many believe.


The team Morris inherits may not be as good as people think


Steve Spagnuolo became my favorite off-season coaching move when the Rams hired him last week. The defensive mastermind the 2007 Giants Super Bowl team, Spagnuolo is the coaching offspring of Eagles blitz happy defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, and has made the Giants among the best defensive units in the league. The Rams played some of the worst team defense I have ever seen in my life during portions of 2008, and Spags is the best guy to fix that problem. With the Giants, he learned how ego with talent is nonetheless a detriment to a football team (see Barber, Tiki). The Rams were far from the most hopeless situation in the NFL, but will remain a rather large challenge either way.

The Jets also have decided to get defensive, and nabbed Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan as their new coach. Of course the ridiculous comparisons to his father are already being made. His father is of course Buddy Ryan, who went from a legendary defensive coordinator in Chicago to "can't win the big game" head coach of Philadelphia and Arizona. But I will give the man his fair chance. He built a lethal 3-4 defense in Baltimore, and is inheriting a very talented group of 3-4 defenders in New York. Unfortunately for him will be the expectations. In the world of Mike Smith and Tony Sparano, Ryan will be expected to make a winner very quickly with the talent he has. This is not an enviable position, but Ryan is still taking a job that has a greater upside than anyone else except for Josh McDaniels in Denver.

And to cap off the everything, the Lions selected the latest coach to have his career destroyed by the "franchise that winning forgot" in Jim Swartz. Swartz is a guy who deserves a lot of credit, having an offense lead by Kerry Freaking Collins among the best in the NFL last year. But what he needs more than anything is a tremendous amount of help from management. The Lions need help everywhere. Quick, name me the starters in the Lions secondary. Don't know. Well, guess what, I didn't either. Apparently Dwight Smith is the safety, and Travis Fisher is at corner, but these once solid players were all but forgotten with the atrocious 0-16 nightmare from this season. Swartz is really going for broke on this job, and I sincerely wish him luck, cause he's going to need it.


CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP BREAKDOWN

Well, being half right in this year's playoff isn't all that bad. I had the Steelers taking the Ravens by 14 (close) and the Eagles betting the Cards by 4. (Again, not too bad, but still wrong).

NFC

Arizona Cardinals- 32

Philadelphia Eagles- 25

One of the best conference championships games in modern memory. What was dangerously close to becoming a laughable rout instead turned into a great seesaw battle and come-from-behind victory for the Cardinals. Larry Fitzgerald played one of the finest football games I have ever seen, being simply uncoverable in the biggest game of his career.

The Eagles did not deserve to win this game. QB Donovan McNabb, despite a strong stat line, did not have a great game. Late, he missed open receivers and failed to make plays in the clutch. And the Eagles defense looked downright silly giving up three passing TD's in the first half. Not their finest hour.

AFC

Pittsburgh Steelers-23

Baltimore Ravens-14

A magnificent defensive battle that appropriately finished with a defensive play. The number 1 and number 2 NFL defenses did battle on Sunday, and the wound inflicted will take weeks to heal. The physicality of this bruising, take-no-prisoners game leaped through the television. Ben Roethlisberger again reminded everyone that while other QB's like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees may roll up the stats, Big Ben is more worried about the wins. The Steelers defense was finally able to make Joe Flacco seem like a rookie, forcing him into turnovers and bad throws with their searing defense.

The Ravens just didn't have enough offense to stay with the Steelers, and that would cost them. The future is very bright for this organization, but this is not their year.




PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Offensive

Larry Fitzgerald-

Not only did he officially put himself as the best receiver in the NFL, but is now taking legitimate steps in becoming one of the three or four best players in the entire league. Fitzgerald's first half was one of the best ever seen in playoff football. 6 catches for 113 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone. That is a mind-boggling number against an Eagles defense that was coming into the game with one of the better secondary units in the league and a blitz happy defensive coordinator in Jim Johnson. His hands are like magnets, pulling in a steel ball that floats in the air him the steal. There is just no covering this guy. In his first three postseason games, Fitzgerald has 419 receiving yards, besting even the legend himself, Jerry Rice. And Fitzgerald still has one more game to go. He finished the day with 9 catches, 152 yards, and those three touchdowns. Truly a game for the ages.


Simply a man among boys playing receiver this post-season

Runners Up

Kurt Warner- There was someone throwing those passes to Fitzgerald. And a host of others, as Warner was phenomenal, going 21-of-28 for 279 yards and four touchdowns.

Ben Roethlisberger- His 3rd and 9, 65 yard TD pass to Santonio Holmes could very well become a defining play in his Hall of Fame career in the making.

Defensive

Adrian Wilson
&
Troy Polamalu

The week of the safety for defenses. Both of these men made the big plays in the biggest games of the year. Polamalu was his normal self, running around the field like a hungry cheetah. His first quarter leap over the pile to help stop a QB sneak from Joe Flacco was entertaining, but not as stellar as his pick-six that effectively sent the Steelers back to the big game. Wilson for his part lead the Cardinals in tackles with 7, including a 2 sacks and a forced fumble that very nearly turned the game into blowout. The two will meet on Feb. 1st, and both will again try to be their teams respective big play defenders.

Bust of the Week

Joe Flacco

This seems grossly unfair, given what the first year quarterback has done for the Ravens. But the performance and the numbers just don't lie. Flacco went 13-of-30 for 141 yards and threw 3 picks, one for a game-ending touchdown return. Granted, Flacco was being harassed by the best defense in the NFL all day. So while his poor performance was explainable, it still does not make it excusable. But with all that said, you cannot have asked more from a rookie QB than what Flacco has given this team, and the city of Baltimore, and the entire NFL for that matter, are going to have a great time watching him ascend in what could very well be a great career.

Runner Up

Donovan McNabb- How can a guy who tosses for 375 yards and 3 TD's be a bust. Miss the number of open receivers like McNabb did in the second half and you'll find yourself in this little Hall of Shame.


Biggest Surprise of the Week

The Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl.

The most bumbling, incompetent, and pathetic franchise in all of sports is one game away from immortality. The numbers just don't lie. Only 8 winning seasons since 1965, the birth of the Super Bowl era. Just 5 playoff appearances in that time span, including 1 in the strike shortened 1982 season. If you were to make a compalation of Cardinals lowlights and blunders over the years, you could easily make a 6 hour movie. This is the Arizona Cardinals folk, the definition of losing, or poor, pathetic, unadulterated, unmittgated losing. The 2008 version looked to be just a blip on the Cardinals road of unending mediocrity. They are lead by a has-been quarterback in Kurt Warner, a coach who was rejected by his former team in Ken Whisenhunt, and a defense totally devoid of big star power. They limped through the second half of the season with 28, 21, and 40 point loses.

Least Surprising Thing of the Week

The Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl

Yes, this rise was not totally unexpected. The Cards have had a rough ride, but in recent years they finally made things happen in the draft and in free agency. I have always been a firm proponent that the best teams are the ones built in the draft, and the a NFC Champion Cardinals further that belief. Look at the number of first day draft picks on this team that are big contributors. Larry Fitzgerald (1st) and Anquan Boldin (2nd) at the receiver positions. Defensive lineman Darrnell Dockett was a 3rd rounder, along with middle linebacker Gerald Hayes, and outside linebacker Karlos Dansby was nabbed in the 2nd round. The secondary features three born and bread Cardinals; Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (1st round), Antrel Rolle (1st round), and Adrian Wilson (3rd round) have only known the Cardinals uniform. Three of the five starting offensive lineman are also have begun their NFL careers in the desert. These guys have all had good to great years in 2008, and are the core of a team that is now in the Super Bowl. Mix that with good free agent acquisitions (Kurt Warner, Edgerrin James), and you have a Super Bowl team. Great job Cardinals, you have certainly earned this.


That's going to be it for this week. We'll see you next week for the big Super Bowl preview.