If Week 17 wasn’t intense enough, the Wild Card playoff weekend has arrived. Three of the four matchups pit teams that played each other last week. Here are previews of all four of contests.
Saturday, 2:30 p.m. MST
NEW YORK JETS (9-7) at CINCINNATI BENGALS (10-6)
TV: NBC
Why You Should Watch: After stumbling to a 4-6 start, the Jets won five of their final six games to secure the AFC’s No. 5 seed. They sport the league’s best rushing offense at 172.2 yards per game and league’s best defense at 252.3 yards allowed per game. Rookie Mark Sanchez led the AFC with 20 interceptions, throwing 17 of those picks in the team’s seven losses.
After streaking to a 9-3 start, the Bengals lost three of their final four games, but still secured their first AFC North division title in four years. Like New York, Cincinnati has a top-10 rushing offense that averages 128.5 yards per contest. Their defense is right behind the Jets at No. 4 in the NFL, with 301.4 yards allowed per game. Carson Palmer completed 60.5 percent of his passes in 2009. But in limited action against the Jets in Week 17, he was held to 1-of-11 passing for zero yards.
With Cincinnati already in the playoffs, the Jets needed a 37-0 victory over the Bengals in Week 17 at the Meadowlands to set up this Wild Card rematch. The battle now shifts to Paul Brown Stadium, where Cincinnati won six of its eight home games this season. One of those two losses came against the Broncos in Week 1, at the hands of Brandon Stokley’s immaculate deflection touchdown.
Keep An Eye On: RB Thomas Jones, New York Jets. Despite running with 31-year-old bones, the 10th-year pro turned in a career year, notching personal-bests with 331 carries, 1,402 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. He rushed for more than 100 yards in seven games this season. But the Bengals defense and 100-yard rushers did not get along at all in 2009, as only two opposing backs eclipsed the century mark — Browns RB Jerome Harrison and Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles.
Saturday, 6:00 p.m. MST
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (10-6) at DALLAS COWBOYS (11-5)
TV: NBC
Why You Should Watch: For the third time this season and second time in as many weeks, the NFC East rivals will set foot on the same field. Dallas has had Philadelphia’s number in 2009, earning a 20-16 win in Philadelphia and 24-0 win at Cowboys Stadium last week. For Dallas, the stakes are extremely high, as they are looking for their first playoff victory since Dec. 28, 1996. To put time in perspective, Brian Dawkins was in his rookie season.
Both of these offenses thrive on their big-play potential. Cowboys QB Tony Romo threw for a career-high 4,483 yards this season. That effort was helped by his ability to complete 61 passes of 20-or-more yards. Eagles QB Donovan McNabb also profited from the deep ball, throwing for more than 3,500 yards for the second time in his 11 pro seasons. He completed a career-high 55 passes for 20-plus yards.
Keep An Eye On: Romo. While the pressure will be high for McNabb, he has already led his team to nine postseason wins, which marks the most by any quarterback in Eagles history. The same can’t be said for Romo, who is 0-2 career in games where it really counts. Romo’s passing numbers in the playoffs have been less than stellar, as he threw for a combined 390 yards in losses to the Seahawks (2007) and Giants (2008).
Sunday, 11:00 a.m. MST
BALTIMORE RAVENS (9-7) at NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (10-6)
TV: CBS
Why You Should Watch: Over the last decade, these two teams have put their best foot forward in the playoffs. The Patriots made five Super Bowls in the 2000s, winning four rings, while the Ravens opened the decade with their first-ever Lombardi trophy. While the two teams have appeared in a combined 22 playoff games since 2000, Sunday will mark the first time in history that they face each other in the postseason.
The Patriots were a perfect 8-0 at Gillette Stadium in 2009, including a 27-21 Week 4 win over these Ravens. They won those eight home contests by an average margin of 18 points. After a quick 3-0 start, Baltimore skidded to a 6-7 finish and needed a road win over the Raiders in Week 17 just to make postseason play.
Keep An Eye On: Ravens Secondary. Terrific Tom Brady has gained that nickname because of his postseason exploits. He has thrown 26 career touchdown passes in the playoffs, but also been victimized by 12 interceptions. The Ravens enter Foxborough, Mass. with a defense that divides its strengths well between the run and pass. Baltimore has held its opponents to a stout 93.6 rushing yards per game. When teams have turned to the air this season, the Ravens have responded with 22 interceptions, which is good for second in the AFC.
Sunday, 2:40 p.m. MST
GREEN BAY PACKERS (11-5) at ARIZONA CARDINALS (10-6)
TV: FOX
Why You Should Watch: After an embarrassing road loss in Week 7 to the then-winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Packers rallied in the second half of the season, winning seven of their final eight games. The last of those victims happened to be the Arizona Cardinals, setting up a Week 17 rematch in Glendale at University of Phoenix Stadium.
While both teams reached double-digit win totals in the regular season, they were each helped by taking care of business against teams below .500. Of Green Bay’s 11 wins, only three came against clubs with winning records — Dallas, Baltimore and at Arizona. Of the Cardinals’ 10 wins, only two came against teams over the .500 plateau — Houston and Minnesota. Of the teams’ combined 21 wins, 12 came against the 5-11 Seahawks, 1-15 Rams, 2-14 Lions and 7-9 Bears.
Keep An Eye On: WR Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals. After back-to-back seasons of 1,400-plus receiving yards, Fitzgerald barely reached the 1,000-yard mark this season. Defenses have keyed in on Arizona’s No.1 target, as he was held to 113 yards receiving over the club’s final four regular season games. But since 2008, as Fitzgerald goes, so do the Cardinals. Including postseason play, Arizona is 18-7 when Fitzgerald hauls in at least one receiving touchdown.
-Chris Gentilviso, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: 2009 NFL Playoffs, Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Wild Card
OC and BFE92, see, I’m reasonable, unlike you I did not ask for a new QB, LOL.
Baylin, I think your want for releasing burger might be true. We just signed a contract to that punter who was known for hitting the scoreboard at Cowboys stadium that one preseason game. He’ll have a stronger leg than Berger for sure.
And I too want Hillis to play. Why can’t we run 3 running backs like other teams do? Hard to get everyone carries my @ss, The Cowboys get their 3 running backs plenty of time and carries. They could probably even rotate in 4 if they wanted to.
And the D line. I wish we could get Jordon Dizon to take down the running backs for us. But He got picked up by a bad team
I want All of our receivers to reach potential. I was mostly disappointed in royal like you again. I wanna see McKinley thrown in a few times. He caught some long balls during preseason. Stokley should play the slot more often, as that’s what he’s good at.
Hope it gets done after draft time.
I know Berger will be gone, not only did we sign that new guy who we know can hit it high, but how far does it go? LOL, bu also I think Colquitt will get the job anyway, that’s why we brought him back last week, he easily could of won the competition against Kern in pre-season, obviously McD regretted his decision.
But the main thing I want is for McD to learn how to become a leader of men so he can handle his players closed door instead of through the media and I also think somebody else should handle the play calling, he obviously has too many responsibilities and has lost that clarity of thought for calling the plays, something must change in that regard, everybody knows what’s coming up, at least on short yardage and in the red zone, we had to be one of the most predictable play calling team in the league, and with our weapons, that is inexcusable.
BTW, anchovies, how come you come posting after the season end and weren’t here the whole season, just curious.
Ha ha baylin- you made me envision having a separate playcaller only for the redzone. That would be funny.
because I was too busy watching football =P
I contemplated on signing up, but I tend to join Message Boards and then leave after a few months because I start doing other things.
But I finally decided to go ahead and sign up anyway, because A-I’ve been a Broncos fan since Kindergarten and Figured I’d follow them around for a long time reading these blogs. Might as well comment while I’m reading. B-all of the biased people who are only interested in what the media is making a big deal about tend to leave once the season is over. I get tired of Orton-McD-Marshall-Cutler bashing when it’s totally not the topic and when those guys are gone I can just sit and talk real football.
im ready for marshall to leave isnt miles austin supposed to be FA i wouldnt hate that
Just dont draft another running back please….
What I dont understand (maybe never will), is the sense of entitlement that comes with today’s players. Not all of them, remind you, but more than I care to pay and see.
I guess to use an example would be the Culter, Marshall and Scheffler saga. These guys act like they are better than the rest. But not one of them have ever been to the playoffs.
Even Ocho-gag me with a spoon- I mean Cinco, how many balls did he catch yesterday. Ha. He went to the playoffs though, so I guess I should cut him some slack.
Rookie QB’s. Jury is still out on that one. Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, Stafford, Cutler, recipe for bad things if you ask me. Unless you have an outstanding Defense. As is the case with Sanchize and was with Flacco. Look the jets wouldnt even be in the playoffs if Indy acted like a football team! How do you go 14-0 and shut it down. I wonder how the fans in Denver would react to that dilemma?!?. I know I wouldnt be pleased.
Orton-12 Ints this year. 1 was a hail mary to Randy Moss. 3 against KC. That is one third of his totals on the year. Hey the 1st one against KC was a poorly thrown ball. How many times did we see that from Cutler? The second was just a man playing football. He made a great play.Even I had to give him credit and said “whoa! wow!”, It happens. They are pros after all. Then it bears to mention the pick against Philly. Where Scheff just basically got out manned! Or just gave up. And I vaguely remember a tipped ball, that should have been caught, ending up being picked. So by my count, thats 6. Half. For the year. Not a bad season. Especially what we were presented with after 2 preseason games!
Hey baylin, your list, is that an expert opinion? lmfao…I agree almost completely. Tho one revision…prob WONT happen, but we all have a wish list.
1. I want Brandon Marshall….if he will shut up, catch balls, score touchdowns, play hurt so long he can walk, catch more balls with one hand, keep quiet about money while doing it, score more touchdowns, go to the playoffs and catch more balls scoring more touchdowns and playing for the team while doing it all…..
I agree with you wants in your earlier comment baylinorcrush. I have been reading some articles about what to do with Marshall. Some say we won’t even get close to what “we” and bye “we’ I mean all of us on here want for Marshall. They’re saying that if we ask too much for him then we obviously don’t want to get rid of him. If we really don’t want him, then we’ll put a tender on him and then look to just release him later. They also said something about when they were drafted is taken into account too for if teams want to compensate us if they make an offer to Marshall or whoever.
I just think that if you’re truly not happy on the team than you should be entitled to leave, if you’re not under contract. I think the pro sports is the only job where contracts really don’t mean a whole lot.
I told my boss I wasn’t happy and I’m not going to perform at a high level anymore unless he pays me more. I’m not bragging but I hold a skilled position for a display company. You know what he told me “fine, get the @#% out then.” Ok I’m just joking, but that’s what a lot of bosses would probably do.
Regarding Marshall, it’s a business thing, asking a bit more than he is really worth is what any negociation is all about in anything, you have to start higher than what the value really is to end up selling the product at the value you think it’s worth. We put the tag on him, we only listen to offers that give us a first and a second, if no one comes to the table, we lower the second to a third, etc… until someone bites. No one in this business will care whether you are under contract or not, if you think a certain player is worth valuable multiple draft picks, even if you don’t want him, you slap the franchise tag on him and in essence start the bidding, it’s like an auction, you take what you get and get out. That’s what is going to happen, IMO. At least that’s the best thing for our team to happen, again IMO. I still think we get a first and a third, or 4th at worse. In closing, contracts don’t always mean much in the NFL, but the franchise tags do. The only other player in free agency we would want to franchise is Doom, but I believe he is happy here and Bowlen will sign him before it gets to this, so it seems franchising Marshall and auctioning him off is the way to go. But what do I know… We’ll see…
The down side is if they are no takers we retain him at the average salary of the top 5 receivers, that could be expensive, but someone will want him desperately would be my guess. It would have to be the exclusive tag, no one will be willing to give up the two firsts required in the non-exclusive tag for him, I don’t think. Meaning we do the wheeling and dealing, not Marshall. Anyway, it won’t happen until next month, there will be plenty of time for the team to get a feel with other teams on how badly he is wanted around the league or not, and decide accordingly on how to proceed. That part of the season to me, as a past business owner, is just about as exciting as the real game, it’s the game of business, different pawns, same exciting moves.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Marsh end up in a place like NE or Miami. Mybe we could trade Marshall to Cleveland for Quinn and a draft pick?
Maybe we could trade Marshall and Orton to Kansas City for Matt Kassel….lol
Hey, OC, what’s up, N-E has Moss and Welker, don’t see that happening, too bad because we need Vince Wilfork, Miami has a serious WR need, so maybe. Marshall and Orton for Cassell and their entire franchise, maybe, LOL.
very unlikely we get Quinn. 1 because he sucks 2. people that we screened to much, Quinn can’t throw a sipral over 15 yards.
I foresee the broncos putting a “non-exclusive franchise tag” on B marsh. He would be be signed for 1 year and make an average of what the top 5 highest paid WR are making. (Larry F, Randy M, Reggie W, etc etc) Also, with the non exclusive part means teams will be able to negotiate with him. If the broncos do not match the offer, they will get two first round picks in return. (hopefully McD won’t waste them on a second round pick to draft a bum CB.{which cost us the raiders game})
*people thought we screened to much
bay, how about Marshall, Scheffler and a 2nd rd pk for Wilfork and Moss….
florio, problem with going with the non exclusive tag, as I said earlier, I don’t see any team willing to give up two first for Marshall, so chances are there would be no takers, hence exclusive has a better chance to come to fruition, IMO.
Best case scenario- We keep Bmarsh for a year and he gets paid what he wants.
Worst case scenario- We get two first round picks.
There are tons of teams that could use his talents. We can still put a tag on him and trade him correct? isn’t that what NE did with Cassel did last year?
I hear you OC, however no matter how much I think we should do whatever we can to get Wilfork, I unfortunately don’t believe they will let him go, he is their foundation for the 3-4, they would take a tremendous blow if they let him go, I’m afraid it’s just a dream for me to think we can get him, but one can always dream, right? That’s what the off-season is for… I would do your trade suggestion in a hearbeat, I’d even throw Berger in with it, LOL.
The way I understand it is we can trade him with either tag, but they are no mandatory two first round picks in the exclusive, only in the non exclusive, and we get to do the deal in the non exclusive, not Marshall, so that’s a better way to go, IMO. I’m sure there are a lot of intricacies in each of the specific trades done under franchise tags, but from where I stand, just reading the definitions of the franchise tags, it’s pretty much how I stated it, probably not as simple though, nothing ever is.
And he doesn’t get paid what he wants, he gets paid the average of what the top 5 receivers in the league are getting.
Exclusive: The player must be offered a one year contract 1) at a salary of the average of the top five salaried players at his position, or 2) at a salary at least 120% of his previous year’s salary, whichever of the two is the higher amount. The player may not negotiate with any other teams even though he is a free agent.
Non-exclusive. Same as the Exclusive player except the player is allowed to neogtiate with other teams. Should the player agree in principle to a contract with another team, his present team is allowed to match the contract and keep his services. If his present team does not match the contract, the player becomes a member of the other team and the other team must ‘pay’ two first round draft choices as compensation to the player’s now former team.
correction, we get to do the deal in the exclusive (10:16am post).
It seems very resonable.
Out of the 12 players that got tags this year, only one was exclusive.
It would put the broncos in power and thats how McD likes it.
I can also see Orton getting a 3 year 12-18 million dollar deal with the third year voidable if incentives are not reached (i.e. make playoffs) . I would not like him to be locked up with us for too long.
$9,884,000 is what tagged WR’s made last year.
$7,848,000 is waht they made the year before.
I would think if you want to really keep a franchise player, you do the non exclusive tag, because very few teams will be willing to give up two first, but if you are trying to peddle a player through franchising him, you are better off doing the exclusive, it leaves you more chances to land a deal, but I could be wrong.
If this pattern continues, bmarsh will be looking at 10mil. :-O
Yeah.. Like I said, only one player, Terrel Suggs, was exclusive last year.
That’s why 11 out of 12 this year were non exclusive, our situation with Marshall is opposite of the norm.
In fact, He was the only exclusive player in the past 3 years.
Then again Brandon may become the highest paid WR and start man hugging McD again. You never know.
My bad, Dwight Freeney was exclusive in 2007.
You never know, but I wouldn’t wager any money on it, the troubles with Marshall are a lot deeper than him not making the rehab session, as refered to by McD in his final press conference. Probably too far gone to be reconciable, IMO, specially with the wrong message it would send to the rest of the team, no accountability. McD can go down that road in this very important off-season, he must take control and let the fall out be whatever that may be, and Marshall is where it starts, IMO.
Couldn’t agree more. He is a lot of talent and we can get a lotta stuff out of him. Hopefully we can get some better players out of the draft this year. I was dissapointed in ALL of the picks.
The good thing for us is Marhall did all the right things this year so he not only served his own purpose for a future mega size contract, but he elevated his trade value for us, so I’m thanful for that, he could of remained the jerk he was earlier and we would have nothing to show for, with no option but to let him walk away leaving us empty handed.
Four probowlers were drafted after KM and two after Ayers.
Couldn’t agree more about the top three or four picks, definitely not the imput that you would think you deserve of such high picks, but a later pick like Bruton was excellent. I think the problem was that we really did not have a team that was anywhere close to what McD would like to have talent wise, so he picked a little bit of everything, to try to spread the wealth type of thing, and also, as he stated, the fact that they didn’t assemble the full coaching staff until February, they didn’t even get to looking into the draft until March, they will have no excuse this year, it should be a much better draft, he said they already have a draft board in place.
Our biggest needs our D line. (same as last year) But I wanna fix that thru FA. Too risky trying to fix that thru the draft.
Anyhow, I enjoyed this little chat, of late the dicussions here have been very repetitive, stale, re-hashing what everyone already knows, like bringing nothing new to the table, so this was a bit refreshing. I can’t wait for a couple of weeks, when McD will be done with his vacation, and the news will start flying out of Dove Valley. It will be
Sorry, posted before I finished.
It will be REALLY exciting then. That’s all for now, take care, young man.
I like digging deeeper into subjects. “Orton sucks!” isn’t a interesting topic to me.
See ya bay.
Under ther current Collectiver Barganing Agreement, Marshall is a Restricted Free Agent for the next two years. The Broncos have absolutely no reason to sign him to any kind of a big contract as all he must be paid by the Broncos is a bargain basement salary. There are only two things that will get the Broncos to sign B Marsh to a big contract this year:
1) They work out a trade and part of the trade is the other team wanting to sign B Marsh to a big, long term contract, just like the Broncos did with Clinton Portis when they traded him to Washignton.
2) Another team sign him and the Broncos decide to match the offer.
I don’t know who is watching the Ravens humiliating the Pats at home, but it’s unreal how the Pats look just like us. They can’t stop the run, they can’t run the ball and all their passing is the 5 yard dink and dunk variety, Brady is turning it over left and right and is looking just about worse than Orton in any game this year. I know the Pats are where McD learned everything, but this is ridiculous, you’d be thinking I’m watching the Broncos in one of their pathetic effort this year, amazing, the Pats look as bad as we have at our worse. What does it say for the Belichick/ McD coaching tree, is that coaching style’s honeymoon over? Just saying. I know personnel changes have played a big role in the demise of the Pats, but still, it doesn’t look good, the league may have caught up to Belicheck’s type of coaching, it sure caught onto us as the season progressed, definitely some food for thought… SCARYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
For all those out here who wondered what we would of done had we made the playoffs, you got your answer, we would of looked just like our brethren the Pats. LOL. I wasn’t kidding when I said the way we were playing I was glad not to get into the post season, prime time for prime embarrassment, man, this game was ugly for the Pats, they looked just like our twins in everything they did, this was just too weird to be comfortable to me. I didn’t realize I would have one more tough pill to swallow before season end. I’m waving the white flag, LOL.
Comparing the Broncos to the Patriots is just like comparing the Mangini Browns or the Romeo Cardinals or the Weis’ fighting Irish. Come on man> McDaniels is buidling the Broncos into a championship franchise- a winning Broncos franchise. Not the Patriots west.
McDaniels has some growing and learing to do, just like everyone I have ever met. From what iheard in the press conference I think he realizes that. He and Xanders are agressive in free agency. This year’s free agency will be bigger than last year’s and more complicated without a new CBA.
I am sure we would all agree that the Broncos need to da alittle better in the draft. But that has got to be the hardest to get right. Who can predict who the talent will be?
Ill be looking forward to an exciting off-season this year.
I only report what I saw watching the Pats-Ravens game, it was like watching a mini-me, trust me I would never mention it if it not had freaked me out. Saying it like I saw it is all.