Giants and Bengals Step Aside. You're Just in the Way Today

Welcome to the NFL playoffs Eli Manning and company. Now hurry and leave before any remembers the big fat goose egg you put up on Sunday. A playoff team getting shut out at home? That's almost as funny as Jeremy Shockey's premature celebration. The NY media is going to be salivating at their chance to rip apart the Giant's performance.

Today showed again how important playoff experience is at the quarterback position. Last night we had playoff virgins Byron Leftwich and Chris Simms not able to win. Today we had probably a worse performance by Eli Manning in his first ever playoff game. All three quarterbacks threw zero touchdowns and six interceptions all weekend.

On a day they honored Lawrence Taylor at halftime, their defense played about as bad as that video game you see LT promoting these days on television. He should have brought the crack pipe to help the players put them out of their misery.

The Panthers look like Super Bowl contenders. Oohh I wouldn't want to play them now. They're starting to get hot like the Patriots. Not saying they have it locked up but Chicago needs to be leery next week. Guess who has an inexperienced quarterback next week?? Carolina's defense is going to love that.

Tough luck today for Carson Palmer. You hate to see a great young classy player go down so early in the game. The shot was unintentional. The reaction by Kimo von Oelhoffen told it all. He stood up looking shocked and then somber. He was a former Bengal for six seasons. He smacked his hands together like he couldn't believe what just happened. Torn ACL is what they're saying. He's their offensive leader and would have made a difference trading scores with the Steelers. No way the Bengald defense could shut down Pittsburgh. In the 3rd quarter, the Steelers get two touchdowns to take the lead for good. Just like the Patriots the night before. The Bengals gave up over 31 points their last three losses. Not Super Bowl material.

Now Chad Johnson was so quiet with the media this past week. We wanted funny quotes and Chad to just be Chad. But Marvin Lewis put the lid on his mouth presumably to keep focus on the week. Then before the game Chad spent some time in the parking lot mingling with tailgaters. He said he's never tailgated before and just wanted to experience it. Where is keeping the focus? How many fans offered him beer? Doesn't make much sense. It showed on the field. CJ was kept out of the end zone tonight and his run of end zone celebrations has ended this season.

Okay we got the pretenders out of the way this weekend. Goodbye NY Giants, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, and Cincinnati. Now we're left with the true contenders for the Super Bowl. We saw playoff rookies this week go 0-4. Teams might want to keep that in mind for upcoming seasons. Invest in a veteran. They'll take you a longer way.

From Giants and Bengals Step Aside, You're Just in the Way Today to NFL Archives | Sports Blog | College Football Archives | MLB Archives | NBA Archives | NCAA Basketball Archives | Soccer Archives | Olympics Archives | Stupid Athletes Archives | Other Archives |