Wild Card Week

Russ here with your recap of the Wild Card weekend. 

After just barely getting into the playoffs the Chargers weren't expected to deliver much. Playing like a team with nothing to lose the Chargers managed to pull out a win in Overtime. The Bolts can hang their win on the play of Darren Sproles. In a story fitting a playoff game, the Chargers had to do without one of their marque players in Ladainian Tomlinison. The lingering injury sidelined the running back at about half way in the third leaving only 5 carries for 25 yards and a touchdown. Sproles was unstoppable. Rushing for 105 yards on 22 carries for 2 touchdowns including the game winner in OT. Not only did he hurt them running the ball but also returning the ball for 178 yards on punts and kick offs. The Colts entered the game on a 9 win streak but couldn't answer with a run game of their own. Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes combined for just 56 yards. Thus the offense was left up to AP MVP Peyton Manning. Manning threw the ball 310 yards on 25 out of 42 passes with a touchdown to Reggie Wayne. The TD to Wayne seemed like it would lock it up for the Colts but Philip Rivers led his team down the field to allow Nate Kaeding to kick the 26 yard field goal to send it into extra. Credit could also go to Chargers punter Mike Scifres whose punts averaged 52.7 yards kept Manning pinned deep in his own territory most of the game. San Diego has won five straight and now heads on the road to Pittsburgh where they will be without Ladainian Tomlinson. 

After proving early in the season that they were a contender Baltimore hit a skid into the playoffs. The Ravens shrugged it off by easily handling the Dolphins 27-9. The story here was Defense and it was all over. Ravens safety Ed Reed made it seem like Baltimore had 13 men out on the field. The Defense forced 5 turnovers and sacked QB Chad Pennington 3 times and was in his face all day. Reed had 2 picks including one for a touchdown to put Miami in their mirror. Rookie QB Joe Flacco wasn't stellar throwing just 9 of 23 for 135 yards but made no errors. And in the playoffs error free+ capitalizing on the other guys mistakes= victory and with it he becomes only the third rookie to win his first playoff game. Like Indianapolis, Miami was plagued by poor field positioning starting their first few possessions on their 20 yard line and converted on 2 of 11 on third downs. Baltimore visits Tennessee this week in what has shaped up as the highlight of this weekend. It will be a low scoring affair to be sure as it was earlier this year. The winner is gonna be the one who can take advantage of miscues first.

I'll admit I was wrong picking against Arizona. Arizona was struggling heading into the playoffs but managed to rally in the second half. The defense picked off rookie Matt Ryan twice and limited running back Michael Turner to just 42 yards. 14 of the Cards 30 points came off of Atlanta turnovers. Arizona's win is their first home playoff victory since 1949. Back then they were still the Chicago Cardinals. It has been a fun ride but Kurt Warner and company will probably run out of steam as they visit Carolina this week.

The Eagles Vikings game was a sloppy one. Both defenses stopped the rushing attacks of each other. Truly the game could be broke up into a few plays that mattered. The key play came from Eagles running back Brian Westbrook who broke a screen pass run for a 71 yard touchdown and they never looked back. This Sunday marks the rubber match between New York and Phily who split the season a game a piece.

This week I'll pick New York to beat the Eagles

Carolina to end the story book year in Arizona

The Steelers over San Diego

And my game of the week Baltimore over the Titans

image courtesy of Jeff Gross