There is no other way to describe some of the teams that completely blew their chance yesterday to make the postseason. Four teams - the Jets, Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Denver - had a playoff berth in their hands and completely blew it. No other way to put it. They're chokers, all of them. They totally stunk up the joint when they most needed to pull out of a victory, and they have no good excuses other than admitting that they weren't up to the challenge. How did each team misfire at the worst possible time? Let's see.
Dallas
How bout them Cowboys! Yes, I'm a biased Redskins fan and yes, we've gone fishin already, but I don't care. This was absolutely beautiful. All the Cowgirls had to do was win against a team they'd rung up 47 on in week two, a team that just put up a paltry 3 points against my Redskins last week, and what do they do? They come out on the losing end of a 44-6 whuppin! Five turnovers sealed their fate, two of which went back for TDs, and two more that led to 10 points in the final minute of the first half. The dam finally burst with all the tension and drama that had built up over the season, and quite frankly I think these guys didn't want to be there. The turnovers coming lke they did indicate a lack of focus on the task at hand by all involved. Everyone blew it here. The offense with it's 6 points vs. 4 turnovers (one was on a punt return), the defense with it's giveaway of 27 points on its own, and the special teams with it's fumbled punt return that led to a cheap three points to close things out. The two defensive TDs by the Eagles tell all you need to know: fumble recoveries that were run back for returns of 73 and 96 yards. That's a lack of effort by the Cowboys to even try to chase those guys down. Wow. This was a disaster of epic proportions.
New York Jets
The Jets were in a must win game for the division title against the Miami Dolphins, with the winner getting the crown and the loser going fishing. Now don't get me wrong, the Dolphins have been good all year long but if you compare talent for talent, the Jets come out ahead. But it didn't matter. Up 17-14 with 10:33 left in the third quarter, the Jets let Miami rattle off 10 unanswered points to go up 24-17, which would be the final score. The Jets had the entire fourth quarter to produce some points, and came up with zilch. Of course we can't talk about this game without mentioning Brett Favre, who was horrible most of the day. Favre went 20 for 40 with 1 TD and three INTs, one of which was run back for a touchdown. On the other hand Chad Pennington, the man the Jets dumped in order to bring in Favre, had a cooly efficient 22 for 30 day with 2 TDs and no picks. Now we all know that Chad is the anti-Favre, and this game underscored it. This is a fitting end for Brett; the gunslinger went out firing, but couldn't hit the target. As the Boss said in an earlier post, Brett's arm is the gift and the curse, and yesterday the curse won out.
Denver
This one is right up there with the Cowboys, but in some ways it's worse. There was the lopsided defeat in a winner take all game, but there were no defensive touchdowns to pad the margin of victory. This was all offense by the Chargers, who scored all but seven points on long drives. Way to give it up for free, Bronco defense. But what reall makes this worse was that the Chargers were 4-8 at one point this season, and the Broncos only needed to win one game over the last three weeks to make this game meaningless. But they couldn't do that. They could also have had the division won simply by not losing to the awful Raiders 31-10 in week 12, or to awful Kansas City in week 4. I think this is the biggest choke of them all. And to go outlosig to the biggest choker of all time, Norv Turner, makes it that much worse.
Tampa Bay
They lost to the Raiders. Enough said.
Chill out Rob that's my Quarterback
Yep. Chad was cooly efficient.
Don't know which is worse. The blow out or Romo dropping the ball on the 1 yard line two years ago? lol No one expected the Lions to win anything but much different ball game when your expected to go to the Superbowl and are off to a good start in the REGULAR season and blow it! Good job Cowboys! HA