The Final Four And More
Hear it here!
The NFL playoffs are down to the final four.
In the college ranks there’s just one team standing
After all the hullabaloo about rankings, conference representation, strength of schedule, seeding and the usual second-guessing, Indiana left no doubt who was college football’s king of the hill. But the battle between the Hoosiers and Miami Hurricanes was everything a national championship should be. The Big Ten champs rolled out to a 10-0 lead only to find the ‘Canes rally in gritty fashion, never relenting and threatening to win it until a last-minute Hoosier interception finally sealed it for the first major college team to finish a season 16-0.
When Indiana blocked a punt inside the 5 and scored a touchdown to regain a 10-point lead in the 3d quarter, Miami came right back early in the 4th to cut it to three. When Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza zig-zagged and twisted his way to the end zone on a 4th and 4 to regain that 10-point margin, the Hurricanes stormed back less than three minutes later to cut it once again to three. An Indiana field goal with less than two minutes to play meant the Hurricanes needed to score a touchdown to pull it out. The interception snuffed out their final try. But make no mistake, Miami more than deserved to be in the tournament after so many questioned their legitimacy. They gave the Hoosiers their biggest challenge by far.
But when the dust cleared, the Cinderella outfit from Bloomington showed they could win by huge margins and barn burners alike.
Indiana, of all people, once known as strictly a basketball school, ran the table and cruised their way to a national championship no one in their right mind anticipated.
Except maybe their head coach, Curt Cignetti and his players.
So if no one in their right mind envisioned Indiana as college football champs, who in their right mind predicted the identity of practically all of the NFL division round survivors, much less the incredible and impossible to believe plays executed by these amazing athletes, the two down-to-the-wire finishes, which extended into overtime and the events which marked the aftermath of the weekend.
First of all, the expected powers of the league were nowhere to be found. Where were the Chiefs, Eagles, and Lions, for example? Surely, the Bills finally broke through and got to the brink of the much-elusive Super Bowl.
Well, not really. But that’s another story.
Instead of the usual suspects, the Broncos, the Seahawks, and the Patriots (remember them?), stormed to their conference championship games. Only the L.A. Rams came out of the not-surprising category to join the other three in a one-game battle for a Super Bowl spot.
Looking at the big picture, the four games came down to two issues: defense and turnovers. Interceptions can be construed as superior defensive plays or critical mistakes by the quarterbacks, depending how you look at it.
You can say the same for fumbles.
In the NFC, the Seahawks looked unbeatable, with the parlay of their superior defensive play and their storybook hero Sam Darnold at quarterback, crushed the out-manned 49ers. San Fran had no chance with so many of their star performers on both sides of the ball out with injury. They’ll get a far better test from the Rams who beat Seattle by two points at home and lost by a single point on the road. But who’s looking at past performances?
The Rams are the one team that reached the final four that wasn’t a shock to football followers.
But they nearly didn’t get there. One of the newfound darlings of the league who no one anticipated, the sad sack Chicago Bears, almost advanced, which would have made it four out-of-nowhere teams still alive.
The Bears are laughing stocks no longer. They are the real deal with a QB, Caleb Williams who is on the brink of stardom. His tying touchdown pass on fourth down when he was chased backwards to the tune of 30 yards before a desperate heave into the end zone for a score that set-up the tying point-after kick will be played back for ages. That sent the game into overtime, but the second-year signal-caller threw his third interception which set-up up the Rams game-winning field goal. Credit to the Rams, playing in unfamiliar bitter cold and snow for hanging in, thanks to their quarterback, Super Bowl champion Matthew Stafford who has been there before.
In one AFC divisional contest, most of the experts hung their hat on the Houston Texans, because of their superior defensive play.
But their quarterback, C.J. Stroud was not ready for the bigger stage and threw 4 interceptions against the Patriots. New England, whose defense is not shabby, moves on.
They will play the Denver Broncos who both won and lost in their battle against the Buffalo Bills. This one went into overtime with the Broncs winning on a field goal, 33-30. Denver’s reputation as a defensive juggernaut was ripped apart by the Bills, who have been off-stage ready to finally bask in the Super Bowl spotlight. But their quarterback, who may be considered the best in the game with KC’s Patrick Mahomes rehabbing a serious leg injury, failed again to get it done. Allen threw two interceptions and lost three fumbles and was in tears following the game. But so were the Broncos, who lost starting QB Bo Nix with a broken ankle and now will have to play their biggest game in years with backup Jarrett Stidham, a former New England fourth round draft pick, at the helm.
He hasn’t really seen much action in years and now faces his original team. That brilliant Denver defense better show up for this one. I don’t know how many points the Broncs will score.
So while the usually superb Josh Allen reverted to his reputation of making key mistakes in key games, the Bills head coach, Sean McDermott was fired at the beginning of the week. Somebody has to take the blame when an owner feels his team hasn’t reached its true potential. It’s much easier to get rid of the coach than a high-level quarterback.
McDermott will land on his feet just as John Harbaugh did with the Giants.
Whether these moves pay off will be a matter of time.
But it’s apparent that what we’re seeing in the NFL are razor-thin plays that could go in either direction, razor-thin results, where overtime showdowns are no longer uncommon, and razor-thin life expectancies of head coaches. It looks to me like the patience of the owners to win and win big is getting thinner and thinner.
