And Then There Were Four....

Some thoughts and questions on the recently concluded NFL Playoff weekend. If you are my Facebook Friend, some of this may seem familiar to you. It should be noted that my pre-game drill today prior to the Ravens-Texans kick-off was painting an accent wall in our dining room. It looks terrific, by the way.

• So how many of you thought that BOTH Green Bay and New Orleans would lose? If you did, I hope you had a nice parlay bet at a sports book in Vegas.


• If going into the weekend, you were asked to rank the eight quarterbacks who would be playing, where would you have ranked Alex Smith? Sixth or seventh, right? Maybe last?


• When watching the Saints and 49'ers score three touchdowns and a field goal and exchange the lead four times in the last three and a half minutes of the game, did anyone flash back on a similar game between Michigan and Notre Dame last September?


• It might be hard to root for the Ray Lewis, and, to a lesser degree, Ed Reed, but those guys are awfully good football players.


• How about that Pitt Panther connection on the Ravens first touchdown today, Joe Flacco to Kris Wilson? Somewhere, Walt Harris was smiling.


• Caught the CBS studio jokesters briefly on the post-game show. If you had tuned in at that moment, you would have thought that Baltimore lost the game.


• How bad does last week's Steelers loss to Denver look now in light of the complete beatdown by Tom Brady and the Patriots over Tim Tebow and the Broncos? Answer: Pretty damn bad; even worse than it looked last week.


• (That said, the guy who wrote a letter to the sports editor of the Post-Gazette suggesting that it was now time to fire Mike Tomlin is certifiably insane, and whoever at the PG thought this was worth printing today isn't far behind.)


• Did anyone see Leslie Visser on CBS today? I hadn't seen her for awhile, and I was shocked when I did, as she appears to have been the victim of some very bad plastic surgery. How sad that she felt the need to have such work done.


• All week long leading up to these games, I kept hearing about how bad the Patriots defense was. Sure didn't seem that way to me, or maybe Tim Tebow really is that bad, notwithstanding his game against the Steelers.


• Defense does seem to be the strong suit of both the 49'ers and the Giants, however. That should be a very interesting game next week.


• Tom Brady was absolutely unbelievably good on Saturday night. It is hard to imagine that the Ravens will be able to withstand what he can do.


• Phil Simms had a great line last night about NE offensive coordinator and Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien. He asked of all the ex-Penn State players, boosters, and alums who have been bitching about the O'Brien hire, "do you like what you are seeing tonight?"


• And, yes, I know, as it has been pointed out to me already, that O'Brien will not have Brady, Gronkowski, Welker et al in Happy Valley, but I think that Simms point to the PSU bitchers-and-moaners was well taken.


• Speaking of Penn State, did you catch the lengthy interview and story by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post on Joe Paterno? The one quote that jumped off the page was when Paterno said that "people must think I run things up here." Oh, you mean he didn't? I hate to kick a legend when he is down - and very ill to boot - but he really came across as a clueless old guy in that story.


• Is there any football announcer more old school that CBS' Dan Dierdorf? When you listen to him talk, you just know that he thinks that, with very few exceptions, all of the players today are a bunch of namby-pamby jackwagons, and that if he, Dierdorf, was down there on the field, he would by God show them all how the game should be played. He used to bother me, but now I kind of love listening to the guy.


• He was pretty calm on the sidelines today, but I know that there will come a day when Tom Coughlin's head will literally explode during a game. Maybe next week.


• Why does the thought of a Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh Super Bowl showdown not get me in the lather that it seems to be inspiring in others? Of course, if that does come to pass, the media circus that will be made of it WILL be overblown to a degree that not even Chris Berman could imagine.


• BEST GAME OF THE WEEKEND - 49'ers win over the Saints. No other game even close.


• BEST PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND - Tom Brady


• GOAT OF THE WEEKEND - Jacoby Jones


• SURPRISE OF THE WEEKEND - The relative ease in which the Giants beat the Packers, who sure didn't look like a team that went 15-1.


• PLAY OF THE WEEKEND - Three way tie: Alex Smith bootleg TD run to win game over the Saints; Alex Smith to Vernon Davis TD pass to win game over the Saints (again) after the Saints appeared to have won (again), and Eli Manning's Hail Mary TD pass at the end of the first half against Green Bay. There was still a half left to play, but I think that that TD was the dagger that killed the Packers today.


• HONOR IN DEFEAT AWARD - Aaron Rogers who, despite his interceptions, kept the Packers in the game until late in the fourth quarter without a lot of help from the rest of his offensive teammates.

So, next Sunday is one of my favorite football days of the year - Conference Championship Sunday. Am looking forward to the big double header, and while I wish the Steelers were still alive, I have to admit that you can watch these games and enjoy them more when you don't have the emotional investment in them that the Steelers participation brings.