Checkdown Chatter

A lot of things had to go right for the Saints to win last night, and a lot did. They all started with coach Sean Payton and his determined playcalling. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Drew Brees played a great – if not flawless – game on Sunday, completing his final 10 passes, and throwing only a handful of incompletions while completing a (tied for) Super Bowl record 32 passes. There is little doubt that he was integral to New Orleans’ victory and he definitely deserves his Super Bowl MVP trophy.

But, I think it has to be said that if coaches could be considered, Payton with an A would be in the running. Earlier this season I dropped a ‘play the game for real’ tag on Bill Belichick for his brazen, like he’s just playing Madden where punting/kicking/play calling is unnecesseary, I’ve got to commend Payton for doing the same – and for getting away with it.

Look at the end of the first half where Payton showed guts and belief in his team by going for a (failed) 4th down try for a touchdown to tie the game. The playcall was gutsy, and didn’t work out, but the clock management that followed – waiting for the 1st timeout which ensured the Colts didn’t have time to march down the field and would necessarily just try to run out the clock, which caused their 3 and out, and the resulting pre-half field goal was a thing of beauty. A lot of that was defensive execution and precision passing/clutch kicking, but give Payton and the staff credit for managing the sitaution – at least after the failed 4th down plunge – admirably… even the playcall after spending the last timeout to ensure the clock would run out on the 4th down field goal try was impressive – and it took Stones.

(Take note, there would later be a converted 4th and 2 around midfield that evoked the comment: Somewhere Bill Belichick is rolling in his 2009 football grave).

Then, following the momentum built on the last play of the half the Saints came out at halftime and converted a successful onside kick. Frankly, as much as Porter’s pick 6 or the impressive passing run Brees went on to close this game out, this is the play that won the game. We’re looking at an entirely different ball game if New Orleans throws it deep and Indianapolis marches the field and even knocks in a field goal (an all but foregone conclusion the way they were moving the ball early in this one). The gang at PFT and the players involved agree.

If that kick fails, there is probably public outcry… but, it didn’t. It took guts, and with guts come glory.

For those that know me my love of the Jiggaman is not exactly a hidden fact… so, this is a bit biased, but the video to start this game ranks right up there as one of the best (definitely best non-athletic) memories I have of football’s big game.

Jay, and his music have been featured a lot in the NFL this year, and he’s no stranger to the Super Bowl either.

Loved it!

Very weak, brief article about his appearance here.

… in other news, its almost game time and Freeney is prowling (sort of) the sidelines for the Colts.

Reggie Wayne is at the forefront of the receivers lost on Revis Island this year, but he'll get his chance to break out in a big way for the Colts this weekend.

It was a pretty sweet gimmick to begin with, but Revis Island has gone to a new level.

With New York City, as it always seems to do, rallying behind its team as it strives for playoff glory Mayor Mike Bloomberg renamed Manhattan Revis Island. As far as lame playoff gimmicks go, this one is pretty good, at least its fun.

As they point out at PFT, its nice that a cornerback is getting this kind of recognition – its been hard to ignore Revis’ contributions all year, and with the Jets making playoff waves thanks in no small part to their defensive prominence, he’s making headlines.

The great season won’t be forgotten any time soon, as Revis has emerged into (if not a no doubter) one of the top cover corner’s in the league, and he’ll be around playing the role of shutdown corner for years to come, but all will be for naught, at least as far as the outcome of the 2009 season is concerned if he can’t continue his dominance against Reggie Wayne and the Colts this weekend.

He was able to shut Wayne down in their Week 16 contest, but of course, that game marked the beginning of the end for the Colts’ perfect season and the now infamous Paintergate of 2009 which is a big reason the Jets even got this far. It will all be on the table in the Conference Championship and if anyone can break out of Revis Island it will be Wayne. (Although, Kurt Russell/Snake Plissken did a great job 30 years ago in Revis Islands’ more traditional namesake).

Update: The coverage of the Jets’ conference game appearance just keeps getting better.

While the Colts won't be hanging the above jersey from the rafters any time soon, there is something to be said for his participation in the closing game's of the season. A rested Manning looked just fine against a Ravens defense that severely hampered Tom Brady the week before.

In the weeks leading up to the close of the season, especially in the case of the then undefeated Colts, I was dead against teams resting their starters and throwing games heading into the playoffs.

I’m still against it, but through the first 6 games of the NFL playoffs the Colts and Saints, the two top seeds in their respective conference for a reason, who were riding a combined 5 game losing streak have made their cases for it.

In their romp over the Cardinals the Saints showed all our fears about momentum (especially since they’ve locked up home field advantage – and that dome seems pretty advantageous to play in) and their struggles heading into the playoffs meant nothing. They are a strong team, with a solid core of players and a great coach.

The same can be said of the Colts, who gave up a shot at history to ensure their health. They handled a Ravens team, that looked after last week like they could present a real challenge, easily.

The big exclamation mark on this: the teams that they played had to play their way in (well, the Cardinals rested week 17 and made their own point on that note against the Packers last week… but they’d been playing hard leading up to that game, and had to really fight to get the week in the wild card round) and were fighting injuries.

Baltimore had their quarterback suffer an injury in the last game of the season… he got away with not being 100% last week, but was exposed this week by the Colts.

The Cardinals, without Boldin and losing some key names on defense through the game (the argument can be made that the exhaustion of last week’s battle did them in) were clearly an inferior team this week.

New Orleans and Indy were as healthy and rested as they could be, and their offenses didn’t miss a beat after dialing it down a notch as the season closed out. Most importantly, their defenses excelled.

New Orleans harassed Kurt Warner and allowed juts 14 points and no touchdown passes just one game after this same offense hung 45 points on the league’s #2 ranked D.

Baltimore had seriously exposed New England the week before and Indy’s run defense was suspect at best. I guess Ray Rice (who played admirably and had a great season, mind you) and the ground game didn’t get the memo.

Last week we watched New England suffer without its top possession receiver, Welker lost in the season’s last game, against the Ravens. And again, Arizona made its point emphatically (on offense anyway) against the Packers by being able to predict their defensive set up from watching them the week before.

I’m not saying I agree with resting starters, or disagree with the importance of momentum (see the Dallas Cowboys win over the Eagles last week… and perhaps more to discuss later this afternoon), but I am admitting the proponents of that point of view are gaining some evidence as the playoffs roll on.

After posting one of the top QB seasons in the NFL this year, Matt Schaub shows that Houston's future, is now.

Throughout his career in Houston Matt Schaub has always been a potential guy. If he could only stay healthy… maybe when he matures as a quarterback… etc.

Since departing Atlanta, getting out a situation where he almost certainly would back up Michael Vick for his whole career (or so it seemed, the season before the whole Vick debacle became public) Matt Schaub has been hailed as the quarterback of the future for the Texans. With Sage Rosenfels departing for Minnesota, only to be thumbed aside by the unretiree in dungarees, Houston placed a great deal of faith in their sometimes shaky QB. This year Schaub paid off, in spades.

This year, Schaub became the real deal. He played all 16 games and led the Texans to their first winning season. Could it have been better? Yes, certainly. The Texans lost some close games (against tough opponents mind you) when falling to 5-7 in mid season and a win in any of them would have gotten them into the post season, in retrospect.

Schaub, and the Texans, also had a tendency to post huge early game numbers, but not come through in the clutch – though the QB seemed to rectify this later in the season, including his big 4th quarter against New England to close out the season.

There will always be critics, but the fact is, Schaub put together one of the top quarterbacking season’s in the NFL this year, and he has arrived, as predicted.

He was top 5 in the NFL in any of the significant passing categories: yards per attempt, touchdowns (29), passes for first down (2nd to Manning), completions of 20+ and 40+ yards. He just missed the top five with a quarterback rating of 98.6 (no fever), a result in part of his fairly high 15 interceptions.

The interceptions can in part be blamed on the necessity of taking chances, etc. resulting from the Texans abysmal rush attack.

We’ve left off the big one though. Schaub led the league in passing yardage with 4,770, again, this is partly inflated because Houston couldn’t run the ball, though it could be argued that with a rush attack their passing game would be more effective. Manning would have finished first, in all likelihood, if he was allowed to play 16 full games.

At any rate, the 4770 yards from Schaub are enough to rank 6th, all time. That’s a pretty impressive statistic for any historian of the game. The top 5: Marino, Brees, Warner, Brady, Fouts. Some good company.

This season showed vast improvement for the 3rd year starter. In addition to the fact that he finally made it through a 16 game schedule (and showed toughness in returning from the injury to his non throwing shoulder)  Schaub’s yards per game increased from 203, to 276 to a robust 298 this season. His TDs per game are on the rise, with interceptions per game on the decrease. With Schaub returning for another season, this Texans team is on the cusp of a break out year.

Yet, Schaub wasn’t selected to the Pro Bowl this year, missing out because Brady, Manning and Rivers were chosen. No real issues here, though Brady’s numbers aren’t at the level of Schaub’s this year, he’s got the name brand recognition which punches his ticket, and he did have a solid season leading the Pats back into the playoffs after returning for injury.

The good news for Schaub is: with the game taking place before the SuperBowl this year, there is a pretty high likelihood that one of these quarterbacks won’t be able to participate. If so, if there is any legitimacy to the process, Schaub will be punching his ticket to Miami.

Even with Peyton Manning spending a lot of time on the sideline looking smug the next few weeks, the Colts could conceivably finish 16-0.

This will be brief, but clear.

Lets consider this: the question that everyone is asking is whether or not Indianapolis will go 16-0. A fair question as the pursuit of history is always a big deal…

However, Indianapolis has a history of resting its starters when their playoff seeding is all wrapped up, and at this point, that is the case.

Looking at their remaining schedule: Jets and Bills. Is it not at least conceivable that we could watch Peyton, Reggie, Joseph and the gang play 30 minutes, and still walk away with two victories?

The Jets pose a tough threat on defense, but both teams have quarterback and turnover issues. I can’t see either team (after watching how poorly the Jets offense played against the Falcons… and watching the Bills struggle conclusively all season) putting up too strong of a fight.

That would be one for the record books, the perfect season that the Colts didn’t even want to achieve…

Excitement was very much the scene early for the Jaguars offense, but things fizzled in the 4th quarter in their Week 15 loss to the Colts.

The Jaguars could have accomplished two impressive feats last night. One, ending the Colts (a division rival) run for perfection and two, taken control of their own playoff destiny. They accomplished neither, unfortunately.

As so often is the case (7 times this season) Peyton led the Colts on a 4th quarter comeback and the defense accomplished what it couldn’t do all night – force punts and turnovers, to allow the Colts to stay ahead. Manning’s 65 yard TD pass to Reggie Wayne was an impressive exploitation of coverage, and put the Colts up for good. (I’d like to note that this play was semi-vindication, in my eyes, for the 4th and 2 playcall by Belichick weeks ago).

Early in the game, I was prepared to write a retraction article on a) my beliefs that the Jaguars weren’t a playoff team and b) my assertion that Maurice Jones-Drew was being overworked. Following the game, I’m not feeling so high anymore.

Yes, the Jags played pretty well to hang with an opponent that hasn’t lost to anyone – including some very formidable opponents – this year, but if you hang with them all game, only to give up a crushing blow, does it matter? Playoff teams find a way to lock down those close games, and find a way to score when trailing by 4 with two possessions inside the last 7 minutes, the Jags did not, and now must win out, and hope for a little  help (actually, looking @ 10-6 tiebreakers they need a fair bit of help) to make the AFC wild card, rather than guarantee themselves a spot.

As for Jones-Drew he had two TDs, 199 all purpose yards, and was a major factor in why the Jaguars were even close. Watching him run in the first half was impressive, I don’t remember a single carry that didn’t result in 5+ yards. MJD went into the half with 14 carries for 73 yards (5.2 YPC). However – though this has as much, or more to do with defensive adjustments the Colts made at halftime – his 2nd half production was nowhere near the first, and probably is a significant reason why the Jags couldn’t hang on to this one. They controlled the clock in the first half thanks to MJD’s dominance, and were unable to keep the potent Colts offense off the field in the 2nd half when they needed to most. His 2nd half numbers 13 carries for 37 (2.8 YPC) were not near enough to put his team in position to win, and I contend that MJD is getting tired, earlier in games, it would seem.

In no way am I slighting the phenomenal RB either, his 1600 total yards and 16 TDs through 14 games is massively impressive… but I wonder if with a handful fewer carries each game, he wouldn’t have very comparable numbers and a fresher set of legs. Food for thought…

So, I’m not going to add any more to the dissection of the Saints dominance/the Pats failures in last nights MNF, except to say that I’m surprised the Patriots didn’t at least make a game of it.

I don’t think anyone in the New England camp is sweating all too much about this loss, they are still in great position for the playoffs and even AFC home field advantage depending how the chips fall, and they’ll get another shot at the Colts/Saints if they hope to make it to the big game. If they are so fortunate expect the Pats to be much better prepared the 2nd time around.

What I will say is this: Bill Bellichick continues to prove that he has some massive stones. Just two weeks removed from the 4th and 2 debacle to end the Colts game, Bellichick went for it on a couple of early crucial 4th downs, and a late play deep in Colts territory down by a pair of touchdowns. I think all the play calls made sense (as did Sean Payton’s very effective response on the Saints lone 4th down conversion).

The Patriots ended the game 2/3 on 4th downs, and again, all the play calls probably made sense, but you get the feeling that Bellichick’s hatred for all things kicking (punts, field goals, and by this vein of thinking, definitely soccer) has opposing coaches shouting “play the game for real, man” just like playing Madden against your friend who refuses to punt. “You wouldn’t call like that in a real game”, well, apparently Bellichick would. And good for him – although last night’s game was a blowout, at least early it makes the football a lot more exciting to watch.

Lacking some of the marketability of media friendly QB Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne admits that sometimes he's got to settle for what comes his way

Reggie Wayne was again highly involved in the Colts pass game (8 catches, 64 yards), and put together another pretty good outing. 8-64 isn’t great, by Wayne’s standards, but he was involved early and often in this one and helped the Colts move the chains.

He also threw an ill advised pass, which as I’ve already discussed is a totally unnecessary gadget play in the Colts offense, that ended in an interception. On Sunday, his real value came after the game.

Thanks to Y! Sports Michael Silver for sharing this tidbit from Wayne: “I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss every [expletive] time,” the Pro Bowl receiver said after Indy improved to 8-0. “I ain’t trippin’ at all, high standards or not. Hey, you’ve got high standards for the female you choose, too – but sometimes, you know, you just end up making a choice.”

That’s right… every now and then even the best receiver in football has to settle.

Wayne went on to drop another F-bomb… I need to tune in to more of his press conferences… good for him for making it interesting. “I tried to throw it out of bounds, but that [expletive] just didn’t go far enough,” Wayne said. “It was a little duck. I should’ve thrown it to the person in the front row.”