The NFL regular season is finally over, and for the last 12 teams standings, it’s time to start preparing for the playoffs. Four lucky teams can rest easy throughout this week and really enjoy their New Year’s celebrations, since they don’t have to play for another two weeks, while eight other teams can’t look past this coming weekend, because it’ll be the last on the field this season for four of them.
It has to feel good to be Chad Pennington and Donovan McNabb right now. Both of those quarterbacks have had a lot of success in their careers, but at the same time, they’ve been on the receiving end of no small amount of criticism, fairly or unfairly, over the years.
Jets fans were likely all too ready to run Pennington out of town many times through his time as a Jet. But today, he got some sweet redemption by helping the Dolphins clinch the AFC East on a field where he had many highs and just as many lows. As sweet as an “I told you so” can be, even sweeter is being the one celebrating, while your old fans are left wondering why their Favre robot decided to show its age at the wrong time.
McNabb may well not return to Philly next year, unless it’s in another uniform, what with Kevin Kolb sitting there and waiting for his chance and all. But just when the Eagles looked dead in the water heading into the home stretch, he helped rally them to four wins in their last five games, and while the Cowboys, Buccaneers, and Bears fell by the wayside, the Eagles moved right past, on into the playoffs.
If you’re the Cowboys and Jets, you can’t help but wonder what the hell happened. Both teams were in excellent position entering the home stretch, but alas, they
Had the Jets won, they’d still not have made the playoffs, and Eric Mangini may still have gotten fired. Either way, they’re not in the playoffs, and Mangini is cleaning out his office.
Rod Marinelli (thank goodness) and Romeo Crennel (what a difference a year can make) have both received the same fate, and could it soon await Wade Phillips?
Jerry Jones has said that Phillips and Jason Garrett (wish you’d left when you had the chance, Jason?) will both be back, but now that the Cowboys have officially missed the playoffs, will he change his mind? That’s something that I’ll do deeper into in another piece, because there’s just too much to analyze and overanalyze about that situation without it dominating this one.
The team who might be feeling the worst right now is New England, who finished 11-5 and tied Miami for the AFC East crown. But thanks to losing the tiebreaker to the Dolphins, they missed out on the #3 seed, and thanks to Baltimore beating Jacksonville, they missed out on the playoffs altogether.
What was their downfall? Conference record, and an inability to register enough wins against the upper echelon of the AFC. Both Miami and Baltimore were 8-4 against AFC foes, while all five of New England’s losses came to their conference brethren, four of whom are in the playoffs (Pittsburgh, Miami, San Diego, and Indianapolis) and the other of whom just missed out (the Jets).
Even so, the Pats may feel hard done by when the Chargers are hosting a playoff game as an 8-8 team. 8-8 as they may be, the Chargers have saved their best football for last, scoring 93 points in the last two weeks in wins over Tampa Bay and Denver. Don’t be surprised if the winner of the Chargers-Colts game ends up in Miami. Bold prediction? Maybe, but wait and see.
The slate’s clean, the records don’t matter, and if you don’t win
