0 for 4 on Picks, And Still Smiling

That's right, I got all 4 of my picks wrong this past weekend. But I don't really care, since Seattle won and is now one win away from the Super Bowl. The media is all over the Panthers' peepee right now, and most aren't giving Seattle a chance, but that's fine with me...

Sunday afternoon, when I first started thinking about writing something on this weekend, I was going to talk about how awful the refs were all weekend long. But you know what, everybody else is doing that story, so I'll skip it.

If you told me Seattle would give the ball away 3 times and lose Shaun Alexander in the first quarter, I'd say "Yep, they'll lose that." I was even preparing myself for the loss as the wheels seemed to almost come off a few times, most notably on the horrible punt returns. This guy, Jimmy Williams, has been doing this ALL FUCKING YEAR. He calls a fair catch when he has 10 yards of room, but doesn't when 2 guys are bearing down on him from 3 steps away. He catches punts on a bounce (which is always dangerous) , and lets the ball go when he clearly shouldn't. I have no idea how he's still returning punts. And then there's the easy muffs on balls that hit him in the chests. He's been awful. And if he's back there again next Sunday, he better damn well have instructions on how to properly field punts.

Anyways, Hasselbeck and Jackson had a great game, and the defense showed that they are not as "average" as some numbers indicate and even more talking heads claim they are. More on the Seattle-Carolina matchup later this week, but I'll just say I was happy with 90% of what I saw out of the Seahawks (and 9% of what I didn't like was on special teams). I'm proud of the team, and think they have a real shot to win it all.

Quick thoughts on the other games:
Manning chokes. Again. (Maybe I'll just copy and paste those two short sentences and use them for the next 10 years. First name is not needed, both Eli and Peyton will fit the description for the forseeable future.) The refs tried to hand the Colts that game, and then Bettis almost did. Lots of people are giving Big Ben mad props for the tackle on the fumble recovery. Yes, he deserves some credit, but consider these two things: 1) Harper (who had been stabbed in the knee by his wife the night before) looked like he couldn't decide what to do. It looked like he was even considering a lateral with how he was looking behind him and zig zagging.. If he simply runs full speed down the sideline like most defenders know to do (ie, Champ Bailey), he scores. And 2) if Ben misses him, there were several Steelers in pursuit who looked to have a decent angle on him given his ridiculous tapdancing on the return. Someone else would have caught him. In any case, the Colts deserved to lose, and Manning just brought some more bad karma upon himself by blaming the offensive line protection after the game. Did you hear Brady blaming the loss on anybody? I didn't.

Pats blow it. Well, the refs cost them dearly in this one. That pass interference call was awful. And might single-handedly create a large push to institute instant replay on interference calls. I, for one, would be all for it. With the unlimited yardage assessed on these calls, they can and do effect the outcome of games. The sticking point of replay, however, would be could they challenge bad non-calls? Or just bad calls? Anyways, hell of a play by Watson running down Bailey from behind, and although that call was tough to overturn from the replay, I think it did go through the end zone. If the refs call it that way, the call probably stands as well. That was Don Beebe-esque.

And last, but not least... my bad for underestimating Rex Grossman. He actually looked pretty good. Unfortunately, the Bears defense forgot to cover some guy by the name of Steve Smith. I don't think too many people would have guessed the Bears would put up 20+ points at home and lose. So much for the under. Horrible coaching job for the Bears. How do they not have this guy double-teamed the whole game? Hopefully Seattle is watching this tape and double-teams him all game. Maybe even triple teams him. We did a pretty good job shutting down Santana Moss this past weekend, and need to do it again. (Yes, Moss had over 100 yards, but most of those came on a late bomb against the prevent, and that wacky 20 yard TD catch that riccocheted off the defender's hands and helmet. He was pretty much a non-factor.)

Soooo, we're down to the Final Four.. and the Colts and Patriots are nowhere to be found.. Suddenly, I like Seattle's chances to win it all..