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Official NFL playoff thread

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IndyColtsFan said:
The Giants are clearly the better team, but as we know, that doesn't always translate into a win in the SB.
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Vegas has Patriots by 3. But I really think giants will win. You saw what a good defense can hold Brady to yesterday and Eli should be able to light up their secondary.

Seconded on him getting beat up yesterday, didn't seem to faze him and did a good job of protecting the ball.

The last time Giants and patriots played I lost my voice for a few days. That's a catch! THAT'S A CATCH! That's a catch!
 
spidey07 said:
Vegas has Patriots by 3. But I really think giants will win. You saw what a good defense can hold Brady to yesterday and Eli should be able to light up their secondary.

Seconded on him getting beat up yesterday, didn't seem to faze him and did a good job of protecting the ball.

The last time Giants and patriots played I lost my voice for a few days. That's a catch! THAT'S A CATCH! That's a catch!
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I'm not surprised Vegas would favor the Pats. The Pats may very well win, but I think the Giants are the better team. I think the Pats might be slightly better on offense but the Giants are much, much better on defense.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
I'm not surprised Vegas would favor the Pats. The Pats may very well win, but I think the Giants are the better team. I think the Pats might be slightly better on offense but the Giants are much, much better on defense.
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Yeah, they had a game plan to contain Rice, however, they forgot that meant they would have to defend through the air, which they are not really good at it. Honestly, I think the Pats offense is overhyped. They are good when they get defenses lured into their game plan, but when people do not fall for it, they do not have a lot a talent at the WR position to over come it. Brady's fav, target is Welker and Branch...Branch....think about that for a second....Deion Branch as your WR1.
 
Gibson486 said:
Yeah, they had a game plan to contain Rice, however, they forgot that meant they would have to defend through the air, which they are not really good at it. Honestly, I think the Pats offense is overhyped. They are good when they get defenses lured into their game plan, but when people do not fall for it, they do not have a lot a talent at the WR position to over come it. Brady's fav, target is Welker and Branch...Branch....think about that for a second....Deion Branch as your WR1.
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Branch is Brady's 4th read at best these days, unless the play is specifically designed to go to him. It pretty much goes Welker, Gronk, Hernandez, Branch in order.
 
gorcorps said:
Impressive to see Manning take such a beating all game but not really lose his cool or turn it over.
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The thing is Manning is not a drama queen after being hit, and he got LIT up this game (and had a couple helmet to helmets in GB). I will even call out a tough QB like Big Ben and say he emphasizes his pain and is always grimacing/limping after hard hits. Eli just doesn't bother with any of that and focuses on the next play.

I think this is why Eli never draws flags on hits that Brady/etc. would draw a flag on, because he gets up immediately already thinking about his next play. He is one of the toughest QB's in the league, but his easy going demeanor seems to make people overlook this.
 
crownjules said:
Branch is Brady's 4th read at best these days, unless the play is specifically designed to go to him. It pretty much goes Welker, Gronk, Hernandez, Branch in order.
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I am talking just in WR position. Welker is your WR1, but you know they are gonna double cover him to take him out. That leaves branch since 85 cannot learn the offense (one can only hope it's all a smoke screen and he knows it, but Bill will not unleash him until he really needs to). All the Giants have to do is see what the Ravens did to make the passing game non existent at times. From what i saw, it was them playing a lot of zone coverage to react to what the offense was attending to do. It disrupted the timing and rhythm a lot.
 
Gibson486 said:
Yeah, they had a game plan to contain Rice, however, they forgot that meant they would have to defend through the air, which they are not really good at it. Honestly, I think the Pats offense is overhyped. They are good when they get defenses lured into their game plan, but when people do not fall for it, they do not have a lot a talent at the WR position to over come it. Brady's fav, target is Welker and Branch...Branch....think about that for a second....Deion Branch as your WR1.
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If Brady had hit Gronk and Hernandez down the seam, they would have had two long TD plays yesterday. If Brady plays like this again, it's going to be a bad loss.
 
Gibson486 said:
They are Tight Ends. They put up receiver numbers, but they are still tight ends.
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In case you hadn't heard, this is the year of the tight end. With many teams top receivers and scorers being tight ends.

Kinda cool to see Hernandez lining up in the RB position. "Oh, I'll block, or I'll just run straight up the middle after I release"
 
Capt Caveman said:
So? Make do with what you have and our biggest deep threats are the Tight Ends.
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That's the point. The giants have a really good pass rush. They may need that tight end to serve as a protector. If you just say, yeah, he is gonna be a receiver, good luck. Brady is gonna get rocked if they have that mind set.
 
CLite said:
The thing is Manning is not a drama queen after being hit, and he got LIT up this game (and had a couple helmet to helmets in GB). I will even call out a tough QB like Big Ben and say he emphasizes his pain and is always grimacing/limping after hard hits. Eli just doesn't bother with any of that and focuses on the next play.

I think this is why Eli never draws flags on hits that Brady/etc. would draw a flag on, because he gets up immediately already thinking about his next play. He is one of the toughest QB's in the league, but his easy going demeanor seems to make people overlook this.
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Eli Manning is the man. The guy is one of the toughest QBs I've ever seen (and please, folks, don't mention McNair in this category) and comes up big when it is needed the most. If the Giants can win, I don't think anyone will doubt calling him an elite QB. I personally think he already is there.
 
Gibson486 said:
That's the point. The giants have a really good pass rush. They may need that tight end to serve as a protector. If you just say, yeah, he is gonna be a receiver, good luck. Brady is gonna get rocked if they have that mind set.
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And wasn't that going to be the case yesterday with the Raven pass rush? Gronk and Hernandez were still able to chip the Raven pass rushers and still go down the seams for long TDs if Brady could have just hit his wide open TEs.

Gronk had a pretty darn game in the regular season against the Giants, it was the defense that failed.
 
Yeah, I don't think anyone could seriously doubt Eli's toughness after yesterday. He took a fucking beating and then got up and took care of the football. Not a lot of progress made by either offense towards the end but you didn't see Eli making any stupid mistakes or trying to force it.

Frankly, I'm not loving the Pat's chances. If Tom Brady plays way better than yesterday (he more or less sucked) and the defense plays as well as yesterday (they showed up and played way better than usual) they've got a good shot. But while the Pats offense may be overall better I'd have to give the Giants the edge on defense. And lets face it we backed into the super bowl with that game. The game was in the Ravens grasp and was theirs to lose. A missed running opportunity by Flacco, a receiver that should have had a death grip on that ball in the end zone and a mega fuck up with the field goal are what sealed it...all the Ravens fault more than the Pats effort.
 
PingSpike said:
Yeah, I don't think anyone could seriously doubt Eli's toughness after yesterday. He took a fucking beating and then got up and took care of the football. Not a lot of progress made by either offense towards the end but you didn't see Eli making any stupid mistakes or trying to force it.

Frankly, I'm not loving the Pat's chances. If Tom Brady plays way better than yesterday (he more or less sucked) and the defense plays as well as yesterday (they showed up and played way better than usual) they've got a good shot. But while the Pats offense may be overall better I'd have to give the Giants the edge on defense. And lets face it we backed into the super bowl with that game. The game was in the Ravens grasp and was theirs to lose. A missed running opportunity by Flacco, a receiver that should have had a death grip on that ball in the end zone and a mega fuck up with the field goal are what sealed it...all the Ravens fault more than the Pats effort.
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It was mentioned on M&M this morning that there's a rumor that Brady hurt his shoulder, though the statement by the Pats is an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. Who knows, but Brady didn't look like himself. The problem going into this game is where do the Giants stand with their secondary, which doesn't have the type of players that Reed and Pollard are. Also, it will be interesting to see how the Giants DB's match up with Gronk and Hernandez.
 
Not looking forward to the media circus that will surround the runup to this Super Bowl. You'll see 5 stories:

"Super Bowl XLII rematch! Brady looking to get revenge for 18-1!"
"Eli will be playing in his big brother's house!"
"If Tom Brady wins, is he the greatest quarterback ever?"
"If Eli Manning wins, is he better than Peyton?"
"East coast east coast east coast east coast classic New York/Boston rivalry east coast"
 
PingSpike said:
Yeah, I don't think anyone could seriously doubt Eli's toughness after yesterday. He took a fucking beating and then got up and took care of the football. Not a lot of progress made by either offense towards the end but you didn't see Eli making any stupid mistakes or trying to force it.

Frankly, I'm not loving the Pat's chances. If Tom Brady plays way better than yesterday (he more or less sucked) and the defense plays as well as yesterday (they showed up and played way better than usual) they've got a good shot. But while the Pats offense may be overall better I'd have to give the Giants the edge on defense. And lets face it we backed into the super bowl with that game. The game was in the Ravens grasp and was theirs to lose. A missed running opportunity by Flacco, a receiver that should have had a death grip on that ball in the end zone and a mega fuck up with the field goal are what sealed it...all the Ravens fault more than the Pats effort.
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I don't know about that. There were a few it looked like he was bracing with his body and just used all arm for the throw. For example the one where the 49ers ran into each other. His protection was sub-par yesterday though, they looked really good the week before.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
Eli Manning is the man. The guy is one of the toughest QBs I've ever seen (and please, folks, don't mention McNair in this category) and comes up big when it is needed the most. If the Giants can win, I don't think anyone will doubt calling him an elite QB. I personally think he already is there.
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Since you went there I've gotta ask... why bring up McNair? 😛
 
IndyColtsFan said:
His "toughness" was overrated and the media tripped over itself always describing him as a "warrior" and "tough."
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How does one overrate toughness? It's pretty much the most opinionated thing one can try to argue for or against since it is impossible to measure. I also think it's easy to forget just how many injuries McNair often dealt with on a week to week basis, usually playing on Sundays without even practicing at all during the week.

You did remind me of this piece Bill Simmons once wrote about McNair, (thanks Google)

Any time you have a QB who's so tough, he's dragging around his bum leg in the fourth quarter of a playoff game in minus-8 degree weather, and one of the announcers casually says later, "His painkillers must have worn off," and that same guy still comes within a Drew Bennett drop of possibly tying the game on the road ... I can't go against him. He's like Michael Myers. You need to chop McNair's head off to finally feel safe.
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The game reference is to the AFC championship game the Titans lost to the Patriots some time in the early/mid 2000s. Can't remember the year but want to say 2003 or 2004.
 
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