Hello good folks and welcome to my new NFL blog! Aren’t you excited??!! Can’t you feel the electricity emanating through the computer screen? This has a very special feeling to it; I think I’m on to something big. I think this is what Mark Zuckerberg felt like when he created Facebook. I decided to start a new blog instead of building off my old one as a symbol of a new, fresh start. I am no longer in school or have a steady job. This is Step 1 in Operation: Get Me A Job. A voice told me, “If you write it, they will come.” Anyway, the name is inspired by perhaps my favorite NFL coach press conference tirade of all-time, by the great Herm Edwards. I’ll begin this blog with a segment I like to call “Leave My Playoffs.”
Let’s start in Jacksonville, the American football Mecca. What better place? As a Pats fan, I shouldn’t say this, but I just can’t hold it in anymore: thank you. Thank you for losing to less-than-mediocre Washington team and finally putting the nail in your own coffin. Despite the Colts struggles this season, they are still one of the last two teams that I want to see in the playoffs (along with Baltimore). With the Patriots clicking into 2007 mode the last month, I’ve spent a lot of my fanhood energy into rooting against the Colts and Chargers. While KC has surprisingly taken a hold of its own destiny and locked up the AFC West, the Jaguars have been a useless pawn standing between the Colts and the playoffs.
The media and seemingly everyone else got caught up in the hype that the Jaguars had a legitimate chance to win the AFC South. And, technically, they did have a chance to clinch the division in Indy last week, but I was never sold. I felt like I was taking the crazy pills along with Mugatu. And I thought they had about as much a chance to win as Derek Zoolander had at becoming a full time coal miner. I’ll give some of that credit to Peyton Manning, but some of it is because the Jaguars can play like a team with no soul. But still I invested some time and passion into watching and hoping they could take out The Forehead from the Pats January schedule. Sixty minutes and one of the worst onsides kicks in NFL history later, I questioned why I had given in to the hype (I blame ESPN NFL Countdown, they had a very convincing pregame argument…think Matthew McConaughey at the end of A Time To Kill convincing). That ended the Jaguars incredibly listless run at a division title for all intensive purposes, but good looks to them for ending that “dilemma” officially with the loss to Rex Grossman’s Redskins. Now everyone can stop wasting their time with them. It is saddening to accept that the Colts will be in the playoffs once again, but as a football fan I could not take the Jaguars anymore. They can still make the playoffs, but they need to beat Houston and have Indy lose to Tennessee (although I could’ve sworn that Indy held the tiebreaker? But apparently not? I think the Jags also need East Carolina to beat Maryland by six points in the Military Bowl. And have the Toronto Argonauts beat the Calgary Stampede. Something like that).
The NFL is a very competitive league that uses its parity to its advantage and adopts the theme that any team can win on any given Sunday. The various upsets that take place throughout the league every week are evidence of this, and you can just take a look at the schedule for proof. Even the best teams in the league suffer an upset of two per season. But when a team is constantly being upset, you have to believe that maybe they aren’t upsets, and that team just isn’t as good as they are made out to be. And I believe that is the case with the Jaguars. The Jaguars just simply aren’t a good team. If you watched any of the Indy game or Washington game it was obvious. At 8-7, the Jaguars have a point differential of -49. That’s six points worse than the 5-10 Cowboys, and only four points better than the 6-9 Texans. Look at five of their seven losses: at San Diego 38-13, v. Philly 28-3, v. Tennessee 30-3, at Kansas City 42-20, and now v. Washington 20-17. There is no consistency whatsoever. They were never a playoff team. Watching them play today was so painful. No fire. No passion. Just complete blah. That’s the only way I can describe it. And that was from an 8-6 team in the playoff hunt. Only two other teams have ever made the playoffs after losing at least four games by 20+ points (somebody please check my research): the 2008 Cardinals, who ironically enough almost won the Super Bowl (although a couple of those occurred after they had the lowly NFC West wrapped up), and the 1989 Pittsburgh Steelers (who lost five games by 20 or more). Granted the loss of MJD was pretty devastating, but that’s no excuse to appear that you weren’t trying and didn’t care if you won or not. Garrard had that look on his face like he was at his kid’s kindergarten play and couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. It’s no wonder they are the only NFL team that has managed to blackout their home games before. As a football fan, I say good riddance to the Jaguars, and bring on Manning and the Colts in the playoffs.
