Ian Allan weighs in with a few thoughts from the weekend's four playoff games. Why Troy Aikman was the best of the broadcasters. What can we expect from Quinton Patton and Khiry Robinson in 2014?
Thoughts and observations from the four divisional playoff games:
Quinton Patton looks like a keeper. I figured this guy was pretty special when the 49ers didn’t put on injured reserve, even after he broke his foot. He was out for 10 weeks. Now he’s healthy and entrenched as their No. 3 receiver. Had a really nice longer catch at the first possession of the game today. Not sure when the 49ers will move on from Anquan Boldin (who was great today) but eventually Patton will be a starter.
How are we supposed to rank the New Orleans running backs in 2014? Khiry Robinson looked really good in the Seattle game. He’s a keeper. John Lynch made the good point in the broadcast Saturday when he revealed that Bill Parcells told Sean Payton that he needs to play Robinson more. ‘You’ve got Curtis Martin right in front of you,’ or something to that affect. Mark Ingram also played better later in the year, but he’s a liability in the passing game (his drop on the first series contributed to Seattle get a short field early). Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles are both great pass catchers, but they’re older guys. Robinson obviously isn't as polished as those veteran guys, so he won't be as good in the screen game (which is a huge part of what they do), but I think he'll be a big part of their offense next year.
I underestimated Percy Harvin – a lot. I’m sure Seattle regrets trading for Harvin. Minnesota drafted Cordarrelle Patterson with that draft pick. Relative to their potential, age, health and contracts, there’s no team in the league that wouldn’t prefer Patterson over Harvin. But after the first half Saturday, it’s clear that Harvin is a lot better than Seattle’s other wide receivers. He’s just more explosive than Golden Tate and Doug Baldwin. Needs to work on keeping his mouth closed when he’s getting tackled, apparently, because he had his mouthpiece knocked out three times in the first half against the Saints.
Whatever happened to upsets? It’s been popular to second-guess the value of byes recently. Over half of the No. 1 seeds in the last eight years had lost in their first game (so maybe they’re rusty or whatever). But everything went to form on this weekend. Only one road team won, and it wasn’t a surprise (the 49ers were favored).
Eric Decker falls down. Decker had a nice punt return against San Diego. Got behind everyone and then fell down with nothing in front of him except the end zone. I was surprised the production team didn’t point out that this has happened to Decker before – also against the Chargers. It was a Monday night game at San Diego. He caught a ball, was seemingly on his way to a touchdown and tripped over his own feet.
The Blount instrument. Not sure how we’ll be ranking New England’s running backs in 2014. Right now, I’d guess it will be an extensive committee. Shane Vereen will definitely be in the Faulk-Woodhead third down role. He’ll probably catch 70 passes. But the main runner-type running back probably will be an extensive committee deal. Vereen will chip in a few carries. LeGarrette Blount has gone over 160 yards in back-to-back games, with 6 TDs, but he might not be fast enough or dynamic enough for a heavy-duty role. Right now, they’ve got him splitting time with Stevan Ridley, and that’s a nice one-two punch.
Michael Crabtree’s hands. Jim Harbaugh has twice made the asinine comment that he thinks Crabtree has the best hands ever. So I’ve been for Crabtree to drop one. But he’s played well the last two weeks, especially at Green Bay. And he had a really nice catch today – a leaping hands catch. Not saying that I’m putting him up there with Cris Carter and Larry Fitzgerald, but I will concede that Harbaugh’s comment has me thinking now that Crabtree might be in the top half-dozen receivers right now in terms of hands.
Panthers stuffed at goal line. When Cam Newton was stopped on 4th-and-goal at the 1-yard line, the 49ers might have known a sneak was coming. That was my thinking as he lined up behind center. Go back and watch the replay. His left is lined up a half foot behind where it would normally have been. That might have been a “tell” to some of those interior defenders. And the next time they were down in the same spot, that left leg was up forward, which may have tipped off San Francisco that he wasn’t going to keep on that one. (That was the played where they stuffed Mike Tolbert.)
Dan Dierdorf retires. A great player, and he seems to be a really nice guy. But doesn’t bring much to the table as an analyst. Not enough insights or observations – he’s not adding anything. He and Greg Gumbel flubbed badly on the botched punt that turned into a safety on Saturday. Dierdorf heavily criticized the punter, Ray Allen, for not intentionally falling on the ball. He reasoned it was a lot better to give the opponent the ball at the 1- or 2-yard line, where maybe they might be stopped, rather than taking a 2-point safety and losing the ball. He talked as if that was obvious. I don’t know about that. I think the vast majority of coaches would rather take the safety there. And neither Dierdorf nor Gumbel raised the more intriguing question of whether Allen threw the ball. They called it a forward lateral, but if Allen can throw an incomplete pass there, then the ball would have been returned to the original line of scrimmage, which was around the 50. I was surprised that none of the production team pointed this out to them so they could address the issue coming out of the break.
Fox is better than CBS. There’s no comparison between the two networks. The studio (pregame and halftime) team at Fox is better top to bottom. CBS has been sticking with Shannon Sharpe, Bill Cowher and Dan Marino for years, and those guys simply have nothing interesting to say. The graphics team at Fox is a lot better. With CBS, the yellow third-down line (and blue line-of-scrimmage) are way too wide and way too bright. Same with the down-and-distance graphic. They distract from viewing the product on the field. With Fox, those graphics are smaller, cleaner and turned down in color. And the broadcast teams are better. Both used their No. 1 teams on Sunday. I will call the two play-by-play guys similar (Nantz and Buck); those guys are both pros, and they both worked in a couple of interesting facts picked up in preparation. But on this Sunday, Troy Aikman was a lot better than Phil Simms. Simms wasn’t up to much on this day. Aikman had some really strong opinions and observations (the kind of stuff Dan Dierdorf has never been able string together). Aikman called out Anquan Boldin for getting involved in too much post-play trashtalk. “Every time we do a 49ers game we this; I’m getting tired of watching it.” And Aikman explained why Cam Newton could be blamed for a couple of sacks, and he argued they should be using more screen plays. “Typically they come into a game with about five or six screens, and they throw them from a lot of different formations and looks.” My only fault with Buck/Aikman was that they kept going on about the “terrible” call against Mike Mitchell. The ball hit the ground, Vernon Davis was pulling up, and close to a half second later Mitchell blows him up. Nothing wrong with that flag, in my opinion.
I can’t believe Seattle’s fans. I live 20 miles north of Century Link Field. I can’t believe how swept up this entire area is with the Seahawks. Part of this can probably be attributed to this area winning it’s last major championship in 1979 (when the Sonics on the NBA title). Everything here is Seahawks right now. I was driving on Friday around 5 pm (and again, this is 15-20 miles north of downtown). It was raining. Yet 30-40 fans, all decked out in gear, were standing on the side of the road, waving flags and encouraging everyone to honk horns and whatnot. In the rain and the day before the game. Seahawks Fever has overrun this city, and it will be at an all-time high this week, with the hated 49ers coming in.
The Conference Championships look intriguing. Brady against Manning. I don’t know that we’ll ever see those two guys meet in a playoff game gain. And on the NFC side, we’ve got Seattle and San Francisco. That might be the league’s best rivalry right now – kind of the NFC version of what Baltimore-Pittsburgh has been for most of the last five years.