With the first weekend of the NFL Playoffs in the books I wanted to share a few thoughts.
On Blair Walsh and The Vikings
One of the first thoughts I had after the Vikings 10-9 loss against the Seattle Seahawks was how impressed I was they were able to close the gap so quickly in such a short time period. The fact that the Vikings defense were able to hold one of the hottest offenses heading into the playoffs to ten points was not only surprising, but showed what Minnesota is made of going forward.
Then I made the mistake of hopping on Social Media.
This is where I want to say a little something about Blair Walsh. I’m not going to expand on the fact that Walsh was the only form of offense the Vikings could muster on a frigid day. I’m also not going to spend too much time talking about the 135 points he posted for the Vikings in 2015 either (37% of the Vikings total, offensive output).
No, that would be a waste of my time.
Instead I’m just going to say this: Minnesota played great, Blair Walsh is as important to the Vikings success as any player on that team, now let them move on for bigger things to come.
Packers Simply Outplayed Kirk Cousins And The Redskins
When Green Bay put the finishing touches on their 35-18 victory over the Redskins something was made abundantly clear: never underestimate the Packers.
It took a lot for me not to do that. It would have been easy to look at how Cousins was performing the last few weeks and pencil the Redskins in for a Wild Card victory. But betting against Rodgers and the Packers opportunistic defense would have been a mistake.
Does that mean I’m ready to crown Green Bay as they head to Arizona? Not at all. It does mean, though, is that like Minnesota, Green Bay is capable of making adjustments that could make the matchup in the desert a lot more interesting than we think.
Kansas City Has Work To Do, Houston Has Personnel Decisions
Kansas City won the game in convincing fashion, but they still have work to do. They head to New England as confident as ever on defense, but the offense will need to be more consistent early in the game than it was against Houston.
Speaking of the Texans, I think it’s clear where Houston needs to allocate its draft resources.
Brian Hoyer reverted back to looking like a career backup at the wrong time and it completely sunk any chance the Texans had of keeping pace. It would be wise for Houston to draft or sign a Quarterback to lead this team going forward because their top competition in the division (Indianapolis and Jacksonville) already have a huge head start.
Bengals Implode Against Steelers
It was the ugliest game of the weekend, made uglier by how it ended. But when the flags were picked up the team everyone expected to be standing wasn’t.
And so goes the history of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Two of the most unnecessary penalties cost the Bengals a shot at advancing in the playoffs, for that there are no excuses. Blame can be passed around to the entire team but ultimately has to fall with head coach Marvin Lewis, who wasn’t able to get his team focused enough on the task at hand to understand what was at stake
Bengals fans deserved better, and now they’ll have to wait another year for it.
Thoughts? Let me know about’em! Follow me on Twitter @DACubbage
