Chiefs (44) at Colts (45): Arguably the craziest game of the
weekend. The Chiefs have legitimate excuses about losing their top offensive
weapon, Jamal Charles on the 6th play of the game and then their top
corner, Brandon Flowers later in the game. I can’t see a scenario where Charles
plays and the Chiefs offense in as inept as it was after their first scoring
drive of the 3rd quarter. Alex Smith was fantastic for the first
half, often looking like Aaron Rodgers but in the second half he could not get
anything going. Some people say this is why winning sometimes can skew a
quarterback but truth is, the quarterback that played better in this game won
the game. That isn’t what the stats show, but in the situation where it
mattered most, Luck came through and led touchdown drives the entire second
half while Smith couldn’t get his team into field goal range (which included an
intentional grounding penalty by him). All in all, it was a great turnaround
for a franchise that was 2-14 a year ago and maybe just a right foot away from
advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs this year. Unfortunately,
Chiefs fans will be thinking how the defense was so inept the second half of
the season and will be hearing about how they really didn’t beat any contenders
this year. The Colts move on to face the New England Patriots in Foxborough.
Chargers (27) at Bengals (10): The Bengals playoff woes
continue. Andy Dalton is 0-3 in his career. Marvin Lewis has been coaching for
11 years and is 0-5 in the playoffs. Andy Dalton says all the right things and
plays big time in the regular season but had an interception on an out-route
and another while throwing off his back foot into the flat where the Cover 2
corner picked it off. He also had a foolish fumble where nobody hit him and he
dove and simply let go of the ball. The Chargers capitalized and fed off of a
3-headed monster run game with Danny Woodhead, Ryan Matthews, and even Ronnie
Brown. Additionally, Philip Rivers continued to build on arguably his best
season of his career. For the Bengals, do you really move on from a quarterback
who just set a franchise record for touchdown passes with 33 and a coach who
just led his team to an AFC North title over teams like the Steelers and
reigning champion Ravens? I wouldn’t do it. It should be the Dalton-Lewis show
again in 2014. Hopefully next time, they can progress when it matters most.
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