It’s a double edged sword with that one. If Manning is in there specifically to play with Harrison, he’ll be forcing balls to a rusty, hurt receiver who doesn’t have his timing down with his QB. And Tennessee will know this, and roll the coverage this way. Scares me a bit, I could see some balls going to Harrison get picked.
NE will definitely be trying harder. Giants actually have nothing to play for and are more likely to rest their starters. NE has the undefeated seasons, Brady and Moss’s records, etc. NE will, my wag, play their starters through the first half. Enough to win the game and get Brady his TD record.
I’m not sure what to think about the Colts playing Harrison. Quite frankly, as a Bolts fan… I think I’d rather see the Browns in the first round than the Titans again. Maybe Harrison will lead an emotional charge and the Colts will tough it out for the win 
Plus, the Pats have that first-round bye coming up next week, so everybody will get some rest whether they play this game or not. The Giants have to make sure they’re ready to play next weekend in … Tampa, right?
Well as far as effort goes, the Giants were jacked up. They also played at warp speed against the Billies last week, so at least that’s something for Giants fans to hang their hats on for the road trip to Tampa next week.
Giants boards unsurprisingly show several threads on the main page blaming Eli for the loss. It’s a real think-tank over there.
Hopefully O’Hara comes back next week. As far as Mitchell goes, I’m a big fan of Gerris Wilkinson.
Got the margin of victory right. Gotta give Eli and the Giants credit for making the game a lot closer than many predicted.
Remarkable season by the Pats. But they were a lot less dominating in the second half than in the first: 8 straight wins by 17 or more, then 5 close games (3 against weak teams) to go with 3 big wins. They will no doubt be talking about the need to improve for playoff success, and they may be right.
Wow, I can’t fathom how they could come to that conclusion. Eli took a couple of bad sacks and fumbled a snap at the wrong time, but on balance he had a great game. He was dead even with Brady for about 3 quarters. The Giants lost because Jacobs is a fat turd and the secondary couldn’t have covered me.
Gotta disagree on both counts, especially the first. Jacobs is very fast for a guy his size. When healthy, he’s an awesome player. Ok, he can’t catch the ball, but other than that he’s terrific. Even tonight, against a very good Patriots defense that was keying somewhat on the run, he managed a respectable 15/67/4.5, and his TD pass was the result of hard work and quickness on his part.
The secondary wasn’t (and isn’t) particularly good, but tonight they were facing arguably the best offense in NFL history. Given that fact, their performance this week was a lot closer to “average” than “bad.”
I’ve never really followed the playoffs before so I don’t get this. If they both win, the Titans are in; if they both lose, the Browns are in. Can someone explain why that is?
How about after he’s had a poke in the eye? 
The second tiebreaker rule (after head-to-head, which doesn’t come into play because the Titans and Browns didn’t play each other) is conference record. The Browns have already finished their conference play at 3-3. The Titans are 2-3 in their division right now; if they lose to the Colts today, their final division record will be 2-4, and a losing Browns team will still own that tiebreaker. If both teams win, then they will both have 3-3 conference records, and the tiebreaker goes to the third level, record against common opponents, which the Titans already own (4-1 vs 3-2).
Nitpick: You listed the division records. Cleveland’s conference record is 7-5. Tennessee’s is 6-5.
I believe the rest of your post is correct.
He might be very fast for his size, but that’s just not fast enough. He couldn’t get through any of those holes and his feet looked like blocks of concrete. He was always getting tackled from behind in the hole and was zero threat to make the corner. His YPC numbers are a testament to how well the Giants line handled the point of attack, but Jacobs isn’t quick enough to be an every down back. The fact that he quit at the end of several runs doesn’t bode well either.
Harrison is out tonight. No Harrison = not much Manning.
JIM SORGI IT’S YOUR TIME TO SHINE.
I think you’re simply wrong. Maybe what you call “getting tackled from behind in the hole” is what I call “getting hit by two or three defenders at the line of scrimmage.” I watch this guy every week, and I promise you that speed isn’t Jacobs’ problem; he routinely outruns Cornerbacks and Safeties when he gets into the open. His problems are injuries and being one of the worst pass-catchings RBs in the league, but when it comes to running the football, he has been every bit as good as Tiki Barber was, and the numbers bear that out.
Counter nit-pick: I just mis-typed. The second tie-break is the division record. I posted the right records, I just called them by the wrong name. (I do that all the time–the Cowboys were the NFC East Conference champs, right? :smack: )
Conference record comes fourth, after record against common opponents, and will not be relevant to the Titans/Browns comparison.
I’m coming out with a wild and crazy prediction: the Patriots are going to roll to three straight wins and hoist the Lombardi trophy come the first week in February.
I see no surprises coming, and the only thing left to be decided is who they’re going to beat.
I’ll give you that speed may not be the key issue, he’s a long strider and can get moving, but his acceleration and quickness are lacking. His size lets him carry tacklers and fall forward to move the chains, but I maintain that against fast pursuing defenses he’s a liability. Too many 10-12 yard carries turn into 5-6 yard carries with him. The counter-point to that is that 0-1 yard carries become 3-4 carries, which is valuable, but he has a little bit of Cedric Benson in him.
So 'Skins and Titans are in. Browns are the only NFL team with a winning record that fails to make the playoffs.
Is division record a tiebreaker for teams that are not in the same division? That doesn’t make sense. The Titans, for example, played in a much tougher division than the Browns did this year.
For teams in different divisions, the tiebreakers are as followed:
- Head-to-head
- Conference record
- Common games
- Division record
So the division records only come into the equation if the two teams had identical results for the games they had in common.