Despite saddling myself with two not-ready-for-primetime QBs, with the aid of a quirky back-door cover, Bokolis managed a split of the wildcard weekend.
In retrospect, the smartest money was on the Colts. It would've taken some balls to take the Chargers, and Bokolis could not grow them enough to take the bolts. My balls were up on the table for the Eagles- this is what I knew.
Who could know that a couple of inexperienced QBs could stink up the joint in their first time in the lights? The Texans and Ravens QBs were so awful that Bokolis will pull a Parcells and refuse to mention them by name.
Bokolis will focus on the Ravens, as I watched that disaster. It was painfully obvious that the QB did not know where to throw the ball. He would look at his first option, see it covered, and break it down in a panic. It is quite likely that his first option was covered because the Ravens built a dumbed-down playbook to accommodate the QB, which the Chargers, in turn, were able to easily decipher the second time around. If I noticed this by the second series, anyone who had watched this team for any length of time this year must have surely known this. The paid professionals must've been licking their chops. The late, futile attempt at Tebow Time notwithstanding, that Harbaugh-B left this guy in to start the second half was done either by a coach who knew he was done after the season and couldn't wait to get the hell out of there, or on orders by management to not pull the QB. You have to figure Harbaugh-B is out of there.
As an aside, boy, did they butcher those calls around the Chargers TD. After the Chargers were not awarded a TD on a play where the ball broke the plane of the goal line before contact- the ball was actually marked about 26 inches from the goal line- the Chargers were then awarded a touchdown when not only was the runner down short of the goal line (given that he had to gain 26 inches), he seemingly fumbled before he was down, and that ball was picked up and taken 100 yards the other way for a would-be touchdown. The officials had blown the play dead, which nullified the return, and delivered a cop-out of a replay ruling that the runner was down by contact short of the goal line. The Chargers scored on the next play, which was the justified outcome. Nine wrongs make a right.
Bokolis didn't watch the Titans, but it sounds like their QB was missing open guys left and right. This bothers me because I don't know how seriously to take the Colts.
The Seahawks loss of their kicker led to a new way to backdoor cover. Janikowski apparently did his hamstring on a missed field goal, and the back-up is some Aussie rules guy who cannot place kick. This lead to two instances where the Seahawks went for the two-point conversion in situations where they would typically kick the extra point. They converted both, with the second providing the final points in a two-point loss. While it seems freakish, Bokolis would point out that, if Janikowski doesn't get hurt, he probably makes the FG. If you do some adding, extrapolating, assuming, projecting and figuring, you might determine that the Seahawks would've kicked the extra point on the first TD after the injury, and that after scoring their final touchdown, they would've been down two points just the same and be going for the tie. Unlike the attempt you saw, that attempt might have been met with some resistance from the Cowboys.
So, Bokolis has been typing this during the second half of Eagles-Bears. I am prepared to say that the Bears are playing just conservatively enough for the Eagles to cover, as it seems that the Bears have figured out the Eagles secondary, mainly this kid Maddox. Once the Bears take the lead, the Eagles appear to be done, but the spread still hangs in the balance. Foles just hasn't been right and that interception he threw in the endzone in the first half seems like it will be the points left off the board that sink the Eagles. Then, it comes back to the Bears playing conservatively. The Eagles come down and score, but that is secondary to bleeding the clock. The number is made. The Bears get into position for a winning field goal and...oh, dear.
Bokolis would advise the kicker to head home without showering.
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