Random thoughts from this weekend:
1) Houston exposed NE’s “serviceable” OL, but NE adjusted at halftime and it looked like they gave help to who was covering Mercilus. Crickets from that pass rush in H2.
2) When does Edelman NOT push off on his routes? He does it nearly every play and until they start calling him on it, he’s always going to look “quicker.”
3) As soon as Earl Thomas went down, we said here on this NY Giants blog (see #16 below) that that was too big a loss to recover from for the Seahawks. He was missed in a big way on Saturday. What Earl Thomas does as a Safety in today’s NFL is enormous. Missing him on patrol vs Matt Ryan’s Offense was gi-normous.
4) Yes Brady at 39 is ridiculous, but as we know (XLII, XLVI) if you get pressure on him even he has a hard time.
5) … and that’s the genius of Rodgers. How do you beat a QB who just nullifies most pressure with his planned exits? He will miss finding receivers but everyone understands that his trade-off of minding the pass rush makes him all the more lethal. It’s like Tarkenton on steroids, because Rodgers passing is sick.
6) We all knew that Prescott would make a mistake somewhere to jeopardize his team’s chances. It’s just extremely hard for a rookie QB to navigate the playoffs.
6a) Prescott is going to be a major problem for the Giants, the NFC East and the NFL going forward. If his poise as a rookie is any indication, we’ve got problems.
7) Who needs a watch when you have Andy Reid to tell you it’s the 2 minute warning?
8) Is there any team you can count out next weekend? I can’t.
9) NE -5.5 and ATL -4 are point spreads.
10) Drink up. These are legendary QBs. Brady, Rodgers, Ryan and Roethlisberger all in one weekend. The NFL is a weakened product but at least they’ve saved the best for last.
11) During preseason @MacFootballGuru queried his followers on twitter for their Super Bowl prediction. Here was mine.
