Evans: Thoughts from championship weekend in the NFL
Jan 23, 2017, 5:24 PM | Updated: 5:25 pm
Here are some hot sports opinions from another lackluster NFL playoff weekend:
» These NFL playoffs have stunk. There’s been very little in the way of drama. One-sided games. The argument
I always fell back on in the college versus pro football debate was while the college football regular season was better than the NFL, the NFL gained it all back plus more with its postseason.
I can’t say that this year. Not with the memory of Clemson-Alabama still fresh in my mind. Perhaps the Super Bowl can salvage the NFL playoffs.
» One thing I admire about the New England Patriots that I didn’t like about Gary Kubiak’s Denver Broncos was how the Pats are a week-to-week, opponent-specific and game plan-specific team.
Take a look at its two games against Pittsburgh this season. In the regular season meeting, they pounded the Steelers on the ground behind LeGarrette Blount. Then, in the AFC Championship, they ignored the run and let Tom Brady pick apart the Steelers secondary.
Contrast that with Kubiak’s philosophy of doing the same, predictable stuff every week. Counting on your players to just out-execute the other team is fine if you have the superior personnel. If you don’t, which the Broncos didn’t, then you better come up with some variety.
» These two championship games showed how overrated it is to establish the run and have “balance.”
Every week we heard Kubiak talk about the importance of running the football. Matt Ryan and Brady were in complete control of two offenses that didn’t care about running the ball until garbage time. They absolutely destroyed the Packers and Steelers through the air.
It’s a quarterback’s league. If you happen to have a good one, then who needs the run? The so-called importance of running the football and balance is an old school football myth that was fine from the ‘70s through the ‘90s. But not anymore.
» These two games proved paying wide receivers huge money is a waste. While the Broncos throw millions at Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders (more on him in a moment), the Patriots and Falcons get by with just a bunch of guys — Julio Jones being the exception.
Wide receivers act like divas, but, truth be told, they are entirely dependent on the quarterbacks they play with. Put two supposedly great wide receivers with an average-to-below average quarterback, and they become average. But put average receivers with a great quarterback, and suddenly they look above average.
Consider the Broncos average 20 points per game, the Patriots average 27 points per game, and the Falcons average 34 points per game. Denver has the better wide receivers, but you wouldn’t know by the impact they made.
» Back to Sanders and his comments to NFL Network about how he would love to catch passes from Tony Romo. Of course he would. Wide receivers measure themselves by the catches and yards they put up. They are the most selfish players in football.
This isn’t just a Sanders thing. Sanders said playing with Peyton Manning was like going to “wide receiver heaven.” So, you can imagine he is less than enthused about the idea of playing with Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch.
That said, all the guy has done since he got here is play hard and produce. What’s wrong with that?
» I think the more telling comment was from DeMarcus Ware, who said the direction the Broncos go in at quarterback will show everyone (read: the defense) how they feel about their chances of winning.
Go after a veteran like Romo, and that signals to the defense the Broncos want to win now. Go with a Lynch or Siemian, and, like it or not, the defense, knowing the league the way they do, will take that as a sign general manager John Elway feels two to three years from now is more important than now.
That won’t make the defense happy, just a couple of weeks after Elway told all of us his No. 1 priority was to keep the defense satisfied.
