Recently I spent an enjoyable evening at the revamped Madison Square Garden watching a hockey game between the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs.
It was a good regular season game between two teams from the days of the glorious six team National Hockey league. While it was not quite Rod Gilbert (Rangers) and Dave Keon (Leafs) the memories were stirred and Toronto has a player whose last name is Ranger.
The revamped Madison Square Garden looks good with a tremendous scoreboard and conveniently located amenities.
I watched the out of town scoreboard and it provided timely, running updates on the other NHL games.
Additionally the New York Knicks’ basketball game and Monday night football game were in the rotation of continually updated scores. Good job.
Speaking of scores, The Rangers won (2-1) in a shootout thus gaining two points. Toronto did no go home empty, getting one point.
Four teams are alive for the AFC’s final playoff spot and none control their destiny.
The Miami Dolphins probably have the best shot at that final spot, needing a home win vs the New York Jets and either a Cincinnati Bengals’ win at home vs the Baltimore Ravens or a San Diego Chargers’ win also at home vs the Kansas City Chiefs.
However, the Ravens, Chargers and even the Pittsburgh Steelers, are still in contention.
While all four divisions have been clinched in the AFC, none of the four have been clinched in the NFC.
Two of the divisions, the NFC East and North, will be decided in head to head games this Sunday.
In the NFC East, the Dallas Cowboys, who have been denied playoff access in each of the last two seasons with a Sunday night loss in their finale, get another chance this week.
Dallas hosts the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday night but very likely will be without injured starting quarterback Tony Romo.
The other head to head battle is between the oldest NFL rivals, the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. The winner of that Chicago based game, wins the NFC North.
As with (Philadelphia at Dallas), the status of a starting quarterback is unknown and the key, at least going into the game. Star quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been out about half the season for Green Bay.
In the NFC West, the Seattle Seahawks are about a ten point favorite at home vs the St. Louis Rams. A Seahawks’ win or San Francisco 49ers loss at Arizona, vs the surprising (10-5) Cardinals, gives the division title and NFC one seed to Seattle.
The Carolina Panthers need a win at Atlanta vs the Falcons or an unlikely New Orleans Saints’ loss vs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to wrap up the NFC South. It would mean at least the NFC two seed for the Panthers.
That post Christmas, “two seed package” includes a first round bye and a home divisional round playoff game.
Speaking of Christmas, a merry one to all, from this “nice Jewish boy,” who was fortunate enough to be in the streets of Rome, Italy for the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
Tony Romo
Three teams clinched divisional titles in the AFC on Sunday and all four divisional winners scored impressive victories.
One playoff spot and seeding will be determined next week.
The Denver Broncos, with almost certain NFL MVP Peyton Manning throwing four touchdown passes to eclipse Tom Brady’s single season record, rolled past the hapless (2-13) Houston Texans. That win combined with the Colts’ win at Kansas City vs the Chiefs, clinched a third straight AFC West crown for the Broncos.
The Broncos will be the AFC one seed for the second straight season if they win at Oakland or if the Buffalo Bills upset the New England Patriots next week.
The AFC East winners, the Patriots, forced the one seed “issue” to the final week by winning at Baltimore. That win after Cincinnati’s earlier rout of the Minnesota Vikings, clinched the Bengals’ first divisional title since 2009.
The Indianapolis Colts, who had already clinched the AFC South, won at Kansas City but will need not only to win next week but get help to move up in the AFC seeding.
Click to watch Manning top Brady’s record
Peyton Manning
On this date back in 1974 one of the greatest NFL games ever was played.
It was a divisional round game matching the Oakland Raiders and the two time defending champion Miami Dolphins. It was billed as the real Super Bowl or Super Bowl “Eight and a half.”
The consensus was that these were the two best teams and the winner of Dolphins at Raiders, would win Super Bowl 9. That did not happen.
However, as rarely is the case in sports or life in general, the game/event lived up to the great hype surrounding it.
The lead in the game changed hands seven times with Ken Stabler’s touchdown pass, while falling down, to Clarence Davis the final change and score in the Raiders’ (28-26) victory.
However, the next week at home and favored in the AFC Title tilt, John Madden’s Raiders were humbled by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pittsburgh went on to win its first NFL title that season and would win four in six seasons with such greats as Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, and John Stallworth.
Coach Madden
I have put off updates on both the NFC North and NFC East. The latter has been terrible all year while in the NFC North, the Detroit Lions, the only team around for the previous 47 Super Bowls without ever making one, have quite possibly blown their playoff chances.
The Lions can still win the NFC North but will need help from other teams to do so. This week Detroit needs to win vs the New York Giants and for either the Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers to lose. Unless both lose, they will need help in the final week as well.
In the NFC East, the much maligned Dallas Cowboys still control their playoff destiny. If Dallas wins their last two games, they will be in the playoffs.
It is truly horrible (taken with a grain of salt as there are far worse horrors in the world) to me when so called experts do not even get their facts correct. Three cases in point follow.
Last Friday, WFAN’s Mike Francesa stated that the Colts needed one more win to wrap up the AFC North Division. The Colts had clinched that title the week before.
Next, on Monday night, Chris Berman of ESPN said that if the Dallas Cowboys went (8-8) by winning vs the Philadelphia Eagles that they would make the playoffs. That is not true, as in that scenario, the Cowboys would also need an Eagles’ loss vs the Chicago Bears.
Finally, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King speaking Wednesday on WFAN, first pointed out that Dallas lost a game it had to win. This is not quite true as the Cowboys still control their own destiny.
Later, King, who is considered a football guru and is heavily involved in the Hall of Fame voting, sure proved weak on his NFL history.
He stated that the Giants’ Super Bowl win vs Buffalo was their’s and coach Bill Parcells’ first such win. I guess Parcells and the Giants just “imagined” their Super Bowl victory 4 years earlier vs the Denver Broncos.
When the Baltimore Ravens beat the Detroit Lions on Justin Tucker’s heroics (6 field goals including a game winning one from 61 yards) the result also affected the NFC North playoff situation.
Big cheers went up from Chicago and Green Bay as now both the Bears and Packers control their playoff fate. Chicago leads both Green Bay and Detroit by a fraction of a game.
The Bears host the Packers in the season finale on December 29th. This week the Bears visit the Philadelphia Eagles while the “Pack” host the Steelers in a 2010 season Super Bowl redux.
If both teams win, the NFC North title will go to the winner of the Packers at Bears regular season finale.
The Detroit Lions, who unless things change have really blown a divisional title, still have a chance. First they must win at home vs the Giants and at Minnesota. In addition the Lions need at least one loss by both the Packers and Bears.
Justin Tucker
Despite a home loss last week to the San Diego Chargers, the Denver Broncos are still ahead in the race for the AFC “one seed.”
If (11-3) Denver wins games at (2-12) Houston and (4-10) Oakland the next two weeks, they will be the AFC top seed for a second straight season.
Both the (10-4) New England Patriots and (9-5) Cincinnati Bengals lost leaving the Pats ahead for the two seed. However, New England lost a chance to stay ahead in the battle for the one seed.
Both the (11-3) Kansas City Chiefs and the (9-5) Indianapolis Colts won and they face each other this week in Kansas City. Each could move up but likely will face each other again two weeks later at Indy, in an AFC wild card round game.
Speaking of the wild card, the (8-6) Baltimore Ravens stayed ahead in the race for the AFC’s final playoff spot when Justin Tucker kicked his 6th field goal of the game, a 61 “yarder” as Baltimore edged the floundering Detroit Lions.
Yesterday, the Seattle Seahawks, playing at the corporate stadium to which they hope to return for the 48th Super Bowl, reduced their magic number to one for the NFC one seed, by ripping the New York Giants.
That makes the Seahawks the top choice to make the Super Bowl from the NFC. They will be considered around even money to do so.
Under Pete Carroll, the Seahawks have had a remarkable regular season with a (12-2) record and each loss was in a close game.
They did win some close games and I believe their comeback victory vs Tampa Bay when the Seahawks were big favorites, was a key to an almost certain second “one seed,” in this the franchise’s 38th season.
Tonight’s game matching two (7-6) teams, the Baltimore Ravens and the Detroit Lions, is significant in the race for lower seeds in each conference.
Andy B Sports 