Projo Pats Blog

SEEDING CRAZINESS: You knew there was something wacky about these NFL playoffs when all four of the road teams were favored to win in Wildcard Weekend (it turned out that only two of them did). But the strangeness won't stop now. Thanks to the rule that the lowest remaining seed plays the number-one seed in each conference in the Divisional Playoff round, the New York Giants have to face the tough Philadelphia Eagles next week (NBC Sports). Had they lost to the Carolina Panthers in Week 16, therefore falling to the number-two seed, they would get the much softer Arizona Cardinals. Of course, the Giants will get home field in the conference championship game if they do win, but ironically, winning the number-one seed has seemingly made it much more difficult for them to advance.

The more logical thing would be for the Giants, as the team with the best record in the regular season, to face the team that had the worst regular-season record, which would be Arizona (the Cards were 9-7, compared to Philly's 9-6-1). It will be interesting to see if the NFL considers changing the rules for playoff seeding. Sentiment for such a move must be growing in Indianapolis, where the 12-4 Colts had to travel to San Diego to play the 8-8 Chargers, who ended Indy's season in overtime.

LIKE 2001 ALL OVER AGAIN: Two of the divisional playoff games will be rematches -- in the same two venues -- of second-round playoff games following the 2000 season. The Baltimore Ravens will travel to Tennessee, where the Ravens upset the top-seeded Titans in January 2001, on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the Eagles head to the Meadowlands, where they lost to the Giants in the Divisional Playoff Game on the same day as the aforementioned Baltimore-Tennessee matchup. The Titans will hope for better results this season behind quarterback Kerry Collins -- the same man who quarterbacked the Giants to victory over the Eagles eight years ago.

L.T. MAY BE ALL DONE: Saturday night was a discouragingly familiar scene for LaDainian Tomlinson, who missed most of last season's AFC Championship Game in Foxboro because of an injury. Tomlinson tried to play against the Colts on Saturday night, but he ended up on the sidelines for most of the game as Darren Sproles took over the hero's role. Today, the word in the San Diego Union-Tribune is that no one in the Chargers organization expects Tomlinson to play in Pittsburgh on Sunday, and it is quite possible L.T. won't return no matter how far the Chargers go.

ANOTHER HIGH-PROFILE INJURY: It is certainly conceivable that the Chargers can beat the Steelers with or without Tomlinson, but the Cardinals' already slim chances to beat the Panthers will be even more remote if Anquan Boldin can't play. Boldin injured his hamstring in the victory over the Falcons on Saturday.

LAST STAND: Now that the Colts' season is over, the speculation is building about Tony Dungy's future. ProFootballTalk.com reports today that, according to an unnamed source with knowledge of the Colts organization, the team is counting on Dungy to retire. Meanwhile, Bob Kravitz of the boosterish Indy Star has a column in today's newspaper saying that retirement would be the best thing for Dungy and the team, which has gone one-and-out in the playoffs four times in Dungy's tenure. The appropriate replacement, Kravitz writes, is already in-house, in the person of associate head coach Jim Caldwell.

COULD BE A DIFFERENT GROUP OF COLTS: Another Indianapolis mainstay who may have appeared in his last game on Saturday night: wide receiver Marvin Harrison (Indy Star). The NFL's number-two all-time leading receiver wouldn't comment about his future yesterday as he emptied out his locker.

MONDAY MORNING MASSACRE: The National Football Post reports this morning that almost the entire defensive coaching staff is being fired in Green Bay, including coordinator Bob Sanders. The Packers were 20th in the league in defense this season.

 Tags  Football Today New York Giants Philadelphia Eagles

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