Posted on 01/01/2003 10:51:07 PM PST by panther33
Wow. What a finish to the regular season in the National Football League. We now know the final standings for the regular season, the official playoff rankings, and the playoff schedule. There is a similar NFL thread here (thank you Counter Counter Culture), but that was before Week 17. Now everything is settled and everybody knows who made it and all that good stuff. So, here we are. Post your pics, highlights, scores, predictions and, of course, TRASH TALKING!
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PLAYOFF RANKINGS
2002 AFC Playoff Rankings:
1. Oakland
2. Tennessee
3. Pittsburgh
4. NY Jets
5. Indianapolis
6. Cleveland
OUT: Miami, New England, Denver, San Diego, Kansas City, Baltimore, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Houston, Cincinnati
2002 NFC Playoff Rankings:
1. Philadelphia
2. Tampa Bay
3. Green Bay
4. San Francisco
5. Atlanta
6. NY Giants
OUT: New Orleans, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington, Carolina, Minnesota, Arizona, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit
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PLAYOFF SCHEDULE:
Wild-card weekend
Saturday, Jan. 4
Colts at Jets, 4:30 pm on ABC
Falcons at Packers, 8:00 pm on ABC
Sunday, Jan. 5
Browns at Steelers, 1:00 pm on CBS
Giants at 49ers, 4:30 pm on FOX
Divisional playoffs
Saturday, Jan. 11
AFC game, 4:30 pm on CBS
NFC game, 8:00 pm on FOX
Sunday, Jan. 12
NFC game, 1:00 pm on FOX
AFC game, 4:30 pm on CBS
Conference championships
Sunday, Jan. 19
NFC Championship Game, 3:00 pm on FOX
AFC Championship Game, 6:30 pm on CBS
Super Bowl XXXVII
Sunday, Jan. 26
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, Calif.
The reason is Indys small, quick defensive line has alot of trouble with big straight ahead Offensive lines....
Granted a 4 to 1 win for the Yanks but those games were very tight.
Throw in the WWF sideshow of Clemens vs. Piazza, Jeter's lead off HR, Leiter's Game 5 and the heroics of bench players Vizcaino & Luis Sojo and you have a good series.
Probably not a classic but good nontheless.
Only one of those teams the Jets beat was a playoff team. And Green Bay isn't really scaring anyone the way Favre has been throwing ints. They also lost to Da Bears, a real stinker. The Colts in that stretch beat Philly, Denver and Browns, two of which are playoff teams. The teams that beat the Colts, Tenn and the Giants are both going to the playoffs. With regard to the weather, bring on the bad stuff. The Colts played Denver in a driving snowstorm and beat them. The Colts also have a sack artist in Dwight Freeney who is better than any DL the Jets have. Mr. Freeney will playing against Jets left Tackle Jason Fabiani who certainly doesn't have much athleticism. He will have a long day dealing with Freeney's incredible speed. Freeney will have at least two sacks despite the fact that the Jets will have a tight end and on some plays also a running back helping to block Freeney. Guaranteed the Jets will have to have two and three players blocking Freeney all day long.
I'm not here to say it's a lock that the Colts will beat the Jets, either team could win this one. The Colts are very vulnerable to the short pass and have not had much of a running game all year long. Edge has never regained the form he had before the knee injury last year. I would, however, rather be playing the Jets than any other AFC playoff team.
Mr Feeney, will have a hard time sacking Pennington, when Martin will be running the ball....Indy had a second lowest in the Conference Pass attempts against per game....
And the report out of Indy, makes it look like Ground War...
NDIANAPOLIS (Jan. 2, 2003) -- Defensive end Chad Bratzke is expected to play in the Wild Card Game against the New York Jets, but there's a good chance the Indianapolis Colts will be without starting linebacker Marcus Washington.
Bratzke who had 70 tackles and six sacks, practiced Wednesday and Thursday.
Washington, who was inactive for Sunday's season-finale against Jacksonville, did only limited work Wednesday and did not work out Thursday. Coach Tony Dungy called him "very questionable."
Starting linebacker Mike Peterson, the Colts' leader in tackles with 173, did some limited work with a cast on his broken left hand. Dungy said he was optimistic Peterson would play Saturday.
Starting DE with a Calf injury, and The Teams leading tackler playing with a cast on, along with this crappy weather, I would expect to see more Curtis martin, and LaMont Jordan, than Pennington.
But, Hey, Lets hope even if only one of us is going to be happy, that we both enjoy the Game.
Zack is Back The 49er defense is supposed to get a big boost in the secondary as safety Zack Bronson returns from an injury that had sidelined him since October 14.
Our defense couldn't have intercepted Kerry Collins three times in the same game, right? Oh, my bad, that's exactly what happened in the season opener.
And you think you have a good tight end? This here was a 38-yard reception... against your defense.
And how can ol' Kerry find Mr. Shockey if Stubby and/or B.Y. are in his face like this? (Look at that holding--second pic)
And Rumph ain't that bad for a rookie... the caption notes that he almost intercepted this one...
Then you gotta stop the two-faced running game...
Make that a three-faced running game...
My bad, four faces...
Our #5 is better than your #5...
Good luck on Sunday! (You're gonna need it!)
Only one of those teams the Jets beat was a playoff team.
And guess why they weren't playoff teams? Because the Jets whupped 'em!
Colts blew out the Eagles.
How dare you equate the feared TERRIBLE TOWELL with toilet paper!That's what they are used for around here.
-Eric
Colts 10-6.Jets 9-7.
Colts Offense Rank 26,rush;4,pass-9th Overall.
Jets Offense Rank 22,rush;17,pass-22nd Overall.
Colts Defense Rank 20,rush;2,pass-8th Overall.
Jets Defense Rank 18 rush;21 pass-24th Overall.
Common Opponents:Colts 4-1.Jets 2-3.
Oh, no! It's red vs. blue all over again! Sorry, pal, but the story here is the history of postseason choking by Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning, neither of whom has EVER won a playoff game.
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