The Lost Weekend
What a stinker of a playoff weekend. And it really hurts when that happens because the sands are almost all they way through the hourglass on the season.
I was very hopeful that the Bengals-Steelers would salvage something. But that ended on the Bengals second play, when Carson Palmer tore his ACL and most likely his MCL and PCL and whatever other CLs are in there. At a minimum, that's a 10-month recovery, which keeps him out until mid-season 2006. What a disaster for Cincy, which again seems cursed. Wide receiver Chris Henry, who caught the 66-yarder from Palmer, also sustained a serious knee injury on the play.
Scott Pianowski felt that Jon Kitna would perform well. I've always been bearish on him. In fact, one of the reasons I left the USA Today Sports Weekly gig is because at the end of 2003, they changed my little blurb in the Tip Sheet where I said that Kitna turned into Kitna down the stretch of that season (shocker) and would be replaced by Palmer in 2004. I was told the beat guy for them said that would never happen given Kitna's overall numbers. Oops.
I never bought that Kitna, a veteran player, was transformed in anyway by that good stretch in 2003. He's a mistake-prone journeyman. And, unfortunately, he was a mistake waiting to happen yesterday, too. At least he won't be a Jet next year, as had been rumored.
So we lose Palmer in the playoffs (I still firmly believe that the Bengals would have won a high-scoring game with him at the controls). We lose the Patriots at the Colts (Denver and Shanahan match up too well against New England and Belichick, always have).And there's a good chance that the remaining three games in the AFC will all be blowouts. What's our hope in the NFC? Maybe Seattle gets tested by the Redskins (doubtful with Portis suffering from a bad shoulder). The Bears and Panthers should be a decent, albeit it low-scoring game. Root for the Panthers to beat the Bears because that's the one team that could really push Seattle.
More to come on the site this week, of course.
I was very hopeful that the Bengals-Steelers would salvage something. But that ended on the Bengals second play, when Carson Palmer tore his ACL and most likely his MCL and PCL and whatever other CLs are in there. At a minimum, that's a 10-month recovery, which keeps him out until mid-season 2006. What a disaster for Cincy, which again seems cursed. Wide receiver Chris Henry, who caught the 66-yarder from Palmer, also sustained a serious knee injury on the play.
Scott Pianowski felt that Jon Kitna would perform well. I've always been bearish on him. In fact, one of the reasons I left the USA Today Sports Weekly gig is because at the end of 2003, they changed my little blurb in the Tip Sheet where I said that Kitna turned into Kitna down the stretch of that season (shocker) and would be replaced by Palmer in 2004. I was told the beat guy for them said that would never happen given Kitna's overall numbers. Oops.
I never bought that Kitna, a veteran player, was transformed in anyway by that good stretch in 2003. He's a mistake-prone journeyman. And, unfortunately, he was a mistake waiting to happen yesterday, too. At least he won't be a Jet next year, as had been rumored.
So we lose Palmer in the playoffs (I still firmly believe that the Bengals would have won a high-scoring game with him at the controls). We lose the Patriots at the Colts (Denver and Shanahan match up too well against New England and Belichick, always have).And there's a good chance that the remaining three games in the AFC will all be blowouts. What's our hope in the NFC? Maybe Seattle gets tested by the Redskins (doubtful with Portis suffering from a bad shoulder). The Bears and Panthers should be a decent, albeit it low-scoring game. Root for the Panthers to beat the Bears because that's the one team that could really push Seattle.
More to come on the site this week, of course.
Entry #113676949231551351 posted by Catherine Salfino at 7:47 PM
<< Home