Wild Card Wrap-Up I

Interesting couple of games on the first day of Wild Card Weekend. If I were truly the degenerate gambler that I claim to be, I wouldn't have a roof over my head this morning. I didn't think there was a chance in hell that I would be staring at Seahawks and Jets today. Oh well, there must have been some lessons from the Saturday contests.

So, what did I learn?

1. All professional football players get paid to play this game. And they get paid a lot because they are in the top 50 in the world at what they do. Give a team home field advantage, a playoff atmosphere, and something to rally against and all bets are off. I don't care what their record is. Well played Seattle Seahawks. Good luck next week when you see a team that won't be overlooking you.

2. The Saints secondary was atrocious! Cover somebody. Seahawk receivers were running so wide open that at times I thought the Saints were playing with 9 players. That has to get fixed if the Saints are going to contend next year.

3. I am not sure I understand why coaches go away from their strengths in critical times. Why run the ball for the two point conversion attempt when your two best short yardage backs are not in the game and you haven't shown the ability to pick up 2 yards when you need it all day? I was baffled by that call. The Saints deserved the loss for that call alone.

4. I am officially calling for Jim Caldwell to be fired. And I am predicting that Peyton Manning will throw him under the bus within the next few weeks. What possessed him to start trying to coach the team yesterday? All was going just fine with him as a figurehead. Everyone understood that the Colts had too many injuries to get far in this year's tournament, so there is no need to try and prove anything. And then the following two things happen during yesterday's game:

• He throws a challenge flag moments into the game that clearly was not going to be overturned. Too early in the game for that, and a wasted timeout to boot. It had no impact on the game ultimately, but it was just plain stupid.
• More egregious was the timeout called by Caldwell just prior to the Braylon Edwards catch to set up the short field goal. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING! The Jets run the ball into the middle of the line and appear content to attempt a very long field goal for the win. They aren't going to use their last time out at that point, because they need it to kick the field goal. There is no reasonable scenario under which the Colts are getting the ball back with any time remaining for a drive, so there is no need for the Colts to stop the clock. Caldwell allowed the Jets (and a young QB) to regroup, gave them an extra timeout, allowed them more options with the next play (a sideline pass to Edwards), and ultimately a chip shot field goal to win the game. While not being talked about this morning, this may be one of the dumbest coaching moves I have seen in a long time.

Now, there were a bunch of other contributions to loss by the Colts. There was the running into the kicker penalty at the end of the game (ultimately helped the Colts by running time off the clock), the missed 3rd and 6 by Peyton Manning before the go ahead field goal, and the kick-off return leading to the final Jets drive. All of those probably also can be attributed to an unprepared team, but the stuff from the sidelines was just absurd.