Week 13 is now behind us, so
let me ask you this question, “How strong does your team look?”
Are you playoff bound or what? Leading the division or sliding into
a Wild Card position? OWN UP! That’s what we do with these wrap-ups.
And much respect to those that are commenting with below .500 teams.
That’s what OWNING UP is all about!
I want to lead with talking
about last season’s Superbowl. You know, the one that the Arizona
Cardinals let slip through their defense. I’m not even on the Cardinals
and still have flashbacks of when Santonio “Konvict Music” Holmes
caught the impossible catch in the back corner of the endzone that ultimately
put the Steelers in the lead for good. This is the moment where I should
say, “Wow, how the mighty have fallen.” But I’ll save that one
just in case the Steelers, which are now on a four game losing streak,
don’t make the playoffs. Did I mention that they’ve lost a tough
game to the Oakland Raiders, at home? We’ll get back to that.
Will the real Arizona Cardinals
please stand up? I know that you’ve just handed it to the Minnesota
Vikings in the worst way. You’ve rattled Brett Favre 4.0, and you’ve
shut down Adrian Peterson to 19 rushing yards. Forgive me for changing
the subject, but wasn’t having a veteran QB supposed to help Peterson
rush for more yards? Ok, back to the Cardinals. The Cardinals are just
inconsistently inconsistent (yes, I meant to say that). Last week, they
got Vince Young’d on a 99 yard drive that lost the Cardinals the lead
and the game. This week, they make the Vikings look like, well, the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Against the Vikings, Kurt Warner threw for 3 touchdown
passes, one to Larry “That’s Mine” Fitzgerald and two touchdown
passes to Anquan Boldin. Favre 4.0 was sacked three times and intercepted
two times. If the Cardinals can bottle up this intensity on both ends
of the ball, similar to their Superbowl run last season, they could
very well make it back to the big game. I’m just saying… this is
not a prediction.
The Pittsburgh Steelers look
like they’ve lost their best friend. And his name is Troy “Isn’t
It?” Polamalu. Say what you want about one player not making a difference
on a team. If that was the case, the Cleveland Browns would be deadly.
The Steelers are 2-5 without the star of the “Head and Shoulders”
commercials. Troy’s position and knowledge of the defense is far too
valuable and maybe more valuable than even the coaching staff realized.
You’d hope that when your Pro Bowl player goes down, their back-up
would step up. In Polamalu’s case, if you had a player as good as
he is, as a back-up, that player would be on the field as well, point
blank. If you are a Steeler’s fan, good luck. Coach Mike “Q” Tomlin
is one of my favorite coaches in the league. Even when the Steelers
look down and out, Tomlin talks without any chaser and you just believe
that his team will step up the next week. But sorry to say, there is
no stepping up if they can’t get Polamalu back on the field in working
order. Am I wrong?
Colts and Saints streaks are
still in tact with four games to go. If you are a Washington Redskins
fan, how many times did you hurl in your mouth this past Sunday? I mean,
you just can’t catch a break, and these are the type of games that
your team loses every year. You had the Saints right where you wanted
them. Or was it the other way around? Tennessee’s 5 game winning streak
with Vince Young at quarterback was snapped by the Colts. This didn’t
come across as a surprise, and wouldn’t have been even if the Titans
pulled out the victory. Any time that faces the Colts or the Saints
during the remainder of the season need to think, possessions. You better
have your heart in every position and every snap if you want to beat
either one of these teams. If you ask me, they both need to take a loss
before the playoffs. And not a loss with the second string players in
either. Sometimes you just need a shift in game plans which only happens
after a loss. Which could explain the up and down victories both teams
are pulling off. Which team do you think the clock will strike 12 on
in the playoffs?
As always, I can’t talk about
every team in these wrap-ups. However, we at AllHipHop.com implemented
the scores and asterisks to focus on what you should be “in the know”
on. Sidebar: it just felt right to see Allen Iverson back in a Sixers
uniform last night. Give the Sixers about 10 games and a whole lot of
“Practice” and they won’t be an easy win in the Eastern Conference.
What were you expecting me to say? That they’d be a force to be reckoned
with? I have a name to protect here!
Baltimore 14, Green Bay 27
Minnesota 17*, Arizona 30*
San Francisco 17, Seattle 20
Dallas 24*, New York Giants
31
San Diego 30*, Cleveland 23
Philadelphia 34*, Atlanta 7
New England 21*, Miami 22
Detroit 13, Cincinnati 23*
Denver 44, Kansas City 13
St. Louis 9, Chicago 17
Oakland 27, Pittsburgh 24
Tampa Bay 6, Carolina 16
Tennessee 17, Indianapolis
27*
New Orleans 33*, Washington
30
Houston 18, Jacksonville 23
New York Jets 19, Buffalo 13
* = Division Leaders