Thought Nuggets During the AFC Championship

by Slate Quicksilver

NFL Conference Championship weekend is this Sunday. In an attempt to do something "out-of-the-box" I will drop bombs of knowledge and observation as the AFC championship goes on. To drink: A combination of beers: Labatt Blue Light and Bell's Special Double Cream Stout (Best beer I've had in a while). To eat: Pita Chips and Hummus (underrated snack food) and for dinner: STEAK.

(Note: Thoughts will come at random... probably frequently at first and then spread out as the afternoon goes on due to unforeseen random stuff coming up)

1 PMish: Dog walked longer than normal. Taking him out of the equation is such a good idea because needing to walk a dog during a game is terrible. Just terrible. Beer is loaded into the fridge 4 at a time. The proposed Quicksilver organic garden was laid out and demarcated thanks to unseasonably warmer temperatures and a quick and early snowmelt.

2:49: Preparations complete. Just need to get through Shannon Sharpe's embarrassingly bad analysis and Dan Marino's dickish smugness.

3:05: First of probably eleventy billion Sony HDtv commercials featurign Peyton Manning. The one with Jim Nantz is reasonably funny. "Back to you, Peyton."

3:07 Colts with the ball first, Manning starts the game off with an audible (surprise!), gets amazing protection and completes a great pass to Reggie Wayne, who was supposed to be inactive today due to being covered by Darrelle Revis.

3:09 Jim Leonhard is a (insert synonym for "hard worker"/"leadertype"/"blue collar") player. A nice play by him is followed by a delay blitz by the Jets and they caught Manning off guard. That's the way the Jaguars always play the Colts close every time: delay blitzes on defense and balls out confidence on 4th down on offense.

3:15 Mark Sanchez on 3rd and medium made a great play to get rid of the ball and hit Jerricho Cotchery going out of bounds and then has the presence of mind to no huddle and QB fall down up the middle. I was cool on Sanchez for a while, but he has impressed me in the playoffs and that succession of plays was just as impressive as ever. If I didn't hate the Jets with the passion of passion 10,000 novel romances, I might have liked this kid.

3:20 Jets Kicker/Super Republican Jay Feely pushed a FG just right of the uprights. First impressions of the game: The Jets are going to NEED Sanchez to do more than manage the game to win. The Jets D looked good, but it won't last forever (they are going against the NFL equivalent of a criminal mastermind at QB). The Jets moved the ball, but only when Sanchez made plays: hitting Braylon Edwards on a slant, hitting Cotchery on a broken play. Those plays opened up Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene.

3:26 An exchange of 3 and outs shows what both teams on defense need to do: shut the TEs down. Completely. Dallas Clark and Dustin Keller are the safety valves on 75% of plays and murderous daggers on the other 25% of plays. The Jets stopped one of those ubiquitous Dallas Clark 1st down plays to force a 3 and out while the Colts are locking down Dustin Keller and taking away a rookie QB's best friend: a pressure release TE owning the middle of the field.

3:40 Watching the Jets before a play on 3rd down is pretty amusing. There is the clusterfuck of chaos between the front 7 while the DBs kind of yell at each other and shift frequently. If there is any way to not show your hand to Peyton Manning to allow him to audible correctly, I would imagine this is the way.

3:52 I don't know how down I am with this new E-trade baby. The original ones were funny, but I think E-trade has pushed it a little too hard. Think GEICO cavemen, but there isn't a failed sitcom in play here. Yet.

4:01 2 deep red zone FGs for the Colts despite two slashing drives thanks to the Jets coming up big on 3rd and goal. Interesting. /puts that in the memory file

4:07 WR Wildcat Option Pass: Unbeatable in NCAA10/looked effortless with Brad Smith throwing a rainbow to Cotchery. If it were thrown just a little bit farther downfield, Cotchery wouldn't have been caught until the Kentucky state line. People seem to forget that Brad Smith was a very serviceable QB at Mizzou... the predecessor to Chase "Pizza Guy" Daniel. ((4:09) Sony HDtv w/ Peyton Manning #3)

4:21 For those of you that don't live in the south, I need to explain why people think its stupid that the PGA tour starts so early in the year. I didn't get it until I moved up here. Next week the PGA is going to be at Torrey Pines, in San Diego. That'll be great for the golfers and people in attendance, but for those of us in the northern region of the US, we won't even watch. If we acknowledge that golf is going on, we will want to golf and unfortunately, you can't golf when there are still 2 foot deep snow drifts everywhere.

4:27 Why is Michael Phelps swimming to Vancouver? Is he that high... where he thinks that all Olympics include swimming? Or is it that Subway doesn't understand the specifics of the Olympics?

4:35 Halftime. Two big plays lead to the two Jets TDs. The Colts moved the ball well all half, but stalled on 2 of their three trips to the redzone. There seems no way to easily peg this game.

4:43 Maybe I'm missing something, but why are the Grammys being hyped so much this year? Yes, I understand it's a giant festival and celebration of the last year of music. But it is also a giant pat on the back by the music industry, as Indie bands of all genre's rarely win and moreover, the fields that are lesser known to the general public (Blues, Jazz, Classical and Gospel) are usually just given away to the biggest name.

5:06 Let's recall back to earlier in this feature: "unforeseen random stuff" was a possible roadblock to a perfect afternoon/evening. Yeah. I hate laundry and I really hate it when I forget that I've been meaning to do it all weekend and now its late in the day on Sunday. I missed the perfectly thrown Manning pass to Garcon for the TD. I do, however, have a DVR. I can't sing the praises of the DVR enough.

5:15 It's time for AT&T to give up with Luke Wilson. Honestly. I like Luke Wilson, but these commercials are getting worse and worse and American Telephone and Telegraph is marching toward its own demise. It's time to cut losses and pull up the stakes and move on to something else. That map where the dots fall on Luke Wilson with an umbrella? That is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in advertising. You are giving your main competitor free ad-time to show their strength over you! And then when AT&T shows their version of their map... it's their entire network and... IT'S STILL SMALLER THAN VERIZON'S 3G COVERAGE! The other argument of "Verizon can't talk on the phone and be online at the same time" is 100% American grown corn fed bullshit. Annie Detroit has a Droid from, through VZW, and most certainly do both at the same time. Take that, Luke Wilson.

5:25 During the break going into the 4th quarter, I ventured to read a brief description and history of Lucas Oil Stadium. That place is an ode to tax-payer floated paradises. It cost 720+ million dollars. The Colts, being the generous fellows that they are, paid 100 million of that. That's it! The rest is being invoiced to to the fine people of the state of Indiana... NOT JUST THE CITY! 600 million dollars for a state of the art stadium that is, in some cases as far as 7 hours from some of the people paying for it which is, like most new stadiums, simply a playground for the uber rich underwritten by the paychecks of the middle class masses who are slummed in the upper decks... which in that stadium are kilometers away from the field? Such a deal! Someday I hope to be rich enough to vote Republican.

5:35 Get used to Jim Nantz, folks. Mr. Nantz will be doing the Super Bowl, his usual golf assignments including (and especially) the Masters and Wimbledon. I happen to like him but I can't wait to see how he handles Tiger's return (my guess... 2 weeks before the Masters) who Jim Nantz is very friendly with on and off the course.

5:41 It's looking the end for the Jets. They countered losing the lead with a 3 and out wherein Mark Sanchez looked puzzled and hurried... a combination that is only good if you are Harrison Ford in a movie where lives are in the hands of your actions and decisions.

5:55 I think it was the right decision for the Colts to go out on 4th and 1 deep in the redzone and try to get the offsides, then take the easy 3. They got a 13 point lead... simple as that. If they went for it and missed, they Jets would be down 10 and require a TD and just a FG. With a 13 point lead, 2 TDs would be needed to win. Phil Simms, as usual, was exposed agreeing with whatever the team making a decision in a game he is covering (he agreed with the Colts pseudo decision to go for it on 4th and 1) and then shutting up if they change their mind (which he promptly did when Peyton called timeout and Matt Stover was de-frosted from storage to kick the FG.


6:00 Sanchez's INT sealed the deal. It was all his fault, but the throw was not a good one. Good night New York.