On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by Google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:
Divisional Weekend
Saturday, January 10, at 4:35 p.m. ET, on NBC
Baltimore Ravens 31, at New England Patriots 35
This was the best played game of the weekend. Like predicted pretty much everywhere, the Ravens were completely unintimidated by playing against New England in New England, and started out the game with two quick touchdowns. New England responded nicely though, and for most of the game, the teams went back and forth scoring touchdowns against each other. In the second half, the Patriots broke out a few tricky strategies that worked well against the physical Ravens defense. On one play, quarterback Tom Brady threw the ball backwards to wide receiver Julian Edelman, who, because it had been a backwards pass, was allowed to pass the ball all the way down the field to fellow wide receiver Danny Amendola for a touchdown. The other tricky thing the Patriots did a few times was use four offensive lineman, one fewer than normal, which seemed to totally befuddle the Ravens. In the end, the Patriots scored just a little more than the Ravens and won the game 35-31.
Line: Those tricky Patriots flat out outsmarted the Ravens.
Saturday, January 10, at 8:15 p.m. ET on Fox
Carolina Panthers 17 at Seattle Seahawks 31
I fell asleep on the couch at halftime of this game and probably so did you. We didn’t miss much as the second half went exactly how everyone expected it to go. Seattle, playing at home and close to full strength, was simply a superior football team. This is no surprise. The Panthers only won seven games out of 16 this season and made it to the playoffs only because of a wrinkle in NFL rules. Seattle easily put them in their place… on the couch with us, snoozing away.
Line: I fell asleep. No great loss.
Sunday, January 11, at 1:05 p.m. ET on Fox
Dallas Cowboys 21, at Green Bay Packers 26
The most highly anticipated game of the weekend did not disappoint in the drama department. One of the stories all week leading up to the game was Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his partially torn calf muscle. Sure enough, he looked pretty gimpy out there. He normally is a graceful and powerful player when he runs with the ball but in this game, he was limping around. You could tell he had to rely on arm-strength to throw the ball because he couldn’t step into his throws the way he’s used to. Luckily, he’s got more arm strength than a 10 normal people (or 15 bloggers) and he was able to compensate. The biggest moment of the game was a controversial call in the fourth quarter that pretty much ended the game for the Cowboys. The Cowboys had the ball but it was fourth down (last chance!) and they had to move the ball two yards to get another set of downs. Instead of trying to get two yards, quarterback Tony Romo threw the ball way down the field, where wide receiver Dez Bryant leapt high, high in the air, snagged the ball, and reached for the end zone as he fell. It was an incredible play, and the refs on the field called it a complete pass but not a touchdown. After reviewing the tape, the refs reversed themselves and declared the Bryant had actually been unable to hold onto the ball all the way to the ground. The pass didn’t count, Green Bay got the ball, and Dallas never had another chance. This was a true reversal in fortunes from last week when many people thought that Dallas had unfairly been aided by a bad call against their opponents in that game, the Detroit Lions.
Line: Live by the refs, die by the refs.
Sunday, January 11, at 4:40 p.m. ET on CBS
Indianapolis Colts 24, at Denver Broncos 13
This was the only real let-down of the weekend. We billed this game in our preview as the “Peyton Manning bowl.” Manning, the legendary quarterback of the Denver Broncos, was the centerpiece of most people’s interest in the game but once the game actually started, we pretty quickly saw that he was playing terribly. At one point in the second half, the had only completed something like 9 of the 23 or 24 passes he had attempted. That’s not a good average and for him, it’s an unusual disaster. The game went Indianapolis’ way and you never felt like Denver could catch up. It’s a disappointment for Denver Broncos fans and it may be Peyton Manning’s last game. He’s said he was planning on playing next year but he isn’t sure.
Line: If this was Peyton Manning’s last game, it wasn’t a very good way to go out.