I Was Not Entertained
Pretty simple thing I’m going to present here. And to be totally open and honest I’m going be a bit of a contrarian, but I was not really that entertained with the NFL’s Super Wild Card weekend. It was nice to have 6 games spread from Saturday through Monday, but just because there was football on didn’t exactly make it enjoyable to watch.
Out of 6 games only 2 of them were entertaining. That is ⅓ of the weekend slate with games decided by less than a touchdown. If you just look back to week 17 of the season 8 of the 16 games were decided by 7 points or less. Comparing a late season week where teams are trying to make the playoffs and the actual first weekend of said playoffs, makes regular season the more entertaining.
Fighting to make the playoffs late in the season will almost always provide for some good games. But when the playoffs actually start shouldn’t the same be expected? If you are a fan of any of the 12 teams that played this weekend I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about me as a fan without a team in the fight. The NFL has given us 6 Wild Card weekend games for now the second year, which you would think would provide some good matchups, but this year the #7 seeded teams were more than outclassed.
The #2 seed in the AFC, Kansas City; and in the NFC Tampa Bay each basically had a bye week other than they got dressed, warmed up, and had to walk on the field. After that both their games were over. Kansas City doubled up Pittsburg 42-21 and Tampa Bay demolished Philadelphia 31-15. I hope you got drunk while watching either of those games because there wasn’t much else going on. If you go back and count last year when the playoffs were expanded to 7 teams from each conference, with only the top seeded team getting a bye, 3 out of the 4 games have been snooze-fest blowouts. Is it worth it?
Dollars and cents wise for the NFL and it’s broadcast partners of course. People are watching. I watched. Because it’s football. But how much did people watch the 4 blowouts? And while I’m on the subject of TV viewing, how mad do you think the folks over at Fox are that the one game they aired was the Buccaneers blowout of the Eagles. Fox has the broadcast rights to the NFC and they didn’t get to air the 49ers-Cowboys game, one of the two watchable games of the weekend. Or maybe they picked Tom Brady and the Bucs, bad choice then.
As I said in the headline, I was not exactly entertained by this weekend’s Wild Card games. But that’s me. Maybe other people got more out of it. But they aren’t writing their opinions here, I am. And I was so excited about the potential for all of the games. I wanted to see the newcomers Cincinnati and Las Vegas. The 3rd meeting of the Bills and Patriots. I’ll always tune in for Tom Brady and I liked what the Eagles did late in the season. The 49ers and Cowboys didn’t disappoint. Kansas City is fun to watch and I’m gaining some respect for Pittsburgh just because I like Mike Tomlin. Then game 6 of the weekend another 3rd divisional match up with the Cardinals and Rams. Potential was there, delivery was not.