Turnovers Rule Divisional Playoffs
Added on Jan 16, 2012 by Scott in
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Breaking down the X’s and O’s for NFL playoff matchups can be an exercise in futility. Pouring over offensive and defensive rankings, comparing home/road records and analyzing quarterback play are good places to start, but when it comes right down to it, no matter how much research is done, any prediction is nothing more than an educated guess. It’s impossible to account for unpredictable factors. The most important one being turnovers.
Three of the four Divisional Playoff winners also won the turnover battle. The only team that didn’t was Denver, but after falling behind 35-7 in the first half, Tom Brady could’ve thrown four interceptions and it wouldn’t have made a difference. The Patriots were never in jeopardy of losing. However, turnovers proved crucial in determining the result of the other three games.
The favored Saints marched into San Francisco with the league’s hottest offense, but limped away in defeat after fumbling three times and tossing a pair of interceptions. Despite outgaining the Niners and committing zero penalties, New Orleans was sent packing because they couldn’t hang onto the ball. A leaky fourth quarter defense that yielded two 80-yard touchdown drives didn’t help, but had the Saints maintained possession and scored points early, it could’ve been them hosting the NFC title tilt.
The Ravens were hardly a picture of beauty in beating Houston on Sunday, but they didn’t have to be thanks to four Texans mistakes. Jacoby Jones muffed a first quarter punt return which gave Baltimore an early lead they would never relinquish. Rookie quarterback T.J. Yates threw a pair of fourth quarter interceptions and three overall, including one near the goal line with less than two minutes to play. In a 20-13 game, one less turnover could’ve altered the final score.
The mighty Packers looked nothing like 15-1 defending champions in losing to the Giants. Errant throws, dropped passes, missed tackles, blown coverages and four costly turnovers ended Green Bay’s pursuit of capturing back-to-back Super Bowls. Meanwhile, Big Blue played a crisp, physical brand of football befitting a contender and most importantly, turned the ball over only once.
