A Tale Of Two Jakes » Brats & Beer

January 22, 2006
posted under: Broncos, NFL playoffs, Panthers, Seahawks, Steelers

It was not a good day to be a quarterback named Jake in the National Football League. Jake “The Snake” Plummer and his Denver Broncos got rolled at home by the Steelers 34-17, while Jake “Not The Snake” Delhomme and his Carolina Panthers were overmatched by the Seahawks 34-14. For once in the Conference Championship, both games were quite good and quite surprising.

I did not expect Pittsburgh to dominate Denver so early and so completely, but they had the Broncs on the run from the very start. Roethlisberger was crisp and played smartly, Bettis was tough as nails (as usual), and that defense played crazy lights out. Plummer, on the other hand, was typical Jake “The Snake” running for his life and making crazy-assed throws. I’ll give him his due that he managed to escape Pittsburgh’s clutches on several occasions, but when you can’t run the ball and the defense is in your face that much, there’s not much you can do.

In the NFC contest, I really thought the Panthers would put up more of a fight than they did, but I guess all you have to do is shut down Steve Smith and they turn into a pack of also rans. After a whole week of hype about Smith, the wide out had all of five catches for 33 yards. Meanwhile, Jake “Not The Snake” was sacked a couple times, chased all over the backfield, and picked off three times. I’ll hand it to Matt Hasselbeck, he played a great game and finally got a big win. And how about that pass reception by former Cyclone quarterback Seneca Wallace? Pretty sweet.