We got back to work today after taking the weekend off.  With San Diego winning, we now know we play the Chargers this coming Sunday.  The players had a little more pep in their step today as we begin to prepare for a specific opponent.  We practiced twice last week, but without knowing for sure who we would play, it was more to keep ourselves sharp and keep our conditioning level good.  We gave the players Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off and most of the guys got away and relaxed.

 

I got a chance to watch most of the games this weekend and, once again, I was struck by the number of mistakes that really decided games.  It seems like you have to step it up to another level in the playoffs, but you really don't.  You just have to be able to play at high intensity, knowing how much is on the line, but still just execute and play basic, sound  football.  The New York Giants did the best job of that.  They didn't do anything spectacular, but made very few mistakes.  They played hard and came away with a convincing win. 

 

That's what we're going to emphasize this week.  Each man preparing and getting ready to do their job, but not feeling like you have to do anything special to win, just because it's the playoffs.  Fortunately, we have enough veteran guys who will echo that message to our new players.

 

San Diego is a hot football team right now, having won 7 in a row.  Their big question will be the health of Antonio Gates, their Pro Bowl tight end.  He hurt his toe in yesterday's win and we won't know his status until later in the week.  He's a great player who dictates what type of coverages you can play against them.  Everyone goes into games against the Chargers trying to handle Gates and LaDanian Tomlinson.  With that said though, we can't worry about who plays or who doesn't.  We have to get ready for their offense and be prepared to play our best game of the year.  In the first game we had against them, we gave them two special teams scores and missed a field goal, so we know that all three phases of our team have to be on for us to win. 

 

We also found out today Bob Sanders was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year.  That is a great honor for him and well deserved.  He brings a lot to our defense and is certainly one of the reasons we had such a good statistical year. 

 

But now our regular season is over and, just like with Bob's award, we have to put that behind us and prepare for this weekend.  It's going to be fun and I know our guys will be ready.