Madden and Collinsworth Talk Playoffs

I caught up with the NBC duo of John Madden and Cris Collinsorth for some playoff talk.

They were both very chatty.

Tom Hammond and Cris will do the Chiefs-Colts game and John Madden and Al Michaels will handle the Cowboys-Seahawks.

The Saturday double header starts at 4:30pm on NBC.

MADDEN ON WILD CARD TEAMS:
"This is always a great time of year, the end of the season, seeing who is going to get into the playoffs and then the start of the playoffs. At one time they used to say, 'well, wild card weekend, that's not the best teams, the best teams are not playing, they have a bye' and record-wise that has been true. When you look at history and you just look at last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers came from the wild card and went on to win the Super Bowl. I think everyone that is in the wild card kind of has that as their cry: 'Pittsburgh did it a year ago, if they can do it a year ago, we can do it now.'"

COLLINSWORTH ON PREDICTING THE NFL THIS YEAR:
"It has just been impossible this year. The streaks that these teams have gone on have just been dumbfounding. It just absolute craziness this season with the ups and downs and I think its going to continue. Because when you look at the playoff scenario now, you have the two unquestioned top seeds in San Diego and Chicago, but you have very young, very inexperienced quarterbacks leading those teams. You know that if Bill Belichick gets a shot at Philip Rivers that is going to be one of those crazy kind of scenarios. The Chicago Bears quarterback situation could change by the end of the first quarter of the first game depending on what happens there. Whatever craziness you thought you saw in the regular season, I think it's going to be even crazier in the playoffs."

NO. 6 CHIEFS (9-7) AT NO. 3 COLTS (12-4), SATURDAY, 4:30 PM ET ON NBC :

COLLINSWORTH ON THE MATCHUP:
"We're excited about this one. I don't think you can get a more pure matchup than what we have with this game. There is no mystery, everybody knows exactly what's going to happen here. You've got a pretty porous run defense for the Indianapolis Colts and one of the really incredible running backs in the NFL in Larry Johnson."

COLLINSWORTH ON MANNING AND THE COLTS:
"You have probably the most exciting offensive football team going in the game right now led by Peyton Manning. It's one of the few times that you sit out there with your eyes wide open and your ears open and enjoy listening to the show of Peyton Manning and what he is trying to do with this offense and manipulating the defense."

COLLINSWORTH ON THE CHIEFS DEFENSE:
"Maybe the untold story of this game is just how much improved the Kansas City defense has been under Herm Edwards. It's been something that he has intentionally tried to do, which is pare back this offense a little bit and make them a little more conservative, maybe take some numbers away from Trent Green and these receivers and not allow the defense to be on the field as much as they have been in prior regimes. This a defense that for the first time in quite a number of years has been giving up less than 20 points a game and they are going to be competitive in this one, even with this great offense of the Indianapolis Colts."

COLLINSWORTH ON STOPPING PEYTON MANNING:
"The teams that we've seen have success doing that are built exactly like the Kansas City Chiefs, teams that can run the football, play keep-away from this offense and I can tell you, the most frustrating thing in the world for a good offense is to sit over on the bench and watch that clock tick down and all of a sudden you realize you're going to be in one of those 17-14 kind of games and you're uncomfortable. It's like they do in basketball sometimes, where if they play it at this tempo, it favors the Lakers and if it's play at this tempo it favors the Bulls or whatever the case may be. I think that's true in this game too. If it's played at Peyton's pace, up-tempo, fast, a lot of points, there's no question it favors the Colts. If the Chiefs can slow it down with Larry Johnson and kill that clock, the way that some teams have been able to against the Colts this year, then they have a real shot at this one."


MADDEN ON THE COWBOYS-SEAHAWKS MATCHUP:
"Both teams have to show a little life. You don't want to be going into the playoffs not playing your best, although, Seattle played pretty well in their second to last game against the San Diego Chargers. The Cowboys have been struggling. The Cowboys have been struggling with their defense, they had a big loss to New Orleans followed by one by Philly and then, of course, they probably hit rock bottom when they lost to the Detroit Lions. They knew that they were in the playoffs and now they have to play like a playoff team."

MADDEN ON TONY ROMO:
"You look at Seattle and they have lost their corners. They have a rookie, Kelly Jennings, playing one corner and Jordan Babineaux, who was the safety, playing the other corner. You have to throw against that, you can't let that off the hook. Tony Romo has to take care of the ball. I kind of agree with Bill Parcells, he was talking a week ago that it's not that Tony Romo doesn't have confidence, it's maybe he's overconfident and he thinks that he can do things that he can't do. The longer he has played, his mechanics have really gotten sloppy. Seattle still has Matt Hasselbeck and he is healthy now and we know that he led them to the Super Bowl last year."

MADDEN ON PLAYING AT SEATTLE:
"Playing here in Seattle at Qwest Field, they call that the 12th man. It's going to be a great scene and a pretty tough place for the Cowboys to play."

MADDEN ON PARCELLS:
"I never enjoyed the hunt and the kill of a coach. You look and you say, 'if not him, then who?' It's not like there are a lot of Knute Rocknes out there hanging around."

MORE MADDEN ON PARCELLS:
"Knowing Bill Parcells, he's used to it. There's always been stuff flying around him, whether he's at the Giants or at the Patriots or at the Jets or with the Cowboys. And if it's not T.O. and that situation, it's changing the quarterback from Bledsoe to Romo, it's a situation with Jerry Jones, although that's been very calm and worked very well. It's just Bill Parcells being Bill Parcells and that's who he is. He's going to do what he wants to do and maybe more importantly what he feels he can do. This is just normal for Bill Parcells. He's got a lot of fires around him but a win puts those fires out. He'll go from a guy that you don't know what he's going to do, is he tired, is he finished, if he beats Seattle and goes on to the next round and maybe wins in the next round, they'll be giving him a parade."

NEW YORK GIANTS AT PHILADELPHIA EAGLES:

MADDEN ON ELI MANNING:
"Just give him some balance and get ahead and give him confidence. I've always said that the best friend of a quarterback is a good running game until he really gets developed and feels real comfortable. I like Eli Manning, I think he's the real deal and he is going to be a top quarterback. He's not going to be Peyton Manning but I think he is going to be a top quarterback. Right now it looks like his confidence level isn't up, he is not reading and getting the ball out of there quickly and his decisions aren't real sharp. Right now he needs Tiki Barber."

COLLINSWORTH COMPARING ELI AND PEYTON:
"I'll quote the great philosopher Terry Bradshaw when he used to tell me these guys are just babies and they're just trying to figure the whole thing out. It's so easy to watch Peyton and to understand how much time and effort that he has put into mastering this craft. But you also have to understand that Peyton Manning is a completely different personality than Eli. You can barely believe they are brothers, other than they look alike and they throw through a brick wall. Peyton, if there are two clocks in the locker room and one of them is a minute off, Peyton can't handle that. You've got to adjust one of the clocks so they say the same thing. He is that kind of 'type A' personality. And Eli is more of a laidback type of personality and it's not that one is right and one is wrong. They're just completely different personalities and I think he'll grow into it. But one of the really unfortunate things for Eli is that his brother is Peyton, and I think so many times he is held to that standard. Let's face it, there are not many people in the history of the game that we can hold to that standard and say they are comparable."

NEW YORK JETS AT NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS:

COLLINSWORTH ON THE JETS:
"I think the Jets are one of those teams that nobody wants to play against because they can dictate to an opposing defense. With the style of play the Jets have, with the quick throws, the quick sets, the not holding the ball, you're basically telling the defense you can't blitz, and if you are going to blitz you better be solid in man coverage all the way across the board."

CHICAGO BEARS:

MADDEN ON REX GROSSMAN'S HEIGHT BEING A PROBLEM:
"The guy has been short all of his life, so he has dealt with it. He was the number one draft choice and he has dealt with it. It is a vision problem, he's not only short but he plays short. Jeff Garcia is shorter but he plays up on his toes a lot. Rex Grossman tends to widen his base and even drop a little and that's his problem. He has to find lanes and he has to be able to see and move around to be able to find that lane to see through. He's not going to see over anyone and he's obviously not going to throw over anyone. To me, it just looks like he's not playing with a heck of a lot of confidence and he either has to get it or you're going to have to make a change. I think it's hard to say, 'well, he plays like that but we'll be okay.' Most importantly, I don't know if he believes it and at some point you have to have that confidence and it has to be real and I don't know if he has it now."

SAN DIEGO CHARGERS:

MADDEN ON CHARGERS BEING THE FAVORITE:
"I think they have everything. The thing that would scare me about the Chargers is a young quarterback. When you play with a young quarterback, you know somewhere along the way, maybe the wheels aren't going to fall off but they're going to get loose and you just hope that it doesn't happen in the biggest part of one of these playoff games. They have all the parts and now to get to the Super Bowl they just have to put two games together but wild stuff happens during the playoffs."