Worst Performances of the Wildcard Round

Everyone likes to talk about the top performances from the weekend and hand out game balls all the time. But that won't be happening here. For the second straight year, The Wheelhouse will hand out the worst performances from the latest NFL week. We want to know who failed and really stunk it up each week. So instead of game balls being awarded for good play, this will be like eggs being thrown out for terrible play. We'll hand out a couple here each week, but there's no limit as we'll let the bad play deem how many to give out.

Tom Brady: 23/42, 154 yards, 2 TDs, 3 INTs, 1 fumble
That felt really good to write Brady's line above from last weekend. The Patriots were never in this game from the start when Ray Rice went the distance of the first play from scrimmage. Brady took the football and responded by turning the ball over all day. Before you knew it, the Pats were in a major 24-0 hole and Brady was forced to pass all day and the Ravens were ready for it. What made it all the more enjoyable to watch was that this was Brady's first playoff game since their loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII and he had been waiting for this game for the past two season. What a shame. Tom Brady gets the only individual egg this week right at his head.

Eagles defense and Packers defense
One of the best coaching moves of last weekend was Packers coach Mike McCarthy kicking a surprise onside kick in the second half. But after watching his defense not come close to stopping Kurt Warner for three quarters, did he really have a choice there? The Packers defense, who are actually ranked 7th in total defense in the regular season, was getting gashed last Sunday in the desert. Warner was pretty much unstoppable, going 29/33 for 379 yards and FIVE touchdowns. The Packers held the Cards to just one punt in the entire game. Now, the Cards defense didn't play much better, but at least they came away with the game-winning score so they can't get an egg here.

Another defense that stunk last week was Philadelphia. Every time you look at the TV, Felix Jones or Tashard Choice were eating up the Eagles D. The Eagles gave up 27 points in the second quarter to pretty much not give their offense a chance to be in the game. It's amazing how bad some of the defenses were last week. Will we see much of the same this week in the divisional playoffs?

Worst Performances of the Divisional Playoffs

Everyone likes to talk about the top performances from the weekend and hand out game balls all the time. But that won't be happening here. The Wheelhouse will hand out the worst performances from the latest NFL week. We want to know who failed and really stunk it up each week. So instead of game balls being awarded for good play, this will be like eggs being thrown out for terrible play. We'll hand out a couple here each week, but there's no limit as we'll let the bad play deem how many to give out.

Jake Delhomme, 17/34, 205 yards, 1 TD, 5 INTs, 1 fumble.
Jake Delhomme is not a great quarterback nor is he a bad quarterback. He has good games more often then he has his share of bad games. On Saturday night, however, Delhomme was downright awful in the Panthers loss to the Arizona Cardinals. We're talking one of the worst performances by a player in the history of the NFL postseason. In a game the Panthers were heavily favored, Delhomme did not keep it close as he turned the ball over six times...six! He threw five interceptions and lost one fumble on way to Arizona's easy 33-13 victory.

Sometimes you can't put all the interceptions on the quarterback, but this game it was pretty much all Delhomme's fault. He was impatient from the start of the game, making terrible reads and throwing into double and triple coverage while a couple times tossing it right to the Cardinals defenders. He said after the game that he apologized to his teammates in the huddle during the fourth quarter. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone else do that before. It was such a terrible performance that it almost became laughable at some point during the second half as it just was not his night at all. And the kicker was that this all happened on his birthday. Ouch. I feel bad for ol' Jake, but he gets an egg for that horrendous performance.

Eli Manning, 15/29, 169 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs.
There were plenty of bad performances in the Giants-Eagles game Sunday because the defenses were pounding the offenses all game, but the blame for the Giants has to fall on Eli Manning. He got the much deserved credit last year for their Super Bowl run, but he was not the same quarterback late in this season when they lost Plaxico Burress from the lineup. Manning's quarterback rating drop almost 30 points without Burress and yesterday, he did not get the job done at home for the G-men. He threw two interceptions, one directly in the stomach of Asante Samuel, ran probably the worst QB sneak in NFL history on fourth and inches and he failed to find a deep threat or get the ball into the end zone as they settled for three field goals.

Playcalling was also suspect in this game by New York. In what was a close game all four quarters, the Giants continued to try and put the ball in the air in windy conditions instead of pounding it to Brandon Jacobs all day. Jacobs was effective with 19 rushes for 92 yards, but could of easily had another 10 carries while Manning continued to struggle. And just like that, the defending champs were out.

Honorable mention this week goes to the referees in the Titans-Ravens game. Refs never had control of this slug fest from the first whistle, and how does a back judge miss a blatant delay of game in a tie game when his job is to watch the play clock?

Worst Performances of the Wild Card Round

Despite it being late in the NFL season, I'm going to start this weekly post anyway. Everyone likes to talk about the top performances from the weekend and hand out game balls all the time. But that won't be happening here. The Wheelhouse will hand out the worst performances from the latest NFL week. We want to know who failed and really stunk it up each week. So instead of game balls being awarded for good play, this will be like eggs being thrown out for terrible play. We'll hand out a couple here each week, but there's no limit as we'll let the bad play deem how many to give out.

Here are the worst performances from this week's NFL wild card round...

Chad Pennington, 25/38 for 252 yards, 1 TD, 4 INTs. Chad Pennington's storybook season peaked last week when he led the Dolphins into his former place of work and defeated his old team to clinch the AFC East Division. This week his season ended with an early exit from the playoffs with a performance you can only describe as a lame effort. You can't turn the ball over against the Ravens defense...you just can't do it. Pennington threw seven picks all season and threw four today...two of them to Ed Reed, which by the way is unbelievable that people still throw Reed's way at all.

I believe the Jets were correct in getting rid of Pennington before this season because even though he had a great regular season, Pennington is the same guy he's always been. He might get you to the playoffs, but he won't win the big one for you or even get you close to the big one for that matter. Congrats Chad on getting the first egg thrown at you in the history of The Wheelhouse!

LaDainian Tomlinson, 5 rushes, 25 yards, 1 TD, a detached groin and a lot of sitting on the bench. I think it's time to declare that LaDainian Tomlinson disappears in the playoffs. And not because he doesn't perform, it's because it seems like every time a playoff game hits, LT has some weird injury that came out of nowhere. If you played all season with it, why can't he play now? It's the playoffs...show me something, get out there! Remember the AFC Championship game from last year where all LT did was sit on the bench with his helmet and coat on looking cold and bored in New England. He apparently was injured in that game too. But even if you're injured, show some emotion for your team LaDainian! He makes no attempt to be a cheerleader on the sideline and get behind his team...he just sits there, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else but at the game.

Thankfully for the Chargers playoff hopes, they had speedster Darren Sproles to carry the load and be the dagger to pierce the Colts hearts yesterday. LT has been one of the best running backs in the NFL the past five or so years, but let's face it...he disappears in the playoffs.

Honorable mention goes to Tarvaris Jackson. I don't care how great Adrian Peterson is, the Vikings will never go anywhere with Jackson at QB.