A Dink, a Dunk and a Funk

Dink, 5-yard completion, Brady to Welker….dunk, completion for 8 yards to Hernandez, just short of a first down….whoa….16 yard completion to a wide receiver for a first down. Seriously, they ain’t so baaaad. The longest Pats reception was for 21 yards to, of all people, Ochocinco. The Pats didn’t really stretch the field. They really couldn’t scare anybody with that popgun offense.

Eli and the rest of the red, white and blue didn’t really have to do too much. If they had to do more, they probably could have done more. And yes, the Pats receivers dropped a few passes and Gronk was playing hurt, but still, Brady and the Pats ain’t scaring anybody.

The Pats couldn’t really run the ball either nor show me an inspiring runner on that team. Woodhead was their biggest running threat and he did pretty well but he scored when Brady had just oodles of time for some reason, probably just that Fewell out-thunk himself. Why they dropped their best pass rushers into coverage makes no sense to me.

I’m happy the Giants won but, aside from the Manning to Manningham connection, there weren’t really any scintillating plays, or calls for that matter. The game was played like a championship game by two coaches who knew each other better than anyone else on the field. It was a game for football aficionados.

Not that it wasn’t an interesting game if you like that kind of thing but, really, I would’ve welcomed a few chances taken somewhere along the line. Surely one or two shots down the field wouldn’t have hurt anything. But that’s not who the Giants are these days, nor Eli either.

Eli’s great at that QB position. He’s all grown up. But he had just enough pizzazz when he needed it in that fourth quarter with time winding down. That pass to Manningham was perfect. That’s all you can say. And he wasn’t about to give anything away. Eli did a pretty good job of dinking and dunking himself.

But there was no pass rush as there had been in early ’08. I kept wondering how many sacks Rex Ryan would’ve got out of that group of the G-Men. It was a very conservatively-played defensive game too. The Giants played it as if they knew they were the better team and, if they just didn’t give anything away, they would win the game.

But they really shouldn’t have been so sure of themselves. Once again, I thought the Giants got lucky. How many Giants fumbles didn’t amount to anything? There were at least two, one by Cruz on which New England had too many men on the field and one by Nicks that got covered up by Hynoski.

But it all counts. Hynoski got there first by paying attention and running like hell after the ball. And procedural-type penalties happen to even the best of coaching staffs. All in all though, when you consider the New England drops, the meaningless fumbles and the Brady safety on the Pats first play, the Giants had good fortune lined up on their sidelines that Super day.

The 49ers game was scarier than the Super Bowl. But brain farts and fumbles won it for the Giants that day as well. It wasn’t just Eli and that defensive line that won this championship. It was truly everybody and yes, it was everybody just doing their job, as every Giants player seemed to mention in the aftermath of things.

And, speaking of aftermath, was there ever a more gracious winner than these Giants? Eli, Justin Tuck and just about every Giant was classy in their commentary about the game, about the season, and about their opponents. One notable exception was Brandon Jacobs’ harangue after the game but I’ll forgive him for now. After all, it was the “best of all time” Tom Brady and the brainiac Belichick that the G-Men beat on Sunday.

It’s unfortunate that so much time was devoted to whether Eli is truly an elite quarterback or not. Happily, Eli backed himself up by winning this game. God knows what things could’ve been like around here if the Patriots beat him.

For now, everybody’s happy, even me, but it wasn’t long after this game was in the books that all the prognosticators came out with all their prognostications. Who’ll be dropped next year, whose contracts are expiring, which teams will the Giants have to look out for next year?

I know two guys who’ll be coming back. They’d be Jason Pierre-Paul and Victor Cruz. Would the G-Men be here today without either of them? I don’t think so. They were both great, not just great for a rookie but truly among the best in the league. And they came out of nowhere, just like these Giants.

I hated that the Giants let Steve Smith and the tight end Boss go. I hated that they couldn’t have given in to Osi a little bit. But, in the final analysis, Jerry Reese, the GM, is the man, once again, maybe even more so than he was in 2007.

It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. Despite all the injuries these Giants suffered through this year, Reese’s players emerged as the best. Look around the roster, there’s that punter Weatherford and that Ballard tight end and that center wasn’t too shabby either. How about Devin Thomas? Oncce again, the man seems as if he knows something the rest of us just don’t.

I guess, like the rest of his team, Jerry Reese was just doing his job. But he really did one hell of a job….twice. This Super Bowl is as much his as anybody’s. Coughlin doesn’t have very many bad alternatives on that bench, or on specials, or anywhere.

But now it’s all over for 2011-2012. Now this amazing season and Giants run-the-table finish has run its course. Soon it’ll be just a memory, even if it will be one of the best ones ever.

Who Wants It More.?

I’m still trying to come down off my high after that Jets win over the Patriots. I’m not even letting Francesa get me down. I did finally turn him off though. That show desperately needs Chris Russo back. At the very least, they should stop screening the callers who disagree with him. It’s really a one-sided program.

But what a feeling of elation for New Yorkers and Jets fans! To beat Manning and then Brady in successive weeks is an incredible high, but for Mark Sanchez to throw 3 touchdown passes against Bill Belichick and his vaunted Pats defense takes it up one more notch.

My chief concern, though, now is that the Jets will experience a natural letdown after not just one but two great upsets over the best quarterbacks in the game. I myself am even feeling a letdown. Why shouldn’t the Jets?

And it’s not only that. Playing the Steelers is like playing themselves. The coaches are alike, the philosophies are alike and the players are even somewhat alike in their personalities. Where’s the hate?

I was able to conceive how the Jets could beat each of those two teams, the Colts and the Patriots. I think their different styles of play made it an easy matter to distinguish the Jets strengths versus their opponents’ and formulate a plan based on playing to the Jets strengths, even if some of those strong points weren’t even so evident at the time, such as the Jets potential dominance in the passing game.

The Steelers are a totally different animal from both the Colts and Pats. Manning and Brady threw from the pocket, Roethlisberger throws well on the run. The Colts and Pats featured offenses based on precision and timing in the passing game. Messing up that timing was a key ingredient in the Jets wins.

The Steelers offense is based on running the ball. The passing game clicks mostly off Roethlisberger scrambles while his receivers just try to find a hole to sit in. Manning and Brady go down when hit. Roethlisberger does not.

My initial take on this game is for the Jets to think of Big Ben as a kind of monstrous Michael Vick. He’s not as shifty as Vick, almost no one is, but he’s almost as dangerous when he’s running around, not because he’ll run with the ball but because he’ll kill you with his arm, sometimes while being dragged down to the ground.

The key to winning this AFC Championship will then be to contain Roethlisberger, much as the Giants contained Vick for 52 minutes before they totally lost their composure. The Jets were terrific at making Manning and Brady move out of the pocket. I wonder if they’ll be quite as adept at containment.

The Steelers like to run the ball. And they always stop the run. Those are two things they are noted for. That differs hugely from what the Colts and Pats brought to the table. Once again the Jets may have to take advantage of their potentially strong passing game in order to move the ball down the field.

Although the Jets did beat the Steelers in Week 15, 22-17, those Steelers were playing without two starters on their defense, defensive end Aaron Smith and the best safety in either league, Troy Polamalu. Another key ingredient missing from that game was Heath Miller, their tight end and one of Roethlisberger’s favorite targets. That’s a big difference.

Another huge factor in that Week 15 game was Brad Smith’s opening kickoff return for a touchdown. The Jets were ahead 7-0 after 12 seconds. That’s a huge boost, one that the Jets can’t really expect to duplicate in this upcoming game. And let’s not forget a huge tackle in the end zone by Jason Taylor that not only put two more on the scoreboard for the Jets but gave them the ball as well.

Not that I’m being pessimistic but this game could definitely be the toughest playoff game yet. This Steelers team is made for the playoffs, made for cold weather, made to win games in December and January. They had some bad luck in that Week 15 game.

The current line on this game says the Jets are 3 ½ point underdogs, a spread that simply reflects the home field edge. These teams are pretty much dead even. The Jets have a superior offensive line and receivers. The Steelers have the edge defensively.

The Steelers running back, Rashard Mendenhall, rushed for 100 yards in just 17 carries in that Week 15 game. Both Jets running backs, LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene, did pretty well for themselves too, gaining about 89 yards combined, but that was on 23 attempts. Based on those stats, I’d expect to see a bit more of Mendenhall in this game. Whether the Jets stick with the running game remains to be seen.

Stats are great, I love them, but they’re probably more meaningful over a full season than in one isolated game, especially a playoff game that will determine who goes to Dallas for the Super Bowl. This game will probably be decided by individuals making plays in big situations, not by which running back or quarterback garners more yards.

The playmakers in that Week 15 game were obviously Brad Smith early and then Jason Taylor late. They were the big reasons the Jets carried the day. One could also point to the coverage by Revis and the rest of the Jets secondary on those two final shots Roethlisberger had at the end zone.

There’s no better playmaker than Polamalu, of course, and he’ll be back for this one. The Steelers have no lack of playmakers, including James Harrison, their deadly outside linebacker, and their very speedy wide receiver, Mike Wallace, who was pretty much shut entirely down in that Week 15 game, catching just one pass for 8 yards.

The Jets have Santonio Holmes, Darrelle Revis, Jason Taylor…..

It’ll come down to who wants it more.

QB's - Turning On The Jets (and Boyz)

Everybody's talking about the Jets these days, especially after their stomping of the lowly Rams on Sunday leading up to their AFC East showdown with their perennial nemesis, the New England Patriots on Thursday night. Things looked even brighter when it became apparent that the Pats star linebacker Adalius Thomas would be unable to play. And it seemed like piling on when the Jets picked up free agent and former Patriot All-Star veteran cornerback Ty Law.
<>I should preface all my remarks by first telling you that I’ve soured on the Jets for the past two years. There was all that nonsense with the offensive line for starters last year, and then the genius Mangini proved he couldn’t coach. Then I was very impressed with their free agent pickups in the off-season, Faneca and Woody, Calvin Pace and of course Chris Jenkins, the mammoth defensive tackle.

I was so happy for Pennington at the time. Chad would finally get some help, a LOT of help, on both sides of the ball. No more would I wake up on Monday morning to read about Chad’s failures, when it was really a thinly-disguised team failure. No more would Chad have to be humiliated by sitting while a raw Kellen Clemens got the starts. Surely Chad would excel in this new environment.
<>And then they picked up Brett Favre, the aging wonder from Green Bay. Chad went to Miami and has been terrific for them, so he has at least landed on his feet. Favre has been up and down, in and out, as has been his history. He threw six touchdown passes against a pretty good Arizona team but managed to lose to a horrid Oakland team. Then he managed to eke out a narrow victory against the lowly Chiefs (thank God for Herman Edwards and his conservative nonsense down the stretch) but did beat Buffalo pretty soundly before the pounding of the Rams on Sunday.

So Favre has been Favre. But, to me, it’s really been about Jenkins and Pace and that improved Jets defense. The offensive line has been improving each week as further evidenced on Sunday by the running of Thomas Jones over, under, around and through the Rams.
<>But they did lose to New England in Week Two, 19-10. And Favre was instrumental in the loss. A poorly thrown ball and subsequent interception led directly to a Pats score, while Mangini’s obsessive-compulsive decision to run Jones into the sturdy heart of the Pats defense three times in a row from the three made sure the boys in green wouldn’t catch up.

Of course, that was Week 2. The Jets seem to have come a long way since then. And now for the rematch Adalius Thomas is out. That means it’ll be easier for the Jets to run the ball. There will be less pressure on Favre as well. While I don’t think that Ty Law can significantly change the Jets fortunes in this particular contest, his addition certainly bodes well for the future.
<>But the Pats will still be pretty darned good. Theirs is a Bellichick defense, and that means smart. That means tough. If their defense can stand the pounding of Jones and catch up to the shifty scatback, Leon Washington, they’ll probably be able to win again, even if the Pats are stuck with a rookie running back with a whole lot of names.

This game will be the benchmark for Favre, and Mangini too, the game by which both will eventually be measured. Can Favre show that he’s finally learned the offense? Can he lead the team to victory against that determination that Bellichick seems to inspire? Can Mangini out-think Bellichick…..if just for one day?
<>The game will be in Foxboro. That should make things that much tougher. It could possibly rain, another potential roadblock to what has been a very nice running game the past couple of weeks. The team that takes advantage of the conditions will have the edge. Can Mangini think that far ahead? Can he make the in-game adjustments that his coaching mentor surely will? Can they find a hole in Matt Cassell’s game? Mr. Cassell surely didn’t show much weakness against Buffalo.

Whatever the outcome, it should prove to be a very intense game, a very competitive game, one that may ultimately determine the AFC East winner, and maybe even the AFC representative to the Super Bowl. I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the game, hopefully as much as I’m enjoying just the prospects of the game.
<>Once again, I’ve been down on the Jets. I haven’t liked Mangini and I’ve liked Tanenbaum even less. It seems to me that they’ve focused most of their attention on burying their popular players to solidify their hold on this team. The new emperor buries the sword…..

The Jets game will just be the kickoff to an exciting schedule of NFL games this weekend. I’m most looking forward to the return of Tony Romo to the Cowboys fold. I’m hoping his pinkie will hold up against the outstanding defense that the Skins will bring.
<>It had better. If it doesn’t, the Cowboys will be done. Stick a fork in them. That much-ballyhooed team with all the Pro Bowl representatives may as well go home again. It won’t be easy either. They haven’t been able to stop the run, something the Skins like to do, with Clinton Portis doing most of the damage. It’s a bit hard to believe he won’t play, something that is supposedly a distinct possibility as this is written. And then, of course, there is the disturbing news (for Boys fans) of CB DeAngelo Hall, formerly of the Raiders, joining the Redskins.

Can a quarterback change the entire complexion of a football team? I’m betting that he can, that just the Romo presence on the field will boost not just the Cowboys offfense, but the defense and special teams as well.

I’m a little less sure that Favre can do the same this Thursday.

The Harder They Fall, or Not

It can go wrong sometimes. The big bully on the block picks on the wrong guy, on the wrong day. And gets his head handed to him. The bully gets surprised and then disheartened. The underdog feeds on success. One thing works, then another. Everybody plays harder. The vision of success is realized.

So it was for the Patriots yesterday as they were pounded to the tune of 38-13 by the Miami Dolphins at their home in Foxboro. It was their first regular season loss at home since December 10, 2006. After 21 straight regular season wins at home, the mighty Patriots were beaten by a team that had gone 1-15 last year and had lost its first two games this season.

As is often the case in humongous upsets, the upstarts used a trick to get on top. In David vs. Goliath, it was a sling and a rock. In the Giants upset of the Pats in the Super Bowl, it was some new blitzes. The Dolphins used something called the "direct snap" .

It would hardly qualify as magic, one would think. The center snaps the ball directly to the running back instead of the quarterback. But in six direct snaps yesterday, the Fish scored four huge touchdowns, all of them featuring Ronnie Brown.

My personal favorite was the fake reverse to Ricky Williams off the direct snap, the one that had all 11 Pats defenders follow Ricky one way while Brown jogged the other way for the score. Believe me, nothing is quite the same for a defense after looking ridiculous on a play like that. The Pats became the patsies.

That the touchdown drives were led by Chad Pennington made the victory that much sweeter. That Chad had been the last quarterback to beat the Pats in Foxboro was perhaps forgotten at the outset. After all, the Pats were coming off two easy wins while the Dolphins were coming off two straight losses, to teams not nearly as exalted as the Patriots.

Chad had been unceremoniously released by the Jets just a few weeks earlier as the Jets had just acquired the great Bret Favre, the same great one who lost to this same Patriots team just last week. But the Jets were as mundane and unimaginative in their offense last week as the Dolphins were resourceful in yesterday’s game. And they weren’t smart enough to use the golden arm of Favre.

But the Patriots weren’t the only heavy favorites to lose yesterday. There were a few others. The U.S Ryder Cup team beat those Europeans, my Mets lost another tough one to the Braves and my Giants almost lost one to the lowly Bengals.

What’s the common denominator when a huge underdog topples a favorite? It’s not just a bunch of people that are tired of losing. It’s what happens when that bunch gets inspired, when they have enough confidence not only in themselves but in their plan to get it done.

It’s total buy-in, to themselves and to a plan, and maybe helped along by some inspiration.

In the Dolphins case, was it Jerry Porter’s seemingly brash pronunciations that fired them up? Or was it the time their coaching staff spent on devising and perfecting the “direct snap”? I think it was a little bit of both, but the main ingredient was the plan and the practice. And it didn’t hurt to have a quarterback who had beaten the Pats before.

In the case of the Braves beating the Mets, it was just the Braves fully realizing the frustration of having a horrible relief corps and waiting patiently to capitalize on that Mets weakness. Hadn’t the Braves lost seemingly countless games this season in the late innings? And hadn’t they found an answer while the Mets had not?

They just had to hang tough, to stay close, to do the best they could against Pelfrey and play strong defensively. Eventually, they knew Pelfrey would tire. Eventually, they’d get to Heilman and Schoeneweis and that tired bunch of weak arms with the uninspiring stuff.

They had a plan and it worked to perfection. They knew they could wait for strikes and work the count against Pelfrey, thus virtually assuring themselves of seeing those hapless Mets relievers for at least three innings. It worked of course and they won by one run.

The Bengals were another bunch of guys who had under-performed for two weeks but who believed in themselves and their talent, even when matched against the reigning Super Bowl Champions.

Didn’t they have Carson Palmer, the number one pick in the entire draft back in 2003, the QB who threw for 86 touchdowns in the last three years? Didn’t Number 85 even shut up for a few days? Didn’t they have T.J. Houshmanzadeh? Couldn’t they score against anyone ? And weren’t the G-Men missing their two finest defensive linemen?

They only had to run the ball enough to keep that defense honest and play some spirited defense themselves. Which is what they did. They played the Giants even through four quarters, only to lose in overtime to a team that refused to quit, a team that wasn’t yet ready to lose this season. And, who knows what may have happened if the Bengals had pulled a couple of trick plays out of their hats?

But the Giants hadn’t forgotten what had made them champs. They matched those tough Bengals score for score. They even pulled Kevin Boss off the shelf to score late in the game. And when Amani streaked down the left sideline, Eli hadn’t forgotten how to lay that ball right on his fingertips. And Amani hadn’t forgotten how to drag those feet on his way out of bounds.

So the G-Men hung on. It didn’t matter how much talent and determination those Bengals showed up with. The Giants had some surprising stuff of their own. They had a plan of their own.

Better late than never, they executed it to perfection.

Hmm, Pats vs. Jets...

Looks like everybody's expecting the Patriots to completely drub the Jets. Our local heroes lost 38-14 to them in their season debut, and that was with Pennington out there. Of course, they had no offensive line to speak of at that time. And Darrell Revis wasn't really playing yet. And you could run the ball all day long against their defense then. Now? I don't think so. They got that big Michigan fella at linebacker now. You know...what's's name?....

And of course there's the retribution factor, Belichick will pound the upstart Mangini and his pitiful, woeful band of wannabe's....

I don't know about you, but all that stuff would make me mad...and look at the opportunity....knock off the undefeated and obnoxious Pats...and get a couple of shots at Brady...and Moss...(I'd be foaming at the mouth).

Look for a close game.....at least..

Coaches Add That Sumthin'....or Don't

It was Monday afternoon. I was trying to figure out whether Tom Brady, that marvel of a Patriots quarterback, would score 25 or more fantasy points that night. In looking at the past games, I determined that Brady had missed the "25" mark only once, that performance just last week against the Philadelphia Eagles. The following is an excerpt from my actual league posting:

hey ramsy, just fyi, and as you still have the BAL DEF on your roster, you might already know this and are just being coy, (yeah, that's right, coy), the Ravens have everybody back on D tonight except for Trevor Pryce, their DE.

McAllister, Rolle, Ed Reed, Landry are all in line.

If the Ravens play conservatively on offense and don't fumble, and play like madmen on Def like the Eagles did, it could even get interesting.

It surely did prove to be interesting, the game turning, I thought, on Billick's time-out.

Why is it always the Belichicks who have their full complement of timeouts at the end of the game? And it’s always the Billicks who call timeout for any reason whatsoever. I grow weary of these high-profile coaches who lose games for their teams. Joe Gibbs, Mike Shanahan, Mike Martz, Brian Schottenheimer of the Jets to name just a few.

But none can match KC’s Herm Edwards. In the Oakland game, with Kansas City trailing 20-17 and in field goal position, Edwards called a timeout to discuss what to do on fourth down. Then he challenged the fourth-down spot. The ruling on the field prevailed and the Chiefs lost two timeouts and a game-tying field goal.

Of course, some decisions are very tough. The really good coaches, though, seem to transcend the moment. With confidence in their players, with a total awareness of the situation and the opponent, they prevail; they live to fight another day.