The Best Defense in the League?

What an NFL Wildcard Weekend!!

I had thought this past weekend might be one of those yawners that seem to happen now and then. The matchups certainly didn’t lend themselves to one’s thinking that it’d be great entertainment, especially not the Broncos-Steelers game. I’d been looking forward to the Giants-Falcons, of course, but the other games didn’t send me, except for maybe the Bengals against the Texans. I thought the Bengals had a great chance.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!!

The Texans were off and running early. JJ Watt, a lineman for Pete’s sake, made a reaching stab of a Dalton pass to the flat and that play pretty much was a harbinger of things to come. There’d be no Dalton dramatics, there’d be no stopping the Texans running game….it was a pretty routine win for the contingent from Texas. For one more year, it’d be a shame to be a Bengals fan.

That Saturday night, the Saints-Lions was on the schedule. Nobody in their right mind thought the Lions would be able to stop Drew Brees but they actually did pretty well through the first half before utterly crumbling in the second half. It was like a snowball rolling down the hill. But, if you like watching a good quarterback work, Drew Brees is one of the three quarterbacks in the league that can absolutely destroy a defense.

One of the other two, of course, Aaron Rodgers, is unfortunately facing our Giants this weekend. His Packers have lost just once this year and Rodgers has been a huge part of the reason. The man is as accurate as anybody who’s ever played. He rolls around in the pocket and will take off running when the opportunity presents itself. The man just rolls.

Yeah. That’s true. But what about the Giants defense? Won’t that pass rush get to Rodgers? I certainly hope so but that Pack OL ain’t chopped liver and I’m not so sure the Falcons OL had one of its better days against the G-Men. But, statistically, as I can recall, the Falcons OL was pretty high in the rankings.

What I’m trying to say is that, if the Giants defensive line is the best in the league, if they can get to any quarterback in the league, then Rodgers might find himself running around a bit more than he is used to. I’ve already heard the Giants have a puncher’s chance and that’s as good an analogy as any, I suppose.

The trouble is that even a Rodgers under pressure is going to be pretty damned good. He’ll roll around and get rid of the ball when he must but most of the time, he’ll just find those receivers in perfect stride. Or, if they’re covered, he’ll just do that back-shoulder routine that’s so impossible to stop. Rodgers throws to everybody and he throws on the run probably better than anybody. So, even if he’s running, that doesn’t help the opposition as much as you’d think.

When the Giants beat the Pats in early 2008, Brady was the QB and, at the time anyway, Brady was considered the best quarterback ever. As things turned out, the Giants did indeed get to Brady and the pressure affected him bigtime. But Brady is a statue compared to Rodgers.

The aforementioned Brady is still in these playoffs, of course, and his Pats should have another reasonably good time against the Broncos. All I can say about that one is Tebow, Tebow, Tebow, Tebow. Watching Tebow running that Denver offense, when it’s all working, is a thing of beauty. What’s he going to do? Well, he could run himself, he could simply hand off or he could run to the edge and pitch it, or he could just wing it down the field, that last being the least likely of all.

That is, until Sunday afternoon. After Sunday’s game, the defense will have to figure against the Broncs passing game as well. Tebow’s 316 yards passing and two touchdowns, and another one rushing, pretty much killed any thoughts that the Broncs were only 3-dimensional. Any more dimensions, of course, would be out of this world, by definition, and that’s exactly what most Broncos fans are thinking about their quarterback these days.

After the Giants crushing of the witless Falcons, I would’ve been happy with the day as it was. I didn’t really need a great Broncos game, even if the Broncs opponent was the hated Steelers, the hated Ben Roethlisberger, that stupid Kiesel beard, that bully Harrison, and Mike Tomlin just out-thinking and out-motivating everybody else on the sidelines.

The way Denver went about their business was special. That first half was especially good, watching the Broncos not only take the lead with a beautifully-thrown Tebow pass that went the distance, but then adding insult to injury by just piling up some more points. And when hated Big Ben took the Steelers all the way back to inevitably tie the game in regulation, one had to think the worst. But Tebow’s on-target dart to Demaryus Thomas on the first play of overtime was just great. There would be no Steelers victory that day. Tebow to Thomas took care of that.

Saving the best for last, the Giants game proceeded pretty much as I had expected. The game started slowly, both teams did nothing and then things heated up quickly. But I’d thought both teams would have some success through the air. I’d thought Falcons head-man Mike Smith would ultimately blow the game. As things turned out though, Smith took his team out early with badly-run quarterback sneaks while the ponderous Michael Turner watched from the bench.

And the Giants defense stopped everything the Falcons could muster.

But Rodgers will be doing the mustering this week and their head coach isn’t Mike Smith. The G-Men need to bring their best game. If they truly have become the best defense in the league, as it certainly appeared on Sunday, they could even win this thing.

The Good Guys Won

Aside from the blow to my ego, having picked the Steelers to beat the Packers, everything else about the game was great, assuming, of course, you didn’t watch the halftime show. But the good guys got a commanding lead, the bad guys came back and the good guys held on.

Why are the Packers good guys? Listen to Aaron Rodgers talk, or Clay Matthews, or Greg Jennings or Charles Woodson. They’re all gentlemen. They don’t brag, they don’t say stupid things, they don’t play dirty and heck, they even covered the spread 31-25.

The Steelers aren’t really bad guys either. But their persona is at least somewhat bad, with Roethlisberger’s indiscretions (to say the least), Harrison’s illegal hits to the head and his stolid defense of them, and Hines Ward’s chippy blocks. But those things don’t really make them bad. It just makes them what they are, a really tough football team.

But they weren’t so tough yesterday. And that’s why they lost.

They didn’t play like the Steelers at all. I’d characterize their performance as uncharacteristic except for the fact that good teams can make you look bad. That’s what good teams do and that’s what the Packers were yesterday, a really good team.

Yeah, yeah, I know, the turnovers lost it for the black and gold. But it’s not as if they weren’t forced. You could also say the breaks and even the early officiating, went against the Steelers, but, in a way, the Packers forced those things too.

From the very start of the game, the Pack won the toss and elected to receive, thus throwing down the gauntlet right away, much as the Jets did against the Steelers, albeit with a very different result. The Jets proceeded to get run over by the Steelers running game and Rashard Mendenhall after they issued their challenge.

I recall thinking that the election to kick was brilliant but only if the Pack could shut the Steelers down on that first drive. This time the Steelers went 3 and out. The Packers were saying, “We’re not the Jets”. And the Steelers had to accept it after their offense sputtered.

The two teams slugged it out in the early stages, like two heavyweight fighters feeling each other out. But the Packers landed a couple of lefts and a couple of rights, some Starks runs and a few Rodgers completions, and the Pack hit the board first, taking full advantage of the weakness in the Steelers secondary and making Jordy Nelson look like Randy Moss in his heyday.

At this point, a really good team comes back immediately. Roethlisberger certainly tried, maybe a little too hard. On first and ten, deep in his own territory, he threw a floater and Green Bay’s Nick Collins not only picked it off but then made a nifty runback for the touchdown. To use a boxing analogy again, that was like scoring a knockdown…7-0 became 14-0.

Only then did the Steelers start to turn things the other way, driving the ball for 6 minutes or so, mixing the run and the pass, and getting on the board with a field goal to make it 14-3. They had a good round but were still trailing. Then they had another good round by forcing a 3 and out of their own.

The Steelers were on the move again, or should have been. But after about a 4-minute promising drive, Big Ben got picked again when free safety Jarrod Bush out-wrestled a Steeler for the ball and killed another drive. The Pack had scored a big counterpunch.

Right around then, all the hard play going on got reflected in injuries. The Steelers lost WR Sanders. The Pack lost Donald Driver, an even more fearsome receiver. Then Pack All-World corner (and more) Charles Woodson broke his collarbone stretching out for the INT but hitting the ground hard instead.

But the Pack wasn’t comfortable yet at just 14-3. Rodgers hit Greg Jennings over the middle for the third Packers touchdown of the day. It was a nice catch between defenders and Jennings held on tight after he got hit. Now it was 21-3 and at this point a lesser team than the Steelers would have been feeling a little groggy.

But the Steelers aren’t chopped liver either. In less than a minute, Roethlisberger found Antawn Randle El for a nice long one and Hines Ward a few times, the last one for a TD making it 21-10 just before the second half. The Black and Gold were serving notice they’d be showing up for the second half.

And show up they did. They dominated the third quarter. After forcing a Packers punt, they ran and passed their way back into the game, punctuated by a tough, hard (redundant) Rashard Mendenhall run, making it 21-17. After forcing still another Pack 3 and out, they drove down the field again but the Packers held on.

At this point, a coaching decision once again had a big impact. After the Steelers drive stalled, they elected to try the 52-yard field goal. But the move made no sense, risking the kicking of Shawn Suisham rather than the Steelers defense pinning the Pack down deep in their own end.

Coach Mike Tomlin gave the Pack a reprieve. The Steelers’ momentum stalled.

The Pack had managed to keep their head in front throughout, like Affirmed holding off Alydar down the stretch. Then, when things started to look their bleakest, the Pack’s Clay Matthews forced the Mendenhall fumble.

The fumble ignited the Pack. Rodgers hit a few passes and it was soon 28-17. The Steelers came back once again to make it 28-25 (after a 2-point conversion was good) but the Pack held on once more, driving for a field goal, forcing the Steelers to have to drive the length of the field for the TD to win.

After having gallantly held on, the good guys could have still lost this thing. But they didn’t. They held on.

It'll Be Steelers Again

Okay, after studying this thing to death for 2 or 3 days, I can confidently say the Steelers should win this 45th Super Duper Bowl. Although they are still 2 ½ point underdogs in this contest, and most observers have picked the Packers to win, football games are dictated by matchups, and this particular matchup favors the team from Pittsburgh.

Most prognosticators are infatuated with Aaron Rodgers and his remarkable performances and numbers, much as they were quite taken by Tom Brady earlier in the season. Both those QB’s, and both those teams, can just eat an opponent up, and do more often than not.

When they cannot eat up their opponents though, when the opponent has a sound defensive plan against the pass, as the Bears did in their three contests against the Packers and as the Jets did in their playoffs victory, those QB’s and those teams have looked very vulnerable.

The Steelers will be able to run the ball, conspicuously to the left side, or the Packers right side, away from both AJ Hawk and Clay Matthews. The Steelers offensive line will be good enough in the running game to allow Ben Roethlisberger to pass just enough to keep the Pack defense honest. The Steelers will run left, run left, and run left some more.

Aaron Rodgers will get his passing yards to all those great receivers. The Pack will matriculate the ball down the field and, more often than not, fail to score the touchdown. Their running game will not go. Nobody runs on this Steelers defensive unit, especially not the Packers.

The Steelers offense can be compared closely with the offense of the Atlanta Falcons in that they have a big running back, a smart quarterback and a couple of good receivers. The Falcons played the Packers twice. In the first contest, a very meaningful one for both teams, Michael Turner ran successfully all day long, very conspicuously, to the Packers right side. The Falcons prevailed 20-17 in that one on a very late field goal.

In the second contest, the even more important playoff game, the Packers romped. In that contest, the Falcons, after taking a lead early, couldn’t stop Aaron Rodgers and the Pack passing game at all. To make matters much worse, Falcons QB Matt Ryan was intercepted for another TD, and the rout was on. The Falcons abandoned their running game. They had to.

The Steelers won’t have to abandon the running game. The Steelers pass defense is much better than that of the Falcons. They may be stopped early in the game but they’ll keep running. They may fall behind (in fact, it’s likely that they will fall behind), but they won’t fall behind by enough to force them to abandon their game plan. Very likely, they’ll give up two or three field goals, and one, possibly even two touchdowns, but the total Pack scoring will be relatively low, from 20 to 23 points.

The MVP of this game will very likely be Rashard Mendenhall. If the Steelers have success early in the game, as they did against the Jets, the game could conceivably get totally out of hand. If the Packers fall behind and get a little antsy, even an Aaron Rodgers could get picked a couple of times. And if they don’t get antsy, they still won’t have much success.

It’s likely though that the Pack will have at least some success early. The Steelers will likely be playing catch-up, something they’re well equipped to do. They’ll grind it out and keep their composure. The mistakes will be few and far between. They’ll own the second half and especially the fourth quarter. They can play conservatively and win this game. The Packers cannot.

The Packers pass the ball. That’s what they do. But how did they fare against the Bears, a team that plays defense much as do the Steelers? Not too shabby really, they lost the first one, and then won the last two. But they only scored ten points in their first win and 21 in the playoff victory, in which Cutler, the Bears QB, had to leave the game.

The Steelers are not the Bears. Their styles of defense can be compared but the players really can’t be. The Steelers play that defense better. The Steelers are better offensively than the Bears too. They can beat you with the run and they can beat you with the pass. And if you do manage to score, it’ll be an aberration.

The Packers are a very good team. There can be no question about that. They actually tied the Steelers in scoring defense this year. But they have no running game. The Steelers do. That will make the difference, as it does so often in playoff games, and especially in Steelers playoff games.

If the Packers have any advantage, it is that they have proven tough enough to win three playoff games on the road, at Philadelphia, at Atlanta and at Chicago. The road means nothing to them, and they could consider Super Bowl site Dallas as just another playoffs road game. The Steelers have been a good road team as well though, having lost only one road game all year. But their most recent wins were at home.

There are always a million intangibles of course. Turnovers should be even. Statistically, the two teams are very close. The Packers are probably healthier, especially with the question surrounding the Steelers first-string center Pouncey, but his replacement, Doug Legursky, has been tough, especially in the running game. Coaching should be a wash. Both teams have brilliant head coaches and coordinators, especially on the defensive side.

Another important intangible though is the effect that experience will have on this game. The Steelers have a huge edge in experience, and successful experience at that. The Packers have a big-time heritage for sure but their recent legacy has been pretty slim.

It’ll be 24-20 or so in favor of the Steelers.

Same Old Steelers

It was the same old Steelers. Run the ball, run it some more, stop the run, make a big play on defense, and don’t make the big mistake. Terrible towels, the whole deal. Same crap every year. Big quarterback too, like Bradshaw used to be a little bit. But quarterback seems always to be just another position on the Steelers.

It never seems to matter who makes up the opposition. Yesterday it was the Jets who couldn’t stop the run early, who could never get on the field, who had the ball come out at the worst possible time, and who couldn’t score from the two in four tries.

I had said earlier that it would be motivation and focus that decided this game; that a game plan wouldn’t win or lose it. But I was wrong. I would have thought surely that containing Roethlisberger would be a focus. It wasn’t. I would have thought that stopping the run would have been a paramount matter too. But it wasn’t.

And I would have thought that a tough team, a ground and pound team, would have run that ball into the end zone from the two. They didn’t.

I was really angry with Schottenheimer after the Jets tried those two passes. Then, of course, there was the safety and regaining possession and eventually scoring but it just wasn’t the same from then on. And, even then, the Jets could have turned the game around if they could have just stopped the Steelers on that fateful last possession. But they couldn’t.

That was the real story of the game, I suppose. When the Jets needed to do something, they couldn’t do it.

The Jets made a bold statement early by electing to kick off rather than receive the ball. The gauntlet was thrown down, so to speak. The Steelers said ok, challenge received, now take that and that and that and that ad friggin’ infinitum all the way down the field for the score. I couldn’t think of a worse way to start a game. In my mind’s eye, I could see the albatross circling.

Then the Jets did nothing much but maybe more than could have been expected after sitting on the sidelines for as long as they had. They gained 30 yards and punted. Bryan Thomas later intercepted Roethlisberger to stop another Steelers drive.

Oh, what’s the use? The Jets couldn’t stop Mendenhall and they couldn’t run. Later on, Sanchez got stripped and all of a sudden it was 24-0. I was saying it was “game over”.

That the Jets made a game of it at all was heartening, very much so. That they couldn’t score from the two yard line changed the game though. Even though the Jets got the safety and then scored again, there was another five minutes or so burned up when time was of the essence.

From there on, it became just a matter of getting the ball back. They couldn’t do it. They let Big Ben get out of the pocket once again and he made that critical completion to hold the ball and finally sink Gang Green. It was at that point that Rex finally lost it and threw down his clipboard in disgust.

The Jets couldn’t tackle, especially early in the game. It’s that kind of inexplicable thing that decides games. To me as I watched, I remember thinking that the Jets looked as if they were playing on ice, that they were trying to tackle without leaving their feet, that the cold and the surface were really making them look like a bunch of old guys. And some of them are old guys. The Jets will have to deal with that.

So the Jets won’t be going to Dallas. I can deal with that. What I’m going to have trouble dealing with is the future. I just wish everybody’d stop thinking about the next AFC Championship and the next Super Bowl. Guess what? It’s a long hard road to get into the game at all.

There are Patriots looming, and Colts and maybe even the Raiders in the future. And none of them will be easy to beat, at least not as easy as they had been this year. The Pats were kind of young, the Colts were kind of hurt and the Raiders, well, who knows with the Raiders?

A lot depends upon what moves the Jets will be making, of course. So far, even though their General Manager Tannenbaum is probably one of my least favorite people in the world, their moves have been great. Nobody could argue with that. But will they be able to keep Braylon and Santonio, LaDainian and other established stars with less colorful names, like Jason Taylor and Calvin Pace and Shaun Ellis?

Darrell, D’Brickashaw…..they do have some great names, don’t they?

As I write this, Mike Francesa is lambasting Rex Ryan again. Rex obviously doesn’t kiss Mike’s flabby butt. Much to Rex’s credit, he hasn’t changed his behavior at Francesa’s behest. If anything, he’s totally disregarding him, which is probably the biggest slight of all to someone with Francesa’s huge ego.

Giants coach Coughlin hasn’t made that mistake. Coughlin kisses Francesa’s butt at every opportunity, much to his advantage. You won’t hear Francesa going after Coughlin, who perfectly fits Francesa’s image of the perfect football world, one in which only coaches speak, players don’t celebrate and players say nothing but “yes sir”.

Guaging the Jets organization’s success only on AFC Championships and Super Bowls plays right into Francesa’s hands though, and to all those who think like Francesa. Jets fans can expect only tough defensive football teams who win more often than not. You need luck as much as anything, with injuries and ball bounces, to advance any farther than that.

The Steelers are the standard though…same old Steelers. They’ll continue to be too. They’ll run the ball, stop the run, and have tough guys who can make plays.

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.

What A Difference A Week Makes

Never in the pro football annals of New York has there ever been such a clear reversal of fortunes as there was yesterday. One week ago, the Jets were awful and the Giants were great. Prospects for the Jets to beat Pittsburgh were horrible while the Giants were picked by several NFL analysts to do away with those Eagles, no matter that they had Michael Vick and all those speedsters.

And, of course, as head coaches share their team’s failure or success, Rex Ryan looked like a complete dummy while Tom Coughlin was lauded right here in this column for his stability, especially in comparison to the nut down the road.

What a difference a week makes!

The Jets played 60 grueling minutes of what seemed to be Steeler football. The Giants played 52 minutes of great Giants football and then quit. The coaches quit, the players quit and even the fates seemed to quit. For the final 8 minutes of the game, the Giants were a who’s who of stupidity and maybe fatigue. Whatever they were, they really stunk.

As bad as the Jets have ever played, the Giants were five times as bad as the Jets ever were for those final 8 minutes. Rex Ryan had his guys ready to play for the whole game; Coughlin had his guys ready for 52 minutes. What a shame.

Just to recap, the Giants were up 21 with 8 minutes left. They then let Brent Celek, the Eagles tight end, catch a pass for about 70 yards. Immediately after that, they didn’t cover an onsides kick and watched Michael Vick work his wonders for another easy score. Then they did absolutely nothing on offense. Then they watched Vick destroy them again for the tying touchdown. Then they punted the ball on a line to the best damned punt returner in the game for the loss.

Everybody’s likening yesterday’s game to the Miracle of the Meadowlands in which the Eagles Herman Edwards grabbed a Joe Pisarcik fumble and ran for the winning TD on a play that should have been a kneel-down, a play that lives in infamy as the Giants coaching staff was summarily fired in almost that very instant.

But yesterday’s collapse, or I should say “Cough-lapse” was much worse than that game. It wasn’t just one play that killed them. It was a series of events that was caused by coaches who had stopped coaching and players who had stopped playing. And who can we blame for that?

Complacency can be a terrible thing. Or maybe it could be called “Cough-mplacency”. The Giants acted in every way as if the game was in hand. The 67-yard Celek TD because of a missed tackle wasn’t enough to rattle them. The failure of their return team to be aware of the possibility of an onsides kick is inexcusable. To this reviewer, it was the absolutely worst failure of the entire series of failures.

That their “hands” return team was not on the field was bad but not the most critical mistake. What was much worse was the up-front players’ total obliviousness to the ball. Even the “return” team’s up-front players should have been coached to first look for the ball. The Giants on that field were not prepared at all for that eventuality.

Two egregious failures in a row was, in retrospect, too much for the Giants defense to handle. From then on, they seemed to just watch as Eagles ran over, around and through them to tie the score. And of course the Giants offense did nothing but take time off the clock. As things turned out, it wasn’t enough.

Then there was the final Giants punt. The rookie punter did in fact try to kick the ball out-of-bounds but failed to do so. The replay showed that the rookie was aiming for the sidelines but the ball seemed to drop on the inside of his foot and the punt became a liner to the most dangerous man on the field. Those things happen, especially to rookies in tight spots. (Why a serious contender for the Super Bowl has a rookie in that spot has been a puzzler for me all season).

I won’t chastise Coughlin too much for berating his punter on the field after his ridiculously poor effort put the final nail into the Giants coffin, or “Cough-in”, but I thought it showed a lack of composure. For Coughlin, it was exercising restraint, or his own idea of “Cough-mposure”.

Gee, I hope I’m being fair to Coughlin. He did after all coach one hell of a game for 52 minutes. And it’s a damned shame that the game goes for 60. And I should say that it’s not typical of a Coughlin-coached team to quit in the final minutes. Maybe he’s just getting a little old for this game.

The bright side of yesterday’s action was that the Giants are still in the hunt, the Jets were terrific and my fantasy team won again, this despite Knowshon Moreno hurting his side, Austin Collie suffering another concussion and Vernon Davis having the misfortune to be coached by Mike Singletary, who has become the new Herman Edwards. (Not in the sense of the Meadowlands Miracle but in the sense of the player who went on to coach 10-6 teams into 6-10 teams).

Okay, enough Giants-bashing. The Jets were terrific from the opening kickoff to the final gun, much to the credit of Rex and the entire Jets team. Brad Smith’s taking of the opening kickoff for a touchdown set the tone for the game while the secondary’s sticky coverage of every Steeler receiver down-field in the closing seconds sealed the victory and staved off what could easily have been a dual New York disaster yesterday.

And, between those remarkable opening and closing plays, the play-calling was brilliant, Sanchez executed those plays to perfection and still another Edwards, one Braylon, made brilliant catches all day.

What a difference a week makes.

Toe-Tappin' to Glory (Days)

“After all, they are the Steelers”. That’s how I ended my Super Bowl prediction column last Friday. I’d maintained that the Cardinals were a bit deficient on character as a team, that they’d quit on a few games during the season, and despite their huge talents, they’d lose in the end.

That’s the way it ended up, of course, but NOT for lack of character. The Cards effort was even throughout, and at a very high level. I’m a little ashamed to have suggested otherwise. That they lost a tough one is bad enough. They made a hell of a game of it.

The game was decided on two plays really; the interception return for 100 yards and a touchdown by James Harrison was a 14-point swing, and the Cards showed a lot of heart to come back from that at all.

In fact, it seemed to me that Harrison should have been a stronger candidate for MVP himself. He also appeared to come up with a Warner fumble recovery in the third quarter, but it was later ruled an incomplete pass. But how can you argue with the selection of Santonio Holmes and those 9 big receptions for 131 yards, including the game-winner?

The second big play was the Holmes toe-tapper, a beautifully-thrown Big Ben TD to Holmes in the corner of the endzone with just 35 ticks on the clock, with Santonio deftly tapping those feet down in bounds while fully extending to make the catch.

But Warner was awesome. Even after that last Holmes back-breaking touchdown, here came Warner again, bravely leading his charges downfield in the face of the black and gold rush. It reminded me of last year’s Giants victory over the Pats, when all Giants fans hearts beat a little faster when the ball was back in Brady’s hands, even with just 20 seconds left.

Kurt brought his team back from 10-0 and, against any other team, would have had a 14-10 lead at the half. But the Steelers were too smart, dropping their best pass rusher Harrison into coverage, thus enabling him to pick off the Warner short toss intended for Boldin. Harrison made like Earl Campbell on the return, behind a cadre of black and gold, and voila! The score became 17-7 Steelers instead.

Pittsburgh extended their lead to 20-7 after the third quarter and it looked as if they could coast the rest of the way and still win. But Kurt would have none of that. The fourth quarter was all Arizona as Warner took advantage of the Steelers two deep safeties to complete pass after pass downfield, completing eight passes in a row to five different receivers for 87 yards and a touchdown to bring the Cards within six.

The Cards defense stiffened and on Warner’s next opportunity, he drove the Cards downfield again but a Cards penalty helped stall the drive at the Pitt 36. The subsequent punt put the Steelers on their own 1-yard line. And, after a Steelers holding penalty in the end zone for a safety, the Cards were really in business.

At the 2:53 mark, Warner threw an incompletion, but then threw a beautifully-timed pass to Fitzgerald over the middle, who proceeded to race downfield, splitting those two deep safeties easily for still another touchdown and, incredibly, the Cards were up by 3 points.

That set the stage for Big Ben’s heroics. Starting from his own 12-yard line because of still another Pittsburgh holding penalty, Roethlisberger found Holmes time after time for big yardage, 14, then 13, then 40 and 6 on his perfect strike to Santonio in the corner with just 35 seconds on the clock.

If Warner was awesome, and he was, I don’t know what to call Roethlisberger. Does he make any throws from the pocket? Isn’t anyone ever open on his first look down the field? It seemed as if every big throw came only after a lot of running and ducking and dodging and pumping.

But Big Ben had been doing it all night; he looked like the greased chicken from “Rocky” only much much bigger. Not only did he use the scramble but he also used the pump fake more than a few times, especially before that 40-yard strike to Holmes to get to the six-yard line.

He did get time on that last throw, though, just standing tall in the pocket and throwing a dart to the corner of the end zone behind three Cards secondary men for the game-winner, as the handful of Cards fans present spent the rest of the evening trying to peer through yellow towels.

It was a great Super Bowl though, one of the best ever…..maybe not on a par with the Giants victory over the Pats last year for sheer suspense, but it had more big plays for sure, and, dare I say it, arguably better players.

For the Steelers, there was Big Ben and Hines Ward, Holmes and Willie Parker and for the defense, Harrison and Polamalu, Farrior and Woodley. The Cards trotted out Warner and Fitzgerald, Boldin and Edgerrin James, and on defense some newer stars such as Dockett and Wilson, Rolle and Rodgers-Cromartie.

It had better announcers too, John Madden and Al Michaels easily surpasing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman and, oh yeah, better music too, although the Boss may have lost his voice somewhere along the way. The pre-game was better than last year’s too, with Costas and Chris Collinsworth, Mike Holmgren and Tony Dungy.

The Boss made Tom Petty look a little tame, and, come to think of it, did a lot of scrambling and arm pumping himself. Bruce exhorted the audience through “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”, then “Born to Run” with the big man Clarence and his sax, then “Workin’ On A Dream” before segue-ing nicely into “Glory Days” with Stevie Van Zandt.

Yeah, the Boss was great, but his toe-tappin’ had nothin’ on Santonio’s. We’ll be seeing those feet for another twenty years or so.

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Steelers - Defense and Character

In handicapping this Super Bowl, I’m reminded of that scene from the Hannibal Lecter movies, where Hannibal’s being interviewed by the young Ms. Starling. Hannibal asks the green FBI agent something like “what is he at his ESSENCE, Clarice”? And after she makes two or three dismal guesses, Hannibal says sumthin’ like “NO, Clarice, he COVETS”.

What is Arizona at its essence? THE PASS! Kurt Warner behind a nice big offensive line throwing to the likes of the finest receivers in the land, Larry Fitzgerald and the tough, sure-handed Anquan Boldin, the guy with plates in his face and just keeps coming. And, if you cover them, there’s this troublesome rookie named Breaston.

Yeah, late in the season and in the playoffs, they took the wraps off Edgerrin James and ran the ball, but it was strategic-type running, done only so that they could go back to what they do best. PASS!

And yeah, they score via the run sometimes, with that big bruiser Hightower. They’ll use him on a third or fourth and one. And then, when it’s first down time again, they’ll ordinarily go back to the pass. Once again, in the playoffs, they did some different things with James, but they usually ran after they had already killed their opponent with the pass.

Incredible as it seems to me, their opponents in the playoffs seem not to have respected their passing game enough. A simple thing like double coverage, nobody really did. Even when Boldin was hurt and there was just Fitzgerald and Breaston, Carolina and Philadelphia let him run free against, usually, a tiny little cornerback.

As timing is so important in the passing game, you’d think one of these teams would have checked these big guys at the line. But no, nobody did. And yeah, I know they put these guys in motion so it’s harder to give them a shot at the line of scrimmage, but, still, there were plenty of opportunities to jam these guys and nobody did.

Another way to stop the pass is via the rush, of course. With Warner, getting a guy in his face is most effective, so he has to scramble, usually with just one hand on the ball, extended, looking downfield. But nobody really seemed to focus a rush up the middle.

Atlanta was just overmatched to my mind. Nobody expected them to win and they didn’t. Surprisingly though, they made the score respectable. Carolina “Delhommed” itself to death while trying to execute the stupidest game plan ever devised by anyone against any team. Oh, and this just in, Carolina just hired a new defensive coordinator.

And Philadelphia? They came as close as anyone to beating them but let themselves fall hopelessly behind before charging back and then fizzling. They weren’t able to stop the pass or run. They blitzed quite a bit too, but they were wild, chancy blitzes, hoping against hope Warner wouldn’t find the open guy. He did.

Okay, Clarice, what is the Steelers ESSENCE? DEEE-FENSE!! Yeah, they run the ball, and yeah, they have Big Ben running around, usually on third and long, finding a receiver. But they’re all about defense. The single most consistent thing about the black and gold is that defense.

Zone blitz? Ever hear of it? Of course you have, everybody has. You couldn’t NOT hear it if you tried. Dick LeBeau? Same thing. Steelers and LeBeau, it’s like love and marriage, ham and cheese (I do go on); you get the idea. Yeah, Mike Tomlin might be quite a coach and a hell of a motivator, but the guy who makes every defensive call is Dick LeBeau.

In the zone blitz, you never know who’s coming, but the great thing about it is there’s ALWAYS somebody back. And that “somebody” a lot of times is going to be one of the finest defensive players in the game, a guy named Troy Polamalu.

Ever hear of him? Of course you have, usually in the same breath as “Reed, Harrison and Polamalu”. While they’d make a hell of a law firm, they make even better defense. That Harrison and Polamalu are on the same team makes things even scarier for the Cards, and hopeful for the Steelers.

A few things make me nervous about this game though. One is that a defense almost never can win the game all by themselves. It needs to rest. That goes for any defense. If all a defense gets is pressure and more pressure, it will break.

That’s why Big Ben will be so important in this game, along with Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes and Willie Parker. Parker might be the most important piece of all in this chess match of a game. Parker’s got to take some pressure off that passing game.

The second thing is that the game pits Tomlin against Whisenhunt, the guy he beat out for the head coaching job in Pittsburgh. There is a revenge factor there, yes, but, even more important, don’t you suppose Whisenhunt knows all about the zone blitz? Ya think he’s heard of Dick LeBeau? Whisenhunt has the advantage of knowing all about the Steelers, offense, defense, and special teams.

The third thing that bothers me is that the Steelers seem to have a little trouble against really good quarterbacks. They’re 0 and 2 this year against the Mannings, for example. They’re 0 and 1 vs McNabb. They only lost one other game, against Tennessee, in a meaningless game.

But I have even more concerns about the Cardinals, and it has to do with team character.
This Cards defense especially has quite a history of lying down. The Steelers never lie down.

The Steelers will get their junk touchdowns. The Cards will score but the Cards won’t be able to run. There will be some three and outs, which will put even more pressure on Warner. The Steelers will take the lead, and when they do, they won’t fold. They are, after all, the Steelers.

Who Cares About Pennsylvania Anyway ?

I did it again. In my last article, I spent paragraph after paragraph espousing the good points of the Arizona Cardinals, the defense especially, as everybody knew their offense was incredible. And then I picked the Eagles to win. What a dummy!

My premise was flawed. It was that McNabb would get the time to throw to his myriad of receivers, as he did against seemingly everybody else. And, if he didn’t get the time, he’d run away. I also thought the Eagles secondary was too good; would never allow Fitzgerald and Boldin to beat them.

So, for 3 weeks running now, I’ve been right on the OTHER game but wrong on the Cards. It goes against my nature to get behind a team that totally quit for much of the second half of the season, a team that let the Patriots tar and feather them on a day I had no alternative game to watch, a team that totally ruined one whole Sunday in my life.

With all of that though, the Eagles could have won the game. I guess if Kevin Curtis could catch everything thrown his way, or if guys like Avant and Baskett could get open a little more often, they’d all be making a lot more money. The Eagles SHOULD have scored more points. But, in the end, of course, it was the Eagles defense that lost the game, or, conversely, the Arizona offense that ultimately won the game.

In the end, the Eagles just had to stop the Cards to go to the Super Bowl. They could not. They couldn’t stop Warner and they couldn’t stop the run in the two chances they had in that Cards final drive to stop them. On third and two, they stopped Hightower for just one, but on 4th and 1, they gave up six yards. Then, on a 3rd and 1 later in the drive, they let Hightower get the corner for another first down. They let Hightower kill them on that drive, as the big Cards bruiser caught the 8-yard TD pass for the clincher.

I say “clincher” but, even at that point in the game, the Eagles could have come back. That they didn’t wasn’t McNabb’s fault. Curtis’s drop of still another pass he should have had on 4th down sealed the Eagles fate.

So much for an all-Pennsylvania final. And so much for my handicapping. I have to admit it was a great game; you couldn’t ask for more. And who cares about Pennsylvania anyway?

The Steelers game went pretty much according to form. In the end, it was just too much Polamalu, too much Steelers defense, and too much of Big Ben. Roethlisberger showed why he was a Number 1 pick, consistently buying time by scrambling and finding open receivers downfield.

Polamalu’s INT was really the game-breaker though. Until then, the Ravens still had a hell of a shot. Flacco threw one more INT later on, when he was forced to pass, but, in my eyes, Flacco was pretty damned good yesterday. If he had some receivers like Santonio Holmes, he would have looked even better.

So much for the Championship Games. Now we can look forward to two full weeks of hoopla, hoopla that I studiously ignore year after year. Besides, there are some big things happening in Jets-land, and pitchers and catchers report to spring training in about a month.

The Jets just selected Rex Ryan as their next head coach. If anybody can put a charge into that moribund Jets defense, it’s Rex Ryan. I have no idea what he’ll be able to pull off on the other side of the ball, but, at the very least, maybe he’ll be able to rein in crazy Schottenheimer and his totally inaccurate old-man of a quarterback.

And, if Favre won’t be coming back (please God), Jets fans will probably be in for some crazy games in the short term, until the management can decide on somebody else. If the Jets could pick up a breakaway threat at wide receiver, things might even start to look rosy, or rosier anyway. Oh, and did I mention that Tom Brady will be back next year?

Best for Jets fans though, is not having to watch Eric Mangini process his way through another press conference. We might just even see a little emotion when his team throws in a clinker or two, or three, as they did this year. Maybe he’ll even do a Singletary and pull his pants down!

The Giants, though, they finally lost Spagnolo. That will be a big hit on the defense, especially if the new guy brings in a totally different scheme. I’m hoping they keep the same scheme. It sure seems to work, and it’ll work all that much better when Osi Umenyiora returns. (This just in-the Giants are promoting Bill Sheridan from within-YAY!!)

What a crazy year though! Miami and Chad Pennington come back from the dead. Two rookie quarterbacks, Flacco and Matt Ryan, lead their teams to the playoffs. Arizona and their chronically inept owners are going to the Super Bowl. Tony Dungy quits, Chucky gets fired down in Tampa. And what about that crazy Wildcat offense!

Pretty soon, we may even be able to turn our thoughts to the basketball season. Not that the NY pro teams are doing anything noteworthy yet, but D’Antoni gives the fans at least some hope and Brook Lopez, the Nets rookie center, is starting to show why he was a Number 1 pick.

In college basketball, there won’t be much going on locally. Seton Hall is getting killed in the very tough Big East and Rutgers, while showing a lot of fight, can’t really be expected to do a lot. Even the Rutgers women’s team is having a tough time in the early going.

Thank God for baseball and the Mets! Francisco Rodriguez, J.J. Putz, a real live relief staff – prospects for a NY World Series.

A Pennsylvania Weekend

On a day like today when it’s about 5 degrees in New Jersey, it’s hard to believe they’re still playing football in the NFL. Both Conference Championship Games will be played on Sunday, of course, and if I had my druthers (I usually don’t), I’d be headed to Phoenix.

It’ll be nice in Phoenix, of course. The Sunday forecast is sunny with temperatures ranging from 44 to 77 degrees. That probably favors Arizona, although it’s hard to imagine that good weather would hurt the guys used to playing in bad. The Eagles are favored by 2 ½ in Vegas at the moment and the over/under stands at a whopping 50 ½. Although I’m not betting, based on this data, the score figures to be sumthin’ like 26-24 Philadelphia.

I’m not going to make the same mistake 3 times in a row. I had bet against Phoenix in both Weeks 1 and 2 of the playoffs and of course lost twice. Not only did I lose but the second game was over early as the Cards absolutely pounded Carolina, making Jake Delhomme look ridiculous while scoring again and again in the first quarter and half.

And Carolina’s game plan, if you could call it that, was stupid! Really, there’s no better way to characterize it. They seemed to be covering Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona’s absolutely stellar wide receiver, with one man (when he was covered at all) all afternoon. On the other side of the ball, they tried to play catch up way too early, passing instead of running, and just played right into the Cards’ hands when Delhomme did his best impersonation of the worst quarterback to ever play the game.

Their first playoff game win, against Atlanta, was more indicative of their team performance. And yet, even in that game, Michael Turner, Atlanta’s ballyhooed running back, looked as if he could never get started, and wound up going east and west all day.

Still though, they did stop the run even if Atlanta looked remarkably bad in their execution of it. They only won by a score of 30-24 in that one and the usual suspects were instrumental in the win, Warner and Fitzgerald and Boldin, but there were also at least some vestiges of a running game with Edgerrin James, and even more surprising was their game toughness, as they forced their way ahead in the third and fourth quarters, scoring on a fumble recovery and runback from Antrel Rolle and then sacking Matt Ryan for a safety.

Toughness was the last thing anyone ever could have expected from the same team that basically just lay down on national TV versus the Pats (the snow angel game). Even in their last game of the year, while they picked up their level of play to beat Seattle, it wasn’t really extraordinary.

Philadelphia, though, knows what to expect. They’ve seen that defensive front, and have already expressed an admiration for Antonio Smith and his friends. When you really take a look at that defense, it’s got some real talent.

Their leading tackler by far is relatively unsung linebacker Karlos Danby while they get pressure on the QB from both linemen and linebackers. The secondary is strong too, and Antrel Rolle seems especially to have come alive in these playoff games. But they’re all playing well, Rogers-Cromartie and Adrian Wilson and Antonio Smith.

Knowing what to expect might be half the battle. The Cards surprised Atlanta and the Panthers too. I don’t think they’ll surprise Philly’s gigantic offensive line, especially in the passing game. McNabb will find targets among his ample bevy of receivers while their running game and junk dumpoffs to Westbrook will continue to work. Arizona will stop the run, but unless they can get to McNabb, it’ll be a long afternoon for the Cards defense.

The Eagles secondary is a good one, featuring Asante Samuel and the headstrong Brian Dawkins, and I’d expect them to have some success, but not as much as in their first game, won by the Eagles 48-20. In that game, the Cards had already wrapped the division. That makes a huge difference.

Expect a slugfest, but Eagles pressure on Warner will make the difference. I don’t believe the Cards will be able to pressure McNabb. He’ll still put up 3TD’s and figure another 2 or 3 field goals from Akers. That’s 30. Even if the Cards play better than they did the first time, I can’t see them being very efficient with Eagles in Warner’s face all day.

It’ll be close, but I’d expect Philly to pull ahead and then shutdown a closing Arizona flurry to make things respectable. The Eagles have taken the measure of Minnesota and the G-Men to get this far, a tougher road than Atlanta/Carolina and they won’t play second-fiddle to the upstart Cards. Make it 30-26 in the Eagles favor. For you gamblers, that’s the Eagles and the “over.”

The Pittsburgh weather will be distinctly worse than Arizona’s, with light snow forecasted and temperatures ranging from 15 to 28 degrees. That won’t bother either team though and it’ll be another defensive gem. This is the third meeting between the two and the Steelers have won both. I expect them to have success a third time, as difficult as that may seem.

The Ravens won’t be able to run against that Steelers defense while I think Willie Parker will do some damage on the other end. The Ravens have come a long way with a rookie quarterback, and they’re bound for a letdown after their big wins over Miami and especially over Tennessee.

I think Roethlisberger will prove the difference between a veteran in a big game and a rookie. Joe Flacco has been great so far, and, as a Jersey guy, it’s hard not to root for him, but this will be his first Conference Championship game.

It’s the year of Pennsylvania. Expect the Steelers to emerge victorious once again over the Ravens by 23-13. (Pitt and “over”).

Super Bowl Scenarios

Technology is good for some things, not many but some. One of those good things is the Yahoo Scenario Generator for the NFL Playoffs. By simply selecting your choice for the winner of each game in Week 16 and Week 17, you get to see its corresponding effect on the playoffs picture.

There are so many different scenarios that it really defies explanation. But by actually seeing the picture change, things become more easily visualized. One thing that became very clear is that, even if the Jets beat Seattle on Sunday, if they should lose to Miami in Week 17, the Jets will be eliminated.

That’s as it should be, I think. If you have to really worry that Seattle will beat them, 3 and 11 Seattle, what chances would they really have against a good team? How exciting would it be to see them smashed in the first round?

Whatever your fan base affiliation, you have to like the upcoming end of the season. A few scenarios yield pleasant surprises. The Eagles, the Bears and even the Falcons could wind up playoffs-bound, McNabb and Forte and Matt Ryan could get their shots, but I don’t expect it.

In the NFC, only the Redskins, Packers, Lions(ho-hum), Saints, and ¾ of the NFC West are out of it. And the games coming up this weekend are terrific matchups, starting on Saturday night with the Ravens-Cowboys matchup, a battle that I expect the Cowboys to win.

In the NFC, my scenario turned out Carolina and the Giants as the 1 and 2 seeds, in that order unfortunately, and then had the Bucs playing the Vikings in Minnesota. The Cowboys would then face the Cardinals in Arizona.

In the AFC, the Steelers and the Titans would get the byes, while the Pats would face the Fish at Miami. In the other wildcard game, the Colts would face the Broncos in Denver.

Taking these predictions a little further, I can’t believe the Vikings would get by the Gruden-led Bucs, no matter that they’d be playing in Minnesota. The Bucs will stop Adrian Peterson, and then squash either Frerotte or Tarvaris Jackson. There’s almost no way the Cards could beat the Cowboys. You could make them play naked in the desert and the Cards would be folded. Bent and mutilated too.

So it’ll be Carolina vs. the lowest seed, Dallas, while the G-Men would face the Bucs again, as they did last year, at Giants Stadium this time. No doubt, there would be the same result.

I do think the Cowboys, who will have been on quite a run by this time, will beat the Panthers, even in Carolina where the Panthers have been dominant. The Boyz are a different team with Romo.

Those results would yield another Cowboys-Giants NFC Championship game at Giants Stadium. I won’t predict the winner of that war at this time. I’ll have to see the manner in which the G-Men play the Panthers this Sunday at home.

I don’t expect them to beat the Panthers this weekend. Yes, Jacobs is back but I’m not convinced that he’ll be all the difference, especially if the Giants offensive line remains banged up. On the other side of the ball, the Panthers running tandem of Williams and Stewart will be enough to keep the Giants off the field for long stretches. Eli hasn’t been super in those scenarios. It’ll be a low-scoring game, a real defensive struggle, and I expect to see quite a few field goals. Call it 19-17 Panthers.

I do expect the G-Men will take the measure of the Vikings in Week 17 though, especially after the indignity of losing their 1 seed at home the previous week. They’ll be ferocious at Minnesota. While they’ll have trouble offensively, they’ll stop the big guy Peterson and make mincemeat of Tarvaris Jackson.

In the AFC, Tennessee just lost the toughest, scariest defensive lineman in the entire league, Al Haynesworth. And VandenBosch is hurt too. Depending on their recoveries, the Steelers definitely become the favorites to make the Super Bowl.

The Patriots are banged up too, but not enough to lose to the Dolphins in Miami in the first wildcard game. The Dolphins will have spent a lot of their energies beating the Jets in the final week while the Patriots will have been coming off easy wins against the defenseless Cards and the coachless Bills.

The Colts should beat the Broncos in Denver but I wouldn’t bet on it, not the way they played last night against the Jaguars. Their running game is very suspect and, in a shootout of a game, I could definitely see the Broncos play inspired ball at home, especially if it snows.

The Broncos have shown progress on defense, and they have the strongest arm in the league in Jay Cutler, the scariest wide receiver in Brandon Marshall. They have good tight ends and are even showing signs of running the ball, be it Pope or Bell or any number of other guys, Young, Hillis et al. The Colts have trouble with any kind of determined running game.

A Broncos win would inject some life into the playoffs. The Steelers and Titans just aren’t that exciting, especially the Titans. The Steelers at least have Big Ben, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes to complement a GREAT defense.

The Pats would face the Steelers in Pittsburgh after the Pats vanquish the Dolphins. This game should be another wipeout of the Patriots, something I always long to see. The Steelers have already crushed the Pats in Foxboro, 33-10.

The Broncos would then face the Titans in Tennessee. I’d expect the Titans to take them, especially after the Broncos great effort the previous week. But if the Broncos can stop the run, anything’s possible.

The Titans or Broncos would then lose to the Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Black and Gold would advance, just too much Palamalu and defense.

So it’ll be the Steelers vs. Dallas or New York. Stay tuned.

Cuffed Hands, Hired Hands, All Hands on Deck!

If there’s anything I care less about than Rutgers football, it would have to be a Thursday night NFL matchup between the Oakland Raiders and anyone. If the powers that be were doing their best to try to turn football fans away, they couldn’t possibly pick worse games to televise.

I mean, gimme a break. Even before the season, somebody should have figured out that the Raiders couldn’t match up with any NFL team, never mind one that, by rights, should have been contending for the AFC Championship.

Oh well, at least it wasn’t an all-night discussion about Plaxico. Or who may have driven him home, or to the hospital, or concealed information from the police. At least I didn’t have to see any more of the biggest Fascist of them all, the too honorable Mayor Bloomberg, chip in with his two cents.

What’s scary to me is that incredibly rich and powerful people can say anything they want and get away with it. That the Mayor of New York can pretty much call the shots, and let any judge within the confines of his city know that the Mayor won’t settle for anything less than a conviction, that he won’t stand for anything less than the maximum sentence.

To me, that’s a much worse offense than shooting yourself in the leg accidentally. Plax’s offense is something that only happens to stupid people. It’s pretty much confined to those brazen enough, or insecure enough, to carry loaded guns around. What the mayor’s doing could be perpetrated on anyone.

He’s tried the case in his mind and he knows what the outcome had better be. He dictated the ending. Hell, not just the ending but pretty much the process too. I’m sure Plax’s life will be hell for a long, long, time and only the lawyers will be the happier for it.

At this point, I’d rather they throw the Mayor’s butt in jail. The charge could be obstruction of justice, or bribing an official of the city government. To me, New York deserves a classier mayor than this small-time Hitler. This is the same guy who had no problem with the sweet stadium deals both the Mets and Yankees perpetrated on the City.

Not that I care that much about Plaxico personally. He could have shot somebody, especially carrying heat in a crowded environment. But I don’t know the facts, really, nor does anyone, not really. That’s what trials are for.

Okay, enough about Benito Bloomberg. I’m glad I don’t live in his city. We have our own problems here in New Jersey, and not the least is Governor Corzine and his band of crooked legislators, corporate lenders, tax leviers and toll increasers.

I really did mean to write about sports today….. honest. I’ll be getting to it soon, I’m sure, but my little diatribe certainly has made me feel a little better, almost as good as that nice warm feeling I got from the news that O.J. Simpson would finally be spending some time in the slammer.

The Giants will be playing the Eagles again. It seems as if they play them every other week. With just 16 total games on the regular season schedule, it seems a little ridiculous to me that we have to play division opponents twice each. This division just isn’t that exciting…. the Redskins, the Eagles and, thank God, the Cowboys.

Even though it’s totally absurd that a Dallas team could finagle its way into the NFC East, and it’s a tribute to the corruption in the NFL, I thank my lucky stars that they’re a good team, and an interesting one too. The Eagles and Redskins just aren’t. Sure…they’ll win their share of games but it will be boring. Clinton Portis and a cloud of dust for the Skins; for the Eagles, Number 5 and DeSean Jackson and…..well, really nobody else.

At any rate, I expect the Giants will rise above all the stupidity this week and put a beating on the Eagles. If they’re still able to get their practices in, they should win the game. These are high-character guys, guys who bring their game each week, or try anyway.

The same, alas, cannot be said for the Jets. The Jets hired hands travel to San Francisco to play the suddenly Singletary-enlivened 49ers. The Jets don’t travel well, at least not to the West Coast. They managed to lose to the same team, Oakland, that got pummeled by the Chargers last night.

The hired hands have agreed, it seems, to play hard this time out, after their pitiful performance against the Broncos last week. Kris Jenkins, at least, has acknowledged maybe a lack of intensity in that loss that probably contributed a great deal to their failure to stop the Broncos running game.

Favre seemed to acknowledge the same thing, albeit in many more words. Hopefully, he’ll save some of those words for the Jets huddle this week. The 49ers are certainly beatable. But the Jets will have to stop the run, something they’re pretty good at doing ordinarily. They’re not so good against the pass, but the Niners don’t bring that much to that phase of their game.

My attention will be focused on the Cowboys-Steelers game. That one should be a real struggle, not really a Dallas “must” win, but close enough, given the rest of their schedule. It’ll be the tough Cowboys offensive line against the relentless Steelers defense, and conversely, a more determined Cowboys defense against a Steelers offense that hasn’t really knocked anyone’s socks off all year, discounting their man-handling of the Pats last week in New England.

The Steelers have lost three times, and once each to the NFC East G-Men and the Eagles. It’d be nice to make it an NFC East clean sweep. Whatever happens in this one, it’ll be a war. Demarcus Ware and Marion Barber are hurt, but it’ll be all hands on deck!

NY Super Bowl My Butt

Thank God the Jets lost to the lowly Broncos yesterday. I was getting a little tired of the all-New York Super Bowl hype I’d been hearing all week ad nauseum. The Jets don’t have the character of a true Super Bowl team as they proved yesterday.

Think of the last few Super Bowl teams. New England, Indianapolis, and our own Giants. QB’s…Brady, Peyton, Eli…..Coaches….Belichick, Dungy, Coughlin. I could go on, traversing every position on the field but the Jets just don’t measure up to those Super Bowl teams.

Not to be unkind but the Jets succumbed to the theories of their own greatness. After beating the Pats and then the Titans, they really thought they were hot. It didn’t occur to them, maybe, that the Broncos were a totally different team, a team with a real live passing game.

It didn’t occur to them that there may have been a big difference from Titans QB Kerry Collins to Broncos QB Jay Cutler. All the way down their respective rosters, the Broncos are superior to the Titans. The Titans are just a running team. Stop the run and you stop the Titans.

The Jets weren’t prepared for any adversity on Sunday. You could tell that from the opening kickoff to the final gun. It was cold and rainy too, and Favre just really wasn’t interested. After all, who would notice a clunker thrown in on the last Sunday in November? It wasn’t a team in the AFC East, they had a cushion in the East on the Pats and the Dolphins, it was time to coast past the Broncos.

Surely, they thought, we could stop their running game. Surely, then they would stop the pass. Well, it didn’t turn out that way, of course, but the Jets didn’t react, even after it became quite apparent that the Broncos weren’t going to be content with just holding the lead in the AFC West. They wouldn’t be making any turnovers this day.

The Jets just weren’t prepared to play. I don’t put the blame on Mangini, although he can’t be held blameless. The same goes for Favre who was pretty dreadful in the rain yesterday. It’s a team responsibility, heart. The Giants have it, clearly. The Steelers have it, the Chargers don’t have it, the Jets don’t have it.

I wouldn’t even mind if the Jets had come back. But they didn’t. They were content to tuck their tails between their knees and go home. They are a seriously-flawed team, not from a talent perspective as from a character point of view.

Chad Pennington, I might add, did not have a character problem and still doesn’t, as evidenced by his bringing the Dolphins back to respectability. His Jets played with a lot of heart but they didn’t have the talent in his time. Now, they clearly have the talent but not the heart. A large part of the heart got shipped to Miami.

You see the lack of character all over the NFL. Plax’s gun incident is a very clear example. How easy it is for a man to go from the heights to the depths when he is conspicuously lacking character. All those physical attributes that make him such a talent on the football field couldn’t save him from the debacle that will be his life from here on.

It’s a good thing that Burress has been such a small part of the Giants’ success this year. The team seems to be carrying on without missing a beat. The beat goes on and it will go on without Burress. But it may not go on against the best teams in the NFL, a team that has a balanced offense and defense, a team such as the Pats were last year before they were beaten by the Giants with Burress.

Is there a team though that meets those qualifications this year? In either the AFC or NFC? I don’t think so.

You could possibly make a case for the Steelers. They have Ben Roethlisberger at QB, and some talent at the receiver position. They have a formidable defense too, and, in the person of Troy Polamalu, they have the most talented player in either league. They can run the ball too, but not as well as a Super Bowl team should. Their offensive line doesn’t seem strong enough to support either part of their overall offense.

Their potential to fulfill that Super Bowl contender position will be seriously challenged next Sunday when the Cowboys come to town. The Cowboys have Romo back, and he does not seem to be the Romo of last year, not from the perspective of character.

Romo seems to have grown into a leader this year, his injury and the subsequent Cowboys demise seems to have challenged his whole being, and his performance in the games since his injury seems to bear that out. He is one of those players who can make everyone around him better, at least this year.

The Colts have always been a team with character. They were hit hard by injuries this year, and seem to be a little slow in coming back from them. Their performance against the Browns yesterday wasn’t that of a playoffs contender though, unless it was the Browns that made them look bad, a Browns team that seems to lift its game against better opponents, as evidenced by their victory over the G-Men this year.

Who else is there? There are Carolina and the Bucs in the AFC, the Panthers with conspicuous talent on both sides of the ball. But I don’t think Carolina has the heart. They are a team much like the Jets. The Bucs may have the character but not as much talent as is required to reach the heights, at least on the offensive side of things.

A team that turned in that performance against the Broncos yesterday could never reach the Super Bowl. Forget about it. They probably already have.