On Purpose and T-Shirts

What more can be said about Sunday? Everything’s pretty much been said. The cagey guys wind up picking the favorites, either Green Bay or the Steelers, and maybe half of the remainder (the non-cagey ones) find some reason to bet on the other two, the Bears and Jets.

Current Vegas Lines for both are 3 ½ points, interesting if only because the Bears are home dogs. That means Vegas thinks the Pack is actually a TD better than the Bears. But they’ll play harder and smarter because they’re home. So they won’t lose by the full touchdown but they’ll still manage to just lose.

Vegas figures the Jets and Steelers are dead even, but since the Steelers get turned on by terrible towels and what-not, they figure the Steelers will be able to eke one out with a field goal (and more) to spare.

Talk about oversimplifying! All I know is that there’re about 90 players sitting home and an equal number recovering from a plane ride to either Chicago or Pittsburgh. (Anybody who’s driven to Pittsburgh knows it’s a 7-hour ride). And they’re all thinking individually about what they’re going to do in this game.

The better players will be thinking about the game. Guys like Polamalu, for one example, will be thinking about the talent on the other side, what they’re likely to run, and what he can do to stop it.

Polamalu’s probably visualizing doing it, whatever it might be. For him, a fumble recovery, an interception, a big run stuff on a crucial third and one….it’s all in a day’s work. He’ll want to look fearsome in his uniform and maybe even wonder how his hair will fall over his shoulder pads.

As for the run-of-the-mill players, some of them will be thinking of the same kinds of things Polamalu thinks about. They’ll be the difference-makers in a game such as the AFC Championship Game. The others, the players thinking about their next back flip, for example, they’ll be the ones making the big mistake. At best they’ll be invisible.

Oh, there are always one or two who are so super-talented that it really doesn’t matter what they think about. They’ll somehow manage on athletic ability alone, that plus a huge concern for their future value as players.

And that might be the biggest motivator of them all. The Jets have several players in the same boat too, and they’ve all been pretty great….Holmes, Edwards and Taylor to just name a few.

I really don’t imagine that any players worry about the team’s legacy. If they did though, they’d know the Jets are tied with the Browns for the worst record in AFC Championship Games at 0-3. They’d know that the Jets are tied with the Chiefs for longest period of futility in this game, currently 41 years. They’d know the Steelers have the most appearances in this game and the most wins.

That and a couple of bucks will get them on the subway.

I don’t think any of that history would motivate me, whether I were on the good Steeler end or the horrible Jets end. Each team’s roster changes a million times over the years and each player, if he’s smart, will just worry about his particular team on this particular day, and the fellow lining up across from him.

It hasn’t mattered so far that even some of the Jets core players really don’t have contracts extending beyond this year. For example, Nick Mangold, David Harris and D’Brickashaw Ferguson could conceivably be gone next year.

But it hasn’t affected those players in a bad way. That much is for sure. Mangold has been eating people up, Harris made that key interception of Brady and D’Brickashaw just keeps on D’Stroying some pretty big and pretty fast people.

No matter what happens this Sunday, Jets fans shouldn’t count on any repeat performances. This Jets team becomes pretty moribund without LaDainian, D’Brickashaw, Mangold, Santonio, Braylon, Jason Taylor and David Harris.

Just don’t buy the tee-shirt(s). Except for Sanchez, Shonn Greene maybe, Cotchery (and I only mention him for that magnificent run and hop for about 65 total yards after it looked as if the Patriots were coming back) and perhaps a guy like Shaun Ellis, who also seemed to be growing out of Brady’s hip this past Sunday, there won’t be many tees that hold their present value.

Does any of this stuff matter? I don’t know but it might even be “advantage Jets”. If there has ever been a team assembled to win one particular game, it is this group.

I’d think that situation lends itself toward narrowing everyone’s focus, all these great players on loan, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jason Taylor, Santonio Holmes, Antonio Cromartie, Braylon Edwards…..it’d sure be a shame to squander their hopes for making it to a Super Bowl.

The Jets couldn’t cover last year, they picked up Cromartie; their receivers didn’t get open, they got Edwards and Holmes; they didn’t make enough big plays, enter Jason Taylor; and they had trouble scoring touchdowns, enter LaDainian, a regular scoring machine. Just ask any fantasy player.

Some of these Jets may have had enough money and just wanted a shot at a ring. Some of them screwed up in other venues and needed a chance to re-establish their value. They don’t necessarily see any future dollars coming in, not unless they can win just one more game.

Just one more game will get them into view on an even larger stage, the Super Bowl in Big D. Can you imagine? I’m quite sure these Jets do.

This game, unlike the Colts and Patriots victories, won’t be decided by any particularly brainy game plan. Both these coaches are too smart and too experienced to blow the game on strategy alone. If the plan isn’t working, they’re experienced enough to just change it. And quickly.

No, this game will hinge on motivation and purpose. And these Jets’ have had theirs clearly defined….for quite some time.

A Prescription For Violence

I know this is supposed to be about sports but does anything feel better than finally not being sick anymore? Everything matters again, at least a little bit anyway. I just wish things were going my way a little bit more.

I mean…the Giants are going nowhere but home and the Jets will be facing the Colts. Except for the great Ohio State victory over Arkansas last night, all the Northern and Eastern teams got beat in the Bowl Games. Teams I rooted for, like the Rams to beat the lowly Seahawks, went down in a flurry of dropped passes.

And there’s no baseball news to get excited about, not if you’re a Mets fan. If you’re a Mets fan, the only question about who’ll win the NL East is whether it’ll be the Phillies or the Braves. The latest Mets acquisitions have been strictly lower-level at best.

But maybe the most depressing thing of all for a defensively-minded football fan is that I can’t fathom the Jets giving the Colts a run for their money. They’ve got the really accurate Manning, the one who figures everything out at the line of scrimmage and just picks a defense apart, especially the ones being tricky.

I remember feeling the same way about the Niners offense back in Joe Montana’s heyday. The Niners threw all those short passes that required no time at all to throw, using precision and timing to frustrate the best defenses of the day.

But our very own Giants team did beat that Montana-led offense. Guys like Leonard Marshall and Lawrence Taylor wouldn’t let Montana finish the game and just creamed those Niners receivers all day long.

You just can’t assume anything in football. The favorites tend to win most of the time but any of those locks can go down in a wave of violence and momentum. Arkansas showed that last night before finally succumbing to a brilliantly-executed zone blitz.

I don’t expect the Jets to beat the Colts. That is, not unless they just do the following:

1. Knock the crap out of anything they see in blue.

2. Hit those wideouts and tight end right off the line. Mess up that timing. If you give up something along the way (and it’s almost inevitable but just once would be acceptable), so be it.

3. Go for the 3 and outs. Get that defense off the field.

4. Don’t try to outsmart Peyton Manning.

5. Swipe at that ball when it makes sense. Otherwise just make the hard tackle.

6. Run the ball. Use Joe McKnight if necessary.

7. Protect Sanchez, use max protect if necessary, he only sees one or two receivers anyway.

8. Continue with step 6.

Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes seeking redemption won’t beat the Colts, Mark Sanchez’s suddenly good shoulder won’t make the difference, Rex Ryan’s making it a personal battle won’t carry the day. What’ll beat the Colts is a 60-minute football ass-kicking.

The Jets need to feel insulted going in there. They have to be pissed off. They should remember that Peyton didn’t recognize any personal battle with Rex. He wasn’t aware of it. Rex was below his radar on awareness. The Jets have to hit this guy. Clearly.

That ballyhooed offensive line has to perform, Ferguson and Mangold and Woody have to show up. If they think in terms of long drives and clock-killing and 3 and outs, they can outperform those guys in blue. They can hold the ball forever. LaDainian Tomlinson isn’t chopped liver. This is the game for which he was picked up in the first place.

The game plan is so important. It should be conservative.

For Reggie Wayne there is Darrelle Revis and for Garcon there is Cromartie. There will be no Austin Collie or Clark to worry about. There is every reason to believe the Colts passing game can be held in check.

It goes without saying (and I’ve tried up to now not to say it), the Jets have to stop any sniveling Colts attempts to run the football. I mean, it’s Addai and Rhodes, not Arian Foster or, dare I say it, LaDainian Tomlinson. And hell, isn’t that what Rex Ryan really knows how to do?

Peyton Manning can get flustered. The Saints proved that last year. If you keep the pressure on Manning (or really just about anyone not wearing a big S on his chest), he can go bust. Of course, the Saints were a lot smarter than this Jets defense has yet shown itself to be. But they definitely gave Manning less time to think as the game wore on, and yet they still covered everybody.

The Jets can’t be the Saints but they can be a smarter Jets. Rex Ryan can’t try to be Sean Payton but he doesn’t have to be Herman Edwards either. He has to rely on his “best team in the AFC”, play conservatively and not make the big mistake. He has to concentrate on making the first down in three attempts, and, if not, punt.

Peyton Manning has to feel the pressure on every pass attempt. Let him know there will be no downs off when he can stand back there and survey the field. There must always be someone coming for him. But, in addition to the pressure of every down, Manning has to be made to feel the pressure of the game situation.

If the Jets play the physical game they’re noted for and keep the pressure on Manning and that precision-passing game, they can be assured of either staying close or maintaining a lead very late into the game.

If they make no obvious mistakes, if they can get Brad Smith free just one time, or maybe even get another safety out of a Jason Taylor, if they can just “out-football” that Indianapolis team for 60 minutes, that Colts team can be beaten.

I’d love to see it, to make Peyton Manning “aware” of Rex Ryan and the Jets.