Tag Archives: NFL

Jets Are Slick Like A Fox

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Is it me or are the New York Jets changing the face of the NFL?  What I mean is take a look at the brashness that they are exhibiting as they advance through the playoffs.  A coach in Rex Ryan who almost stoops to the level of his players in saying what is on his mind.  Players that celebrated on the field like school kids after winning a playoff game where no one, including yours truly, didn’t think they’d win.  Yet they persisted and are on their way to the unfriendly confines of Heinz Field where they will play a Steelers team they beat late in the season.

This team really talked a big game and ate it for the late season loss to the Patriots, a 45-3 debacle on Monday night football.  Yet they stayed true to who they were and talked brashly about getting back into the thick of things, through late season wins over Pittsburgh. From Coach Ryan’s pregame declaration that it was personal between he and Belichick, to Antonio Cromartie’s expletive pre-game comments about Tom Brady, this team has been  bellacose, verbose, inflammatory.   LOL Damn have they made these playoffs fun

Then you have the Patriots.  They were above the smack talk, or so we thought, then Wes Welker gets roped into making a reference regarding feet which was an obvious smack toward the much publicized fetish of Rex Ryan.  He subsequently gets benched for the beginning of the game which resulted in the Patriots never getting in sync the rest of the game.  To hear Deion Branch call them classless is like the pot calling the kettle black.  How soon we forget!!  You remember the 2006 AFC Divisional playoff when the Patriots came from behind to beat the San Diego Chargers don’t you?

The Patriots started a near fist fight on the Charger logo when the game was over doing Shawne Merrimans’ “Lights Out” dance??  How about the 2004 AFC Championship when Deion Branch, who on the decisive touchdown, ran a reverse into the endzone waving goodbye to the nearest Steeler defender.  Take your medecine and be quiet….and this is before we start talking about a team that ran scores up on teams in 2007 in the most distasteful fashion.

Lost in all of this is the fact Mark Sanchez is growing up right before our very eyes.  He’s beaten two straight Hall of Famers in Peyton Manning and Tom Brady yet no one has acknowledged that.  The fact that the defense has throttled two offenses and befuddled those same two quarterbacks and nearly knocked Brady into next season.  The Jets coverage was so great on one play ESPN showed Brady had over 8.5 seconds on one play and still couldn’t find a receiver.

That the league’s #2 defense has grown into a fire breathing monster and headed for Pittsburgh. Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson are averaging over 120 yards a game in the playoffs.  Yet now the Jets don’t want to talk.  This could be the worst thing they could do since the focus has been on their antics and not on their X’s and O’s.  I hope they lapse into who they really are.  A trip to the Super Bowl may depend on it.

Thanks for reading

Steelers best Ravens again

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Steelers 31-24

Steelers beat the Ravens in the playoffs again, this time a 31-24 defeat in the divisional round.  The Steelers solidified they are the better of the two by winning a second time against their rival in the playoffs in three years.  What became evident as the game moved into the second half was the difference in the quarterbacks.  Ben Roethlisberger’s stature grew at the critical juncture of the game where Flacco seemed to wilt as though the game was too big for him.   Even when the Ravens were leading his throws were short and were quick dump offs to Ray Rice.  He challenged downfield a few times each throw was late and the defender was right there.  Once Ike Taylor was right in Derrick Mason’s hip pocket and the other Mason had to stop to break up what would have been an interception by William Gay.  Where was Anquan Boldin?

The real issue was the stature of Ben Roethlisberger and how the magnitude of the event doesn’t phase him, in fact he thrives in it.  Anymore late game heroics its time to talk about him in the John Elway mold.  He’s won late games in the regular season, playoffs, and the Super Bowl XLIII pass to Santonio Holmes with seconds left is one of the greatest throws in history.  Yesterday as the Steelers got the ball back, I joked on my facebook page; “If you want to know why I voted Ben Roethlisberger #2 behind Tom Brady, watch this”.  Its become that common place. You saw the confidence in his eyes as he walked onto the field.  The epitome of swagger, and in his body english, spirit, and words engenders confidence in his teammates.  As Coach Tomlin said ‘he doesn’t blink and his teammates follow him’. Enough said…

So where does Baltimore go from here? They need a quarterback exchange.  A trade for Kevin Kolb would be the ideal situation.  The Steelers aren’t about to go anywhere.  They are one of the oldest teams in football but look at this young , speedy recieving corp they are putting together. Ben is still young and most of the defensive stars are in the middle of their career.  Flacco’s confidence hasn’t improved and in a league with Aaron Rodgers coming of age yesterday, Matt Ryan, Sam Bradford, Josh Freeman, Mark Sanchez and all these young quarterbacks coming on, he needed to have shown more improvement. Yet his confidence even hampered the way the Ravens coaches with the play calling.  Ray Lewis is near retirement and new leaders have to emerge and Flacco struggles there as well.  You have to get another quarterback, Ravens I hate to say.

A friend of mine told me that I might be over reacting and then I had to remind him of David Woodley.  A young quarterback for the Miami Dolphins who took his team to Super Bowl XVII. Even though he had his issues that had coach Shula replace him on occasion, he had a lead at halftime yet could only complete 1 pass in the second half in a 27-17 loss.  Now he could have stayed with Woodley, instead he drafted Dan Marino 3 months later.  Know when you have seen enough.  When it comes to Joe Flacco I have.