Wednesday, January 26, 2011

NFL News and Notes

- Yes, the Steelers are back in the Super Bowl. The most surprising part of this game? How easily Pittsburgh was able to run on the Jets defense. Rashard Mendenhall did not have a great day against the Ravens the week before, but in the first half he had over 100 yards against Rex and his boys.

The least surprising part? Watching Phil Simms embarass himself during the Heath Miller non-catch challenge. There was no question that was getting overturned. Perhaps this is why so many coaches are terrible at challenging: they have guys like Phil Simms in the booth advising them when to throw the flag. To be fair to Phil, he did redeem himself on the Sanchez fumble review. Jim Nantz played the sap on that one.

Finally, no one will talk about this because Ben converted the 3rd down, but if the Steelers had run the ball on 3rd down and gotten stopped, Rex would have cost himself about 30 seconds with the time out strategy he used. When Pittsburgh got their first first down of the drive, the clock read about 2:45 and the Jets still had 2 timeouts. Rex called timeout after this play (before 1st down) and the next one (before second down) and in between second and third down, the clock ran down to the 2:00 warning. All this meant that after a 3rd down play that didn't stop the clock, Pittsburgh would have punted around the 1:17 mark and the Jets would have gotten the ball back with about 1:10 to play.

What Rex should have done was let the clock run after the first down (since there was more than 2:40 left Pittsburgh had to run a play), which takes the clock down to the 2:00 warning. Then call timeout after second down and after thrid down. This scenario has Pittsburgh punting with about 1:51 left and the Jets getting the ball back with about 1:40 to play, worst case. Again, in the end this didn't matter as Ben came up with a big play yet again, but if I could see this at the time, someone on the Jets' staff should have too.

- Cutler WAS actually hurt, with an MCL strain (which means partial tear). After even a torn ACL a person can walk on it afterwards. The problem is there's no support in the knee. A strained MCL isn't as bad, but also lessens the support in the knee, possibly putting the ACL, among other things, in jeopardy. Could he have played? We've seen players play on broken legs and ankles, and who knows everything Brett Favre's actualy played with, but if Jay Cutler couldn't plant on his leg a) who knows how effective he could actually be and b) he'd be a sitting duck for the Packers defense to tee off on.

So why did so many current and former players jump at the chance to question Cutler's heart? It's one thing when loudmouths like Deion Sanders or Darnell Dockett call you out, but when leaders like Maurice Jones-Drew or Derrick Brooks do it, it does make one wonder if there actually is something there. Maybe this doesn't point to Cutler's heart, but instead merely the perception of him around the league. Much has been made of Cutler's behavior by his defenders that, he simply doesn't care about the press so of course they all rip on him. But if players around the league are saying this too (players who have to deal with the media as well and likely know not to treat their words as gospel), then its unlikely the media is making all of this up on some sort of witch-hunt. Is that important for a player? Arguable. It is important for a quarterback, someone who is supposed to lead a team? Probably.

- Wes Welker knuckles under to Bill Belichick, Patriots. Welker apologized for his clever press conference where he never directly called out anyone on the Jets, but instead indireactly needled Rex with constant references to feet. It wasn't good enough for Belichick to bench him for a series, wasn't good enough for the Ft. Knox-like with information Patriots to broadcast his benching and why, now they make him apologize for it? (Note: Welker didn't say he was told to apologize during the apology, but come on.) It's one thing to not want your team spouting off uncontrolled (like the Jets), but isn't going too far the other way something to be ridiculed as well? Especially when you come out flat and terrible against the team that's been verbally punking you all week? Is it realistic to take all of the emotion out of your team who you want, well, need, to run through brick walls for you? Belichick is deservedly looked at as a (if not the) top coach in the game, but he misfired on this issue badly.

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