thedrifter
01-12-09, 03:00 PM
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:17PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
Sixth sense: Two bottom seeds find way to championship games
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- We all could have envisioned a Baltimore-Pittsburgh championship game materializing. But Philadelphia-Arizona? With the Cardinals hosting? Not quite the Rays making the World Series, but the way Arizona was playing in December, it's close.
Eli Manning had just been intercepted again by the Eagles with three minutes left in New Jersey late Sunday afternoon, and Philadelphia's 23-11 upset of the Giants was sealed. Right about then, Ken Whisenhunt's cell phone rang in his living room in Arizona.
"You are not only playing in the NFC Championship game next Sunday,'' I said. "You are hosting the NFC Championship game next Sunday.''
"Isn't that great?'' he said. "Fantastic. Four, five weeks ago, who would have believed it?''
Think of the headlines from the weekend. That's the biggest one. A team with 28-, 21- and 40-point losses since Thanksgiving hosting a league championship game. But the other headlines are pretty strong too:
• McNabb, yanked in November, leads Eagles to fifth title game this decade.
• Flacco, no Fluke-o, the rookie QB wins his first two playoff games.
• Will third Steelers-Ravens meeting of year be another Texas Steel Cage Match?
• Eagles, Steelers in a possible Keystone State Super Bowl.
• Two top seeds combine for 21 points, go down with a whimper.
• Giants, winners of 4 of last 5 last year, lose 4 of last 5 this year.
• Did Eli Manning's easy-to-decipher cadence cost the G-Men their season?
• Sixth seeds 4-0 after two playoff weekends... all, of course, on the road.
•Kurt Warner bids to be second QB to pilot different teams in Super Bowl.
It's weird, it's odd, it's what happens in the NFL every January. Flacco and Derrick Mason and Santonio Holmes and Larry Fitzgerald and Darnell Dockett and LaMarr Woodley and Brodrick Bunkley are bursting into our living rooms, and we don't know them, but we really like the stories they're writing.
****
• The Arizona bounceback started in a stone-cold sober locker room in Foxboro three weeks ago.
Whisenhunt, searching for the right thing to say after being pulverized 47-7 by the Patriots, knew his team was on the verge of erasing all the goodwill and good feeling that winning the division championship of a weak division had created. He told me he said to his team, "Anybody who wants to play in the playoffs better show up in practice this week.'' And he formulated plans to put his players in pads for training camp-like practices. It's a Steeler thing to do, and Whisenhunt learned the Steeler way well as the offensive coordinator there before taking the Cardinal job.
Remember the day of that Cardinals-Patriots game? A snowy, windswept day in Massachusetts, and it took three hours for the de-iced Cardinal charter to get off the ground in nearby Providence after the game because of weather. The team sat on the plane, stewing in its juices. Then, because of severe headwinds, the plane had to stop in Minneapolis in the middle of the night to refuel. A trip of five-and-a-half hours took 11. The Cards landed in Phoenix at 5 a.m. Mountain Time.
"Miserable,'' said Whisenhunt, describing the trip. "Stuck on a plane, living with that horrible performance, digesting it for that long. But I think it actually helped from the standpoint of getting everyone to think about it and understand what a sense of urgency we needed to have. As I look back, it was a blessing in disguise.''
The players understood why they had to put the pads back on; it was part penalty and part back-to-basics. Most teams go padless late in the season, and some very rarely wear them once camp breaks, in an effort to keep players fresh in a long season. Whether it was the pads or the sense of desperation or the public humiliation the team took for getting taken to the woodshed three times, something worked.
Arizona beat Seattle in the suddenly not-so-meaningless season finale, and in the two playoff games, the defense has come alive. The same D that allowed 27 points a game during the season stoned Atlanta and Carolina and helped create a plus-seven turnover ratio. "The mental part of it has worked for us,'' Whisenhunt said. "When everybody's telling you you're the worst team ever to make the playoffs, it should make you angry. And our guys were angry.''
I was one of those ripping the Cards. I said they were the worst division winner since the league went to 12 playoff teams in 1990. And they were. They're not now. They've woken up and their wounded pride has taken over. Plus, Jake Delhomme was their best friend Saturday night.
"Keep picking against us,'' Whisenhunt said.
I might. But I have eyes. I might not.
• The Eagles just physically handled the Giants when it counted.
Not the most amazing thing of the weekend: Jake Delhomme did throw to two Cardinals for every Panther.
Still, the most amazing thing of the weekend: WithBrandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw healthy, the Giants couldn't get a yard on the ground when their season depended on it.
Philadelphia led 20-11 when the three game-clinching stops happened in the fourth quarter:
1. 12:39 left, fourth-and-six inches, Giants' 44: Eli Manning sneaks up the gut, but never makes an inch. Tackles Brodrick Bunkley and Mike Patterson submarine the line. Loss of six inches.
2. 7:24 left, third-and-two, Giants' 47: Ward takes a direct snap and sprints around right end. There's Juqua Parker to flatten him. Gain of zero.
3. 6:40 left, fourth-and-two, Giants' 47. Jacobs burrows into the gap between center and right guard. Bunkley fills the hole and can't be moved back. Stewart Bradley cleans up. Gain of one, though it looked like no gain from the replay.
David Akers' 20-yard field goal two minutes later made it a 12-point game with four minutes to go. Ballgame.
In the regular season, the Giants rushed for 5.0 yards a carry, for 157 yards a game, both league-bests. The Giants did rush for 138 yards Sunday, but they were surprisingly feeble when it counted. The offensive line is tremendous, the runners emerging as stars. And the way they ran with the season on the line ... shocking. Like the first 16 and a half games this year were a collective mirage. Afterward, I asked Bradley what happened. He said the Giants' backs did a great job using their blocks and sliding off them earlier in the year, and the Eagles were able to better fill the gaps in short yardage this game. And he had an interesting theory: Blame Manning's cadence.
"We had a pretty good idea of his cadence,'' Bradley said on the bus ride back to Philadelphia. The happy bus ride, from the sounds in the background. "When you play a guy three times in a season, you can pick up certain things. The tempo of his voice, how he puts his head up when he's getting ready to snap the ball ... it helped us today.''
It's back to the future for Manning ... and don't try to tell a real Giants fan the loss of Plaxico Burress didn't have much to do with the total collapse of the defending champs.
Manning's quarterback ratings in the five games since the suspension of Burress for carrying a concealed, unregistered pistol in New York: 73.5 (loss), 43.9 (loss), 94.8 (win), 76.4 (loss), 40.7 (loss).
Manning's completions of 30 yards or more in those five games: 2.
Touchdown receptions in those five games by backups who stood to gain from Burress' absence (Domenik Hixon, Sinorice Moss, Mario Manningham): 1.
Giants GM Jerry Reese raised the possibility Sunday that Burress could return to the team "if everything goes right.'' I remember covering the team in the '80s and being surprised how the Giants bent over backwards to keep Lawrence Taylor around when he was a constant source of irritation for partying and drug use. But the late Wellington Mara loved the passion Taylor played with and was indebted to him for helping the team win two Super Bowls. He felt Taylor needed a guiding hand in life. It wouldn't be surprising if this new front office was similarly indebted to Burress and gave him one last chance -- if he could avoid being sent to jail for possession of the handgun.. If he's not back, Manning needs to campaign for a big receiver who can get open downfield. Period. Of course, the Giants did themselves no favors by allowing their most important offensive weapon on a windy, frigid day -- Brandon Jacobs -- to touch the ball on only 19 of 61 offensive plays. There were complete series where he never appeared on the field. And he carried it twice in the last 14 minutes of the first half. When the Giants look back at this game they'll wonder, why didn't we use this guy more.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
• Joe Flacco for president! Recall Obama!
Two weekend scenes from Nashville:
1) On the fourth floor of the team hotel Friday night, coach John Harbaugh was talking about how much he liked his team right now. Attitude, work ethic, excited to be practicing, warrior stuff. Just all fired-up about his team. And the quarterback. "You know what I told him this week?'' Harbaugh said. "I don't think he'd mind me saying it. I told him, 'You're going to be the difference in this game. We're going after these guys with you. Don't back down.' ''
And after Flacco played his second mistake-free game of the playoffs -- he has no picks, fumbles or sacks in the Ravens' 2-0 playoff run -- I told him what Harbaugh said, and asked if it made him a little uneasy. Like, You don't have to put any more pressure on me than I already feel, coach.
"Not at all,'' he said in the winning Ravens' locker room. "I know this is not going to sound right, but I want the chance to lose the game. I want the game in my hands, on my shoulders. Every game.''
He had the game there on third-and-two from the Baltimore 32 with 2:32 left in a 10-10 tie. And thanks to an extra second on the play clock (the officiating crew should have flagged Flacco for delay-of-game, but they let the play go), he hit Todd Heap for 23 yards. Matt Stover's field goal won it.
2) In a corner of the locker room, Harbaugh said this after the game: "Joe's not a rookie. In fact, I would not trade him for any quarterback in football right now.'' Come on, I said. Peyton Manning? "No!'' he said. Tom Brady? "No! I'll take Flacco! Did he look like he was hesitant in any way with the game on the line? No!''
As Bill Parcells is wont to say, "Let's not put him in Canton yet.'' He's a 44-percent passer in his two playoff games. But Flacco's cool, and you never get the sense the game's too big for him.
"I've said this to a few people,'' Heap said Saturday night. "You look in his eyes at big moments, and you try to read his eyes, and there's nothing to read. He's always the same.''
• The Steelers have gotten healthy at the right time. I wouldn't call them unstoppable, but I would call them powerfully multidimensional.
The difference between the Steelers today and the Steelers of a month ago? Health. Specifically that of Willie Parker, who rushed 27 times for 146 yards, who outran the Chargers 146-15, and who will be the best running back on the field Sunday when the Steelers play in the AFC Championship game.
Last two Steelers games: Parker, 50 carries for 262 yards (5.3 per rush). And if you watched how offensive coordinator Bruce Arians called this game, you got a good view of how he'll try to call the championship game. The Steelers ran Parker on 11 of the first 18 offensive snaps of the second half. "I'm finally finding my niche and getting back healthy and back 100 percent and back doing stuff I've been used to doing,'' Parker said after the game. That's how they put up 35 points on a hot San Diego team Sunday at Heinz Field. Add the deep-strike capability Pittsburgh has now in Santonio Holmes and the downfield accuracy of Ben Roethlisberger, who just missed on a couple of long fingertippers, and the Steelers look like the best team in football right now.
• Two rules will get looked at by the Competition Committee beginning next month: whether to enhance what happens when the play clock gets to zero, and the overtime rule.
Talking to league people in the know over the past few days -- and this weekend, in the wake of the Saturday play-clock debacle the Ravens-Titans game -- it's clear these things will get an airing by the rules-making body. And not just because Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher got victimized by the play-clock going to zero, the officials not calling a delay-of-game penalty, and the Ravens completing a crucial 23-yard third-down pass that led to the winning field goal.
The consensus is it's unlikely anything will be done to add another electronics layer to the game, like a buzzer signifying the clock has expired. It's more likely the official in charge of making the call, the back judge, is going to be told he should anticipate the clock expiring and be ready to make the call as soon as it hits zero. It's absurd that Robert Lawing wasn't in position to blow his whistle sometime during the full second (at least) between the time of the expiration and the time Baltimore snapped the ball.
Now for overtime. One Competition Committee member told me that as soon as there is sufficient evidence that the current system might be outmoded, and giving too much of an advantage to the team that won the coin flip to start overtime, they may open up discussion about a new system that would be more equitable and not as influenced by the coin flip to start overtime.
Here's some evidence, which Jim Nantz of CBS -- a proponent to change the rules to give both teams at least one possession in overtime -- was kind enough to assist with:
• In 1974, when the overtime rule was put in place, teams kicked off from the 40-yard line, making touchbacks -- and thus starting drives from the 20-yard line -- easier to achieve. Today, the average drive start is the 27, in part because the kickoff has been pushed back to the 30-yard line.
• Kickers have become so much more accurate in recent years, and that's impacting the end of overtime games far more than in the early days of the system. From 1974-78, the first five years of the overtime system, field-goal kickers made a combined 62 percent of their kicks. Four teams in 1974 were under 50 percent in field-goal accuracy. In the last five years, kickers have made 82 percent of their field-goal attempts. Quite simply, the game has changed.
In the mid-70s, if a team got the ball to start an overtime drive at its 25, it would have to drive about 55 yards to be in comfortable field-goal range, just inside the 40. Today, if a team gets the ball at the average-drive starting point of the 27, driving 43 yards would give it about a 48-yard field goal attempt ... easily within range of every kicker in the league.
• In the first five years of the system, there were 34 overtime games. The team that won the coin flip to start overtime won 15 of those games -- just 44 percent of the games. In the last five years, there have been 72 overtime games, and the team that won the coin flip won 44 of the games, which is 61 percent. Moreover, 28 of the 72 games ended on the first possession.
So in the past five years, 39 percent of the games ended with only one team getting the ball. "I call those 'top-of-the-10th' victories,'' Nantz said. "If four out of 10 games in overtime end with one offense never getting a chance to touch the ball in overtime, it's a grossly unfair system.''
Add to that the fact that 61 percent of the games in the past five years ended with the coin-flip winner winning the game sometime in overtime, and you've got a good reason to at least entertain the thought of opening up overtime to this simple solution: On the second possession of overtime, once the opposing team fields a punt or kickoff, the game is now in sudden death.
I agree. The league has to do something about the inequity of overtime.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
The Fine Fifteen
1. Pittsburgh (13-4). Most anticipated championship games of this decade: 1. Indy-New England, 2006; 2. Pittsburgh-New England, 2004; 3. Giants-Green Bay, 2007; 4. Pittsburgh-Baltimore, 2008; 5. New England-Indy, 2003. Next week's Steelers-Ravens matchup won't have the shiniest records, but it will have more intensity than any of the other four championship games on the list-- and that is saying something.
2. Baltimore (13-5). "We're the team you don't want to play right now,'' says Ed Reed. Right now? When exactly, this season, has anyone wanted to play this rolling ball of butcher knives?
3. Philadelphia (11-6-1). I think the Week 12 benching was good for McNabb. He's sure of himself, he's out to prove something and he's not afraid.
4. Tennessee (13-4).LenDale White backhanded compliment of the week. "We will beat them nine out of 10 times, but this time things didn't fall our way," White said. "I'm not taking anything away from Baltimore. I lose graciously.''
5. New England (11-5). Staying or leaving, Mr. Pioli?
6. New York Giants (12-5). "I thought our running game would give us some shorter distances to accomplish on third down,'' said Tom Coughlin after the 23-11 loss
7. Arizona (11-7). How do you know where to rank this team right now? I don't. But I'm putting them a little higher than I ever thought I would this postseason. The Cards are cashing in on scoring chances, allowing just 259.5 yards a game in the playoffs, playing tough (3.5 per carry) against the run and competing like this might be the last chance any of them ever have to do anything great in this game.
8. San Diego (9-9). Nothing to be ashamed of. Now the Darren Sproles free-agency clock starts ticking.
9. Indianapolis (12-5). Tick, tick, tick. The move is yours, Tony Dungy. All signs point to Dungy retiring, but we should know for sure in a matter of hours.
10. Carolina (12-5). Suddenly, the Panthers might have a quarterback need. And their first choice in the draft won't be 'til sometime in the late fifties.
11. Miami (11-6).Chad Pennington threw seven interceptions in 438 attempts in the regular season, and four in 38 throws against Baltimore. Let's not make that stat larger than life going into the offseason. Pennington deserves to be the opening-day quarterback for Miami in September, with Chad Henne continuing in apprenticeship behind him.
12. Atlanta (11-6). The Michael Vick day of salary-cap reckoning is coming. If the Falcons cut or trade him this offseason (what else can they do?), he counts as $7.11 million on their 2009 cap. If they keep him, he counts as $15.43 million. Now there's a tough call.
13. Minnesota (10-7). I see where Brad Childress has opened up the quarterback competition for next year. Good idea. But don't bury TarvarisJackson yet.
14. San Francisco (7-9). Happy trails to you, Aaron Salkin. You have been a heck of a PR man for the Niners, and you will be very good somewhere else.
15. Houston (8-8). Give the Texans a bookend pass-rusher to go along with Mario Williams and they could threaten Indy and Tennessee for the division title in 2009.
Quote of the Week I
"It's 10 years for me, 13 for Dawk, 13 for Runyan, 11 for Tra. This is something that is storybook. Five NFC Championships in 10 years. That kind of shows the trust and the coaching we have with Andy.''
-- Donovan McNabb of the harmonious Eagles -- himself, Brian Dawkins, Jon Runyan, Tra Thomas-- advancing to their fifth conference championship game together.
Quote of the Week II
"We picked a bad day to have a bad day.''
-- Carolina coach John Fox, stating the obvious after a shocking 33-13 loss to the Cardinals, a game in which the Panthers entered as heavy favorites.
Quote of the Week III
"You want to know the 13 scariest words in professional football this year? 'For more on the Cowboys, let's go to Ed Werder at Valley Ranch.' ''
-- Ira Kaufman, pro football writer for the Tampa Tribune.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
The Awards Section
Offensive Player of the Week
Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona. He's becoming a gentlemanly Randy Moss, right down to wearing the gloves on his facemask when the game's been decided. He's so fluid, so smooth, such a competitive receiver with the ball is in the air, and so physically gifted that if he gets even a slight edge on a corner it's a sure catch. In the divisional playoff rout of the Panthers, he caught eight balls for 166 yards with one touchdown, a gorgeous catch-and-run-and-extend-the-left-hand-with-the-ball just to the right cone at the goal line, on a perfect dive. There aren't many players in history who could have scored that touchdown. In the two playoff wins, Fitzgerald has 14 catches for 265 yards.
Defensive Players of the Week
Brodrick Bunkley and Mike Patterson, DTs, Philadelphia. For years, Andy Reid and Tom Heckert have gotten razzed for taking so many offensive and defensive linemen high in drafts. Well, the strategy of loading up on the Big Uglies has won the Eagles a trip to the NFC Championship. Patterson and Bunkley, picked in the first round of the 2005 and '06 drafts, respectively, provided the bedrock for the Eagles' tremendous run-stopping in the fourth quarter, eliminating all chances of the Giants getting back in the game after falling behind 20-11.
How'd they stop one of the game's best running combinations on two fourth-quarter, fourth-down surges, and on three third-and-shorts? "We got low, and we stayed low, and we didn't let them [the Giants offensive linemen] get under our pads,'' Patterson said on a joyous Eagle team bus as it sped down the Jersey Turnpike after the game. Not a sexy quote. But on Sunday, a rock-ribbed run defense never let Brandon Jacobs put a stranglehold on this game, and that was the winning insurance for Philadelphia.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Santonio Holmes, WR, Pittsburgh. With an assist to quarterback/drop-kicker Ben Roethlisberger, who backed up the Chargers at their own 9 with a perfect left-footed (surprise!) 25-yard punt. The Chargers got only five yards on the ensuing possession, setting up Mike "52-Yard Net'' Scifres' first punt of the day. Holmes fielded it at the Pittsburgh 33, and when the Charger punt-coverage team strung out way too close to either sideline, Holmes traversed a snowy field 67 yards for the tying touchdown. He made a nifty move at the San Diego 10, stopping almost in his tracks while San Diego wideout Legedu Naanee (one of the best names in any sport) made a diving tackle try. Holmes stepped over him and pranced into the end zone.
Coach of the Week
Ken Whisenhunt, head coach, Arizona. "We're working hard to try to win respect,'' Whisenhunt said after the 33-13 rout of the Panthers. It's coming, quickly. Whisenhunt did something coaches very rarely do this late in the season -- he had his players put on pads and bang each other, just to remind them how you actually win in this game. Horrors! How can a coach beat players up in late December! One who learned the game under Joe Gibbs and Bill Cowher could do it, easily. Whisenhunt is a pragmatist above all, and he knows what buttons to push to get the most out of his team.
Goat of the Week
Jake Delhomme, QB, Carolina. Has any quarterback had a worse playoff game than Delhomme's five-interception, one-lost-fumble disaster Saturday night against Arizona? Unlikely. Brett Favre, in the 2001 playoffs, threw six picks against the Rams, but in that game, Favre was just throwing balls up throughout the second half trying to hit the lottery. Delhomme went 17 of 34 for 205 yards, with one garbage-time touchdown and the five picks, and only one of the turnovers came with the game legitimately out of hand. Here's the amazing thing: You watch all five of those interceptions, and you'll see that every one was thrown into something like double-coverage. "To put into words, I can't,'' Delhomme said. "I am at a loss for words. I had a hand in six turnovers ... I should get the blame. It's inexcusable.''
Stat of the Week I
The Cardinals lost all five regular-season games in the Eastern Time Zone this year, by an average of 20 points.
The Cardinals won their sixth game in the Eastern Time Zone in the playoffs Saturday night, by 20 points.
Stat of the Week II
What happened to home-field advantage in the playoffs? From 2001 to 2004, home teams were 27-13 (.675). As this chart shows, road teams have gone from winning one-third of the time from 2001-04 to being nearly .500 since.
.
My three guesses? One: Coincidence. Two: It has something to do with quarterbacks on the road becoming so accustomed to playing entire games with silent snap counts, practicing them during the week and playing many games totally with the silent count.Joe Flacco has played two entire playoff games with the silent count. Three: "Parity,'' Eagles linebacker Stewart Bradley told me Sunday night. "Look at the teams that almost didn't make it who are in the championship games next week.''
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
What I Learned About Football This Week That I Didn't Know Last Week
Vince Young gives off about the worst body language of any backup quarterback I've ever seen.
I was in the Titans' locker room Thursday for 45 minutes and never saw a sign of Young, who lockers next to Kerry Collins and a couple of stalls down from third-stringer Chris Simms. Collins and Simms enjoyed the time in media-access, talking to an out-of-town reporter or two about their team, their old teams, Brett Favre, the Browns hiring Eric Mangini and anything else that came up. Nice, easy conversation. No Young. That's par for the course, one Titans source told me. Young's not one to pal around or shoot the breeze much with Collins.
On Saturday, a few minutes before the opening kickoff of the playoff game against Baltimore, there was Young, the once and perhaps future quarterback king of Tennessee, sitting alone on the bench. Out on the field, loosening up between the Martina McBride rendition of the anthem and the start of the game, was Collins, throwing to a receiver with Simms throwing the ball back.
Before the opening kickoff, Collins and Simms talked together, with Young still on the bench. And often during the game -- except when the three quarterbacks gathered between series with offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger -- Young was away from the action, just watching in his Titans' coat. Maybe there were times when he suggested something to Collins or Heimerdinger, but I never saw it.
When Collins took Young's job early in the season, I wrote that Young was rebuffing Collins' attempt to take him under his wing and show him how to rebound from adversity and become a better player. From what I saw this week, Young's still not willing to listen. A shame. It'll be interesting to see how the Titans, with the sudden arrival of the offseason, handle the Young story. I'd be surprised if they didn't aggressively try to re-sign Collins, whose contract is up. Where would signing Collins leave Young? My feeling is the Titans will look to move him. That's going to be the big story of the Tennessee offseason.
Salary cap-wise, the Titans are under no immediate pressure to move Young. The third-year quarterback's 2009 cap number is a very palatable $4.6 million, but it jumps to $14.2 million in 2010. And if they either cut him or trade him in 2009, he would count as $7.74 million on their cap in 2009 because of the pro-rated signing bonuses and guarantees that would come due immediately. The Titans haven't reached the point of no return with Young the way they did with Pacman Jones a year ago; it's not even close. But they might figure that a $7.74-million cap hit would be a small price to pay to be rid of the Young distraction if they can re-sign Collins.
One big factor in Young's future: Owner Bud Adams, a Texan through and through, loved the pick of Young in the 2006 draft. I doubt he'd be happy with giving up on Young after three star-crossed years. Would he draw a line in the sand and say to Jeff Fisher and GM Mike Reinfeldt, "You can't trade or release Young?'' He might.
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
How The Mighty Have Fallen Dept.:
Four miles from Giants Stadium, at the Sports Authority in Clifton, N.J., last Wednesday, in the midst of Giants playoff fever, Reebok had several racks of NFL jerseys selling for $80. You could find an Eli Manning jersey or Brandon Jacobs or Amani Toomer or four or five other Giants for $80. On another rack were jerseys of other NFL players -- Ray Lewis for $80, Vince Young for $80, even Chad Johnson for $80.
To the side was a clearance rack. On the rack were about 75 jerseys, all number 17 for the Giants. Plaxico Burress.
For $19.87 apiece.
At this store deep in Giants territory, you can buy the jersey of the backup quarterback of the Tennessee Titans for four times the price of the jersey of the man who caught the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl for your team 11 months ago.
Enjoyable/Aggravating Travel Note of the Week
Back on the road again. What a great weekend. Not just because of the football, but because I discovered Nashville. I never knew what a gem of a city it was.
A stupid gripe first: I don't want to say it was too hot on my Newark-to-Nashville Continental flight the other morning, but the mini-Kit Kat in my lunch snack couldn't be opened because the chocolate was percolating inside. "Little hot in here,'' I mentioned to the flight attendant as we crossed over Morgantown. "You might be able to turn the temperature down a little?''
"It was so cold coming in this morning!'' the pleasant fellow said.
Yes? And that applies to the current Equatorial Guinea climes in here exactly how?
"I will try,'' Cheery-man said, "but by the time the temperature changes, it will be time to get off the plane!''
I see ...
On Friday, sandwiched around a trip to see the Ravens at their downtown hotel, I did two of the most enjoyable things in Peter King Roadtrip History. My wife made the trip with me, and we visited the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's estate 13 miles northeast of Nashville. Incredibly educational trip, particularly in learning about slavery -- how slaves were housed and treated most notably. Jackson had about 150 slaves on his property. Families of six or eight lived in tiny log cabins, bunking almost wherever there was room.
Just as interesting was the tradition of dueling. In 1806, a man names Charles Dickinson accused Jackson of cheating on a horse race, and Jackson challenged him to a duel at 24 paces. Dickinson fired first, and a bullet lodged in Jackson's chest; it could never be removed and caused him some health problems for the rest of his life. Then, by duel rule, Jackson got the next shot; he killed Dickinson with it.
Seeing Loretta Lynn sing "Coal Miner's Daughter'' at the Ryman Auditorium in the Grand Ole Opry ... well, I can only imagine it's something like someone seeing the Cubs-Cards at Wrigley Field on a sunny July afternoon. And then doing a show-finale duet with Vince Gill ... very, very cool, and that comes from someone with no love for country music.
"Ladies and gentlemen,'' said Gill after the 74-year-old Miss Loretta sang, "you just witnessed a real treat. Legends like Loretta are the reason I got interested in this music in the first place.''
Wonderful acoustics. Pew seating because the Ryman is a former church. All in all, a great night.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think you voracious Eagles fans can be happy about the present this morning, obviously, but also about next April. Think back to draft day last April. Your team loved DeSean Jackson, and some would argue that with his explosive return and receiving ability, he'd have been worth the 19th overall pick in the draft. But no. The Eagles traded the 19th pick to Carolina for second- and fourth-round picks in '08 and the Panthers' first-round pick in '09 ... and then still got Jackson with the 49th overall pick, in the second round.
Jackson, obviously, has given the Eagles first-round value, producing more offense in 18 games so far than Freddie Mitchell produced in a career. Now the Eagles will have two picks in the second half of round one ... three overall in the first two rounds. Not bad for a team playing in its fifth NFC Championship in the last eight seasons.
2. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 19:
a. I know why Cleveland owner Randy Lerner made the call to hire Eric Mangini. He's a smart, young guy who will do well with in his second chance and who didn't deserve to get fired from the Jets. If I were Lerner, I'd have taken the time to meet Jim Schwartz and Rex Ryan, particularly since Mangini wasn't going anywhere.
b. Detroit looks like it's coming down to Schwartz or Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.
c. Around the Titans over the weekend, they were already thinking of Schwartz as a goner.
d. If Frazier is interviewing with the top Rams brass in Los Angeles today, he must be pretty far down the road with them.
e. I don't care about the Pacman Jones story on ESPN over the weekend, because it's a previously vetted story. But if the worst thing Jones has done in the last year -- since he landed in Dallas -- is joust with his bodyguard in a men's room, I don't think he should be banned for life.
f. The 9-7 Cards or the 9-6-1 Eagles in the Super Bowl. What a country.
g. Adam Schefter says Mike Nolan is going to run Denver's defense under Josh McDaniels. Good fit.
h. John McDonough's photo of Larry Fitzgerald's touchdown against the Falcons in this week's Leading Off section of Sports Illustrated is one of the coolest football photos you'll ever see. While Fitzgerald is catching the ball between two Falcons, you can see the image on the JumboTron. The old and the new, right there.
i. How amazing is it that Fitzgerald made the exact same catch, minus the looming JumboTron, at Charlotte on Saturday night?
3. I think it's not oversimplifying the Denver decision to hire Josh McDaniels to say that Pat Bowlen sees McDaniels as Mike Shanahan redux. Bowlen got to know Shanahan, a former small-college quarterback and defensive back, as a 32-year-old offensive assistant for the Broncos in 1984. McDaniels, 32, is a former small-college quarterback and wide receiver. Shanahan helped John Elway and Steve Young become great NFL players. McDaniels has had the same hands-on influence with Tom Brady and Matt Cassel. In his last year in the NFL, Elway called Shanahan "brilliant.'' In November, Cassel told me that McDaniels was "brilliant.'' Starting to see a trend?
4. I think this is what I liked about Week 19:
a. Keith Bulluck burst through the line on the last play of the third quarter and tripped up Willis McGahee for a loss of three. Seems like he's been doing that ever since Jeff Fisher coached this team.
b. Titans played a needlessly chippy game in the first quarter and a valiant one for the last three.
c. Mark Clayton is a tougher receiver than I thought. Must be learning from Derrick Mason.
d. Here's how long Matt Stover has been kicking clutch field goals for the Browns/Ravens: The man came into Cleveland in 1991, the same year Bill Belichick did. Eighteen years with the same franchise!
e. Something got into that Arizona run defense. It's really, really good, and Darnell Dockett is playing like a light Ted Washington.
f. Justin Tuck at 78 percent, or whatever he is, is better than 95 percent of the other defensive linemen in football.
g. Most underrated Eagle: Quentin Mikell.
h. Brilliant, brilliant third-and-20 conversion by Donovan McNabb, moving well in the pocket, down 11-10 in the third quarter, until he found Jason Avant for a 21-yard gain. I have been critical of McNabb for not coming up big in some big games, but that was the definition of clutch.
i. Free-agent the Eagles absolutely should not lose: Brian Dawkins. That was his 200th game Sunday, and he played like it was his 20th.
j. The Pittsburgh offensive line was as under-fire as any position group in football in August. It's turning into an asset in January. Congratulations, Larry Zierlein. As the line coach, you've never wavered in how you've coached this group.
k. Darren Sproles, 11 carries, 15 yards. That sends a chill or two up the spine of the Ravens' backs.
5. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 19:
a. The Titans benefited from a Ravens offside on their first PAT attempt of the day Saturday, putting the ball at the Baltimore 1. Why not go for two?
b. Saturday was not a day for the ploddingLenDale White. Titans used him too much, and I say that knowing Chris Johnson got hurt.
c. Third quarter, third-and-10, Baltimore ball at its 20. Tied, 7-7. Joe Flacco fits a bullet into a tight hole, right into Todd Heap's gut, with two defenders around him. Huge play. And Heap drops it. Very, very big play in the game. Good thing for the Ravens it didn't cost them later.
d. There's no way Jake Delhomme will get over that game 'til March. April, maybe.
e. Teams need to bump Larry Fitzgerald in the five-yard bump zone. Too many free-releases for him Saturday night in Charlotte.
f. In the last month, Eli Manning has looked a lot like the November 2007 Eli, not the January 2008 Eli.
6. I think the Pro Football Hall of Fame Final-17 announcement the other day was as interesting for who didn't make the cut as who did. If you don't follow the minutiae of the Hall selection process, the 44 voters had to cut the list of 25 semifinalists (plus Senior Committee candidates Bob Hayes and Claude Humphrey, who are automatically in the finals) to 15. So 10 men had to go. In order, here are the most notable losers in the process:
a. Punter Ray Guy. Surprising that Guy, who has a lot of support in the room, didn't beat out Cortez Kennedy, an interesting pick for the Final 17.
b. Defensive end Chris Doleman. Doesn't bode well for Michael Strahan. Look at their numbers. They're twins, and you could argue that minus the Super Bowl ring, they're historically the same.
c. Owner Art Modell. With Ralph Wilson and Paul Tagliabue getting on the final list but still being longshots for the Hall, it bodes ill for Modell's chances in the next few years.
d. Running back Terrell Davis. Obviously his short career is working against him. I'd be surprised if he ever gets in.
e. Defensive end Charles Haley. In line behind Richard Dent and Derrick Thomas.
f. Cornerback Lester Hayes. I still think he's got a decent shot one of these years.
g. Linebacker Kevin Greene. If Dick LeBeau ever gets in, which he should, obviously, he'll speak highly of Greene, who rushed the quarterback well in several different defenses.
h. Special-teamer Steve Tasker. No surprise he didn't make the finals. Just sad. We have to realize sometime that special teams is a major part of the game (not a third, the way some people say, but a significant fifth), and Tasker was the best ever to play them.
i. Quarterback Ken Stabler. No surprise here.
j. Running back Roger Craig. Ditto. Probably belongs in the Hall of Very Good.
7. I think Florida quarterback Tim Tebow made the right decision to stay in school, only because so many college players leave early and later regret it. But I think it's nuts to hear the speculation that he might not have been picked until the third or fourth round had he entered the draft. That's where Mel Kiper put him the other day. I'm not blaming Mel; there's lots of that talk out there. But to suggest he's some sort of maladroit (there's your PKWOTW) and marginal prospect is demeaning and downright wrong. I will bet a lot of money that when Tebow comes out, he won't get past New England in the second round; as much as Bill Belichick is around Urban Meyer and that program, I bet he's become a huge Tebow fan as a football player -- quarterback, goal-line back, something.
I agree with Meyer's assessment: "When I hear people say, 'I wonder if he can play in the first round,' then I don't know what football is. I don't have any idea what happens in the NFL.'' You tell 'em, Urban. We've got DanOrlovsky and Shaun Hill and Tyler Thigpen starting in the NFL, and we're debating if a 6-2, 240-pound determined winner should be picked among the top 64 picks in the draft? Interesting.
8. I think I need to make a few comments/clarifications about the All-Pro team I ran in the mag and online last week, and the one I filed as one of 50 voters for the Associated Press' annual All-Pro team. I'll run an e-mail from a Philadelphia reader, Scott Clayton, to get us started.
"Peter, if I wasn't a huge fan of your reporting skills you could never inspire so much frustration from me. Let me first state the facts, which I am sure you well know. Four players (Ryan Harris, Harvey Dahl, Stewart Bradley and Fred Robbins) received their only All-Pro vote on your ballot. Five others (Wes Welker, Madison Hedgecock, Dallas Clark, Terrell Suggs and Josh Cribbs) received less than six votes overall, one of which came from you. The AP results show that one voter chose only one running back, when two were allowed. We can only assume this was you. Also, since the votes for Suggs were listed in the outside linebacker column, we can assume that your votes were for a 3-5 alignment.
"I understand the interest in every sportswriter (I used to be one) to make a splash and promote discussion. That's fine when it's reserved for picks and preseason awards and informal polls and such. When the same thinking creeps into voting come awards time, it is called irresponsible. I may have wanted to vote for Bill Murray in the presidential election, but I didn't. You are essentially saying with your vote that you feel you know something that 49 of your peers do not. If that is what you truly believe, that's cool, but since you admittedly cringed when Harvey Dahl got blown up repeatedly [against Arizona], it shows a lack of faith in your own selections. I can't begin to break down individual offensive line play from what I get in a TV broadcast, but I imagine that if Chris Snee suffers through a bad game on Sunday, the 32 people that voted him an All-Pro will be able to confidently chalk it up to just that, a bad game, rather than realizing their gambit was exposed.''
Fair enough. Let's go over a point or two, and then Scott's issues one by one.
a. In my AP ballot, there are two differences from the team I used for SI. I reluctantly filed a ballot with two running backs -- Adrian Peterson and DeAngelo Williams -- to the AP, and used only Peterson on the team I ran in SI and on SI.com. I say "reluctantly,'' because I think it's foolish that the AP asks us for two running backs and a fullback, seeing that no team ever plays two running backs and a fullback in the lineup at once, unless it's some freaky formation.
There are other spots on the AP team that ask for more than the normal number of players; the AP wants four defensive linemen and four linebackers, but that's understandable because some teams use a 4-3 base defense and others a 3-4 base defense. So I wasn't the one voter who picked only one running back.
Secondly: I voted for Peppers on the AP ballot at defensive end and Suggs on the SI team. This vote semi-tormented me. Suggs split time between three positions on the front seven -- defensive end, outside linebacker and inside linebackers; Baltimore coach John Harbaugh told me he didn't know the spot Suggs actually played the most snaps. I filed the AP team on the day after the regular season ended, with Peppers as a starting end and Suggs not on the team. But this bothered me because I thought Suggs was one of the best four outside rushers, and one of the most versatile defensive players, by far, in the league. So I made a few calls that week, asking people I trusted about Suggs versus Peppers, and when I filed my team for SI four days later, I gave the defensive end slot to Suggs, figuring he was a man without a position, but figuring he played a significant amount at defensive end.
b. I haven't done this forever, but I've changed to now voting as much as I can (except in cases like Suggs') for right and left, free and strong. I'll vote for a right and left tackle, right and left guard, etc. The AP suggests that, and I think it's smart. It seems that most of the AP voters don't feel the same way, which is their prerogative. Of the 100 possible votes for offensive tackles, for instance, the top three vote-getters --Jordan Gross (34), Michael Roos (32) and Ryan Clady (14) -- combined for 80 votes, and all three are left tackles.
c. I vote primarily on what I see, supplemented by strong opinions from people I've trusted on pro personnel over the years -- mostly on offensive linemen. One of the things I've respected over the years on Paul Zimmerman's teams is he might have been the lone wolf out there on a few guys (Brian Blados at guard in Cincinnati in 1984 and Jason Brown at guard in 2007 both stand out), but he went with his feeling after watching a lot of football. I have no problem being the only voter to tab three or four guys.
d. Now for some of Scott's specific points on players. I don't consult the other voters to see who they're voting for, so my vote has nothing to do with anything other than the guy at the position who I thought was best in 2008. Ryan Harris at right tackle? I'd make the pick 100 more times. When you allow one sack per 274 pass-drops for your quarterback, which Harris did, that's an All-Pro season.
Harvey Dahl did make me cringe against Arizona, but the definition of cringing is not "I want that pick back," and Dahl gave the Falcons a mean, brutish attitude up front, leading the way for one of the best rushing seasons by a back in the NFL this year.
There are a bunch of great defensive tackles, but Robbins is long overdue to be recognized for his versatility (5.5 sacks three straight years, excellent run-stopping). The Eagles now don't have one quarterback -- Brian Dawkins -- on defense; with Bradley, now they have two, and his athleticism has really made the Eagle D better, as he showed catching a speedier Derrick Ward from behind on a little swing pass early in Sunday's game, preventing a Giants' TD. I thought he had a better year than Jon Beason.
Wes Welker's caught more balls than anyone in football over the last two years, and he's done it playing with two quarterbacks when everyone on defense knows he's going to be the target 10 to 12 times every game. Dallas Clark is Peyton Manning's security blanket; his number aren't as good as Tony Gonzalez's, but to me his value is higher, partially because the Colts win and the Chiefs don't.
Hedgecock is a better blocker than La'Ron McClain, and fullback is almost exclusively a blocking position. There are lots of great return men, and Cribbs is both a stellar returner and incredible all-around special-teamer. That may not be what you wanted to hear, Scott, but that's how I saw it.
e. The All-Pro team is not scientific. It can't be. It turns out this year that mine differs a lot from my peers'. There were some players who got votes -- Walter Jones, Jason Peters, Terence Newman -- who I felt had bad years because of injuries or performance. But other voters saw it differently. Who's to say who's right? Makes the world go round.
9. I think you probably all saw, late in the third quarter at Pittsburgh, the weird call on the muffed punt that Pittsburgh was able to advance for a touchdown. It's an archaic rule, but it was officiated properly. The rule is that on a kickoff or punt, the ball has to be possessed by the receiving team in order for a turnover to be possible. So if the receiving team touches the ball without gaining possession, the kicking team can recover it and take possession -- but the ball can't be advanced. I inquired about the rule Sunday and was told there's never been much of a movement to have it changed.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Mitch Albom, you wrote a tremendous, moving, stirring story about Detroit in Sports Illustrated this week. The end, with the reaction of the theater crowd to Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino,'' fit the story so well. Congratulations. That's a must-read for fans of the teams of your city -- and for fans of the American city. Any city.
b. Speaking of American cities, read Jim Dwyer's "About New York'' column in Saturday's New York Times about the Yankees' request to the city for $370-million in additional taxpayer financing, on the heels of already getting $942 in prior financing; in addition, the city has committed $660 million to replace the open spaces used by the next stadium and for parking improvements. On the heels of a superb ESPN report last summer on the vanishing play spaces for Bronx youth because of the stadium, this is more of the same. For improvements to the video and sound systems in the stadium, the Yankees want $34 million. This is a team that just spent $423 million on three players? What unmitigated gall.
c. Isn't Hollywood nice. Finally letting "Gran Torino'' in a theater near you. And me.
d. Coffeenerdness: Hard by the campus of Vanderbilt is a Starbucks on West End Avenue, and if you went in there over the weekend, you saw (presumably) Vanderbilt students come in by the dozens, looking like they just got out of bed, some in pajama pants, and I think about half the girls in Uggs boots. Starbucks has it figured out -- or did, until they started building stores across the street from each other. Get kids hooked on tasty caffeine early, and it'll last a lifetime.
e. These Uggs are everywhere.
f. My one and only piece of wisdom for the week: Go to the Grand Ole Opry before you die. Preferably in downtown Nashville. It is a slice of Americana that there's far too little of in our lives.
g. We were talking in the press box before the game Saturday about the decline of newspapers, with the news that the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer are on their deathbeds. And one of my peers -- I forget whom -- said, "It's amazing. I thought what's happened to the business in the last year would have taken about 10 years.''
h. If you're an aspiring journalist, learn to love the web.
Ellie
GO EAGLES
Sixth sense: Two bottom seeds find way to championship games
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- We all could have envisioned a Baltimore-Pittsburgh championship game materializing. But Philadelphia-Arizona? With the Cardinals hosting? Not quite the Rays making the World Series, but the way Arizona was playing in December, it's close.
Eli Manning had just been intercepted again by the Eagles with three minutes left in New Jersey late Sunday afternoon, and Philadelphia's 23-11 upset of the Giants was sealed. Right about then, Ken Whisenhunt's cell phone rang in his living room in Arizona.
"You are not only playing in the NFC Championship game next Sunday,'' I said. "You are hosting the NFC Championship game next Sunday.''
"Isn't that great?'' he said. "Fantastic. Four, five weeks ago, who would have believed it?''
Think of the headlines from the weekend. That's the biggest one. A team with 28-, 21- and 40-point losses since Thanksgiving hosting a league championship game. But the other headlines are pretty strong too:
• McNabb, yanked in November, leads Eagles to fifth title game this decade.
• Flacco, no Fluke-o, the rookie QB wins his first two playoff games.
• Will third Steelers-Ravens meeting of year be another Texas Steel Cage Match?
• Eagles, Steelers in a possible Keystone State Super Bowl.
• Two top seeds combine for 21 points, go down with a whimper.
• Giants, winners of 4 of last 5 last year, lose 4 of last 5 this year.
• Did Eli Manning's easy-to-decipher cadence cost the G-Men their season?
• Sixth seeds 4-0 after two playoff weekends... all, of course, on the road.
•Kurt Warner bids to be second QB to pilot different teams in Super Bowl.
It's weird, it's odd, it's what happens in the NFL every January. Flacco and Derrick Mason and Santonio Holmes and Larry Fitzgerald and Darnell Dockett and LaMarr Woodley and Brodrick Bunkley are bursting into our living rooms, and we don't know them, but we really like the stories they're writing.
****
• The Arizona bounceback started in a stone-cold sober locker room in Foxboro three weeks ago.
Whisenhunt, searching for the right thing to say after being pulverized 47-7 by the Patriots, knew his team was on the verge of erasing all the goodwill and good feeling that winning the division championship of a weak division had created. He told me he said to his team, "Anybody who wants to play in the playoffs better show up in practice this week.'' And he formulated plans to put his players in pads for training camp-like practices. It's a Steeler thing to do, and Whisenhunt learned the Steeler way well as the offensive coordinator there before taking the Cardinal job.
Remember the day of that Cardinals-Patriots game? A snowy, windswept day in Massachusetts, and it took three hours for the de-iced Cardinal charter to get off the ground in nearby Providence after the game because of weather. The team sat on the plane, stewing in its juices. Then, because of severe headwinds, the plane had to stop in Minneapolis in the middle of the night to refuel. A trip of five-and-a-half hours took 11. The Cards landed in Phoenix at 5 a.m. Mountain Time.
"Miserable,'' said Whisenhunt, describing the trip. "Stuck on a plane, living with that horrible performance, digesting it for that long. But I think it actually helped from the standpoint of getting everyone to think about it and understand what a sense of urgency we needed to have. As I look back, it was a blessing in disguise.''
The players understood why they had to put the pads back on; it was part penalty and part back-to-basics. Most teams go padless late in the season, and some very rarely wear them once camp breaks, in an effort to keep players fresh in a long season. Whether it was the pads or the sense of desperation or the public humiliation the team took for getting taken to the woodshed three times, something worked.
Arizona beat Seattle in the suddenly not-so-meaningless season finale, and in the two playoff games, the defense has come alive. The same D that allowed 27 points a game during the season stoned Atlanta and Carolina and helped create a plus-seven turnover ratio. "The mental part of it has worked for us,'' Whisenhunt said. "When everybody's telling you you're the worst team ever to make the playoffs, it should make you angry. And our guys were angry.''
I was one of those ripping the Cards. I said they were the worst division winner since the league went to 12 playoff teams in 1990. And they were. They're not now. They've woken up and their wounded pride has taken over. Plus, Jake Delhomme was their best friend Saturday night.
"Keep picking against us,'' Whisenhunt said.
I might. But I have eyes. I might not.
• The Eagles just physically handled the Giants when it counted.
Not the most amazing thing of the weekend: Jake Delhomme did throw to two Cardinals for every Panther.
Still, the most amazing thing of the weekend: WithBrandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw healthy, the Giants couldn't get a yard on the ground when their season depended on it.
Philadelphia led 20-11 when the three game-clinching stops happened in the fourth quarter:
1. 12:39 left, fourth-and-six inches, Giants' 44: Eli Manning sneaks up the gut, but never makes an inch. Tackles Brodrick Bunkley and Mike Patterson submarine the line. Loss of six inches.
2. 7:24 left, third-and-two, Giants' 47: Ward takes a direct snap and sprints around right end. There's Juqua Parker to flatten him. Gain of zero.
3. 6:40 left, fourth-and-two, Giants' 47. Jacobs burrows into the gap between center and right guard. Bunkley fills the hole and can't be moved back. Stewart Bradley cleans up. Gain of one, though it looked like no gain from the replay.
David Akers' 20-yard field goal two minutes later made it a 12-point game with four minutes to go. Ballgame.
In the regular season, the Giants rushed for 5.0 yards a carry, for 157 yards a game, both league-bests. The Giants did rush for 138 yards Sunday, but they were surprisingly feeble when it counted. The offensive line is tremendous, the runners emerging as stars. And the way they ran with the season on the line ... shocking. Like the first 16 and a half games this year were a collective mirage. Afterward, I asked Bradley what happened. He said the Giants' backs did a great job using their blocks and sliding off them earlier in the year, and the Eagles were able to better fill the gaps in short yardage this game. And he had an interesting theory: Blame Manning's cadence.
"We had a pretty good idea of his cadence,'' Bradley said on the bus ride back to Philadelphia. The happy bus ride, from the sounds in the background. "When you play a guy three times in a season, you can pick up certain things. The tempo of his voice, how he puts his head up when he's getting ready to snap the ball ... it helped us today.''
It's back to the future for Manning ... and don't try to tell a real Giants fan the loss of Plaxico Burress didn't have much to do with the total collapse of the defending champs.
Manning's quarterback ratings in the five games since the suspension of Burress for carrying a concealed, unregistered pistol in New York: 73.5 (loss), 43.9 (loss), 94.8 (win), 76.4 (loss), 40.7 (loss).
Manning's completions of 30 yards or more in those five games: 2.
Touchdown receptions in those five games by backups who stood to gain from Burress' absence (Domenik Hixon, Sinorice Moss, Mario Manningham): 1.
Giants GM Jerry Reese raised the possibility Sunday that Burress could return to the team "if everything goes right.'' I remember covering the team in the '80s and being surprised how the Giants bent over backwards to keep Lawrence Taylor around when he was a constant source of irritation for partying and drug use. But the late Wellington Mara loved the passion Taylor played with and was indebted to him for helping the team win two Super Bowls. He felt Taylor needed a guiding hand in life. It wouldn't be surprising if this new front office was similarly indebted to Burress and gave him one last chance -- if he could avoid being sent to jail for possession of the handgun.. If he's not back, Manning needs to campaign for a big receiver who can get open downfield. Period. Of course, the Giants did themselves no favors by allowing their most important offensive weapon on a windy, frigid day -- Brandon Jacobs -- to touch the ball on only 19 of 61 offensive plays. There were complete series where he never appeared on the field. And he carried it twice in the last 14 minutes of the first half. When the Giants look back at this game they'll wonder, why didn't we use this guy more.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
• Joe Flacco for president! Recall Obama!
Two weekend scenes from Nashville:
1) On the fourth floor of the team hotel Friday night, coach John Harbaugh was talking about how much he liked his team right now. Attitude, work ethic, excited to be practicing, warrior stuff. Just all fired-up about his team. And the quarterback. "You know what I told him this week?'' Harbaugh said. "I don't think he'd mind me saying it. I told him, 'You're going to be the difference in this game. We're going after these guys with you. Don't back down.' ''
And after Flacco played his second mistake-free game of the playoffs -- he has no picks, fumbles or sacks in the Ravens' 2-0 playoff run -- I told him what Harbaugh said, and asked if it made him a little uneasy. Like, You don't have to put any more pressure on me than I already feel, coach.
"Not at all,'' he said in the winning Ravens' locker room. "I know this is not going to sound right, but I want the chance to lose the game. I want the game in my hands, on my shoulders. Every game.''
He had the game there on third-and-two from the Baltimore 32 with 2:32 left in a 10-10 tie. And thanks to an extra second on the play clock (the officiating crew should have flagged Flacco for delay-of-game, but they let the play go), he hit Todd Heap for 23 yards. Matt Stover's field goal won it.
2) In a corner of the locker room, Harbaugh said this after the game: "Joe's not a rookie. In fact, I would not trade him for any quarterback in football right now.'' Come on, I said. Peyton Manning? "No!'' he said. Tom Brady? "No! I'll take Flacco! Did he look like he was hesitant in any way with the game on the line? No!''
As Bill Parcells is wont to say, "Let's not put him in Canton yet.'' He's a 44-percent passer in his two playoff games. But Flacco's cool, and you never get the sense the game's too big for him.
"I've said this to a few people,'' Heap said Saturday night. "You look in his eyes at big moments, and you try to read his eyes, and there's nothing to read. He's always the same.''
• The Steelers have gotten healthy at the right time. I wouldn't call them unstoppable, but I would call them powerfully multidimensional.
The difference between the Steelers today and the Steelers of a month ago? Health. Specifically that of Willie Parker, who rushed 27 times for 146 yards, who outran the Chargers 146-15, and who will be the best running back on the field Sunday when the Steelers play in the AFC Championship game.
Last two Steelers games: Parker, 50 carries for 262 yards (5.3 per rush). And if you watched how offensive coordinator Bruce Arians called this game, you got a good view of how he'll try to call the championship game. The Steelers ran Parker on 11 of the first 18 offensive snaps of the second half. "I'm finally finding my niche and getting back healthy and back 100 percent and back doing stuff I've been used to doing,'' Parker said after the game. That's how they put up 35 points on a hot San Diego team Sunday at Heinz Field. Add the deep-strike capability Pittsburgh has now in Santonio Holmes and the downfield accuracy of Ben Roethlisberger, who just missed on a couple of long fingertippers, and the Steelers look like the best team in football right now.
• Two rules will get looked at by the Competition Committee beginning next month: whether to enhance what happens when the play clock gets to zero, and the overtime rule.
Talking to league people in the know over the past few days -- and this weekend, in the wake of the Saturday play-clock debacle the Ravens-Titans game -- it's clear these things will get an airing by the rules-making body. And not just because Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher got victimized by the play-clock going to zero, the officials not calling a delay-of-game penalty, and the Ravens completing a crucial 23-yard third-down pass that led to the winning field goal.
The consensus is it's unlikely anything will be done to add another electronics layer to the game, like a buzzer signifying the clock has expired. It's more likely the official in charge of making the call, the back judge, is going to be told he should anticipate the clock expiring and be ready to make the call as soon as it hits zero. It's absurd that Robert Lawing wasn't in position to blow his whistle sometime during the full second (at least) between the time of the expiration and the time Baltimore snapped the ball.
Now for overtime. One Competition Committee member told me that as soon as there is sufficient evidence that the current system might be outmoded, and giving too much of an advantage to the team that won the coin flip to start overtime, they may open up discussion about a new system that would be more equitable and not as influenced by the coin flip to start overtime.
Here's some evidence, which Jim Nantz of CBS -- a proponent to change the rules to give both teams at least one possession in overtime -- was kind enough to assist with:
• In 1974, when the overtime rule was put in place, teams kicked off from the 40-yard line, making touchbacks -- and thus starting drives from the 20-yard line -- easier to achieve. Today, the average drive start is the 27, in part because the kickoff has been pushed back to the 30-yard line.
• Kickers have become so much more accurate in recent years, and that's impacting the end of overtime games far more than in the early days of the system. From 1974-78, the first five years of the overtime system, field-goal kickers made a combined 62 percent of their kicks. Four teams in 1974 were under 50 percent in field-goal accuracy. In the last five years, kickers have made 82 percent of their field-goal attempts. Quite simply, the game has changed.
In the mid-70s, if a team got the ball to start an overtime drive at its 25, it would have to drive about 55 yards to be in comfortable field-goal range, just inside the 40. Today, if a team gets the ball at the average-drive starting point of the 27, driving 43 yards would give it about a 48-yard field goal attempt ... easily within range of every kicker in the league.
• In the first five years of the system, there were 34 overtime games. The team that won the coin flip to start overtime won 15 of those games -- just 44 percent of the games. In the last five years, there have been 72 overtime games, and the team that won the coin flip won 44 of the games, which is 61 percent. Moreover, 28 of the 72 games ended on the first possession.
So in the past five years, 39 percent of the games ended with only one team getting the ball. "I call those 'top-of-the-10th' victories,'' Nantz said. "If four out of 10 games in overtime end with one offense never getting a chance to touch the ball in overtime, it's a grossly unfair system.''
Add to that the fact that 61 percent of the games in the past five years ended with the coin-flip winner winning the game sometime in overtime, and you've got a good reason to at least entertain the thought of opening up overtime to this simple solution: On the second possession of overtime, once the opposing team fields a punt or kickoff, the game is now in sudden death.
I agree. The league has to do something about the inequity of overtime.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
The Fine Fifteen
1. Pittsburgh (13-4). Most anticipated championship games of this decade: 1. Indy-New England, 2006; 2. Pittsburgh-New England, 2004; 3. Giants-Green Bay, 2007; 4. Pittsburgh-Baltimore, 2008; 5. New England-Indy, 2003. Next week's Steelers-Ravens matchup won't have the shiniest records, but it will have more intensity than any of the other four championship games on the list-- and that is saying something.
2. Baltimore (13-5). "We're the team you don't want to play right now,'' says Ed Reed. Right now? When exactly, this season, has anyone wanted to play this rolling ball of butcher knives?
3. Philadelphia (11-6-1). I think the Week 12 benching was good for McNabb. He's sure of himself, he's out to prove something and he's not afraid.
4. Tennessee (13-4).LenDale White backhanded compliment of the week. "We will beat them nine out of 10 times, but this time things didn't fall our way," White said. "I'm not taking anything away from Baltimore. I lose graciously.''
5. New England (11-5). Staying or leaving, Mr. Pioli?
6. New York Giants (12-5). "I thought our running game would give us some shorter distances to accomplish on third down,'' said Tom Coughlin after the 23-11 loss
7. Arizona (11-7). How do you know where to rank this team right now? I don't. But I'm putting them a little higher than I ever thought I would this postseason. The Cards are cashing in on scoring chances, allowing just 259.5 yards a game in the playoffs, playing tough (3.5 per carry) against the run and competing like this might be the last chance any of them ever have to do anything great in this game.
8. San Diego (9-9). Nothing to be ashamed of. Now the Darren Sproles free-agency clock starts ticking.
9. Indianapolis (12-5). Tick, tick, tick. The move is yours, Tony Dungy. All signs point to Dungy retiring, but we should know for sure in a matter of hours.
10. Carolina (12-5). Suddenly, the Panthers might have a quarterback need. And their first choice in the draft won't be 'til sometime in the late fifties.
11. Miami (11-6).Chad Pennington threw seven interceptions in 438 attempts in the regular season, and four in 38 throws against Baltimore. Let's not make that stat larger than life going into the offseason. Pennington deserves to be the opening-day quarterback for Miami in September, with Chad Henne continuing in apprenticeship behind him.
12. Atlanta (11-6). The Michael Vick day of salary-cap reckoning is coming. If the Falcons cut or trade him this offseason (what else can they do?), he counts as $7.11 million on their 2009 cap. If they keep him, he counts as $15.43 million. Now there's a tough call.
13. Minnesota (10-7). I see where Brad Childress has opened up the quarterback competition for next year. Good idea. But don't bury TarvarisJackson yet.
14. San Francisco (7-9). Happy trails to you, Aaron Salkin. You have been a heck of a PR man for the Niners, and you will be very good somewhere else.
15. Houston (8-8). Give the Texans a bookend pass-rusher to go along with Mario Williams and they could threaten Indy and Tennessee for the division title in 2009.
Quote of the Week I
"It's 10 years for me, 13 for Dawk, 13 for Runyan, 11 for Tra. This is something that is storybook. Five NFC Championships in 10 years. That kind of shows the trust and the coaching we have with Andy.''
-- Donovan McNabb of the harmonious Eagles -- himself, Brian Dawkins, Jon Runyan, Tra Thomas-- advancing to their fifth conference championship game together.
Quote of the Week II
"We picked a bad day to have a bad day.''
-- Carolina coach John Fox, stating the obvious after a shocking 33-13 loss to the Cardinals, a game in which the Panthers entered as heavy favorites.
Quote of the Week III
"You want to know the 13 scariest words in professional football this year? 'For more on the Cowboys, let's go to Ed Werder at Valley Ranch.' ''
-- Ira Kaufman, pro football writer for the Tampa Tribune.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
The Awards Section
Offensive Player of the Week
Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona. He's becoming a gentlemanly Randy Moss, right down to wearing the gloves on his facemask when the game's been decided. He's so fluid, so smooth, such a competitive receiver with the ball is in the air, and so physically gifted that if he gets even a slight edge on a corner it's a sure catch. In the divisional playoff rout of the Panthers, he caught eight balls for 166 yards with one touchdown, a gorgeous catch-and-run-and-extend-the-left-hand-with-the-ball just to the right cone at the goal line, on a perfect dive. There aren't many players in history who could have scored that touchdown. In the two playoff wins, Fitzgerald has 14 catches for 265 yards.
Defensive Players of the Week
Brodrick Bunkley and Mike Patterson, DTs, Philadelphia. For years, Andy Reid and Tom Heckert have gotten razzed for taking so many offensive and defensive linemen high in drafts. Well, the strategy of loading up on the Big Uglies has won the Eagles a trip to the NFC Championship. Patterson and Bunkley, picked in the first round of the 2005 and '06 drafts, respectively, provided the bedrock for the Eagles' tremendous run-stopping in the fourth quarter, eliminating all chances of the Giants getting back in the game after falling behind 20-11.
How'd they stop one of the game's best running combinations on two fourth-quarter, fourth-down surges, and on three third-and-shorts? "We got low, and we stayed low, and we didn't let them [the Giants offensive linemen] get under our pads,'' Patterson said on a joyous Eagle team bus as it sped down the Jersey Turnpike after the game. Not a sexy quote. But on Sunday, a rock-ribbed run defense never let Brandon Jacobs put a stranglehold on this game, and that was the winning insurance for Philadelphia.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Santonio Holmes, WR, Pittsburgh. With an assist to quarterback/drop-kicker Ben Roethlisberger, who backed up the Chargers at their own 9 with a perfect left-footed (surprise!) 25-yard punt. The Chargers got only five yards on the ensuing possession, setting up Mike "52-Yard Net'' Scifres' first punt of the day. Holmes fielded it at the Pittsburgh 33, and when the Charger punt-coverage team strung out way too close to either sideline, Holmes traversed a snowy field 67 yards for the tying touchdown. He made a nifty move at the San Diego 10, stopping almost in his tracks while San Diego wideout Legedu Naanee (one of the best names in any sport) made a diving tackle try. Holmes stepped over him and pranced into the end zone.
Coach of the Week
Ken Whisenhunt, head coach, Arizona. "We're working hard to try to win respect,'' Whisenhunt said after the 33-13 rout of the Panthers. It's coming, quickly. Whisenhunt did something coaches very rarely do this late in the season -- he had his players put on pads and bang each other, just to remind them how you actually win in this game. Horrors! How can a coach beat players up in late December! One who learned the game under Joe Gibbs and Bill Cowher could do it, easily. Whisenhunt is a pragmatist above all, and he knows what buttons to push to get the most out of his team.
Goat of the Week
Jake Delhomme, QB, Carolina. Has any quarterback had a worse playoff game than Delhomme's five-interception, one-lost-fumble disaster Saturday night against Arizona? Unlikely. Brett Favre, in the 2001 playoffs, threw six picks against the Rams, but in that game, Favre was just throwing balls up throughout the second half trying to hit the lottery. Delhomme went 17 of 34 for 205 yards, with one garbage-time touchdown and the five picks, and only one of the turnovers came with the game legitimately out of hand. Here's the amazing thing: You watch all five of those interceptions, and you'll see that every one was thrown into something like double-coverage. "To put into words, I can't,'' Delhomme said. "I am at a loss for words. I had a hand in six turnovers ... I should get the blame. It's inexcusable.''
Stat of the Week I
The Cardinals lost all five regular-season games in the Eastern Time Zone this year, by an average of 20 points.
The Cardinals won their sixth game in the Eastern Time Zone in the playoffs Saturday night, by 20 points.
Stat of the Week II
What happened to home-field advantage in the playoffs? From 2001 to 2004, home teams were 27-13 (.675). As this chart shows, road teams have gone from winning one-third of the time from 2001-04 to being nearly .500 since.
.
My three guesses? One: Coincidence. Two: It has something to do with quarterbacks on the road becoming so accustomed to playing entire games with silent snap counts, practicing them during the week and playing many games totally with the silent count.Joe Flacco has played two entire playoff games with the silent count. Three: "Parity,'' Eagles linebacker Stewart Bradley told me Sunday night. "Look at the teams that almost didn't make it who are in the championship games next week.''
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
What I Learned About Football This Week That I Didn't Know Last Week
Vince Young gives off about the worst body language of any backup quarterback I've ever seen.
I was in the Titans' locker room Thursday for 45 minutes and never saw a sign of Young, who lockers next to Kerry Collins and a couple of stalls down from third-stringer Chris Simms. Collins and Simms enjoyed the time in media-access, talking to an out-of-town reporter or two about their team, their old teams, Brett Favre, the Browns hiring Eric Mangini and anything else that came up. Nice, easy conversation. No Young. That's par for the course, one Titans source told me. Young's not one to pal around or shoot the breeze much with Collins.
On Saturday, a few minutes before the opening kickoff of the playoff game against Baltimore, there was Young, the once and perhaps future quarterback king of Tennessee, sitting alone on the bench. Out on the field, loosening up between the Martina McBride rendition of the anthem and the start of the game, was Collins, throwing to a receiver with Simms throwing the ball back.
Before the opening kickoff, Collins and Simms talked together, with Young still on the bench. And often during the game -- except when the three quarterbacks gathered between series with offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger -- Young was away from the action, just watching in his Titans' coat. Maybe there were times when he suggested something to Collins or Heimerdinger, but I never saw it.
When Collins took Young's job early in the season, I wrote that Young was rebuffing Collins' attempt to take him under his wing and show him how to rebound from adversity and become a better player. From what I saw this week, Young's still not willing to listen. A shame. It'll be interesting to see how the Titans, with the sudden arrival of the offseason, handle the Young story. I'd be surprised if they didn't aggressively try to re-sign Collins, whose contract is up. Where would signing Collins leave Young? My feeling is the Titans will look to move him. That's going to be the big story of the Tennessee offseason.
Salary cap-wise, the Titans are under no immediate pressure to move Young. The third-year quarterback's 2009 cap number is a very palatable $4.6 million, but it jumps to $14.2 million in 2010. And if they either cut him or trade him in 2009, he would count as $7.74 million on their cap in 2009 because of the pro-rated signing bonuses and guarantees that would come due immediately. The Titans haven't reached the point of no return with Young the way they did with Pacman Jones a year ago; it's not even close. But they might figure that a $7.74-million cap hit would be a small price to pay to be rid of the Young distraction if they can re-sign Collins.
One big factor in Young's future: Owner Bud Adams, a Texan through and through, loved the pick of Young in the 2006 draft. I doubt he'd be happy with giving up on Young after three star-crossed years. Would he draw a line in the sand and say to Jeff Fisher and GM Mike Reinfeldt, "You can't trade or release Young?'' He might.
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
How The Mighty Have Fallen Dept.:
Four miles from Giants Stadium, at the Sports Authority in Clifton, N.J., last Wednesday, in the midst of Giants playoff fever, Reebok had several racks of NFL jerseys selling for $80. You could find an Eli Manning jersey or Brandon Jacobs or Amani Toomer or four or five other Giants for $80. On another rack were jerseys of other NFL players -- Ray Lewis for $80, Vince Young for $80, even Chad Johnson for $80.
To the side was a clearance rack. On the rack were about 75 jerseys, all number 17 for the Giants. Plaxico Burress.
For $19.87 apiece.
At this store deep in Giants territory, you can buy the jersey of the backup quarterback of the Tennessee Titans for four times the price of the jersey of the man who caught the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl for your team 11 months ago.
Enjoyable/Aggravating Travel Note of the Week
Back on the road again. What a great weekend. Not just because of the football, but because I discovered Nashville. I never knew what a gem of a city it was.
A stupid gripe first: I don't want to say it was too hot on my Newark-to-Nashville Continental flight the other morning, but the mini-Kit Kat in my lunch snack couldn't be opened because the chocolate was percolating inside. "Little hot in here,'' I mentioned to the flight attendant as we crossed over Morgantown. "You might be able to turn the temperature down a little?''
"It was so cold coming in this morning!'' the pleasant fellow said.
Yes? And that applies to the current Equatorial Guinea climes in here exactly how?
"I will try,'' Cheery-man said, "but by the time the temperature changes, it will be time to get off the plane!''
I see ...
On Friday, sandwiched around a trip to see the Ravens at their downtown hotel, I did two of the most enjoyable things in Peter King Roadtrip History. My wife made the trip with me, and we visited the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's estate 13 miles northeast of Nashville. Incredibly educational trip, particularly in learning about slavery -- how slaves were housed and treated most notably. Jackson had about 150 slaves on his property. Families of six or eight lived in tiny log cabins, bunking almost wherever there was room.
Just as interesting was the tradition of dueling. In 1806, a man names Charles Dickinson accused Jackson of cheating on a horse race, and Jackson challenged him to a duel at 24 paces. Dickinson fired first, and a bullet lodged in Jackson's chest; it could never be removed and caused him some health problems for the rest of his life. Then, by duel rule, Jackson got the next shot; he killed Dickinson with it.
Seeing Loretta Lynn sing "Coal Miner's Daughter'' at the Ryman Auditorium in the Grand Ole Opry ... well, I can only imagine it's something like someone seeing the Cubs-Cards at Wrigley Field on a sunny July afternoon. And then doing a show-finale duet with Vince Gill ... very, very cool, and that comes from someone with no love for country music.
"Ladies and gentlemen,'' said Gill after the 74-year-old Miss Loretta sang, "you just witnessed a real treat. Legends like Loretta are the reason I got interested in this music in the first place.''
Wonderful acoustics. Pew seating because the Ryman is a former church. All in all, a great night.
Posted: Monday January 12, 2009 8:15AM; Updated: Monday January 12, 2009 2:18PM Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB
MMQB (cont.)
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think you voracious Eagles fans can be happy about the present this morning, obviously, but also about next April. Think back to draft day last April. Your team loved DeSean Jackson, and some would argue that with his explosive return and receiving ability, he'd have been worth the 19th overall pick in the draft. But no. The Eagles traded the 19th pick to Carolina for second- and fourth-round picks in '08 and the Panthers' first-round pick in '09 ... and then still got Jackson with the 49th overall pick, in the second round.
Jackson, obviously, has given the Eagles first-round value, producing more offense in 18 games so far than Freddie Mitchell produced in a career. Now the Eagles will have two picks in the second half of round one ... three overall in the first two rounds. Not bad for a team playing in its fifth NFC Championship in the last eight seasons.
2. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 19:
a. I know why Cleveland owner Randy Lerner made the call to hire Eric Mangini. He's a smart, young guy who will do well with in his second chance and who didn't deserve to get fired from the Jets. If I were Lerner, I'd have taken the time to meet Jim Schwartz and Rex Ryan, particularly since Mangini wasn't going anywhere.
b. Detroit looks like it's coming down to Schwartz or Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.
c. Around the Titans over the weekend, they were already thinking of Schwartz as a goner.
d. If Frazier is interviewing with the top Rams brass in Los Angeles today, he must be pretty far down the road with them.
e. I don't care about the Pacman Jones story on ESPN over the weekend, because it's a previously vetted story. But if the worst thing Jones has done in the last year -- since he landed in Dallas -- is joust with his bodyguard in a men's room, I don't think he should be banned for life.
f. The 9-7 Cards or the 9-6-1 Eagles in the Super Bowl. What a country.
g. Adam Schefter says Mike Nolan is going to run Denver's defense under Josh McDaniels. Good fit.
h. John McDonough's photo of Larry Fitzgerald's touchdown against the Falcons in this week's Leading Off section of Sports Illustrated is one of the coolest football photos you'll ever see. While Fitzgerald is catching the ball between two Falcons, you can see the image on the JumboTron. The old and the new, right there.
i. How amazing is it that Fitzgerald made the exact same catch, minus the looming JumboTron, at Charlotte on Saturday night?
3. I think it's not oversimplifying the Denver decision to hire Josh McDaniels to say that Pat Bowlen sees McDaniels as Mike Shanahan redux. Bowlen got to know Shanahan, a former small-college quarterback and defensive back, as a 32-year-old offensive assistant for the Broncos in 1984. McDaniels, 32, is a former small-college quarterback and wide receiver. Shanahan helped John Elway and Steve Young become great NFL players. McDaniels has had the same hands-on influence with Tom Brady and Matt Cassel. In his last year in the NFL, Elway called Shanahan "brilliant.'' In November, Cassel told me that McDaniels was "brilliant.'' Starting to see a trend?
4. I think this is what I liked about Week 19:
a. Keith Bulluck burst through the line on the last play of the third quarter and tripped up Willis McGahee for a loss of three. Seems like he's been doing that ever since Jeff Fisher coached this team.
b. Titans played a needlessly chippy game in the first quarter and a valiant one for the last three.
c. Mark Clayton is a tougher receiver than I thought. Must be learning from Derrick Mason.
d. Here's how long Matt Stover has been kicking clutch field goals for the Browns/Ravens: The man came into Cleveland in 1991, the same year Bill Belichick did. Eighteen years with the same franchise!
e. Something got into that Arizona run defense. It's really, really good, and Darnell Dockett is playing like a light Ted Washington.
f. Justin Tuck at 78 percent, or whatever he is, is better than 95 percent of the other defensive linemen in football.
g. Most underrated Eagle: Quentin Mikell.
h. Brilliant, brilliant third-and-20 conversion by Donovan McNabb, moving well in the pocket, down 11-10 in the third quarter, until he found Jason Avant for a 21-yard gain. I have been critical of McNabb for not coming up big in some big games, but that was the definition of clutch.
i. Free-agent the Eagles absolutely should not lose: Brian Dawkins. That was his 200th game Sunday, and he played like it was his 20th.
j. The Pittsburgh offensive line was as under-fire as any position group in football in August. It's turning into an asset in January. Congratulations, Larry Zierlein. As the line coach, you've never wavered in how you've coached this group.
k. Darren Sproles, 11 carries, 15 yards. That sends a chill or two up the spine of the Ravens' backs.
5. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 19:
a. The Titans benefited from a Ravens offside on their first PAT attempt of the day Saturday, putting the ball at the Baltimore 1. Why not go for two?
b. Saturday was not a day for the ploddingLenDale White. Titans used him too much, and I say that knowing Chris Johnson got hurt.
c. Third quarter, third-and-10, Baltimore ball at its 20. Tied, 7-7. Joe Flacco fits a bullet into a tight hole, right into Todd Heap's gut, with two defenders around him. Huge play. And Heap drops it. Very, very big play in the game. Good thing for the Ravens it didn't cost them later.
d. There's no way Jake Delhomme will get over that game 'til March. April, maybe.
e. Teams need to bump Larry Fitzgerald in the five-yard bump zone. Too many free-releases for him Saturday night in Charlotte.
f. In the last month, Eli Manning has looked a lot like the November 2007 Eli, not the January 2008 Eli.
6. I think the Pro Football Hall of Fame Final-17 announcement the other day was as interesting for who didn't make the cut as who did. If you don't follow the minutiae of the Hall selection process, the 44 voters had to cut the list of 25 semifinalists (plus Senior Committee candidates Bob Hayes and Claude Humphrey, who are automatically in the finals) to 15. So 10 men had to go. In order, here are the most notable losers in the process:
a. Punter Ray Guy. Surprising that Guy, who has a lot of support in the room, didn't beat out Cortez Kennedy, an interesting pick for the Final 17.
b. Defensive end Chris Doleman. Doesn't bode well for Michael Strahan. Look at their numbers. They're twins, and you could argue that minus the Super Bowl ring, they're historically the same.
c. Owner Art Modell. With Ralph Wilson and Paul Tagliabue getting on the final list but still being longshots for the Hall, it bodes ill for Modell's chances in the next few years.
d. Running back Terrell Davis. Obviously his short career is working against him. I'd be surprised if he ever gets in.
e. Defensive end Charles Haley. In line behind Richard Dent and Derrick Thomas.
f. Cornerback Lester Hayes. I still think he's got a decent shot one of these years.
g. Linebacker Kevin Greene. If Dick LeBeau ever gets in, which he should, obviously, he'll speak highly of Greene, who rushed the quarterback well in several different defenses.
h. Special-teamer Steve Tasker. No surprise he didn't make the finals. Just sad. We have to realize sometime that special teams is a major part of the game (not a third, the way some people say, but a significant fifth), and Tasker was the best ever to play them.
i. Quarterback Ken Stabler. No surprise here.
j. Running back Roger Craig. Ditto. Probably belongs in the Hall of Very Good.
7. I think Florida quarterback Tim Tebow made the right decision to stay in school, only because so many college players leave early and later regret it. But I think it's nuts to hear the speculation that he might not have been picked until the third or fourth round had he entered the draft. That's where Mel Kiper put him the other day. I'm not blaming Mel; there's lots of that talk out there. But to suggest he's some sort of maladroit (there's your PKWOTW) and marginal prospect is demeaning and downright wrong. I will bet a lot of money that when Tebow comes out, he won't get past New England in the second round; as much as Bill Belichick is around Urban Meyer and that program, I bet he's become a huge Tebow fan as a football player -- quarterback, goal-line back, something.
I agree with Meyer's assessment: "When I hear people say, 'I wonder if he can play in the first round,' then I don't know what football is. I don't have any idea what happens in the NFL.'' You tell 'em, Urban. We've got DanOrlovsky and Shaun Hill and Tyler Thigpen starting in the NFL, and we're debating if a 6-2, 240-pound determined winner should be picked among the top 64 picks in the draft? Interesting.
8. I think I need to make a few comments/clarifications about the All-Pro team I ran in the mag and online last week, and the one I filed as one of 50 voters for the Associated Press' annual All-Pro team. I'll run an e-mail from a Philadelphia reader, Scott Clayton, to get us started.
"Peter, if I wasn't a huge fan of your reporting skills you could never inspire so much frustration from me. Let me first state the facts, which I am sure you well know. Four players (Ryan Harris, Harvey Dahl, Stewart Bradley and Fred Robbins) received their only All-Pro vote on your ballot. Five others (Wes Welker, Madison Hedgecock, Dallas Clark, Terrell Suggs and Josh Cribbs) received less than six votes overall, one of which came from you. The AP results show that one voter chose only one running back, when two were allowed. We can only assume this was you. Also, since the votes for Suggs were listed in the outside linebacker column, we can assume that your votes were for a 3-5 alignment.
"I understand the interest in every sportswriter (I used to be one) to make a splash and promote discussion. That's fine when it's reserved for picks and preseason awards and informal polls and such. When the same thinking creeps into voting come awards time, it is called irresponsible. I may have wanted to vote for Bill Murray in the presidential election, but I didn't. You are essentially saying with your vote that you feel you know something that 49 of your peers do not. If that is what you truly believe, that's cool, but since you admittedly cringed when Harvey Dahl got blown up repeatedly [against Arizona], it shows a lack of faith in your own selections. I can't begin to break down individual offensive line play from what I get in a TV broadcast, but I imagine that if Chris Snee suffers through a bad game on Sunday, the 32 people that voted him an All-Pro will be able to confidently chalk it up to just that, a bad game, rather than realizing their gambit was exposed.''
Fair enough. Let's go over a point or two, and then Scott's issues one by one.
a. In my AP ballot, there are two differences from the team I used for SI. I reluctantly filed a ballot with two running backs -- Adrian Peterson and DeAngelo Williams -- to the AP, and used only Peterson on the team I ran in SI and on SI.com. I say "reluctantly,'' because I think it's foolish that the AP asks us for two running backs and a fullback, seeing that no team ever plays two running backs and a fullback in the lineup at once, unless it's some freaky formation.
There are other spots on the AP team that ask for more than the normal number of players; the AP wants four defensive linemen and four linebackers, but that's understandable because some teams use a 4-3 base defense and others a 3-4 base defense. So I wasn't the one voter who picked only one running back.
Secondly: I voted for Peppers on the AP ballot at defensive end and Suggs on the SI team. This vote semi-tormented me. Suggs split time between three positions on the front seven -- defensive end, outside linebacker and inside linebackers; Baltimore coach John Harbaugh told me he didn't know the spot Suggs actually played the most snaps. I filed the AP team on the day after the regular season ended, with Peppers as a starting end and Suggs not on the team. But this bothered me because I thought Suggs was one of the best four outside rushers, and one of the most versatile defensive players, by far, in the league. So I made a few calls that week, asking people I trusted about Suggs versus Peppers, and when I filed my team for SI four days later, I gave the defensive end slot to Suggs, figuring he was a man without a position, but figuring he played a significant amount at defensive end.
b. I haven't done this forever, but I've changed to now voting as much as I can (except in cases like Suggs') for right and left, free and strong. I'll vote for a right and left tackle, right and left guard, etc. The AP suggests that, and I think it's smart. It seems that most of the AP voters don't feel the same way, which is their prerogative. Of the 100 possible votes for offensive tackles, for instance, the top three vote-getters --Jordan Gross (34), Michael Roos (32) and Ryan Clady (14) -- combined for 80 votes, and all three are left tackles.
c. I vote primarily on what I see, supplemented by strong opinions from people I've trusted on pro personnel over the years -- mostly on offensive linemen. One of the things I've respected over the years on Paul Zimmerman's teams is he might have been the lone wolf out there on a few guys (Brian Blados at guard in Cincinnati in 1984 and Jason Brown at guard in 2007 both stand out), but he went with his feeling after watching a lot of football. I have no problem being the only voter to tab three or four guys.
d. Now for some of Scott's specific points on players. I don't consult the other voters to see who they're voting for, so my vote has nothing to do with anything other than the guy at the position who I thought was best in 2008. Ryan Harris at right tackle? I'd make the pick 100 more times. When you allow one sack per 274 pass-drops for your quarterback, which Harris did, that's an All-Pro season.
Harvey Dahl did make me cringe against Arizona, but the definition of cringing is not "I want that pick back," and Dahl gave the Falcons a mean, brutish attitude up front, leading the way for one of the best rushing seasons by a back in the NFL this year.
There are a bunch of great defensive tackles, but Robbins is long overdue to be recognized for his versatility (5.5 sacks three straight years, excellent run-stopping). The Eagles now don't have one quarterback -- Brian Dawkins -- on defense; with Bradley, now they have two, and his athleticism has really made the Eagle D better, as he showed catching a speedier Derrick Ward from behind on a little swing pass early in Sunday's game, preventing a Giants' TD. I thought he had a better year than Jon Beason.
Wes Welker's caught more balls than anyone in football over the last two years, and he's done it playing with two quarterbacks when everyone on defense knows he's going to be the target 10 to 12 times every game. Dallas Clark is Peyton Manning's security blanket; his number aren't as good as Tony Gonzalez's, but to me his value is higher, partially because the Colts win and the Chiefs don't.
Hedgecock is a better blocker than La'Ron McClain, and fullback is almost exclusively a blocking position. There are lots of great return men, and Cribbs is both a stellar returner and incredible all-around special-teamer. That may not be what you wanted to hear, Scott, but that's how I saw it.
e. The All-Pro team is not scientific. It can't be. It turns out this year that mine differs a lot from my peers'. There were some players who got votes -- Walter Jones, Jason Peters, Terence Newman -- who I felt had bad years because of injuries or performance. But other voters saw it differently. Who's to say who's right? Makes the world go round.
9. I think you probably all saw, late in the third quarter at Pittsburgh, the weird call on the muffed punt that Pittsburgh was able to advance for a touchdown. It's an archaic rule, but it was officiated properly. The rule is that on a kickoff or punt, the ball has to be possessed by the receiving team in order for a turnover to be possible. So if the receiving team touches the ball without gaining possession, the kicking team can recover it and take possession -- but the ball can't be advanced. I inquired about the rule Sunday and was told there's never been much of a movement to have it changed.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Mitch Albom, you wrote a tremendous, moving, stirring story about Detroit in Sports Illustrated this week. The end, with the reaction of the theater crowd to Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino,'' fit the story so well. Congratulations. That's a must-read for fans of the teams of your city -- and for fans of the American city. Any city.
b. Speaking of American cities, read Jim Dwyer's "About New York'' column in Saturday's New York Times about the Yankees' request to the city for $370-million in additional taxpayer financing, on the heels of already getting $942 in prior financing; in addition, the city has committed $660 million to replace the open spaces used by the next stadium and for parking improvements. On the heels of a superb ESPN report last summer on the vanishing play spaces for Bronx youth because of the stadium, this is more of the same. For improvements to the video and sound systems in the stadium, the Yankees want $34 million. This is a team that just spent $423 million on three players? What unmitigated gall.
c. Isn't Hollywood nice. Finally letting "Gran Torino'' in a theater near you. And me.
d. Coffeenerdness: Hard by the campus of Vanderbilt is a Starbucks on West End Avenue, and if you went in there over the weekend, you saw (presumably) Vanderbilt students come in by the dozens, looking like they just got out of bed, some in pajama pants, and I think about half the girls in Uggs boots. Starbucks has it figured out -- or did, until they started building stores across the street from each other. Get kids hooked on tasty caffeine early, and it'll last a lifetime.
e. These Uggs are everywhere.
f. My one and only piece of wisdom for the week: Go to the Grand Ole Opry before you die. Preferably in downtown Nashville. It is a slice of Americana that there's far too little of in our lives.
g. We were talking in the press box before the game Saturday about the decline of newspapers, with the news that the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer are on their deathbeds. And one of my peers -- I forget whom -- said, "It's amazing. I thought what's happened to the business in the last year would have taken about 10 years.''
h. If you're an aspiring journalist, learn to love the web.
Ellie
GO EAGLES