January 16, 2006 Column

My column appears first; Stitzer's appears after my NFL analysis after the line-break....

Before I get to my NFL analysis, I have a few other items:

• Pitt seems to be a legitimate basketball team this year, despite playing teams like "Joe's Plumbing" and "Uncle Murray's Funeral Home" in the first two months of the season. They impressed me by being able to go into Louisville and come out with a win, even with Louisville being down a notch this season. Pitt will take some hits in the tough Big East, but they look like they could be a Sweet 16 team, which is more than I would have predicted at the beginning of the season after losing Taft and Troutman from last year's club. Krauser is clearly the leader holding this well-coached team together.
• Clemson is a long struggling program in basketball. They brought in a very good coach in Oliver Purnell a couple years back and he seems to have the program heading in the right direction. A win over #1 Duke, to whom they had lost 18 straight times coming into Saturday's matchup, would have sped this process up. Their crowd was jacked, their players played hard and well, and they stuck close to Duke the entire game. They outrebounded Duke, shot 54% from the field, and in general could have knocked off the Devils....except that they made 4 of their first 19 free throws (or 21.1%). How can you go through a game, execute well, play with energy while executing well, and throw away your chance at the biggest win for your program in decades because you can't make 75% of your shots from 15 feet with no one guarding you. Just painful to watch, except not really painful for those of us rooting for Duke! Tough game for Duke coming up Wednesday against NC St. Paulus will need to play disciplined ball and have more assists than turnovers for Duke to beat a well coached, disciplined, experienced Wolpack squad.
• Ariel Sharon is still in his coma, which according to Pat Robertson, probably means he has not yet apologized to God for defying his orders not to split up his land.
• Reason 6,931 that figure skating is not a sport: Michelle Kwan, despite not skating in the qualifying event, was given a spot on the team over Emily Hughes, who earned a spot by finishing 3rd in the event. What is the point of having a qualifying event if then you are going to over-rule the results and put whoever you want on the team anyway. This is an absolute joke. Yes, I have now written about ice skating on this blog, I promise not to do that often, please don't run away screaming.

And now onto football, where there is a lot to talk about....

• Washington at Seattle. Seattle was down 3-0 in this game and lost Shaun Alexander to a concussion. I said on Friday that Washington, to win, would have to control Alexander and make Hasselbeck beat them. Well, they did, but the problem was that Hasselbeck played under control in completing better than 61% of his passes with a touchdown and no interceptions. He seems to be playing very good football, I just can't seem to trust him. Seattle's defense played well also, holding Washington to only 2.4 yards per carry, and making Mark Brunell beat them with his arm. If we know one thing, it is that Brunell can't beat anyone with his arm, except Dallas at Dallas when he is down 13 in the last four minutes. Anyway, Seattle moved on fairly easily.
• New England at Denver. OK, once again, referees are deciding outcomes of games. Every time Stitzer complains about Belicheck and the Patriots getting all the calls and how the league would shut down before it let New England lose, you can remind him of the time the Pats were leading Denver 3-0, when New England was flagged with the worst pass interfence call of all time, moving the ball from the 40 yard line to the 3 yard line, leading directly to a touchdown, after which New England fumbled the kickoff, giving Denver another three points before halftime. This changed the entire complexion of the game. Just brutal. I am not saying that Denver would not have come back and won anyway, it's just that they would have had to work harder had the refs not been involved. It is interesting to note that the Pats fought back, like you would expect from a three time champ, and was poised to take the lead, when Tom Brady threw a pass that was picked off and returned 99 yards by Champ Bailey to the one yard line. Bad pass by Brady (a rarity), unbelievable play by Bailey, and the best play of all was one that does not really show up on the box score. Ben Watson, a tight end on the other side of the field, somehow chased down Bailey, a speedy corner who had a shorter distance to run to the goal line. Watson not only caught Bailey but forced a fumble, that could have easily been ruled a touchback (if it went out of bounds in the end zone) and given back to the Pats. In my heart of hearts, I believe that would have been the proper call, although there was clearly no replay to show the definitive view that the ball did indeed enter the end zone. Still, great play by Watson, the second year man from the University of Georgia, who actually played at Duke as a Freshman before transferring to Athens.
• Pittsburgh at Indianapolis. Wow, what a game. It had everything, drama, excitement, intrigue, surprise. Several points that need to be made here. First, Pittsburgh kicked Indy's ass. They dominated the trenches on both sides of the ball. They played with a much higher level of emotion than the Colts. Their coaches out them in better positions than the Colt's coaches did with their players to make plays, especially at the beginning of the game when they took the lead, which was so important to their success. On offense, Pittsburgh moved the ball well against the Colts defense. The colts committed to stopping the run, and did a good job at it, but Roethlisberger was the better of the two QBs on the field yesterday (more on this later). On defense, the Steelers blitzed from every different spot on the field, and the Colts looked woefully unprepared to deal with it or adjust to it. Their coaching staff did a lousy job at making any successful adjustments during the game, and Steeler defenders were constantly in Manning's face. Manning, one of the great regular season quarterbacks of our generation, is now 3-6 in the playoffs as a starting quarterback. He has lost twice as many games as he has won, and never made it to the Super Bowl, much less won one. How long will that window be open for him? One never knows. He lost plenty of big games in college also, going 0-4 against Florida! I stand by my statement made in the middle of the season that his brother, while not nearly the qb that Payton is, has a much better natural knack of making big plays in big games at the right times. If Eli wins a Super Bowl and Peyton never does, who will go down as the better qb?Two last points on this game. First, this group of refs should also be ashamed of itself. If Indy had come back and won this game, it would have been complete robbery. How these refs could make the correct call on the field when they gave Palomalu an interception, then reverse themselves on replay and make a ridiculous call, is beyond me. It is almost like Tagliabue called the booth during the review and said "do you know what you are doing? This is a Manning we can get to the Super Bowl, now overturn that call, now!) Just ridiculous. Finally, Jerome Bettis backed up my bashing of him last week by fumbling when he was supposed to be icing the game (can you say Miracle at the Meadowlands). Of course, one of the announcers said he was going to Canton and did not want to end his career like that. Why would this guy possibly go to the Hall of Fame. The only reason that he is 5th in career rushing yards is longevity (like a billion carries to get there), he was never even one of the best two or three players at his position at any point in his career. He was a nice player that should not even be considered for the Hall. End of story.
• Carolina at Chicago. Is anybody still reading? The Bears and Panthers EACH scored more points than the Colts. The lesson, of course, is there is no rhyme or reason whatsoever to what goes on in this league. Anyway, Steve Smith is clearly the most dominating player in the National Football League right now (did I read like Theisman on that comment). That includes Payton Manning, Tom Brady, Shaun Alexander, and everybody else in the league right now. He had more yards from scrimmage against the Bears yesterday than the average team did against Chicago this year. He set the tone by scoring on a bomb in the first minute, and Chicago could not do anything to slow him down. Just an amazing performance. The Bears showed good fight in this game, but just could not match Smith's performance.

Now onto Stitzer's take...

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HAPPY MLK DAY

Let me start by start by saying that today is a BS national holiday. I feel the same way about Columbus Day. National Holidays for specific individuals should only be for those US citizens who served the country as a whole. MLK was a great leader; he did for Black Americans what Gandhi did for Indians and what Moses did for Jews. But, MLK’s service was for a specific group of people, not the whole nation. Think about this: our 2 greatest presidents, GW & Abe, SHARE a national holiday. Columbus Day is just a joke in the first place. How do you “discover” something that is already there? Guy got freaking lost anyway and was a lucky squirrel who found a big nut. If the pro–Islamoterrorists of this country, the Liberals, have their own way, here are some more Holidays we can look forward to in the future: Teddy Kennedy Day – every American can loaded out of their mind, drive a car off a bridge, and get away with murder. Slick Willie Day: every American, guy or girl, gets to molest an intern and then lie to the people they work for about it.

3-5 was not what I had in mind after a 7-1 first weekend. For those of you who care about sides only, I am 6-2. 10-6 overall, need to go 4-2 the rest of the way for a respectable 14-8 post-season.

If Wash picks off that pass and returns it for a TD, which they should of, I really think they win that game. Seattle looked shaky and could not solve the Redskin D early on. Down 10-0 and without Alexander, I think the Skins would have beaten a Hasselback-led one dimensional team. Give Seattle credit though, their D turned it up a notch.

Before the NE fans start crying about the terrible PI call – and it was a terrible call – think back 2 years when you guys got away with TWENTY PI calls against the Colts. I loved seeing Brady lose the game for NE. He pulled the Dan Marino by refusing to take the sack and throwing the ball up for grabs. Glad to see that NE’s success has not gone to their heads. Did you see the post-game press conferences? When did Bellichick turn into Phil Jackson? The other team gets no credit, we sucked. Try losing with class and dignity like the Coach Ks and Joe Torres of the world by giving your opponents credit.

The most pathetic performance by an Offensive (and it was very offensive) Line goes to the Colts. You must give the Steelers a ton of credit for constantly getting in Manning’s face, but the O-Line was like a well-oiled subway turnstile that just kept opening the floodgates. This loss cannot be pinned on Manning. He did not play great, but he almost engineered a great playoff comeback. He actually did throw a killer pick, but of course the Refs make yet another HORRBILE replay call and overturn a great defensive play. If not for that play and the awful non-PI call on the pass intended for Randal-El when it was 14-0 Pitt, this game might have been a blow-out. Looking back, I am kicking myself for not taking Pitt. Dungy has a terrible record during the quarterfinals, while Cowher has a superb record.

Hard to believe that the Panthers put up 11 more points than the Colts did. What in the hell happened to the Bear D? Had you told me the Bears scored 21 points, I would have laid 100-1 that they win the game. Terrible tackling by the Bears, great play calling and execution by the Panthers. All 4 coaches remaining have been to the Super Bowl.

Best quote of the weekend was from my pal Berke, a die-hard Steeler fan. “Nitz, good thing I do not have a gun in the house, because after the replay reversal on Polamalu’s pick I was ready to shoot everyone, and after Bettis’ fumble, I was ready to shoot myself.”