Steelers vs. Colts

It's crazy that in a weekend involving my beloved Redskins losing a playoff game that I blog about the Steelers-Colts Divisional round playoff - but it really deserves it. I don't think I've ever had my sports emotions moved as much - in a game where I was not a fan of either of the participants - as I did today.

Some thoughts:

• Ben Roethlisberger is an excellent NFL Quarterback. He gets credit but at the same time doesn't. That aside, he and Ben Watson (from the Pats) made two of the greatest tackles I've ever seen. Roethlisberger's stopped the biggest single moment turnaround in my lifetime (the Immaculate Reception happened a generation before). My question though is why didn't Nick Harper just keep running toward the sideline - I say, blame his wife. Watson, a tight end, ran down one of the fastest players in the league. Champ Bailey "only" had to run 100 yards. Watson ran about 150 at an angle and STILL KEPT SPRINTING even when the referee impeded his progress. The fact that he thought he might catch CHAMP freakin' BAILEY and then, that he kept after him when the ref got in his way (at about yard 80) was so crazy to me. Seriously, this was the complete antithesis to the Shaq fake-hustle plays.
• I love watching Marvin Harrison & Reggie Wayne run routes. (The alternative is watching Taylor Jacobs, of the Redskins, run a comeback pattern. Laughable. Why can't they rehire Henry Ellard to teach these dudes how to run the out pattern without slowing? (That's for my dad.)) Given Wayne is a free agent, I would gladly welcome him to the Redskins. Edge is leaving the Colts, he might as well too. (Unrelated, Steve Smith is a freaking MONSTER. Unstoppable, no matter what folks do. Ken Lucas is the best corner in football too...but I digress.)
• Jerome Bettis owes Mike Vanderjagt something...something he's never given anyone else. He just gave Bettis 5 years more of life because no way he was retiring with that as his last play. Vanderjagt's kick is now tied with Kris Brown's of Houston for worse kick I've ever seen (in the pros). Brown was at least missing for the rights to Reggie Bush and it was outdoors and really no one cared. Now that I think about it...Mike wins (and its not becaues he missed - 46 aint a chip shot by any means - but it wasn't close.)
• Troy Polamalu intercepted the ball. Case closed. Just answer the question that if he was touched down while on the ground would it have been a catch? Yes. Undoubtedly. Second worse call I can remember (in football) next to the coin toss debacle involving none other than the Steelers. (By the way, Polamalu's closing speed is something incredible. Parenthetic, parenthetic, parenthetic.)

Now let's get to everyone's favorite, Peyton Manning:

• I think that Peyton Manning plays so many games without any pressure that when he actually gets it, he discombobulates. He can't do it in the face of pressure. Now obviously, no quarterback is going to win being constantly pressured but clearly some handle it better than others. Peyton doesn't handle it. This is why he isn't the best quarterback when it matters. For two seasons, Kurt Warner was the best at it (unexplainable), and Tom Brady is now. His sidestep to avoid pressure and make a throw is incredible. And its one reason why with considerably less talent on offense, Brady has three rings. You know who Peyton looks like in the face of pressure, his brother, Eli. Maybe its a Manning thing.
• If Mike Vick had waved off his punt team on his own 35 with still a quarter to play, firstly, his coach would have called a timeout due to the on-field chaos and still punted. The media would have - as the co-con said - had his "head on a platter." He straight up showed up his coach on a game-decision. Now, I consider this much different than say, being on their 34 (grey area) and not kicking a field goal. QB's of Manning's ilk can and sometimes do that (he more than most). But given the field position, that's totally a coach's call. My roommate and I grilled this moment for about 15 minutes wondering how this was acceptable. How? That's how I felt in the moment. I still 75% feel that way but I know that given that I'm so anti-Peyton now (get to that in a minute) that I could just be biased. Maybe I would say "that's gangsta" if I saw anyone else do that, but I don't know because it's also the context. If I saw any other QB sucking as much as he had to that point, I feel like I'm still incredulous in the moment - but I'll be open-minded and maybe one day will say, "that was gangsta."
• Given the above though: If Tom Moore runs the offense and calls the Colts plays, and Ron Meeks calls the defensive plays, and Peyton Manning obviously makes the critical game decisions... what exactly does Tony Dungy do? He never says anything on the sideline so what does he do? Just name Peyton player-head coach (seriously).
• Now anyone who knows my interest in football, knows that I love teams who just play pitch and catch. To that point, no team in the past few years (other than the Rams) has done that more than the Colts. I used to lovvvvve watching them play and would casually support. I was rooting for them to score 1,000 points in that playoff game against Denver. But then came the playoff game with the Patty-Pats when the Pats straight up hit the Colts in the mouth and destroyed them in the game. The whole game was not only characterized by frustration for the Colts but by Peyton pointing and yelling at everyone else during the game - mostly his own team. The game made famous the great "Manning Face" (courtesy of Bill Simmons.) Yes, his receivers were getting smashed at the line but it approached showing them up and no one but you floated those ints to Ty Law, Peyton. After the game, Mr. Happy Feet proceeded to deflect most of the blame of the team's performance on everyone else. "We didn't get the job done" did not dominate the post-game discussion, instead, "my receivers did this," "they held our receivers," "the line had problems protecting." Whatever. All that may have been true but you sucked too. I didn't pay enough attention to what he said after last year's Pats game so I can't say if it was a replay BUT TODAY, Peyton after mumbling and saying absolutely nothing coherent for 40 seconds had this to say, "I'm looking for a safe word here. I'm trying to be a good teammate but let's just say we had some problems with protection." Word??? Firstly, its nice to call out lineman at the end of the year who don't get a microphone and have only had you sacked 17 times this year. Secondly, since Peyton wants to take the responsibility of calling out the protection at the line, how about he take some blame for the sacks and not calling out Joey Porter twice who is coming free. Thirdly, given their 3 wideout offense, if they rush 5-6, the QB is responsible for gettin the ball out...there are only 5 offensive lineman. Fourthly, if you are the team leader and got happy feet and started the game off horribly inaccurate, how about mentioning that too. I'm sorry to have soured on a guy I used to enjoy watching play but combine playoffs choke jobs with piling meaningless statistics in blowout games in the regular season to set records (I do that on Madden, however) with not taking the brunt of the blame as the team leader (and Head Coach, apparently), and you can have Peyton Manning even if he wins the next 10 Super Bowls.

I completely wrote this as a stream of consciousness and I did not go back and edit so this won't be my best written blog but hey, its about football. I'm sure I forgot some things too but I'm not doing this for money right?

Steelers - Panthers in the Super Bowl. Panthers as Super Bowl XL Champions. (John Fox is a helluva coach.)

24 is so freakin' sick. I felt like I lost a friend in the first 10 minutes of tonight's show...