The Crystal Ball 2010 Week 13

Wow, what a fight between Cortland Finnegan and Andre Johnson. Well, more like what a beat down Andre laid on Cortland. But NFL referees need to learn from their NHL counterparts. You let them go at it until they tire themselves out or lose their drive. Don’t try to break up the fight, that’ll only ruin the entertainment value and get you hurt.

Opening Kickoff

Ok, fine I’ll admit it. The Chicago Bears are a good football team with Jay Cutler. There is everyone happy? I need to take a shower now.

The Way It Was

I don’t know what’s worse in Denver right now, the Spygate II nonsense or the horrific play on the field. I know Pat Bowlen doesn’t want to be on the hook for three coaches, but how can he justify keeping McDaniels employed now?

Dang Packers you were so close. Although now I bet no one lets Atlanta fly under the radar.

Wow, who would have thought Minnesota would suddenly win and look inspired and competent without Childress? Oh yeah, everybody.

Brett Favre gave interim head coach Leslie Frazier the game ball after the team secured Frazier’s first victory as a head coach. Brett is so generous with his head coaches. He was always giving things to Brad Childress, like the snub, the cold shoulder, attitude, and the finger. Such a giver that Brett Favre is.

Two games in four days and two interceptions by Michael Vick. So much for that no interception streak. Hey announcers, don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk about a no hitter?

Ok, perhaps I’m just a Pollyanna-pie in the sky dreamer type, but I have to ask a question to football historians and aficionados. I keep hearing about Steelers rookie receivers Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown and how they’re very tight, how they work well together and push each other to be the best they can be. Is it just me, or does that sound like the beginnings of another pair of Steeler receivers, namely Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, who also came into the league together? Or am I just wishing for lighting to strike twice?

Frank Gore fractured his hip in the win against the Cardinals, and is now done for the season. I bet that puts a major crimp in Jed York’s prediction of the 49ers winning the division.

Nah, the 49ers may just go all the way now. They signed secret weapon Jeff Reed!

Derek Anderson has a spectacular meltdown after the Cardinals loss to the 49ers when asked why he was laughing on the sidelines during another dismal loss. I haven’t seen a meltdown that good since Dennis Green lived in Phoenix.

The Steel Pit

Steelers 19 – Bills 16 OT

Well, I guess I can't make fun of Baltimore anymore for taking almost 5 quarters to finish off the Bills.

The old axiom of if you let a bad team hang around long enough, they will make you pay came into play big time in this game. The offense never found a way to truly put away Buffalo.

Pittsburgh’s offense started off strong, looking like the game would be a blow out. But then, they started sputtering. After the initial touchdown drive, it was nothing but field goals afterward.

The offensive unit kept shooting themselves in the foot, and aggravating Big Douche’s broken/sprained/injured right foot, by getting called for multiple penalties, including three holding calls on Chris Kemoeatu who just couldn’t keep his hands to himself.

The defense did a great job, holding the Buffalo offense, which had exploded for 49 points all over the Bungles the previous week to a mere 16 points. But the true story of this game is luck and a man given a second chance.

Luck came into play in overtime, when Buffalo consistently had excellent field position to attempt to pull off the upset, yet could not find a way to drive the stake into the heart of the Steelers. Even when they had Pittsburgh punting from their own goal line, the Steelers managed to flip field position on a great punt by Daniel Sepulveda and a timely strip of the ball that drove Buffalo deeper into their own territory.

But the biggest luck, and worst moment for Bills fans, came on Steve Johnson’s drop of a sure touchdown pass. The kid took the drop horribly, and I genuinely felt bad for him. But being the homer I am, I was glad it happened.

The second chance man is newly signed kicker Shaun Suisham, who nailed every field goal attempt he faced, all over 40 yards something Jeff Reed had been unable to do this season. Each kick elicited a holding of breath from Steeler fans, used to Jeff Reed and still unsure of what Suisham was bringing to the table. But he got the job done in excellent fashion, showing some ice water in his veins.

Suisham endeared himself to his new teammates, Steeler Nation and gave everyone new confidences going forward into the stretch run of the season and playoff seeding.

Yes, the game was messy, sloppy, frightening and a lackluster performance by the offense that needs to find its rhythm as the endgame of the season takes shape. But it was a win and no matter how it happens, any Steeler fan will take it, even if it’s off the hands of a young receiver.

Only In Faux NFL Reality…

Steelers’ president Art Rooney II would like some clarification and discourse from the NFL to better understand the slew of penalties imposed on the team in general and James Harrison in particular. He’s not the only one.

After his heartbreaking drop of a pass that would have won the game for Buffalo, Bills receiver Steve Johnson blamed God for the dropped pass. Steve, I know you’re upset, but the Big Guy upstairs most likely did have a lesson for you to learn by missing that catch. Take a breath my man and relax. It’s gonna be ok.

Fear not Bronco fans, your time of sweet release are coming soon. And by sweet release I mean it will be sweet to watch Pat Bowlen release Josh McDaniels from his duties. Bowlen gave McDaniels the kiss of death this week, whoops I mean the vote of confidence and assured everyone he would be the head coach next season. Think I’m wrong? Jerry Jones did the same thing to Wade Phillips who is now enjoying Sundays with a bag of Cheetos.

Texans head coach Gary Kubiak gave receiver Andre Johnson a game ball after Houston’s shutout win over the Titans. Now let’s just get a bit of clarification. Was the game ball for his receiving performance, or for putting a smack down on a loud mouth twit? I’m betting the latter.

This is a great story. Steelers’ players joined up with military personnel stateside and overseas as well as their families to enjoy a day of video gaming, camaraderie and general fun. Does every team do this? I hope so because our troops definitely deserve this kind of fun.

Are you wondering how playoff scenarios may work out? Well ESPN has created a deliciously addictive time waster to help you find out. Now if they could just come up with collective bargaining agreement machine and send the links to NFL headquarters, the NFLPA and all 32 owners.

Upon Further Review

To the surprise of no one, James Harrison drew a penalty for roughing the passer on a hit that occurred at least a half dozen times last weekend by other teams without incident or a flag. And to no surprise, he was fined again $25,000 for the hit. To put the fine into perspective, Harrison was fined the same amount for a hit that before week 6 of this season wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow as Andre Johnson was fined for beating the crap out of Cortland Finnegan with his fists.

At the same time, officials in the game ignored Buffalo defenders Arthur Moats and Marcus Stroud turning Ben Roethlisberger into their own personal pretzel shaped punching bag. For the first time ever, viewers witnessed Mike Tomlin lose his cool and lay into the officials regarding the questionable call on Harrison and the disparity of penalties called during the game.

But it didn’t end there. This week, the Steeler locker room blew up. Hines Ward laid into the NFL, calling the league hypocrites on a variety of subjects. Harrison questioned the league and stuck up for himself in the process. Ben Roethlisberger pointed out what we all saw, that watching film you can see the official reach for the flag before Harrison even gets to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Ryan Clark used his bitingly acerbic humor to question what defenses were supposed to do regarding quarterback contact. And many others in the Pittsburgh locker room chimed in as well.

Even Baltimore Raven and noted Steeler hater Terrell Suggs spoke up in Pittsburgh’s defense, calling out the NFL for playing favorites with league quarterbacks.

The NFL responded predictably, stating that it is not targeting the Steelers with penalty calls and fines. And you know what? I believe them.

Last week I flew off the handle and did accuse the NFL of targeting the Steelers. But after some reflection I realized I was wrong. I just could not find a logical answer to the question of why the NFL would target the Steelers. It makes no sense no matter how you look at it.

The sad truth to this ever deteriorating situation is that the NFL overreacted to a few shocking hits, painted themselves into a public relations corner they have no idea how to extract themselves from and now Pittsburgh is stuck in the middle of this quagmire and suffering the consequences.

These calls will continue because the NFL has no choice. After the media and fans blanched at the rash of violent hits and corresponding injuries that happened in Week 6, the NFL jumped on those isolated incidents to push their platform of player safety. The league wants to demonstrate they care about the safety and long term health of the players to use as a bargaining chip in the labor negotiations and needed something tangible to demonstrate their concern while still pushing their agenda for an expanded regular season, which is obviously just a cash grab. So when a few players made spectacularly frightening plays, the league jumped in with both feet before looking.

However, the NFL did not quite think all aspects of this stance through and did not formulate any consistency in either mandating correct calls, proper instruction for officials or in their fining scale. In not having clear guidelines that they could tout, the league basically left players and officials on an island of confusion. Now referees are forced to call anything even remotely close to an actual penalty to avoid media and public backlash or league scrutiny for not upholding the mandated “player safety”. To continue their charade of concern, the NFL will support every heavily aired play and call for fear that if they backtrack in any way they may lose credibility.

If the league hopes to make significant inroads during negotiations, credibility in their stances and the illusion of strong decisive leadership are major components. If the league backpedaled, they would be admitting they overreacted to a small sample of violent incidents as well as reveal they had no coherent plan to properly gauge punishment worthy contact or a viable and consistent fining schedule.

If the NFL should show weakness and admit such over reactionary mistakes, it would weaken their position in labor negotiations and show an overall weakness in the league power structure, which would in turn shift the advantage in the labor negotiations to the players.

The problem is, the inconsistency and indecision already shown by the league regarding this issue has already created confusion, and shown weakness in the NFL hierarchy. On top of that, players are galvanizing together in response to the league’s seemingly arbitrary policies regarding calling penalties and assessing fines.

Unfortunately, Commissioner Roger Goodell continues along this odd path without realizing he already has a major problem on his hands. Before the season started players were showing solidarity. Now because of the seemingly random penalties and fines long time rivals are banding together. That should be a major red flag to Goodell that the situation is degrading out of control. It may even get worse when it starts dawning on the handful of dirty players in the league that they may be able to save money by just assaulting an opposing player rather than risk a penalty and potential fine for a borderline hit.

At this point, to both save face as well as make progress toward avoiding a major labor battle, commissioner Roger Goodell should just speak up to stem the tide of back alley violence and come clean. He should outline exactly what constitutes illegal hits for the remainder of the season, and work hard to make sure every officiating crew calls each infraction consistently and fairly. Following that, he should then state for the public that the issue will be visited in the off season by the competition committee and will then be given very specific rules regarding what constitutes illegal hits and helmet to helmet contact as well as fine schedules for any and all infractions. On top of that, to really show concern for player safety, he should state for the record that concussion model helmets will be required for all players.

And finally, the time has come to at least temporarily shelve the proposal to expand the regular season. I know Goodell and the owners do not want to give up on an 18 game season, and the added revenue it would bring. But for now to maintain the integrity of the game as well as avoid a labor action it may be prudent to do just that.

Goodell speaks often, and especially to wayward players, regarding protecting the shield and not doing anything to harm the reputation or multi-billion dollar business that is the NFL. If he is serious regarding this stance, then now is the time for him to stand up and take control.

With a few well worded press releases followed by decisive action, Goodell could put a stop to the growing fractures in the league, create consistency regarding player safety and player punishment and fining. Issuing a mandatory helmet for all players, reveal a proper punishment and fining schedule before the season ends and shelving the 18 game schedule for the time being would go a long way to quieting player discord and keeping fans interested and engaged.

If Goodell continues to ignore issues growing within this team and fan base in particular and throughout all teams and fan bases in general, he will come to the realization too late that all his ill thought out player safety push is doing is ticking off the people who provide the product and alienating those who purchase it. And if you drive away fans, no number of games you add will make up for that lost revenue.

He Said He Said

"It was a lot of fun." – Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham on his clutch kicking that won the game against Buffalo

Yeah it was, welcome to Steeler Nation Shaun.

"That was practiced, that was coached, that was worked on.'' – Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels speaking of the difference between the illegal taping recently done in Denver and what was done in New England

Yeah, maybe you should have practiced it more Josh, since you still lost the game in question. Jeez if you’re gonna cheat shouldn’t it give you an advantage?

"I had the game in my hands and I dropped it," Johnson moaned. "I’ll never get over it. Ever." – Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson on his drop of a game winning touchdown pass

Stevie, don’t beat yourself up. You’ll have that opportunity again.

"Believe it or not, we were discussing what play and Brett said, 'Hey, let's just run naked,' and I wanted to do something he felt comfortable with." – Vikings interim head coach Leslie Frazier on Brett Favre’s first down run that clinched the game

So Brett is comfortable running naked? Is the Sterger investigation committee aware of this?

"For us to collectively mess this up would be criminal.'' - Patriots owner Robert Kraft speaking on the ongoing labor negotiations,

I couldn't agree more

"You think I was laughing about something? I take this serious! Real serious! I put my heart and soul into this every single week!” – Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson during his post game meltdown

That performance is Derek taking things seriously? I’d hate to see how bad he’d be if he slacked off.

"To T.O. calling Ben soft all I can say is "That's my teammate, that's my quarterback" As i cry and my lips quiver. Wait that was him. Lol'' - Steelers safety Ryan Clark, on Twitter responding to Terrell Owens questioning the toughness of Ben Roethlisberger

I don’t typically put up Twitter posts, but this one was too good not to. Hilarious.

"What he's saying is you can criminally assault someone on the football field when they don't have their helmet on." – Titans defensive end Dave Ball on the lack of suspension on Andre Johnson for his fight with Cortland Finnegan

Dave, they said that when they slapped Richard Seymour’s wrist for clocking Big Douche.

Idiot of the week

This week, we bestow the crown of idiot on Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels.

Now, any head coach can go through tough times and bad losses. That’s natural. But to get blown out seemingly week after week with the situation looking bleaker after each crushing defeat will only infuriate the owner and alienate the fans.

But fans are forgiving and owners, especially good ones, can be patient and they will give a young coach some slack to get their program and team in place before real judgment sets in. But that goodwill typically gets thrown out the window when the fans and owner find evidence of impropriety. In this case, Broncos video director Steve Scarnecchia, McDaniels pal and also former Patriot employee, caught illegally taping opponents before a game.

It’s bad enough that a former Patriot crony working for McDaniels is wrapped up in a cheating scandal that is leaving a terrible stain upon the Bronco reputation. But what’s worse is it did not even help the team as they lost to the opponent in question, the 49ers.

Top that off with McDaniels, in his attempt to try to explain how this incident is merely an anomaly and not a systematic program like it was in New England, threw former employer and mentor Bill Belichick under the bus. Hey Josh, just ask Eric Mangini, it’s not a good idea to cheese off Belichick.

So for having an underachieving and horribly losing team, employing questionable people, failing to even cheat properly, angering Bill Belichick and sullying the proud franchise that is the Denver Broncos, Josh McDaniels you are an idiot.

The runners up this week are Derek Anderson for losing his mind in post game interviews and Andre Johnson for letting Cortland Finnegan get to him to the point he felt it necessary to beat his brains in. Come on Andre, you gotta just let his nonsense go.

On Tap This Week

Ok, so perhaps the every other week drop off wasn’t that bad.

Last week: 8-5
Thursday: 1-0
Season to date: 110 – 66

The Lady K and I keep creeping closer to the top four spots. Shall we work on getting a bit closer?

Sunday

Washington (5-6) at New York Giants (7-4)

New York needs this game to keep pace with Philadelphia. What does Washington need? Well, a running back, some receivers, a decent interior defensive line….

Giants over Redskins

San Francisco (4-7) at Green Bay (7-4)

Even with the newly added Jeff Reed, San Francisco does not have enough mojo to march into Lambeau and pull off the upset.

Packers over 49ers

Denver (3-8) at Kansas City (7-4)

Oh, I hope Todd Haley scolds Josh McDaniels after the game again. But this time he pantomimes using a video camera before he wags his finger at Josh. That would be awesome.

Chiefs over Broncos

Chicago (8-3) at Detroit (2-9)

Ok, fine I’ll finally get on the Chicago bandwagon. And now that I did, watch Detroit pull the upset. Yeesh.

Bears over Lions

Cleveland (4-7) at Miami (6-5)

I was all set to start riding the Cleveland train, but two things stayed my hand. One was watching Miami explode all over Oakland last week. And two was hearing Cleveland would start Jake Delhomme over Colt McCoy. Does Eric Mangini have something against winning?

Dolphins over Browns

New Orleans (8-3) at Cincinnati (2-9)

How lucky for Cincinnati fans. They will get to see in person the results of successfully turning around a moribund program. Unfortunately, it will be featured in the visiting team.

Saints over Bungles

Jacksonville (6-5) at Tennessee (5-6)

I don’t think even Kerry Collins can save things now.

Jaguars over Titans

Buffalo (2-9) at Minnesota (4-7)

Poor Buffalo, they just cannot catch a break, or a touchdown pass. BURN!. They could win this game, I know it. But they won’t on I’m sure what will turn out to be a fluke play.

Vikings over Bills

Oakland (5-6) at San Diego (6-5)

Yeah, it’s that time of year when San Diego suddenly realizes they’re talented and time is running out. Conversely, it’s that time of year Oakland realizes they suck.

Chargers over Raiders

St. Louis (5-6) at Arizona (3-8)

Go Sam Bradford!

Rams over Cardinals

Dallas (3-8) at Indianapolis (6-5)

Indy is a mess. Their playmakers are hurt, their offensive line isn’t as good as it used to be, their defense gives up too many big plays and their head coach is most definitely not Tony Dungy. But Dallas, well, who knows what they are right now. I gotta go with the Peyton Manning edge. If it means anything anymore, it’ll mean something today.

Colts over Cowboys

Carolina (1-10) at Seattle (5-6)

Meh.

Seahawks over Panthers

Atlanta (9-2) at Tampa Bay (7-4)

Tampa Bay is playing great football. Atlanta is playing better. Tampa Bay hasn’t lost two in a row yet this season. But neither have they managed to beat a quality opponent. I want to believe this is their chance, but Atlanta is taking care of business and I think they will again.

Falcons over Buccaneers

Pittsburgh (8-3) at Baltimore (8-3)

This is THE game of the week. The animosity that exists between these two clubs is palpable and always guarantees a hard hitting, ultra competitive game, one that everyone who enjoys football is looking forward to watching. In the previous matchup the Ravens did not have Ed Reed, but the Steelers did not have Big Douche. I think Big Douche trumps Reed. But of course I would.

Steelers over Ravens

Monday

New York Jets (9-2) at New England (9-2)

Game of the week II. Let me ask you this; does anyone think Bill Belichick will allow his team to lose twice in one season to Rex Ryan? I didn’t think so either.

Patriots over Jets