GOP 2016 Presidential Nominee front-runner Donald Trump complained on Sunday about how the NFL has grown soft. He said the referees make too many unnecessary penalty calls. Players aren't allowed to hit each other in head-to-head collisions, so now the game is boring, according to Trump. Hopefully he was watching Steelers vs. Bengals on Saturday night. It was a throwback to the old NFL, where head to head shots, vicious tackles, and coaches getting involved by pulling players' hair and jumping in the other teams' huddle to talk trash were par for the course.
OK, the last one wasn't exactly a common thing. But the Steelers' coaching staff has made a habit of acting like heel wrestling managers. Remember when Mike Tomlin tried to trip Jacoby Jones? He said he was sorry about his actions, but their actions since then seem to tell a different story. You got Mike Munchak pulling Reggie Nelson's dreadlocks on the sidelines. You got Joey Porter out on the field yapping at Bengals when he shouldn't be out there. There's a rule about that sort of thing. But while the Steeler coaches were acting like heel wrestling managers, the referees were acting like wrestling referees. They didn't see anything at all until that key point in the match where they're supposed to see it & turn the tide of the match towards the person that's going over.
Of course, the Bengals played the role of the dopey babyface that makes the classic comeback, tries to fight fire with fire and ends up paying for it in the end. As a great man once said: "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." In this instance, good was dumb by trusting people like Vontaze Burfict & Pacman Jones to not let their emotions get the best of them.
It's not that I didn't expect the Bengals to lose, because anybody who reads me knows, that's exactly what I expected. It wasn't even the fact it was a close game lost on the final possession. Had Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers down the field into field goal range after a few miraculous catches or runs, I would have shrugged it off as business as usual in the National Football League. Disappointing, but bound to happen given the Bengals' less than illustrious history, Marvin Lewis' inability to win playoff games & Roethlisberger being shot up on so many painkillers that he could go out there with one arm & be fine. It seems like one injured quarterback a year is good for a miraculous comeback in the playoffs.
Unfortunately, the Steelers won because the Bengals handed the game to them. The Steelers are dirty as sin, but their chaos is a controlled chaos. Marvin Lewis has never had control of his teams in the thirteen years he's coached the Bengals. Mike Brown is the type of guy that loves to give young men second chances, so he'll bring in risky characters. Every NFL locker room has risky characters. The difference is that some teams can control them and some can't. Marvin Lewis and his coaching staff are not capable of controlling the unsavory elements of their locker room. That is why Marvin Lewis's teams will never live up to expectations and will never win playoff games.
I was very critical of Lewis after the game & called for his firing on Twitter & at offtheteam.com. I know he won't be fired. But it needed to be said nonetheless. People have come at me from both sides of the issue...the Lewis defenders say that 12 wins is pretty good, going to the playoffs is pretty good. True. But at some point a team needs to take the next step. Marvin's had thirteen years. Seven playoff games. He hasn't won one of them. He's 2-13 against the Steelers in the city of Cincinnati. He's had plenty of chances. He hasn't gotten the job done. He never will. I'd love to be wrong, but I doubt I am.
What I might be wrong about are this weekend's picks. Let's hook em up.
Saturday, January 16
Kansas City at New England (-5): You're expecting me to pick against the New England Patriots with a week off?
That's a week for the Patriots to get healthy, a week for Bill Belichick to strategize, and a week for Tom Brady to polish his rings and make room for one more in the collection. The Chiefs had to go out there and play a football game last week. Sure, they beat the Texans pretty bad, but surely the offense had to be worn out by the presence of JJ WATT. ESPN told me the entire game that Watt was the only player on the field worth talking about, so I assume he did quite the number on Alex Smith and company. The defense wore themselves out beating up on Brian Hoyer, so expect the fresh Patriots to take advantage of all that.
I wrote this before I heard about Chandler Jones having a medical issue over the weekend, but I can't be too worried if the guy actually ODed and practiced a couple of days later. That's some Wolverine healing factor stuff right there.
Green Bay at Arizona (-7): Once the Packers got things going on Sunday, it was pretty much impossible for Washington to stop them. They get a tougher test this week, going to Glendale & dealing with the Cardinals. The last time this happened was in Week 16, and it ended real poorly for the Packers. What could change things this time?
1. Teams that get blown out the first time tend to do better in re-matches. The humiliation factor has them coming in determined to not let it happen again.
2. Carson Palmer has never won a game in the postseason. Does he still have that Bengals stink on him, or will the change of scenery change him for the better? Changes of scenery didn't help Mike Zimmer or Jay Gruden last Sunday.
OK, that's all I got. The Cardinals should win this one, but seven points seems like a lot to me against Aaron Rodgers. The Packers should at least keep it closer than it was last time, they'll be more ready for the Cardinal attack.
Sunday, January 17
Seattle at Carolina (-3): Hold on a second. The PANTHERS are the favorites?
Have these people not been watching the NFL for the past couple of months? Russell Wilson has on fire. And when he's not on fire, like last week when he was playing in temperatures well below zero, he still does enough to get the job done. The Seahawk defense held the Vikings to three field goals, keeping Teddy Bridgewater & Adrian Peterson from doing anything useful and ensuring that Blair Walsh would get the blame for the Vikings' downfall even though he's the only reason they scored any points to begin with.
(Seriously, Vikings fans? Blaming Blair Walsh? If the Bengals fans weren't throwing trash at injured people & the Steelers fans didn't exist, you'd be the least classy fanbase of the week.)
Sure, the Panthers got the win the last time these teams met, back in October. The Seahawks dominated that game until the 4th quarter when Cam Newton started getting lucky. That was a Seahawks team sitting at 2-4 & still suffering from their post-Super Bowl hangover. They've done this the last two years now. As soon as people think they're out of it, the Seahawks kick things up a notch. Carolina had a real nice season, but it's time for the Seahawks to make their annual playoff push.
As Jeremy Lambert says, the dab is dead. First Dabo & the Clemson Tigers, now the Panthers. I think Frank Beamer's retirement was the beginning of the end for the dab.
Pittsburgh at Denver (-6.5): ...
Dustin James thinks the Chiefs have some kind of a rivalry with the Broncos that involves hatred, but I think it's pretty safe to say that there isn't a more hate-filled rivalry in the NFL than Steelers/Bengals right now. It isn't the closest, because the Bengals suck & Marvin Lewis can't coach his way out of a paper bag in January, but find me two teams in the NFL that hate each other more. Seahawks/Cardinals has been fun over the last couple of years, Bears/Packers is the oldest in the sport, and the media keeps telling us that Cowboys/Racial Slurs matters. But none of these rivalries feature the pure, unadulterated hatred that most of the men representing Cincinnati & Pittsburgh feel towards one another. Sure, you'll hear Andy Dalton say that he & Ben Roethlisberger get along, but quarterbacks are a different breed, capable of cogent thought and analysis. The sociopathic maniacs on defense are the ones fueling the hate, and those of us that enjoy watching grown men beat each other senseless during our free time are more than happy to join in that feeling.
So if you're looking for an unbiased view of this game, you're looking in the wrong place. But I'm still going to pick the Steelers here because it'll be a close game. If Peyton Manning's in good shape he should be ready to go, and I feel like Denver won't have the same problems Cincinnati had keeping their emotions in check. Hopefully the Broncos will win so I don't have to talk about those chumpstains from Pittsburgh for at least a few months.
Last Week: 1-3
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