Week 13--the Good, the Bad, and the Replay

Whether you saw it as “sweet redemption” for Eli Manning, or felt that “it’s about friggin’ time” that Manning did something…you saw the giant performance as one thing: a much-needed win for the entire Giants organization. Manning overcame yet another dismal beginning by leading the Giants to two fourth quarter TD-drives and a 21-16 win in Chicago. Manning needed only two passes to pick up where he left off against the Vikings—hitting Brian Urlacher (who doesn’t play for the Giants) with a pass on the Giants’ first drive. Less than two minutes into the game. Nice. If the game were at the Meadowlands, Manning may not have made it out alive for the second series! But he did—and that was where I noticed the problem with the Giants on this day. The Giants had a third and six from their own 43…and they ran the ball. OK…perhaps the coaches were a bit gun-shy with Manning, but who could blame them after last week and the first series against the Bears? Still—it’s not good when your coaching staff is afraid to throw the ball from midfield on a third and six…Again there was a third and six, and again, the play call was a run. This time it was from the Giants’ 38 with four minutes left in the first half. Why? How is being overprotective helping? The Giants “brain-trust” was making Manning obsess about it. He must be thinking, “They don’t want me to throw on 3rd and 6? That’s not good…I guess I’ll have to show them I deserve to throw more…” Meanwhile, he’s not thinking about the GAME. What he WAS doing, was throwing terrible interceptions and coughing up the ball. Three turnovers before he hooked up with Amani Toomer for the rally-starting TD, then a couple of passes to David Tyree, one big one to Burress, and the Giants were primed to win the game. Which they did…despite their coach’s indefensible decision to NOT take three knees then have Tynes boot a 20 yarder to win it. There are a couple of reasons Coughlin was wrong to score a TD there—

1) There was a ton of time left and the Bears had a time out left—plenty of time to score.
2) He would have to kick to Devin Hester after the TD.

Why not let the clock run down, make the Bears burn their time out, take another two knees and kick the FG with no time left? Are you telling me Coughlin thought, “There’s a better chance of Tynes missing from 20 yards than there is in having Hester bust a return or at least giving the Bears good enough field position to score a TD.”??? If that’s true—he needs to cut Tynes immediately. If a coach doesn’t think his kicker can make an extra point to win the game, then how can he justify having that kicker on the roster? He cannot. And how many times does Coughlin need to see Hester work his magic before he realizes kicking to him is suicidal? We all saw Coughlin jumping up and down on the sidelines, all nervous and using body English to make the tackle on Hester (at the 41)—would he have been as jumpy awaiting a 20 yard FG try? I don’t think so. This decision was one of many that are leading me to believe that Eli Manning needs a new coach. When Manning got into a rhythm, when he was allowed to throw in the no-huddle, he was inspired and effective. Which begs the question—since it’s CRYSTAL clear to all Giants fans and announcers that Manning is more effective in a no-huddle scenario—why not use it more? The bottom line is the Giants are 8-4. I didn’t think they would win that game yesterday, but the defense stepped up—especially Michael Johnson. His open-field tackle on Adrian Peterson during the last Bears’ drive saved the game. Peterson had acres set up in front of him and may have scored. Coughlin should kiss Johnson’s ass for rescuing him—imagine how much stick Coughlin would have taken if he passed on the FG only to have the Bears score a TD? More impressive was the fact that Johnson was injured in the game—he went to the locker-room for X-rays before returning. The defense earned praise for once; they were banged up in the secondary, but made the plays when they had to, and Strahan & Co. kept the pressure on the surprisingly effective Rex Grossman. But we all knew that the Bears would have four throws into the end zone in the end, didn’t we? It wouldn’t be the Giants without that.

The other team in New York had a nice vacation in South Florida. The winless Dolphins were favored over the Jets…and apparently it upset the Jets to no end. Motivated by this Vegas slighting, Gang Green—or should I say “Gang-whatever-the-hell-those-uniforms-were”—slaughtered the hapless fish, 40-13. John Beck’s five turnovers combined with Leon Washington’s two TDs (why haven’t they been using him more?) made Sunday an easy day for the 3-9 Jets. Kellen Clemens threw for a TD, the team rushed for over 160 yards…hell—Thomas Jones finally got into the end zone for the first time all season. This WAS a one TD game in the third quarter, so let’s not get carried away Jets fans…after all, as 0-12 comedian Jason Taylor said, “They (stink) too,” Taylor said. “They beat us. They'll go home happy, and their fans will be happy that they got three wins this year. Good for them.” Shut it, Jason. Really. When you’re 0-12, just stop talking. The Jets played a solid game and deserve to feel good for a week, at least. However, the Jets and their fans best not think they’re on some sort of road to recovery. The reality is, they’re 3-9 and have playoff-hungry Cleveland and Kansas City at home, and trips to New England and Tennessee left on their schedule. 4-12? 3-13? Either way, it’s a dismal season—one which proved only negatives: that the 3-4 alignment has been a failure, that they don’t really have a QB, that their RB isn’t anything special, that their offensive line has been terrible. This isn’t something that’s going to turn around in a year, or even two. The team’s record last season was a mirage and while it’s nice to win a game, even if it IS against a winless team, there is a ton of work to be done for the Jets before they’re a contender…they should start by burning those hideous uniforms.

Dallas beat Green Bay Thursday night, and prompted several talking heads to claim, “Dallas has proven they’re the class of the NFC…” I disagree. The game I watched had Dallas barely hanging on to beat a back-up quarterback, at home, and showed vulnerability in doing so. You think Green bay left that game thinking, “Wow—those guys are better than us. I hope we don’t have to play them again.” Not a chance. They left saying, “Wow” alright…but it was, “Wow—those guys are pretty good…but we played poorly, lost our QB, had a couple of key injuries on defense, yet still hung in there and almost came back. I can’t wait to face them again when we’re healthy!” Who would have thought that Aaron Rodgers would perform so well? I was shocked—the guy has skills. He went 18-26 for 201 and a TD and ran for 30 yards, but more than that—he was a spark. Brett Favre was having one of his “bad Favre” games where he gets impatient and just throws the ball deep, often into triple coverage. Rodgers stabilized the game and ran the offense to perfection and unlike Favre, he committed no turnovers. Dallas did what they had to do—Tony Romo played his usual stellar game: 19-30 for 301 and 4 TDs/1 INT, the defense got early pressure on Favre and caused a couple of turnovers that the offense turned into points, and Marion Barber III ran effectively—when Dallas gets all three of those things going, they’re not going to lose. However, if Romo to Owens for 12 yards was instead Romo to Owens…stripped by Harris as it should have been, the game would have played out differently. This horrific non-reversal is the perfect example of why instant replay is a joke. It doesn’t work. Owens’ forward progress hadn’t been stopped, that’s a bail out for the officials. He caught the pass and was IMMEDIATELY stripped of the ball. There wasn’t time for Owens’ progress to be stopped, but the referees’ gutlessness was rewarded by the so-called whistle. Replays backed up the Packers claim, but there was no overturn to be had. Dallas went down and kicked a field goal, tying the score 3-3. No big deal? I think it was. Green Bay had driven down the field and gotten points on its opening drive. With that fumble-that-should-have-been, they would have had the ball on the Dallas side of the field and a good chance to go up 10-0. Instead, Dallas ended up kicking a field goal that tied the game at that point.

I’m not saying the Packers would have won, I’m saying that I shouldn’t be able to discuss several blown replay calls EVERY WEEK. Amani Toomer’s TD was ruled incomplete on the field, only to be reversed via replay. I am a Giants fan and I’ll say this with no hesitation: that play should never have been overturned, not in a million years. There is no way anyone can tell me there was clear evidence that Toomer caught that ball. Did it SEEM like he did? Sure. Did he catch it? Probably…but “probably” isn’t “definitely” and the latter is required to overturn a call. I mentioned the call involving TO in which the refs claimed his forward progress was stopped…well, if that was the case, why is it subjected to replay? Why was Green Bay even allowed to challenge it? And then, there was the call in New England last night. I guess I need to be more specific—I meant the Gaffney TD catch to win the game for New England. The one Baltimore challenged. Gaffney definitely had both feet in-bounds…but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was whether or not he was in possession of the ball. To me, and I was rooting for New England, he did NOT have possession. The ball was not secure until Gaffney was out of bounds. Did the refs even look at that aspect of the play, or were they focused only on the feet being in-bounds? These three, and believe me—I could come up with 20 more, incidents are the tip of the Replay-Doesn’t-Work iceberg. If you’re going to use replay, it must be used correctly. I’m not even mentioning the fact that replay ruins the flow of the game, kills teams’ momentum, leads to more commercials, is subject to the same human errors that the on-field calls are…I don’t care if 100 analysts say, “Well, that’s what instant replay is for—to get it right!” But it does so arbitrarily, and ineffectively. There wasn’t a problem without replay—the NFL somehow made it through decades without it…yet now, every week, there are ridiculous mistakes, bullshit excuses, lazy referees…all on account of replay. It’s annoying, and needs to be fixed.

OK—back to the games…

The Jags came close, but fell to the Colts in Indy. Instant replay reversed a recovery decision on a fumble by the Jags’ David Garrard. Let me explain that: it was determined by the officials that Jacksonville had recovered the Garrard fumble…but upon further review, there was CONCLUSIVE evidence that the Colts had in fact recovered the fumble…conclusive evidence that someone had possession on a fumble. OK. Indy took possession at the Jacksonville 11 and scored the game’s first TD three plays later. Here’s what Tony Dungy had to say about the challenge, “I never thought there was a question," Dungy said. “I saw Raheem get the ball. He was down. Then someone knocked into him and knocked it loose.” Wow—someone recovered a fumble, but lost it in the pile? That’s never happened before, I’m sure. The refs saw who had the ball and made a call…then a replay determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone else had the ball? Jacksonville could have overcome that ridiculous call, but why should they have to? After a missed FG, the Colts took a 14-0 lead and Jacksonville was faced with a must-score situation. They drove 84 yards on 16 plays, taking over 10 minutes off the clock in cutting the Colts’ lead to 14-7. The Colts answered with a long drive of their own, and went into halftime with a 21-7 lead. The second quarter had essentially two possessions-- one long drive by each team. I’m not sure what that means, I just thought it was interesting. The tennis-match continued in the 3rd quarter as Jacksonville took the opening possession and marched 69 yards to cut the Indy lead to 21-14. After a Manning interception, the Jags were in a position to tie the game…but their drive stalled after a 15-yard penalty and a FG was all the Jags could muster. The teams exchanged TDs after that and the Colts got the first downs they needed to win the game, 28-25. The Jags played hard and tough, but showed that they aren’t ready to dethrone the defending champs. They blew their chance by taking stupid penalties throughout the game, especially in the 4th quarter…but this was a really good game. One of several this weekend—I’ll get to the rest of the good games after touching on the not-so-good ones…

Carolina finally won a game at home, destroying the disappointing 49ers, 31-14. The Panthers are finished but they finally seem to understand that playing DeAngelo Williams is the smart thing to do. He is electrifying and a game-breaker—can he play every down? That’s what the Panthers need to find out, but it’s tough for a coach to play a “kid” when his job is on the line. Is it fair that John Fox’s job is probably lost? After all, Jake Delhomme went down with a season-ending injury and how many teams can perform up to expectations with a backup QB? Especially when that QB is David Carr (now 3rd string) or Abe Lincoln, er, I mean Vinny Testaverde. I mean, come on. I love Vincenzo, but the man’s career should be brought to someone’s farm “upstate” if you know what I’m saying. As for the Niners, what can you say? They’re a huge disappointment—Frank Gore should be arrested for murder…murder of every fantasy team he was drafted by! Alex Smith didn’t progress then got injured, the defense is terrible, and the coaches seem clueless. Add it all up and you get the Jets of the NFC. Not good.

Tomlinson beat KC 21-10. I’m sorry—I meant the Chargers beat KC. Other than the rushes of #21, this game was a snoozefest, as most games involving the Chiefs are. Philip Rivers threw for 157 yards, one TD, one INT, and completed less than half his passes, while Damon Huard was hardly better with a lackluster 19-34 effort for 186, one TD and two INTs. The Chargers moved to 7-5, enough to take command of the AFC West while the Chiefs fell to 4-8 after losing their fifth in a row. Enough said.

Gus Frerotte went off for the Rams, who defeated the Falcons 28-16. The one-time wall basher threw for over 300 yards and 3 TDs and Steven Jackson had 167 total yards and a TD to lead the way, while Atlanta was led by Joey Harrington, so they lost. Again. Like Carolina, the Falcons may have finally learned that their young RB should be getting the bulk of the carries. Jerious Norwood ran for 94 yards on only 8 carries. Warrick Dunn, on the other hand, managed only 17 yards on 10 carries. I know Coach Petrino’s system calls for a larger running back, but how can you argue with Norwood’s production? Give the kid the ball 25 times a game! You’re 3-9, going nowhere—what’s stopping you from seeing what you have?

Buffalo came from behind to defeat the Redskins, 17-16. Joe Gibbs used his magic to turn a 51-yard FG into a 36-yarder by calling a timeout after the Skins had already taken a timeout. You can’t do that. I guess 100 years in the league weren’t enough to teach Gibbs the rules. Buffalo couldn’t score a TD, but five FGs and a safety were enough—17 the hard way. Trent Edwards played well enough, and Freddie Jackson filled in admirably for Marshawn Lynch with 82 yards on 16 carries. Buffalo is now 6-6 and in the thick of things in the AFC wild card chase. They take on Cleveland in two weeks—who would have thought that would be a huge game when the season started?

It was a great day to be a McCown. Josh led the Raiders to a rare win over the spiraling Broncos and Luke spearheaded the Bucs’ win over the Saints. The Raiders signal-caller went 14-21 for 141 and three TDs—very efficient. Justin Fargas continued his improbable season by adding 146 yards on the ground for the Silver & Black and (gasp) JaMarcus Russell made his debut and both the fans and his teammates seemed energized by his mere presence. Hmmm. As for the Broncos…they are in trouble. Jay Cutler had another disastrous game: 16-32 for 214, no TDs, 2 INTs and a fumble. Uh-oh. Denver’s skid has them at 5-7, two games behind San Diego with only four remaining. See ya.

Like his older brother, Luke McCown had a dream day at QB. Tampa pretty much locked up the NFC South as they gladly accepted the Saints gift—a 27-23 win. McCown, filling in for the efficient Jeff Garcia, took a page out of the first-stringer’s book—completing 29 out of 37 passes for 313 yards to go with his 2 TDs and only 1 INT. He linked up with Joey Galloway seven times for 159 yards. Not bad for a backup. But the Bucs were lucky to win this one. Here’s the deal: The Saints had the ball with three minutes left, up by three points, the ball at their own 49. Run the ball, kill the clock…but don’t make a mistake. At worst, the Saints should have punted back to Tampa with a little over two minutes left and the Bucs would have had poor field position. Instead, Sean Payton decides to run a trick play! Reggie Bush took a handoff then handed off to WR Devery Henderson…who fumbled. Tampa recovered and went right down the field for the winning score…Season over for N’awlins. There’s a time to be cute—that wasn’t it.

Tennessee beat Houston to stay in the playoff hunt. Vince Young played very well—21-31 for 248, 2 TDs and 1 INT, to go with his 44 rushing yards. But it was the Titans Defense which was the difference for Tennessee as they KO’ed Texans QB Matt Schaub for the second time this season. Last week the D embarrassed themselves against Cincinnati—but not this week. Albert Haynesworth returned and inspired his teammates, who, with trips to KC and Indy and San Diego left on the schedule, will need every ounce of inspiration they can find…can Vince Young play well in all three of those games? He’ll have to if the Titans expect to make the playoffs.

Break up the Vikings! With Adrian Peterson back (for now) and the Defense cranked up…this team is looking like a playoff team that no one is going to want to play. They’ve even managed to get decent play out of Tavaris Jackson, who threw more TDs than interceptions. AD, meanwhile, ran for 116 yards and two TDs on only 15 carries in his return. Chester Taylor chipped in with 70 yards and a TD on only 14 totes—clearly the Lions have a clawless defense. They allowed 443 yards of offense to Minnesota, while the Vikes D yielded only 10 points to the supposedly potent Detroit offense. The Norsemen finish their season with a road game against the Niners, home games versus Chicago and Washington, and a road game in Denver, where the Broncos will already have the stamps put on their season…The Vikings could actually finish 10-6. However they finish, with that run defense and that running attack, there ain’t a team around that wants to face them in the playoffs.

The Seahawks finally showed me some guts this weekend by defeating the Eagles in Philly. True, it was A. J. Feeley not McNabb, but still—it’s a road game against a decent team. Baby steps. Matt Hasselbeck was decent, Maurice Morris (not Shaun Alexander) ran well, and Lofa Tatupu had a hat tick of interceptions to lead the 8-4 Hawks. The Seattle D also held Brian Westbrook in check, or as close to in check as you can—limiting him to 139 yards of total offense, focusing on making Feeley nervous in the pocket. Seattle can put the division away by beating Arizona this Sunday. Philadelphia, at 5-7, can start formulating their plans for next season. Will McNabb be back? If not, where will he go? Will Andy Reid be back? This team will have some major decisions to make…I’m sure their fans will be patient as usual.

Arizona absolutely stole one from Cleveland Sunday. This was a fun game to watch, but the refs managed to ruin it in the end. Yes—the Browns did themselves in by committing atrocious turnovers (4), penalties (10), and allowing defensive TDs, but at the end of the game, Kellen Winslow, Jr. caught a pass from Derrick Anderson. He got one foot down and was CLEARLY forced out before he could get his other foot down. The refs said “out of bounds”. The Browns challenged the play and the refs humored them—knowing full well that you cannot challenge a force out call. We all saw Winslow’s feet weren’t both in-bounds, and we also saw that he was forced out. In the heat of the moment, I’m fairly certain the refs were focused only on the feet, not the fact that he was being forced out. Either allow replay to view this or, as I’ve said before, change the rule itself—if you don’t have two feet down, you’re out of bounds regardless of how you got there. Less judgment for the refs is needed, not more. As a result of this blown call, the Browns are 7-5 and in a fight for a playoff slot. Arizona raised their record to 6-6 and got back into the chase.

Ben Roethlisberger tossed two TDs to Hines Ward and ran for another to lead the Steelers to a “blah” win over the sad sack Bengals. Woops—Willie Parker fumbled again. Are you kidding me? The defense did enough to frustrate Carson Palmer and his receivers, and Rudi Johnson looks shot…the Bengals are not, uh…they’re not good. Why their coach still has a job is beyond me. Pittsburgh has a trip to New England this week, and if they play like they have the last three weeks, they’re going to get smoked. It looks like the Steelers will be the three seed, and that means no bye week in the playoffs…Cleveland would love another crack at their rivals. Other than the Browns, I can’t see a six-seed scaring the Black & Gold in the first round. Yes, I can see that far ahead.

Speaking of seeing things…who the hell saw last night’s thriller coming? Not I. I’ve been sour on the Ravens all season…I didn’t know they had last night in them after a five-game skid. Kyle Boller looked like a real QB last night—that’s two mediocre (at best) NFL QBs that the Patriots have turned into gutsy, productive performers in the past two weeks. Boller and Feeley have one other thing in common: they both threw terrible interceptions which cost their team a win. Leading 24-17, a Yamon Figurs punt return set the Ravens up on the Pats’ 26-yard line with 12 minutes left. A field goal puts them up two scores. Two runs and a penalty put the Ravens at 3rd and 14. A couple of yards and it’s an easy FG for Matt Stover, but Boller wanted to be a hero and uncorked his only terrible pass of the day…right into the arms of James Sanders who returned his gift, not to the customer service department, but to the Pats’ 43. That set up a Gostkowski FG and brought the Pats to within four, 24-20, with 8:41 left. The Ravens would not get another first down. After a punting exchange, the Pats ended up with the ball on their own 27 with 3:30 left in the game. They went on a 13-play drive, and only one play didn’t involve Brady passing or running. Brady and the Pats faced two fourth downs, converting each. My favorite play on the drive was Brady’s 12-yard scramble on fourth and six. The guy is so calm, so poised…and his team feeds off of it. There wasn’t one member of the Patriots, from the coaching staff to the back-up RB, who showed anything other than grace under pressure. That is a champion. Sure, they were down. Sure, they played like crap. But ya know what—they won. You want to tell me that wasn’t holding on fourth down, fine. I think it was. You want to tell me Gaffney didn’t catch the ball? I agree…but that was only first down! You can’t tell me that Brady doesn’t get them into the end zone in the next three downs. Well, you could, but you’d be delusional. Brady was going to get the job done. And hats off to the Ravens—they played a great game, especially Willis McGahee, who ran for 138 tough yards and a TD. That being said, some of the Ravens embarrassed themselves, led by class act Brian Billick who thought it was cool to blow some taunting kisses at Rodney Harrison during the game. The guy is a clown. I don’t know about you, but I want my coach to be a rock, not a jester blowing kisses at the other team. Bart Scott was a bit frustrated about some refereeing decisions so he figured the best way to deal with it would be to pick up the flag and throw it into the crowd. Classy. And after the game, all the Ravens could do was whine about calls not going their way, and how the league wants the Patriots to win because Brady sells tickets…and how they had to play the Pats AND the refs. I know you think you got jobbed, and that you’ve lost six in a row, but how about shutting up and considering how YOU blew the game! Boller threw that interception…Ed Reed fumbled away a Brady interception…your assistant coach called a time out before the fourth and one play...you went three and out the last two times you had the ball and the lead—when you have the Champ on the mat, you have to finish him. If you wanna BE the man…woooooo…you’ve gotta BEAT the man. Sweep the knee and get them a bodybag. Otherwise, the Champ will rise up and leave you crying in your helmet, wondering what the hell happened on that rainy night in Baltimore.