How We Saw The Divisional Round

We've seen some bad moves this year - but, Steve Marriucci packing it in with his team 1st & 10 at their 40 with 45 seconds left, down 22 points, was right up there with the best of them.  Maybe Marriucci will get to replace the guy with the WORST call of the year - Marty Mornhinweg's decision to kick off in overtime against the Bears.

Another dumb jock strikes again in New York.  This time, it's the Jets' defensive back  Nick Ferguson (left, who has started one game in his three-year career). He was asked by Howard Stern  how he would feel about having a gay teammate. "Outside, I don't care.  But I would let him go into the shower alone."  Then, asked if there were any gay guys on the Raiders:  "It's California.  After all, it (Oakland) is not far from San Francisco."  He also declared that everyone on the Jets team is straight.  Yeah, right.

Watched the Jets-Raiders game with Dave Kopay on Sunday.  A couple important notes from that game.  First, he confirmed for me that Al Davis was, in fact, an attractive man in the early '60s (even if he was always a snake).  Several years ago, I had made the mistake of saying aloud, in front of Jim and other friends, that I thought he was when he was younger.  Thank you Dave for affirming my thoughts!  Second, he brought our attention to another hottie to keep our eyes on - Oakland rookie tight end from BYU, Doug Jolley.

Strange, homo-friendly promos this weekend.  You had Dr. Ruth talking to CBS commentators Deion Sanders, Boomer & Marino about "Playoff Envy," an obvious take on Penis Envy.  Then, there was Howie Long kissing Terry Bradshaw in a Fox promo.  For 10-10-200, Bradshaw and Hulk Hogan dawned tights and took a ballet class.  And, no doubt you've seen the Pepsi-Lays commercial with the four straight guys on the couch.  King Kaufman over at Salon.com wrote a cool piece about America's favorite homoerotic sport, as exhibited by that commercial (among other things).

I had to laugh at Fox announcers Dick Stockton and Darryl Johnston falling over themselves to declare that the Falcons had fumbled the punt in the third quarter.  What they obviously didn't know (until they were told by a producer five minutes later) is that the receiving team cannot lose possession once the kicking team "illegally" touches the ball.  Then, of course, the two commentators passed that along as though they knew it all along.  They called one of the all-time worst games (see Jim's comments for more).

Credit the rushing defense of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, they were the most dominant defensive unit, holding their two opponents to 105 yards on 54 attempts (excluding QB scrambles).

For all his woofing, Jeremy Shockey only scored two touchdowns this season - and didn't make a reception for more than 30 yards.  Hell, 32 other tight ends in football caught two touchdowns.

Speaking of tight ends (no, no pun here), Dr. Z asked if anyone had a better touchdown-to-reception ration than the now-infamous Giants' long-snapper Trey Junkin who, when he was a tight end in the League, caught seven touchdowns on 17 career receptions.  Well, in nine years in the League, Mike Bartrum had only four catches for 14 yards; but three of them were for  touchdowns.

I'm beginning to understand why other football players dislike most punters and kickers.  These guys are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, and most of them can't bury the ball between the goal line and the 20.  In fact, we saw two punts this weekend of under 20 yards (neither had a return).  How can that be?  Hell, I can punt 20 yards.

Well, one of my Super Bowl teams - the Jets - was eliminated this weekend.  So, I'll just have to change my Super Bowl prediction a bit:  Phildalephia 24, Oakland 17.

--Watched the Sunday games, along with Cyd and a friend JP, with ex-NFLer Dave Kopay and had a blast. Kopay would regale us one minute about playing against the likes of Dick Butkus, share his fondness for playing for the Packers, then shift gears and comment on how good-looking Chad Pennington is or what a nice butt Peyton Manning has. He hates the Raiders (or more specifically, Al Davis), loves watching Jeff Garcia play and thinks the Bucs will beat the Eagles. He's a terrific guy and long been an incredibly strong voice for gay rights.

--Loved every minute of the wild 34-31 overtime win by the Tennessee Titans over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The wild 31-31 battle in regulation that saw four lead changes was only a prelude for the bizarre overtime.

After winning the toss, Tennessee drove to the Steeler 13 and lined up for a 31-yard field goal try by Joe Nedney. His kick went through and the stadium operator in Nashville set off a wave of fireworks as the fans celebrated. But wait … a split second before the kick, the Steelers called a time out so Nedney would have to try again. His second kick was wide left and the Steelers celebrated. But wait … Steelers defender Dwayne Washington ran into Nedney and a penalty was called, giving Nedney another chance. He then drilled a 26-yarder and the Titans had survived.

Steeler coach Bill Cowher was incensed at the call on Washington, thinking it ticky-tack at such a critical juncture. "For a game to be decided on that call is ludicrous,” Cowher said, and his players agreed. And Nedney admitted he hammed it up a bit to make Washington’s contact seem worse than it was. “He got a pretty good hit on me, but I think when I'm done, I might try acting,” Nedney said.

--I thought the running-into-the-kicker was a good call because there was no doubt Nedney was hit. I think that gets called 95% of the time. However, it was totally uncool of Nedney to admit he acted a bit since it leaves some doubt as to the call's validity.

--Pittsburgh can point to this stat as the main reason they lost: Tennessee converted 12 of 18 third downs. This was a problem all season for the Steelers, who were sixth worse in this category (allowing 43.6% conversions).

--Coolest play of the game was the 2-point conversion that tied the score at 28. Tommy Maddox fakes a handoff to Antwaan Randle El and throws it back to Hines Ward, who throws it to Plaxico Burress for the score. Totally inventive.

--Tennessee may have found a gem in 6-5 stud receiver Drew Bennett, who had seven catches.

--Fox announcer Dick Stockton should be put out to pasture. He had little feel for the dynamics of the Eagles-Falcons game, and once talked about how the "76ers' defense was playing well. Wrong sport, Dick,

--So much for a quarterback controversy in Philadelphia. Donavan McNabb looked sharp and mobile.

--Oakland looked impressive in overwhelming the Jets in the second half. The Jets had an impressive 16-play drive to end the first half and seemed to have momentum, but the Raiders just wore them down.

--Tampa Bay 31, San Francisco 6. Wake me when it's over.

Week's Hot Players

Steve McNair has more aches and pains than a resident of Leisure World, but there's no NFL quarterback tougher or more resilient. He showed it in the Tennessee Titans' 34-31 overtime win over Pittsburgh, where he threw for 338 yards. He left the game with an injured thumb, but came back to lift the Titans into the AFC title game.