-Starting close to home, I’ve heard a lot of talk about how the NFL has it in for the Steelers and Eagles – the Steelers as a team (based on a lot of penalties over the last month) and more specifically, that Big Ben and Mike Vick are getting hit illegally with no flags being thrown. As conspiracy theories go, this has to be one of the least successful ever – consider that the ‘target teams’ here are 10-3 and 9-4 respectively, and are both on-pace to cruise into the playoffs. I’ve watched the Steelers carefully over the last few weeks, and leaving aside the hits on Ben for a moment, most every other call was warranted. The Steeler O-line is frankly, not very good right now. They are not opening holes for Mendenhall, and Ben is getting hit a lot. They are forced to hold to be effective, and they aren’t exactly being subtle about it. Say what you want about NFL officials, but they are not blind and they WILL call blatant holds. The Steelers need to improve along the line, both in terms of talent and technique.
Now, about the QBs – both of those guys are going to be hit more than the average QB – Ben because he holds the ball way too long, and Vick because he runs a lot. Having said that, in Ben’s case there have indeed been too many illegal hits that have gone uncalled. I’m not a conspiracy guy; I think they were just missed calls (when Ngata broke Ben’s nose, for example, the ref was behind Ben and not in a position to see that clearly). I applaud the NFL’s attempt to make the game safer and I think most teams have begun to adjust well to this – I hope that if Ben does continue to get hit late, they will call it as they would for Brady or Manning. Vick is a special case – once a QB starts running, he loses much of his ‘QB’ protection. Also, when players dance down the sideline and step out of bounds at the last minute, in my opinion the defense should not be called for an out-of-bounds hit unless it is blatant. Vick has become a much better passer under Andy Reid’s tutelage, and he would be better served to do a lot less running and a lot more passing.
-Elsewhere in the NFL, the Pats are hot – but you might be surprised to learn just how hot they really are. According to Footballoutsiders.com, a site that has tracked every play of every game since 1996, the 2010 Pats are on an offensive pace basically equal to that of the 2007 Pats – despite the lack of a big-play receiver, like Moss! Incredible as it seems, Tom Brady has improved even over that ’07 performance – no, he won’t throw 50 TDs, but he is on pace to throw about 35, while only throwing 4 INTs thus far – a RIDICULOUSLY low total for a QB in a pass-first offense. I’m not a Pats fan at all, but I admire greatness, and one cannot escape the fact that Brady and Belichick are the best QB/coach combo since Montana and Walsh…possibly the best ever.
The Steelers and other teams tried to play coverage against Brady, dropping eight into coverage and only rushing three – and he is too good for that. The team that can pressure Brady with four or five rushers and force some mistakes is the team that MIGHT beat them in the playoffs – but as of now, I do not see that team out there.
-Last NFL note – The Ravens no longer concern me. Any defense that blows a 28-7 lead in one half of football simply isn’t a very good defense, much less a great one. Yes, they won that game in OT, but they had the game easily won and let it slip away. For the Ravens, much more worrisome has to be the play of QB Joe Flacco – in big moments, he’s consistently come up small lately. The offense managed only two first downs in the entire second half and overtime against one of the worst defenses in football! There’s plenty of talent in Baltimore but it doesn’t seem to be meshing well. Look for the Ravens to struggle against elite teams in January.
-On to hockey, and the run up to the Winter Classic has begun. HBO is producing a miniseries called 24/7 about the Pens and Capitals – much like the ‘Hard Knocks’ series, a no-holds-barred behind the scenes look at both teams – and the initial airing was Wednesday night. If you can forgive the almost constant swearing by coaches and players on both teams (more on that in a sec), the show was very good and quite revealing. The show caught the Pens in the midst of their long winning streak and the Caps just beginning what has become a 7-game losing streak, so the difference in mood and tone was obvious – but even beyond that, the difference in energy, leadership, and communication between Pens coach Dan Bylsma and Caps coach Bruce Boudreau was striking. Bylsma is a bundle of energy – always working, always talking to the team, very analytical. Boudreau seemed completely at a loss as to how to get the team out of its funk – at one point he tore into a profanity-laced tirade that would have made Bob Knight proud, at other times he tried to almost beg the team to snap out of it. He seemed to be affected by the HBO cameras being present. In any case, with the Pens coming off two tough losses, it will be interesting to see how Bylsma is portrayed in next week’s episode.
As for the swearing – a lot of it was ‘jocks being jocks’, and some of it was downright funny – but a lot of it, especially from Boudreau, seemed forced and more for the cameras. I don’t mind a bit of profanity, after all that’s real life – but it got to the point in the show where it was kind of a turnoff. I hope that they tone that part of it down in future episodes.
The look into the players’ off-ice routines and lives was very well done and really made the show worthwhile to me. If you are interested in either team, try to catch this show at some point, I didn’t expect much but it was a lot better than I expected.
-Last note: my colleague Chris Morelli will touch on this sometime over the winter, but if you want to witness a team on the rise, go to Penn State and watch their young wrestling team develop. New coach Cael Sanderson has brought a new energy (and pile of top recruits) to Happy Valley, and the turnaround is already underway. The Lions are ranked 5th in the latest InterMat rankings, and with the plethora of freshman talent already in the lineup, I look for them to be #1 within a year or two. Former Clearfield standout Brad Pataky has been injured but is due back in the lineup very soon – and as a redshirt senior is now the most experienced wrestler on the squad. If you get a chance, go to Rec Hall and see this team while tickets are still easily acquired – in two or three years, this will be a very tough ticket to get.
Next week, we’ll talk more about the Winter Classic, and perhaps do some bowl and baseball talk as well.
Dave Glass can be reached at buggyracer@verizon.net.