October 25, 2011

Sunday October 23, 2011, I watched three football games: Atlanta @ Detroit; Pittsburgh @ Arizona; and Indianapolis @ New Orleans

Atlanta @ Detroit

It was mentioned during the game that the Atlanta Falcons prepared for the expected noise level in the Detroit Silverdome by practicing with jet engine noise in the background. It is unclear to this blogger how this was accomplished. Did the US Military do continuous fly-bys overhead? Did they use a recording? However the deed was done, it was a successful gambit.
Despite being intercepted twice and a holding call that negated a touchdown, the Falcons left Detroit with a win becoming just the second team to beat the Lions this season. This win came on the Lions’ home turf matching what the 49ers did the week before.
One may wonder where the super impressive “come from behind” Lions team has been the last two Sundays, but I hope the Lions and their fans don’t get discouraged. I implore them not to lose the confidence and the momentum of the first five games. For a team that just two years ago went 0 - 16, a 5-2 start is impressive as well as respectable! After all, other than Green Bay (still undefeated at 7-0), all the league’s top leaders have no more than five wins. The Lions have played some excellent football so far and the season is far from over. There’s plenty of time to improve as needed.
Ouch! x-tra point: Falcons QB Matt Ryan got his foot stepped on by his own teammate. Watching the replay of this brought back the gruesome images of Joe Theismann’s—Washington Redskins QB 1974-1985—career ending broken leg against the NY Giants. I was watching that game as well when it happened. Thankfully Matt Ryan and his foot didn’t suffer the same fate as Theismann. Apparently, it looked much worse than it was: he returned in the 4th quarter virtually limp-free.
I can’t finish my commentary about the Lions here without mentioning the controversy over the after-game mid-field “handshake” between the Lions head coach, Jim Schwartz, and the 49ers head coach, Jim Harbaugh, in week six. It has been said the media has made too much of it and the traditional postgame handshake is insincere and pointless. Well, the media always makes too much of everything, so that’s a moot point. But while the postgame handshake might be insincere, it certainly isn’t pointless. Since when is good sportsmanship pointless!? It’s all about common courtesy— something of which there is far too little in the world today.
ESPN.com reported, “…49ers coach Harbaugh gave Lions coach Schwartz a roundhouse handshake and a backslap that Schwartz took offense to.” Well, I saw it. It wasn’t a “backslap”, and it was offensive. Mr. Harbaugh put his hand to Mr. Schwartz’s shoulder and shoved him hard enough to cause him to stumble. Maybe it wasn’t intentional. Maybe the emotional high he was on for beating the previously undefeated Lions got the better of him. I don’t know. And I don’t care. While I don’t believe the incident is deserving of fines (these are already handed out way too frequently by the NFL), Jim Harbaugh does owe Jim Schwartz an apology. His “I shook his hand too hard” doesn’t cut it.  What does that even mean? Apologies aren’t just excuses. They show good manners and consideration for our fellow man. His actions were rude and dishonorable. He should be an adult and apologize!
Final Score: Atlanta 23; Detroit 16

Pittsburgh @ Arizona

Penalties abounded in this so-called rematch of Super Bowl XLIII (43 to you non-Romans). The most blatant and witless one coming from Steelers Guard Chris Kemoeatu when he delivered a late hit to the pile. Now, to those of you who follow Steelers Football, a late hit penalty by Kemoeatu isn’t ground-breaking news. We all know he has been fined more than once in the past for this very infraction. I mention this particular one because it was so unbelievably blatant, one didn’t need instant replay to see it. Here’s what happened (in real time): The play is over, all eyes are on the pile where the ball carrier is buried beneath a couple of Cardinals’ when Kemoeatu plows his 300-plus pounds into the pile. Everybody saw it! It begs the question: What were you thinking? As if that weren’t bad enough, he led with his helmet! Now I don’t expect a 300-plus pound lineman to be able to stop on a dime, but in this case I believe he had enough time to slow down, or even enough room to at least divert his trajectory and run around the pile. It is actions like that have caused the league to become penalty- and fine-crazy to the point we are on the verge of losing the very essence of the game. It’s football. Yes, it’s supposed to be tough. If it wasn’t they’d call it baseball. But be smart. Keep your brain in gear and don’t give the league any more ammunition. If it gets any worse the NFL will become the NFFL (National Flag-Football League) and the officials will start calling rain delays.
And while I’m on the subject of penalties, I have a message for the zebras. In reference to the extremely late flag for defensive pass interference against Pittsburgh: If you have to spend precious minutes discussing whether or not a penalty occurred, take a page from the NLB and let “the tie go to the runner”. In other words it’s not a penalty if you have to waste good game playing time yakking about it, it’s just good football! Let it go, and get on with the game!
Big Ben Roethlisberger threw the longest touchdown pass in Steelers history against the Cardinals. Launched from his own end zone, the deep pass was caught by Pittsburgh’s own Speedy Gonzales (dating myself with the old cartoon reference, but when the analogy fits… J), Mike Wallace, about the 40-yard line who then did what he does best: outrun everyone on the field.
Despite being injured in week six against Jacksonville, Troy Polamalu was again all over the field. Although he had no interceptions (and I feel fairly confident here in saying he’d probably like a do-over of the play where the pass from Matt Ryan smacked him in the chest dead center but bounced to the ground before he could get a grip on it) or sacks, he was as usual right where he needed to be in most instances. Undaunted by a missed tackle, he jumped back up and took the ball carrier down single handedly.
And speaking of Troy Polamalu, his fine of $10,000 for calling his wife to let her know he was all right after the aforementioned injury against the Jaguars is a crock of … well, you know. As the story goes, after leaving the field with a possible concussion, he was concerned his wife might have seen what happened and worry. The team doctor loaned Troy a phone so he could call and reassure his wife. The league has become an old lady with OCD about safety consciousness and they begrudge an injured player phoning their loved ones from the sidelines just to reassure them? It’s not like the players are sitting around calling Dial-A-Date, for crying out loud. In this day of player safety there should be a Team Phone on the sidelines for just that purpose! Commissioner Goodell needs to dig down deep into his psyche and pull up some compassion and common sense.
Final Score: Pittsburgh 32; Arizona 20

Indianapolis @ New Orleans

The outcome of this game was not of major import to me, but I like New Orleans and there wasn’t anything else on I wanted to watch so I left it on—more for background noise than anything else. I admit I didn’t pay close attention to it and just before halftime, I switched channels. I didn’t even check the score at that time. Then around 11:30pm, I tuned back in to check the progress of the game. The camera just happened to be panning the Colts’ bench, and I must say I hadn’t seen such a group of sad, forlorn faces since the Steelers’ bench at the end of last year’s Super Bowl. After checking out the score, I understood those sad expressions. Though I’m unable to deliver any first-hand knowledge on actual game play, the final score itself and the Colts’ progress so far this season begs commentary.
On a peripheral level, I had been aware that Indy was winless coming into New Orleans. After all, how could anyone who follows the NFL not be aware of it when one of the biggest stories of the season has been Payton Manning’s surgery, possible “out for the season” status, and whether or not the Colts can possibly win without him? (And, seriously, this blogger has been sick of hearing how great PM is for a long time. He’s not the only great one, and he’s far from the greatest that ever played the game. It’s my opinion that there are, and have been, too many greats to pin down any one as the GREATEST.)
The Indianapolis Colts seem to be suffering a complete breakdown at the loss of their starting quarterback. Are the Colts really that much better with Payton Manning on the field? I don’t believe so, no. No one person is that integral to a team. I heard they were hopeful that Payton Manning would be able to return yet this season. I’d think that should have rallied the team to step up their performance level to assure that if Manning does return, he returns to a team with at least a solid shot at the playoffs. By this far into the season, even a 3-4 record would accomplish that much.
[I can’t help but make a slight comparison here to last season’s Pittsburgh Steelers when their starting QB was suspended for the first four games (yes, I know the situations are not precisely the same-this is why I said “slight comparison”.) The Steelers knew Ben Roethlisberger would be back for game five, but even so, the rest of the team busted butt and supported the back-up QB’s 110% to make sure Ben returned with a win-loss record he could work with.]
Instead they just seem to be proving that they can barely function without him on the field. And how sad is that? An 0-7 start is pretty much a kiss of death for the season. Payton Manning might as well sit the season out and make sure he’s strong for 2012.
In the end, all that matters is that final score and major kudos to New Orleans for a record-setting game Saints fans will remember and talk about for generations. Well done!!
special x-tra point - For many teams leading at the half, complacency has been their downfall and caused them to lose the game. Special kudos to the Saints for not falling into this trap and continuing to rack up the points—even after it became apparent the Colts could never catch up.  That’s football!!
Final Score: Indianapolis 7; New Orleans 62 (yes, that is correct: SIXTY-TWO!)

From
the
La-Z-boy
Julie

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