Hector Longo here in Bill Burt’s Blogosphere, just looking to vent a little on the NFL playoffs and a tremendous Super Bowl matchup.
First and foremost, I’m tired of the lame argument that there are no great teams in the NFL.
I submit that the Steelers are indeed a “great” team.
And I submit that the Cardinals are indeed playing “great” right now.
First on Pittsburgh, a team that came into Foxboro and whipped the Pats comfortably in a game New England needed as much as the Steelers did.
That defense is ferocious. Bill Belichick’s “don’t draft linebackers” theory gets shot down quickly when I see the likes of Timmons and Woodley wreaking havoc.
New England needs somebody … Vince Redd, Shawn Crable, Pierre Woods, Gary Guyton … to step into that mode. Mike Vrabel hasn’t been that player since 2004. He’s good, but not a gamebreaker. And Jerod Mayo is a different kind of player, the money in the bank run-debunker. That’s nice, but the Pats need to get a little nastier.
And is there no doubt now that having a bigtime playmaker at safety is a gigantic cog in any defense.
Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu, Bob Sanders, that my friends is the top necessity for the New England defense. Is the kid from USC the next Polamalu? That is Nick Caserio’s top chore.
And people may pounce on Ben Roethlisberger, but the kid is a winner, a Tom Brady level winner. Some of the throws he makes are ugly, but they get there. He doesn’t have much for weapons. Hines Ward has lost two steps, and the rest of the crew, Santonio Holmes, Sweed, Washington, they are middle of the road at best.
Roethlisberger finds a way. He’s a “great’ quarterback.
One final note on the Steelers-Ravens. Where the heck was the flag on the knockout of Willis McGahee by Ryan Clark.
If that is not a clear-cut helmet-to-helmet hit on a defenseless receiver what is?
I defended Clark when he laid out Wes Welker with a shoulder to chest hit that was a split-second on the late side. Fine.
But this was blatant. If I’m the NFL, Clark doesn’t play in the Super Bowl, he’s suspended for a hit that could have killed McGahee. It was bush league, helmet to helmet.
There is a rule against it, and those officials missed badly.
Now, that crew missed an awful lot all game, between phantom holding calls against the Ravens, blatant holding ignored when it was the Steelers doing it, and a phantom 15-yard roughing the punter. The referee should be severely scrutinized for the work in that game.
Just putrid.
As NBC’s Boomer Esiason said at halftime in a year of horrendously blown calls, it’s good that the roughing the punter didn’t cost Baltimore points.
Boomer’s right. The officials have had a pathetic season, which included keeping the Eagles in the game by blowing a kickoff out of bounds when it clearly stayed in and was recovered by Arizona.
Speaking on the Cards, enough from whiney Pats fans about the 47-7 game and the fact that Arizona got in with a 9-7 record when New England was 11-5.
The Cardinals are 9-7 because that’s all they needed to be.
Yeah, they mailed it in down the stretch, because they were locked into their seeding and had the division nailed shut in week 13.
Who can blame them for not trying in Foxboro?
Do we judge the 2004 Pats by the embarrassing loss to the 4-12 Dolphins in week 14? Of course not, we judge them by the three giant playoff wins and that shiny Lombardi trophy they scooped up in Jacksonville.
So shut up about the Cardinals.
They have earned their stripes, winning three tough playoff games, including a beast of a win at Carolina.
That said, am I the only one that thought the line on the Super Bowl would be 10 or 11? It’s at 7 right now. I’ve got to figure Steeler nation will drive that number up over the next two weeks.
Oh well, back to the local scene for me, but ijust needed to blow off a little steam.
HL
