Wild Weekends: Two Champions, But Only One Can Be King

Columns

The season may end in a warm weather city, but it took a long Sunday in the cold to determine which two would be taking the trip to football’s version of Paradise.

The Green Bay Packers became the first six-seed in the history of the NFC to make it through three road playoff games in route to the Super Bowl. And at who’s expense that final win came from will be a part of the Packer history and lore for years to come. It happened at Soldier Field and against the Bears. After that sentence, if you’re a Packer fan, not much more needs to be written; for Bears fans it’s still too much to take in.

On that note, I do have one message for any Bears fans (NFL players have the right to bitch) who are still planning their version of the assassination of Jay Cutler: if it weren’t for Cutler’s injury, your boys would’ve never been in the game. That is the simple truth of Jay Cutler’s injury that has been hidden behind a mass of speculation, interviews, and twitter messages. The fact is, Jay Cutler did absolutely nothing on Sunday to put the Bears in a position to win the NFC championship, and neither did Todd Collins. And considering third-string option Caleb Hanie was the only guy left, I and the rest of the Packer Backers in Wisconsin thought that the trip to Dallas was signed, sealed, and delivered to Lambeau. Unfortunately Hanie turned in the Brady Performance in the final quarter and a half of the game very nearly completing a comeback for Chicago. Hanie’s big day ended up turning me into a ball of loose nerves for the final seven minutes of the game. Not even B.J. Raji’s INT return touchdown could seal things up or bring me back to a more comfortable state viewing the game.

Look at Hanie’s numbers and then tell me that Cutler would’ve mimicked them if he’d played the whole second half. If you do this with a straight face and actually mean it, not only are you delusional, but I may want to check into your mental state as a concerned citizen. My advice for Cutler would be to focus more on how you played in the first half than that you didn’t play in the second half because that is what you should be really upset about. Forget about the fans Jay, at least when it comes to his situation. Jay Cutler’s was a scenario that once again showed the “no-win” situation that athletes are put in in regards to fan reaction after the fact. I loved Urlacher’s comments about “guys sitting at home” because he was right. Unfortunately, all of the Bears who rightly came out and defended their quarterback shouldn’t have let these comments get to them the way they did. I will give leeway to the fact that they were likely more incensed at losing a shot at the Super Bowl and this was their way of releasing that anger without having to (for a moment anyway) deal with the reality that they won’t be playing in that billion dollar stadium. When it comes to fans and sports, the “guys sitting at home” are always going to bitch and moan about this or that (at least with Golf the fans seem to have the power to officiate the events themselves from home), but that’s because they have no alternative. These people are not actually on the field or playing or even in the stadium, so there’s no possible way that the two perspectives, fan and player, are going to come to a compromise. My way of thinking about Cutler in terms of Sunday’s game is that if he had come back in, the odds were well past 90% that he would either have gotten hurt worse than he was or would continue to struggle helplessly against the Packer D as he had during the first half.

Of course, the Packers didn’t come out of this one completely smelling like roses. The second half, like the first half of their game against Chicago three weeks before, saw Green Bay completely rely on their defense to finish the job as their offense sputtered home. Aaron Rodgers’ interception throw to Urlacher inside the five during the third was not only avoidable, but inexcusable. And then for Rodgers to even make a joking comment about his “tackle” on Urlacher to end the play did get me a bit pissed; not only because it was a terrible play all around, but it wasn’t even a tackle so much as Rodgers slapping Urlacher in the knee and that being enough to trip up Urlacher before he found daylight. That pick was what did in Rodgers on Sunday and Green Bay suffered a much longer and harder second half than was necessary. Up until Urlacher’s pick, the Pack had dominated the game in every way possible—running, passing, punting, defense, ball control, you name it. After the pick, Chicago had life. If Rodgers takes the sack and Green Bay settles for a field-goal, it’s a three score game and Chicago may have collectively given up hope. And even though they didn’t do anything with the turnover, the fact that they forced it and where they forced it, meant that they weren’t done yet.

Kudos to Packer punter Tim Masthay for his booming punts—including a sixty-five yarder—that neutralized Devin Hester to the tune of only 16 yards on punt returns for the game. And, more importantly, not once did Hester even have a chance to break one of his returns open for a potential big return or score. That in itself gave Green Bay an edge during the course of the game and should’ve earned Masthay a congratulations from everyone on special-teams.

The build to the game almost ended up topping the game itself. You see I am a Wisconsin native and still live in Wisconsin, and this was it as far as the states of Wisconsin and Illinois were concerned for the week leading up to the game. It was more than a spectacle or an event, it was something almost indescribable. It had the feel of a Super Bowl without being the Super Bowl. And when consider the historical significance of this game itself—two most storied teams in NFL history battling for a spot in the Super Bowl, the longest and best rivalry in NFL history, the two teams with the most championships in NFL history, nearly fifty hall-of-famers between the two, and they were meeting in the post-season for only the second time ever—it might as well have been the Super Bowl in Wisconsin and Illinois. The whole week was an unbearable countdown that seemed to never end. I work at a gas station off of I-43 that goes into Illinois, and the entire week was nothing but Packers & Bears merchandise, “Go Pack!” chants, and general talk about the game. From the perspective of Packer fans during game week, the most important question was who we were going to face in Dallas once we got through with the Bears. Yes we were a confident bunch during those days of waiting, but Packer fans have a right to be confident these days. It’s not just what they’ll be playing for in less than two weeks, but just with how the season has gone for Green Bay: injuries piled on top of each other, concussions to Rodgers, a rushing attack that was never seen as the answer to the problem of replacing Ryan Grant for the season, and all those close losses. And yet, here they stand, one win away from immortality, one more win and the trophy that bears the name of the most famous Packer coach will be theirs once again.

There was another game Sunday and it had its own intrigue to it. Ben Roethlisberger and his Steelers won their third AFC title in six years and Big Ben is primed to take his place alongside Manning and Brady as the best QB’s in the game; a win in Dallas would guarantee that standing. It went from suspension to Super Bowl for Big Ben this year, something that nobody realistically believed would happen. And because of that, it was not only fitting, but necessary that Big Ben be the guy to seal the deal for Pittsburgh. And that’s what he did with a roll-out on third and six that netted the final necessary completion to run out the clock. It was quite the gamble as an incompletion would’ve not only given the Jets one more shot (a safe running play would’ve too), but would’ve saved them around forty-five seconds, something crucial when you’re the one battling the clock. It was a moment of redemption for Big Ben who deservedly had to live through two scandals involving the attempted sexual assault of a female that were just under nine months apart. His image took that same turn off the tracks that Tiger Woods’ did for his sexual escapades, but not to the same degree. Quick side note: it’s interesting that Tiger got castrated by the media, sponsors, and fans for his rampant adultery (legal, but morally wrong) and Big Ben gets a much softer treatment by those same people (and I don’t remember any sponsors saying good-bye to him) for two incidents of him nearly raping a woman (not only illegal, but incredibly wrong morally). Anyway, this was a win that Big Ben deserved as a football player, not as a human being. I’ve always believed in the notion that all “the bullshit” leaves the moment the players step onto the field/court/ice. And I am sensitive to a guy legitimately trying to repair his image, as my support of Michael Vick would indicate. Maybe it was the suspension that did the job for Big Ben. Remember, he wasn’t really punished the first time around and while an entire football season passed before the second incident happened, it happened. We’ll have to wait until the off-season to see if Big Ben appears in the headlines for the third straight year for the same deplorable reason. For now it’s going to be two weeks where he is going to hear many questions fashioned around those two incidents as well as his “comeback” from the suspension. He’d better talk straight about everything because being able to face what you’ve done when it’s brought back into your mind after months of not having to hear about it or deal with it would be a real sign that this man isn’t going to be any trouble for his team off the field anymore.

At the beginning of the year, Pittsburgh seemed vulnerable without Big Ben for those first games and there were questions about Pittsburgh’s defense considering its slide last season. As it turns out, Troy Polamalo’s being there was the answer as Pittsburgh’s defense not only recaptured the dominance it had just two seasons ago, but likely surpassed it. And the offense produced without Big Ben and continued to when he came back. Rashard Mendenhall became almost the lynchpin for the offense as his almost workman-like rushing numbers and effectiveness is what took a big chunk out of Big Ben’s load and helped the Steelers become one of the most balanced offenses in football during this past season. It showed in the playoffs as their running built them a lead, and Big Ben’s arm provided the necessary completions to maintain the lead long enough to win.

And as for Mendenhall’s “moment” with Big Ben after one of the final kneel down’s: enough has already been said about it and it was funny to see on T.V., so I’ll just leave it at that.

For the Jets it was a reversal of halves, not a reversal of fortune. This year it was in the first half, not the second, where they gave up 24 unanswered points and sealed their fate.

None of blame should rest on Mark Sanchez’s shoulders. Let’s be honest here: the man played a good game, that’s it. Sanchez wasn’t flashy or remarkable, but he did what he was supposed to do. He didn’t throw an interception and had a passer rating over 100. And the only play that could even be deemed a mistake for Sanchez was William Gay’s fumble return touchdown for Pittsburgh after the ball was knocked out of Sanchez’s hands mid-throw. That shit just happens and I’m not going to fault Sanchez for not avoiding someone he couldn’t see.

The Jets fate may have ended up being in the hands of some higher force, call it fate or destiny or whatever, but when LaDainian Tomlinson couldn’t punch it in on fourth and goal at the Steeler goal-line, it was sealed in stone that the Jets weren’t going to play for the big one this year. There was still half the quarter to play and the Jets managed a safety a few plays later to get the ball back, but if you look back at what led up to that goal-line stand and who had the ball at that all-or-nothing moment, you’ll see that nothing the Jets could’ve done in those final seven and a half minutes would’ve mattered.

The Jets had first and goal at the two—four shots max. to net half as many yards. The play calling on those four plays also showed that maybe the Jets as a whole had finally hit the wall: a run to Greene, a run to L.T., and two passes(!). To be playing against a defense as physical as Pittsburgh’s, to have them backed up against their own end-zone, and to then put the ball in the air couldn’t have seemed dumber to me. I do agree that pushing it up the gut is just as much an uphill battle against this D, but it is the safer play call in that situation with the fourth run up the gut being the charm looking like a more plausible outcome to that series of plays. So, you have two weird calls and then L.T., not Shonn Greene gets the ball on fourth and goal. It was the Jets attempt to create something storybook: the Jets scooped L.T. up when the Chargers made it clear that they didn’t want him anymore, he played very well this season for New York after a few very subpar years in San Diego (and I’m not just talking about stats), so he deserved to be the guy in that position with the ball. I get that, but the reality is that L.T. hasn’t been that guy for years and wasn’t that guy this year. He played very well this year in comparison to his last two in San Diego, but that really was it; he didn’t show any flashes that would make one believe that the L.T. of old was back or that he was going to be of all-pro caliber, so why risk it like that with everything that was on the line for that play?

Finally, I’d like to address one more thing: the generally negative reaction to these two games from some who watched them. This is one mindset that I just don’t get. Were these people expecting two different match-ups than we got on Sunday? It was the Packers vs. the Bears and the Steelers vs. the Jets. These were rematches as both games had already been played at least once during the regular season with Green Bay and Chicago playing twice being in the same division. The Packers lost the first meeting with Chicago on a last-second field goal and aided the Bears with 18 penalties then won the second meeting to clinch a playoff berth on the strength of their defense bashing around Jay Cutler (sound familiar?), and the Jets edged Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh by five—the same margin as Sunday’s game—a little over a month ago. These were going to be wars of attrition and that’s what we got. If you were expecting Cutler and Rodgers to light it up like they did last weekend you were dreaming. If you expected either Big Ben or Sanchez to have a career defining day, you were very unrealistic. It’s almost as if this group of fans completely ignored the hitting power, ability to create takeaways, and overall excellent play of these four defenses entering Sunday. The message was there and those who were able to see it by Saturday night were guaranteed a fun day of hard-hitting football on Sunday. I was one of those people, and I’m not alone in that sentiment.