Daddy, Help Me!

Trivia Question from the weekend: “Which QB looked more frightened with the setting he was thrust into in these playoffs?”

A) Eli Manning
B) Chris Simms
C) Both

If you answered C, you are right. Deer in Headlights. CHutch all over again. I cannot swear that both will stink forever at this level, but right now, they look horrible. First playoff start for both, to be fair, but in the case of Simms, I saw this in every big game he has ever played. For Eli Manning, who in his last 8 games threw 10 TD’s and 15 INT’s, he has looked like that for over 2 months.

In the playoffs, if you took the team with the more seasoned QB, you went 4-0. I went 2-2, so obviously, I cannot take my own advice.

Panthers 23, Giants 0 …

It was the first shutout of the Giants since a 24-0 loss at Philadelphia in 1996. The last Giants shutout in the playoffs was in 1985, a 21-0 loss at Chicago, 15 postseason games removed from Sunday. The last time the Giants were held scoreless at home in the postseason was in 1943, at the Polo Grounds. The Panthers stifled running back Tiki Barber, the league's leader in yards from scrimmage, holding him to 41 yards rushing and 28 receiving. The Giants managed just 13 running plays, six fewer than their regular-season low.

"We knew they were going to run the ball," said Carolina coach John Fox, who was the Giants' defensive coordinator the last time they won a playoff game, in 2000. "That's a big part of their offense, so we knew that was key for our team defensively."

The Panthers' plan, working to near-perfection, was to force the second-year quarterback Eli Manning and his assortment of receivers to beat them. They could not; Manning, increasingly pressed to bring the Giants back, threw three interceptions and completed only 10 passes, none of them to Burress, the Giants' most-heralded free-agent acquisition last off-season.

Steelers 31, Bengals 17; as poor Carson Palmer blows out his knee on his first throw! …That isn’t close to fair. But it does show you how you can take nothing for granted in sports…

Palmer tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee as the Bengals lost to the Steelers, 31-17, in an American Football Conference playoff game at Paul Brown Stadium. That Palmer completed his lone pass was of little consolation. He finished his first career playoff game 1 of 1 for 66 yards.

The pass, which will be deconstructed in Cincinnati through another fruitless winter, started as scripted. Palmer lofted a deep spiral down the Pittsburgh sideline. The rookie receiver Chris Henry, who was 7 years old the last time the Bengals made the playoffs, cradled the ball against his chest. It was Cincinnati's first pass in a playoff game since 1990 and the longest completed pass in the Bengals' hollow postseason history.

Henry jumped up to celebrate. His teammates pounded their chests. The crowd let out more than a decade of frustration. Among the outpouring, no one seemed to notice the starting quarterback lying on his own 5-yard line. Perhaps no one wanted to look. The Bengals went from jubilance to devastation in the time it took to turn their heads.

“Welp, see you later!” - Vince

To the shock of no one who wasn’t delusional (Horns fans), Vince Young declares for the pros …

The Madison product will hire Bus Cook as his agent. Cook is also the agent for Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair, Young's mentor, and Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

Young finished with 467 all-purpose yards – 200 rushing and 267 passing – in what some are calling one of the greatest performances in college football history. He is the first player in NCAA history to rush for 1,000 yards (1,050) and pass for 3,000 yards (3,036) in a season. In three seasons, Young is 30-2 as a starter at Texas, the best in school history.

Some draft analysts project Young could be selected among the top 5 in the April draft, possibly as high as the top 3. The Texans, New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans own the top three picks in the draft.

The chance to be selected that high was one of the deciding factors in Young's decision not to return to the Longhorns.

All underclassmen must declare for the NFL draft by Jan. 15. Young will become the first underclassman to leave early in Brown's eight-year tenure at Texas.

Our guy, Mark Cuban gets fired up again, and angers the masses …

"What I don't understand is how the two most aggressive defensive teams in the league are Detroit and San Antonio," Cuban told the Dallas Morning News, "yet they've had the fewest fouls called against them. How does that happen? I don't understand it."

The Pistons are being whistled for an average of 19.57 fouls a game, the lowest in the league. San Antonio is next at 21. Cuban's team picks up 23.7 fouls per game.

"Yeah, well, the two most aggressive teams have the best records, too," Ben Wallace said. "That's not a coincidence. We play aggressive defense all the time. They (Mavericks) mostly try to outscore teams."

Pistons coach Flip Saunders said that Cuban wasn't seeing the whole picture.

"He grew up in Indiana," Saunders said. "He grew up watching Bobby Knight's teams. They were the most aggressive teams in the Big Ten and they didn't pick up a lot of fouls."

Saunders' point being, the aggressive team usually gets the benefit of the whistle.

Meanwhile, in Stars News, they won two great weekend affairs after spotting the Ducks and the Red Wings each a 3-0 lead. The team was outscored by the enemy 6-0 when Marty Turco was playing and then outscored them 9-0 when Johan Hedberg entered the game. I said it before, and I shall say it again, “Marty would never lose if it weren’t for big games”. Love the dude, but whether it is Detroit, the playoffs, or just the day after an extension, it looks like the brighter the light is, the less his light is on…That should not sit well with Team Canada…

Lovie wins the NFL Coach of the year …but, tell me, seriously, how does Tony Dungy take second????

Smith also beat out his mentor, Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy, drawing 24½ votes from a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL. Dungy was next with 20½.

"I would have voted for Tony for the award," Smith added. "I'm really happy for our assistant coaches, to get that award. Tony did a great job with his program, as a lot of other coaches did."

C’mon. Give me a freaking break. EVERYONE picked the Colts into the Super Bowl this summer. EVERYONE! So why did Dungy do such an amazing job? If you want to tell me Lovie Smith is coach of the year, I get it. Even Marvin Lewis, Tom Coughlin, or Joe Gibbs make far more sense than Dungy! Please tell me this has nothing to do with his son.

P1 blogger goofs on the Patriots …

Proof you shouldn’t kiss the dude you are about to fight …

Did you miss Letterman vs. O’Reilly? …See the video and the battle of smugness…

Don’t like soccer because it is for sissies? Click here for soccer violence …

Bang cartoon profiles Tice, Portis, Vick, and Salisbury! …stay till the end to get a good Sean Salisbury laugh…

Here is a good blog from a Special Ops Helicopter pilot in Iraq …interesting stuff indeed…

P1 Blogger on the greatest college football game ever …

Borat learns American Football …

Mailbag:

After listening today to the varying opinions of Bill’s coaching value and ability and whether the cowboys are better off with or without him, I thought it would be interesting to look at super bowl coaches. I think this would be an interesting segment for one of the shows to do, but with more info than what I’ve put in here. Maybe somebody would have more time to crunch more numbers or make more sense of them than what I’ve done.

Looking at the 39 super bowls played so far, there have been a total of 40 different coaches appearing in the 39 games. Bill is 1 of 40 coaches appearing in at least one super bowl. In those 39 games, there have been 22 different coaches to win at least one super bowl. Bill is 1 of 22 coaches to win at least one super bowl. 18 of the 40 coaches appearing in at least one bowl have appeared in 2 or more, and 10 of the 40 have appeared in 3 or more. Bill is one of those 10. There are only 2 other coaches currently coaching that have appeared in 3 or more super bowls, Bill Belichick at 3 games and Joe Gibbs at 4 games. These 3 coaches have appeared in about 25% of all 39 super bowls, with a winning % of 80%. Of the 10 coaches appearing in 3 or more super bowls, only 3 are undefeated (Bill Belichick, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh) and 3 are winless (Bud Grant, Dan Reeves, and Marv Levy). Incidentally, the 3 winless coaches are each 0-4. Bill has appeared in more super bowls than the great (?) Vince Lombardi, and he has 2 more wins in his 3 tries than the combined totals of Grant, Reeves, and Levy of 0 wins in 12 tries. 8 coaches have won 2 super bowls (Bill is one of them). 3 coaches have won 3 super bowls, and 1 coach has won 4. So, there are only 4 coaches that have won more super bowls than Bill. You could play with the numbers and come up with all kinds of interesting comparisons, I’m sure.

Just thought this info was interesting. There is more I’d like to know, like how many different super bowl teams were coached by the same coach (like bill coached the Giants and Patriots), how many total coaches have coached a team in the past 39 years and how many of these coaches that have appeared in a super bowl have lost in a conference champion game, furthering the argument for how good a coach may have been. In Bill’s case, didn’t he take the Jets to a conference championship game but lose?

I really don’t want to sound like a Bill homer, but let’s get real. I think Bill gives the Cowboys the best chance to win than any other available coach on the market. During the 5-11 seasons, the consensus was that we needed a good coach. The consensus was that Jerry needed a football guy and he needed to let that football guy do his thing. Well, we got it, so why are there so many complaints now? Who are we going to get that has a track record like his and is available? So what if he’s difficult with the media and so what if he’s egotistical? The guy has got quite a history and it seems to me a lot of the players actually do like playing for him, imperfections and all. When it comes to a coach that gets his team to the big game and wins, you can only argue that Bill is one of the best coaches in the 39 year NFL history during the Super Bowl era. New Jersey con man…glorified gym teacher? Whether the hardliners have a personal problem with Bill or not, he is what he is.

Sorry for the length of this.
Brian

That is well done, Brian. Nice work.