2011 Conf. Semis What I Learned

• I suck at this.
• Baltimore sucked at staying poised.  They got a couple of turnovers off of Pittsburgh, including the classic Ben Roethlisberger move of holding on to the ball too damn long and triple-pumping and getting stripped for a Ravens TD.  Then they took their 2-TD lead into the 3rd quarter and gave the ball to the Steelers 3 times.  The finish is what people will remember, with Roethlisberger hitting Antonio Brown on a 3rd-down Hail Mary to set up the game-winning TD.  But Baltimore had so many chances.  Those turnovers were bad enough, but there were some dropped passes in very important situations that had no business being dropped.  As much as Pittsburgh took that game away, Baltimore gave it up.  And I still maintain that Big Ben holding the damn ball too long is going to cost his very good team before it's all over, maybe even this weekend against the Jets.
• In Atlanta, one team and QB looked ready for playoff action, and the other team was the Atlanta Falcons.  Nothing to break down here.  Green Bay is playing their asses off on both sides of the ball, and Atlanta wasn't nearly ready for the Packers.  Aaron Rodgers was even more fantastic than when he nearly beat the Falcons singlehandedly in the regular season.  The Atlanta DBs will be seeing Rodgers in their sleep for a long time.  There aren't much better examples in the history of football of what a hot team can do when it gets on a roll than what Green Bay did to Atlanta.  If the Falcons thought they had a chance of a comeback, the 2nd-quarter pick-6 by Tramon Williams took care of that.  They make for a very tempting pick on the road at Chicago even though you're gonna have to give a FG.
• Not much to break down from Seattle's pounding by the Bears either, except that I have to say that I still observe some things out of Chicago that make me think they're just not that damn good.  They're not exactly wearing down the opposition with the running game, they're just controlling time of possession by sticking to the run even when it's middling.  Jay Cutler still tries to force some passes into spots that he shouldn't be throwing.  He threw a ball right to a DB in the end zone that was dropped.  And it may have been garbage time after the Bears gained a 28-0 lead, but if their defense is so ferocious, they shouldn't have allowed the Seahawks the yardage and points that they gave up.  What do they think the Packers are going to do when they come in to Soldier Field?  I don't even want to know what the Bears were thinking when they had RB Matt Forte throw a pass in the 2nd half which was easily intercepted.  All that game proved was that the Bears are good enough to cover a double-digit spread against a team with a losing record.  Let's see what they got in the rubber match against Green Bay.
• And the New York Jets keep on stepping.  They just keep marching through the AFC playoffs, in lock step...alright, I better stop with the foot jokes before Bill Belichick benches me.  The lesson learned in this game was that any time you combine talented defensive pieces with a talented mind like Rex Ryan and add some humiliation such as a 42-point ass whoopin', the tables can get turned in a hurry.  The New England opening drive was looking like another sizzling Patriot series until Tom Brady threw a bad INT way over his receiver's head.  The Pats did not respond well to the Jets zone coverage afterwards, to say the least.  I don't know how many times this year Brady had 16 incompletions, but I'm guessing not many.  And most of his 5 sacks were coverage sacks.  He looked dazed and confused most of the day.  There were some NE drops as well, but mostly the Jets got to his throws and broke up the plays.  I'm still not impressed with NY QB Mark Sanchez, but their offensive game plan is obvious yet hard to stop--they run until you stop it, then they allow Sanchez to surprise the D with deep throws when he drops back.  It can be a little confusing, I guess.  Usually when a coach doesn't trust the QB, he doesn't let him make risky passes when he lets him throw, but Sanchez likes intermediate to deep routes, not dink and doink action.  So when he's throwing, you gotta be on your toes.  Yep, I made another bad foot joke.  But seriously, that Pats offense ain't made for comebacks, as their slow, clock-chewing 4th-quarter drive showed.  Brady, like Peyton Manning last week, seemed content to try to fool the Jets with a lot of run calls, and I'm fairly certain that both QBs can get out of run calls and audible to passes any time they want.  But when a pass calls for deciphering a tough zone D, maybe Brady isn't as confident as he seems.  All that yelling and "leadership" Tom was doing against the Lions and Bills didn't work out against Gang Green.  And the loudest, most classless team plays for the conference title yet again.