4th and Forever: A WEEKEND FEAST OF AMERICA’S GAME

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this weekend’s cornucopia of football fun was a testament to why we love the game. Four games; more twists and turns than a corkscrew;  two improbable, implausible endings which would make a Hollywood scriptwriter blanch; records set and records broken. By the time it was all said and done, I felt equal parts drained and exhilarated. As Mother used to say: “I haven’t been this breathless since the last time I sang Happy Birthday.”

Where to begin? Denver v. Baltimore seems as good a starting point as any. I don’t know about anyone else, but I still don’t know how Baltimore won this game, or more appropriately, how Denver lost it. The Broncos were up 7 points with the Ravens facing 3^rddown and 3 on their own 30 yard line out of time outs, with 41 seconds left on the clock. Mile High Stadium was rockin’ ‘n’ rollin’, plans were afoot to host the AFC Championship game, and the decision to bring in Peyton Manning was about to pay handsome dividends. All Denver had to do in order to lock down victory was keep the deepest receiver in front of the last defender, cover the sideline route forcing Flacco, the Ravens’ QB, to throw inside where any reception would inevitably eat up the clock, and, of course, tackle anyone who caught the ball. Elementary, my dear Watson. But as Denver found out to their cost, those who confuse brains and luck can get into all sorts of trouble.

Denver rushed 3 and dropped 8 in coverage. Tick-tick-tick. Flacco stepped up in the pocket and launched a high, arcing throw to the right sideline toward the streaking Jacoby Jones. Tick-tick-tick. Now Jones is one of the fastest Ravens’ receivers, so it is inconceivable thatDenver would fail to account for him properly in such an all-or-nothing endgame. But that is precisely what they did. Denver’s cornerback, Tony Carter, loosely shadowed Jones along the sideline and settled down as the underneath man in coverage. The responsibility for coverage behind Carter rested with the safety Rahim Moore, who was charged with the relatively uncomplicated task of keeping Jones contained in front of him. After all, that’s why he’s called a safety. However, from the get go he got everything wrong. His technique on the coverage was sloppy and his positioning naïve and fatally flawed. Moore’s alignment on the play was much too shallow; he should have been a good 15 yards deeper. He was guilty of watching the QB who alone couldn’t hurt him, and forgot that his sole responsibility was to cover the receiver who could inflict all sorts of harm. So as Flacco made the throw Moore was forced to backpedal frantically in an attempt to keep pace with Jones. Now I may not be as swift (either in mind or body) as I was in former glory days, but I do know when running it is a rule of thumb that someone who is backpedalling cannot keep pace with someone sprinting straight ahead. Alas for young Moore, his understanding of this basic premise came too late. One can only imagine what he was thinking as the ball sailed over his head and eluded his last, ill-timed attempt to knock it down. Was there a moment of helpless, diamond-edged clarity? Did silence descend around him, cocooning him in that frenzied cauldron of noise where 60,000 souls were already letting out an anguished Nooooooo? Jones caught the ball a good 5 yards behind Moore and simply strolled untouched into the end-zone. Tie game!

Of course, Denver lost in overtime. It was written in that moment; it was somehow inevitable. Regular-season Manning, the ruthlessly efficient Manning of multiple MVPs and NFL records, morphed into Postseason Manning, he of a perfectly mediocre 9-11 playoff record. When he threw an ill-advised pass which Baltimore intercepted leading to the winning FG, somehow it was what we’d come to expect from him in the playoffs. He is undoubtedly a great QB, one of the finest of his generation, but it seems all but inevitable that all the regular season accolades will come with an asterisk: *1 Super Bowl; a losing postseason record; and 8 one-and-done playoff trips. He will still be lauded justifiably for his regular-season achievements, and we will still be sold the same old story that it’s ok not to have won more in the postseason, not to have gained, not to have been perfect. But, increasingly, Manning is no longer part of the discussion for “best ever”; he’s on the outside looking in. It is a curious legacy indeed.

Saturday’s second game, San Francisco against Green Bay, turned out to be Colin Kaepernick’s postseason coming out party. The young and untested 49er QB was, quite simply, brilliant. San Francisco utilizes a zone-read option which incorporates the QB as a designated running option rather than merely a QB who scrambles once the play breaks down.  It’s a relatively simple scheme run by any number of college teams, and now used bySeattle, Washington and San Francisco. One of the pluses of the scheme is that on running plays you are actually playing 11 on 11 rather than 10 on 11 since the QB is not merely a disinterested spectator once he has handed off the ball. One could say it’s all a function of numbers, but in order for the zone-read option to work successfully the QB must be fast and preferably should be able to pass with a modicum of efficiency. Kaepernick is most certainly fast (I have renamed him Lickity Split) as he ably demonstrated when he blew past theGreen Bay secondary en route to a TD, but he is also a superior passer who combines arm strength and accuracy. The same is true for Russell Wilson in Seattle and RGIII inWashington. Kaepernick outrushed the entire Green Bay team by 79 yards (181 to 102) on his way to a record day, while also passing for 263 yards. The 49ers racked up 579 yards on offense, including 323 rushing yards. It was all too much for the Green Bay defense which was alarmingly ill-prepared to handle the zone-read option, and found itself thoroughly dominated by the 49er offensive line. Quite how they could have been so confused remains a mystery since San Francisco had been operating this offense under Kaepernick for weeks. But the defense resembled a collection of headless chickens as the linebackers were outflanked repeatedly, and the coaches/players made absolutely zero adjustments to counter what the 49ers were running. In an earlier column I remarked how NFL coaches can be stubborn, hard-headed and moronic. The Green Bay utterly passive response to Kaepernick, specifically that of defensive coordinator Dom Capers, was the embodiment of all such traits. Changes will most certainly be a-coming after this sorry sad-sack performance, or else the stellar play of Aaron Rodgers will mean nothing. He is a great QB but he has no running game, and the Green Bay defense is rather like the Big Bad Wolf- all huff and puff but quite harmless when faced with anything of substance. By the way, the Sports Illustrated curse is alive and well, since the January 14^th cover predicted a Green Bay/Denver Super Bowl. Cursed indeed since both were out of the playoffs by January 12^th. The Football Gods love such sport.

On Sunday, Atlanta finally got the proverbial monkey off its back and won a playoff game under QB Matt Ryan and Coach Mike Smith who were 0-3 to that point. That they did so by the skin of their teeth can offer them scant consolation since they somehow conspired to surrender a 27-7 lead to Seattle, who scored 3 unanswered TDs, before rallying in the last 30 seconds to kick a game-winning FG. Atlanta inspires no one with confidence and they are now the underdog at home next Sunday against the 49ers. I expect they will be better prepared than Green Bay, but nothing is a given. Somehow, they remind me of the Houston Texans. Both are perfectly acceptable, both Sunday pressed in Sunday best. In the end, however, they are both mere spear carriers content to play a part but reluctant to be the star.

Which brings us finally to the Texans who despite all the pre-game sound and fury about revenge and second chances were once again thoroughly outclassed by the Patriots. A friend made the observation that he is wary of any team which patently lacks any creative imagination and settles for the decidedly lame name: Houston Texans. It’s like naming a team the San Francisco Californians or the Denver Coloradians. Designations must be soaring (Falcons/Seahawks), or historical (49ers/ Packers), or just plain patriotic (Patriots); they should never be boring. He has a point, since the Texans are boringly predictable. They have a solid QB, a solid running back, a solid…….well, you get the idea: they’re solid. But their defense is also hugely overrated as evidenced by the 2 hellacious beat downs the Patriots laid on them within the space of 6 weeks. No doubt J.J. Watt is an excellent defensive end, possessed of great athleticism and skill, but on Sunday he seemed to be guilty of spending far too much time reading his own press clippings. He is part of the look-at-me/me-first generation, posturing and posing while wagging his finger in the face of Stevan Ridley a la Dikembe Mutombo after stuffing him for a 1 yard loss. Meanwhile he was being regularly pancaked or rendered largely ineffective by Logan Mankins and friends, and the defense was being eviscerated by Brady and having its collective head handed to it. It seems Watt has fallen victim to the new-age fascination with self-love, but has forgotten that if we give ourselves over to desire for nothing but ourselves we risk drowning within ourselves. By comparison, the Patriots are all about T-E-A-M. In the first 2 series, Gronkowski and Woodhead were lost to injury. No problem; adjust, adapt, the next man up slotted in and filled the void. Third string running back, Shane Vereen, subbing for Woodhead, had 3 TDs and simply torched the Texans. They are the sum of all parts, a perfectly functional Swiss army knife.

Meanwhile, Tom Terrific, the anti-Manning, became the all-time leader among QBs in playoff victories with 17 (overall 17-6), surpassing the incomparable Montana. We carp about Brady’s failures, the ingrates that we are, but it would be wise to pause and reflect on his success. Sunday will be his 7^th AFC Championship Game; he has won 5 of his previous 6. He has won 3 Super Bowls, and arguably could have won 2 more but for the “Helmet Catch” and the “Manningham Miracle”. As Mother, a truly sage woman, once remarked: “It’s easy to be good when you’re the best.” He will need to be at his best to beat the Ravens, but there is no one else I rather have at the helm come Sunday.