BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
If Troy Polamalu really wanted to mess with the Baltimore Ravens, he'd cut his hair in advance of Saturday's playoff game so they wouldn't be able to find him.
"You have to have your eye on him, and I think as long as you do you can keep control of him," said Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who'll try to solve Polamalu and the rest of the Steelers' top-ranked defense in the first game of the NFL's divisional playoff round this weekend. "There's certain plays where you look and know exactly where he is so you can go away from him. All other plays, you really just have to know where he is and know how to protect against him."
Polamalu, Pittsburgh's everywhere-on-the-field playmaking safety, has missed some practice time in advance of this game with an ankle injury that forced him to sit out of the team's Week 15 and Week 16 games. But the Ravens are expecting him to play and to be his usual disruptive self, just as the Steelers are surely expecting the same from Ravens safety Ed Reed, who may have been Polamalu before Polamalu was.
"They're similar in their ability to read what's happening to them so quickly," Ravens tight end Todd Heap said. "Like, when you see Polamalu out there, he'll come out of coverage sometimes, just to make a play -- something he feels, something that he sees. You think sometimes all of that is undisciplined, but most of the time he's right."
What's remarkable about Reed and Polamalu isn't their numbers as much as their apparent impact on their teams. Watching the Steelers play without Polamalu is watching a different team. He misses 11 games due to injury in 2009, and the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers go 5-6 in those games and miss the playoffs.
He comes back this year, the defense allows 232 points all year. He misses Week 15, they lose a home game to a reeling Jets team they should have handled. Polamalu doesn't win MVP awards, because quarterbacks do. But his value to the Steelers and what they do is unquestionable. It shows up when you watch them without him as much as it does when you watch them with him. The Ravens are still smarting from the sack and forced fumble Polamalu delivered last month to set up the Steelers' game-winning drive in Baltimore.
"He's so good at reacting to certain things and playing tendencies and taking chances on things because he knows his up-front guys are going to get some sort of pressure," Flacco said. "You have to play sound football so you can take away his chances of making plays. Because if you give him enough chances to make a play, more times than not he's going to make it."
Polamalu's made 27 interceptions during his eight-year career. Reed, in his ninth year in the NFL, has 54. If there's a player in the league whose impact and style are similar to Polamalu's, it's Reed, who picked up eight of those 54 this season in spite of missing six games at the start due to injury. The difference in the Ravens' defense now as compared to the first two months of the season is that they're forcing turnovers. A big part of that is Reed who, like Polamalu, is the rare safety who can play and play successfully on instincts.
"They both play the game with great instincts," Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. "They're two of the few safeties that turn the game into an offensive possession when they get that ball in their hands. That's what makes both of those guys who they are -- Ed and Troy. It's an honor watching both of them play -- probably two of the best safeties to ever play this game."
FOUR FOR THE ROAD
So last week in this spot I listed the four wild-card round games in order of which road team was most likely to win. My pick for No. 1 was the Saints. They lost. All of the other road teams won. So that shows you how much I know.
And yet, here you are, still reading. So I feel it's important for me to reward that kind of blind loyalty by continuing this fruitless exercise for another week. Four more games this week, and I'm only picking one road team -- the first one on the list just below. Sure, any or all of the others could win, I guess, but the Ravens are the only one I think will win. The rest are listed in the order I believe they're most likely to surprise me.
1. Ravens at Pittsburgh. This has a lot to do with the fact that the Ravens won in Pittsburgh in Week 4. And while yes, I'm aware that Ben Roethlisberger didn't play in that game, to say that's why Baltimore won would be to apply revisionist history. The Steelers were 3-0 and on fire going into that game. They were crushing people no matter who they were using at quarterback. And the Ravens went in and beat them. The Ravens should have won the game in Baltimore in Week 13, too. It was their only home loss of the season, and they feel as if it was taken from them late. Their defense is clicking as it hasn't all year, forcing turnovers and generating offense off of other teams' mistakes. It'll be close, as it always is between these two, but I see Baltimore pulling through.
2. Packers at Atlanta. Most people are putting Green Bay at the top of this list, and I've seen the Packers play the last two weeks and like a lot about them. But I think people are underrating the Falcons, who have dominated at home all year, are rested and held off a furious charge from these same Packers at the Georgia Dome in the regular season. And James Starks? Great story last week, but the Falcons' defense offers a few more obstacles than the Eagles' defense does.
3. Seahawks at Chicago. This would be Seattle's second win of the year at Soldier Field, and while I don't think it will happen, it's not insane to imagine Jay Cutler throwing a bunch of interceptions and the Seahawks hitting a couple of big plays and, if the Packers win too, hosting the NFC Championship with a 9-9 record.
4. Jets at New England. I think it's great that the Jets, Rex Ryan and Antonio Cromartie have made the week so interesting, because I think the final game of the weekend is going to be ugly. I think the Jets had a good team this year, but I don't think they have any chance at all to win this game in Foxborough against Tom Brady, no matter how much they rip him all week. Belichick off a bye week is deadly, the Jets are banged up in key spots and it's been months since anybody even sniffed a chance to beat the Patriots. They don't go out in their first game, no way.
TRAVELING MAN
I'm going to the AFC game this weekend between two intense division rivals who split the regular-season home-and-home series and can't stand each other. The one where the team that lost more recently is bitter about it and determined to show they're not going to be pushed around like that again, no matter who the home team's quarterbacks is. What's that? That didn't narrow it down? No, I guess it didn't. Well, I'm going to Ravens-Steelers in Pittsburgh. I'm expecting the reason these teams didn't talk as much in the week leading up to the game as the Jets and Patriots did is because they were saving their energy so they could physically beat the snot out of each other all Saturday afternoon and into the evening. I'm expecting that. I'll be kind of disappointed if they don't.
"You have to have your eye on him, and I think as long as you do you can keep control of him," said Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who'll try to solve Polamalu and the rest of the Steelers' top-ranked defense in the first game of the NFL's divisional playoff round this weekend. "There's certain plays where you look and know exactly where he is so you can go away from him. All other plays, you really just have to know where he is and know how to protect against him."
Polamalu, Pittsburgh's everywhere-on-the-field playmaking safety, has missed some practice time in advance of this game with an ankle injury that forced him to sit out of the team's Week 15 and Week 16 games. But the Ravens are expecting him to play and to be his usual disruptive self, just as the Steelers are surely expecting the same from Ravens safety Ed Reed, who may have been Polamalu before Polamalu was.
"They're similar in their ability to read what's happening to them so quickly," Ravens tight end Todd Heap said. "Like, when you see Polamalu out there, he'll come out of coverage sometimes, just to make a play -- something he feels, something that he sees. You think sometimes all of that is undisciplined, but most of the time he's right."
What's remarkable about Reed and Polamalu isn't their numbers as much as their apparent impact on their teams. Watching the Steelers play without Polamalu is watching a different team. He misses 11 games due to injury in 2009, and the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers go 5-6 in those games and miss the playoffs.
He comes back this year, the defense allows 232 points all year. He misses Week 15, they lose a home game to a reeling Jets team they should have handled. Polamalu doesn't win MVP awards, because quarterbacks do. But his value to the Steelers and what they do is unquestionable. It shows up when you watch them without him as much as it does when you watch them with him. The Ravens are still smarting from the sack and forced fumble Polamalu delivered last month to set up the Steelers' game-winning drive in Baltimore.
"He's so good at reacting to certain things and playing tendencies and taking chances on things because he knows his up-front guys are going to get some sort of pressure," Flacco said. "You have to play sound football so you can take away his chances of making plays. Because if you give him enough chances to make a play, more times than not he's going to make it."
Polamalu's made 27 interceptions during his eight-year career. Reed, in his ninth year in the NFL, has 54. If there's a player in the league whose impact and style are similar to Polamalu's, it's Reed, who picked up eight of those 54 this season in spite of missing six games at the start due to injury. The difference in the Ravens' defense now as compared to the first two months of the season is that they're forcing turnovers. A big part of that is Reed who, like Polamalu, is the rare safety who can play and play successfully on instincts.
"They both play the game with great instincts," Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. "They're two of the few safeties that turn the game into an offensive possession when they get that ball in their hands. That's what makes both of those guys who they are -- Ed and Troy. It's an honor watching both of them play -- probably two of the best safeties to ever play this game."
FOUR FOR THE ROAD
So last week in this spot I listed the four wild-card round games in order of which road team was most likely to win. My pick for No. 1 was the Saints. They lost. All of the other road teams won. So that shows you how much I know.
And yet, here you are, still reading. So I feel it's important for me to reward that kind of blind loyalty by continuing this fruitless exercise for another week. Four more games this week, and I'm only picking one road team -- the first one on the list just below. Sure, any or all of the others could win, I guess, but the Ravens are the only one I think will win. The rest are listed in the order I believe they're most likely to surprise me.
1. Ravens at Pittsburgh. This has a lot to do with the fact that the Ravens won in Pittsburgh in Week 4. And while yes, I'm aware that Ben Roethlisberger didn't play in that game, to say that's why Baltimore won would be to apply revisionist history. The Steelers were 3-0 and on fire going into that game. They were crushing people no matter who they were using at quarterback. And the Ravens went in and beat them. The Ravens should have won the game in Baltimore in Week 13, too. It was their only home loss of the season, and they feel as if it was taken from them late. Their defense is clicking as it hasn't all year, forcing turnovers and generating offense off of other teams' mistakes. It'll be close, as it always is between these two, but I see Baltimore pulling through.
2. Packers at Atlanta. Most people are putting Green Bay at the top of this list, and I've seen the Packers play the last two weeks and like a lot about them. But I think people are underrating the Falcons, who have dominated at home all year, are rested and held off a furious charge from these same Packers at the Georgia Dome in the regular season. And James Starks? Great story last week, but the Falcons' defense offers a few more obstacles than the Eagles' defense does.
3. Seahawks at Chicago. This would be Seattle's second win of the year at Soldier Field, and while I don't think it will happen, it's not insane to imagine Jay Cutler throwing a bunch of interceptions and the Seahawks hitting a couple of big plays and, if the Packers win too, hosting the NFC Championship with a 9-9 record.
4. Jets at New England. I think it's great that the Jets, Rex Ryan and Antonio Cromartie have made the week so interesting, because I think the final game of the weekend is going to be ugly. I think the Jets had a good team this year, but I don't think they have any chance at all to win this game in Foxborough against Tom Brady, no matter how much they rip him all week. Belichick off a bye week is deadly, the Jets are banged up in key spots and it's been months since anybody even sniffed a chance to beat the Patriots. They don't go out in their first game, no way.
TRAVELING MAN
I'm going to the AFC game this weekend between two intense division rivals who split the regular-season home-and-home series and can't stand each other. The one where the team that lost more recently is bitter about it and determined to show they're not going to be pushed around like that again, no matter who the home team's quarterbacks is. What's that? That didn't narrow it down? No, I guess it didn't. Well, I'm going to Ravens-Steelers in Pittsburgh. I'm expecting the reason these teams didn't talk as much in the week leading up to the game as the Jets and Patriots did is because they were saving their energy so they could physically beat the snot out of each other all Saturday afternoon and into the evening. I'm expecting that. I'll be kind of disappointed if they don't.
