Endgame - Pittsburgh Steelers

If the Steelers were a song…

Young Jezzy - Go Crazy (Remix) - Young Jeezy (ft.Jay-Z)

Just because…

Who are the Steelers?

As an undergrad in a fraternity, it’s cliché to say that I received a great many mantras for life from the older brothers in the house. There is one, however, that has stuck with me for a long time. Once, in the gym (I promise that this is as stereotypically fratty as this will get), an older brother watching me, a 165 pound string bean of a man, struggling with a weight that was well out of my league, stopped by and told me I was “doing it all wrong.” When I asked what I should be doing, he simply responded “Make it look easy,” before walking off to do something much cooler than anything with which I was involved at the time. That stuck with me, reminding me that no matter what I accomplished, the goal was not simply to succeed, but to make it look like doing so was quite possibly the most boring thing in the entire world.

Mike Tomlin has made this entire season look just that easy.

Remember Bill Cowher? One Super Bowl in fifteen years. Meanwhile, Tomlin has put together a better record in his first three years than Cowher did, and has reached the big stage in almost a fifth of the time it took the Chintimidator. He runs the league’s best defense, attacking quarterbacks and shutting down run games courtesy of Dick LeBeau’s confusing zone blitz schemes and Troy Polamalu leading a defensive secondary that craters chests with no regard for safety (ask Willis McGahee about that if you doubt it). His offense, thanks to a speedy run game and a deceptively talented receiving corps, has the firepower to take advantage of teams that struggle to put points on the board. Yet all season long we’ve only implicitly acknowledged just how good this team is. Sure, they’ve got history, but their offensive line is only so-so, and Big Ben is really just a game manager, and Santonio Holmes is just another fast guy catching passes, right?

I think we’re bored because Tomlin looks bored with it all. Success for this team has become second nature, which is both a testament to the fact that it has absorbed it into its very nature and very, very sad. Yet somehow, it makes this Super Bowl all the more important for the Steelers. The organization is like an achievement fiend, with only the highest highs bringing any sort of satisfaction anymore. I, for one, wonder whether or not victory on this stage would crack Tomlin’s seemingly invincible façade, would make Ben Roethlisberger look more human than machine. In almost direct contrast to their opponents, everything about the Steelers screams that things were meant to unfold exactly as they have up to this point, that destiny, the overarching story of everything in this league, had no other plot to follow.

If this makes me sound biased against the Steelers, it’s because I am, but only because I happen to find the Cardinals story much more compelling. That is not, however, to say that the Steelers haven’t managed to forge their own important role in this year’s proceedings. If anything, they’ve been MORE important than the Cardinals ever could have been. Rebellions and twists are fun, but destiny simply marches on around them. A victory on Sunday would serve as the wake up call that both the team and its audience have desired, reminding everyone exactly how good the Pittsburgh Steelers have been all season long.

Endgame 2009: Arizona Cardinals

"The difference with me is when I do what I do I do it like I'm doing it for TV."
-Ma$e

If the Cardinals were a song…

Collapsing at Your Doorstep - Air France

In a playoff field full of angry, harsh edges, the Cardinals are the only team that still seems capable of winning with ethereal flair. Sure, there’s not a lot of substance underneath, but since when was floating on the air supposed to rely of substance?

Who are the Cardinals?


Long time readers of the blog may know that I used to write for the WWE. Besides being the high point of what I’m sure will be an utterly disappointing “career” (cashing Google checks = legitimacy!) as a writer, it is easily the most talked about notch on my resume (“internet writer” doesn’t make anybody tingle, surprisingly). Usually, I like to summarize the experience using the story about the time I rode in a limo with Vince McMahon, Chairman of the WWE and probably the most important figure in professional wrestling history. As we rode to the airport following a television taping, Mr. McMahon was going over the show in great detail, imparting years of his own personal experience with “the business” to every aspect of what he liked and disliked about the show. What I always tell people is that regardless of how narrow the field is, there’s something remarkable about observing someone who is unquestionably the best at what they do. That kind singular greatness is special.

I feel the same way watching the Cardinals aerial offense. Whether that narrow, singular focus is going to be significant enough to carry this team to the promised land (gotta make at least one biblical reference for a Kurt Warner team) remains to be seen, but it has me excited for this team to have made it to the divisional playoffs.

Faith in these Arizona Cardinals has to be rooted in the one aspect of the game where they’ve proven themselves to be better than anybody else, because it’s hard to find comfort in any of the more typical sources of confidence. Sure, they won their division and hosted a playoff game for the first time in the lives of many of their fans, but let’s be honest, that stumble to the finish line (in which they lost 4 of 6) and Kurt Warner reverting to fumbly wumblies of years past wasn’t making anyone feel safe. All of this led to the Falcons being the clear favorites to stomp the Cardinals out of the playoffs and establish the case for the playoff system being changed once and for all. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, everything clicked for Arizona, and it all traced back to the pass attack. Kurt Warner had plenty of time to stretch the field, Larry Fitzgerald was attacking the ball as only he can, and Boldin even found a way to sneak under the defense like he has all season and punish them after the catch. This let the bit players (Breaston, Spach, Urban…) wreak havoc in the middle of the field, and finally gave Edge the space to move in the box that he hadn’t really been able to find all season, running (justifiably) like a man with everything to prove.

I ask you: Can you bet against THAT Arizona Cardinals team?

The Cardinals aren’t just the best pass attack left in the playoffs; they’re almost 50 yards per game better than the next closest competition (Philly). They boast two Pro Bowl receivers and a quarterback who still has some juice in the tank and the hardware (2X MVP, Super Bowl ring) to show he knows what to do with it. There isn’t a double team in the league that can stop Larry Fitzgerald from getting a well thrown pass when he’s given the opportunity to use his body and agility to create space out of nowhere, expanding the easel of his work beyond where we thought it ended. The Bionic Receiver Anquan Boldin is playing fearlessly after his injury, making catches underneath defense and sneaking behind them before anyone can explain how he can do all that with metal in his face. Kurt Warner, after being tossed aside at the start of the offseason, turned back the clock for one more great year, and has played accordingly, displaying a trust in his receivers that seems simple, but is actually the product of years of studying what an effective pass attack can be. Forget Mike Martz; this is the REAL Greatest Show on Turf sequel.

Of course, that might not be enough, especially in an NFC field with so many scary pass rushes, but against the general wisdom that brutality wins in the playoffs, the Cards have already proven once that a touch of grace can carry a team to victory. If Edge is as fresh as he looked last week, and Warner can avoid mistakes, this team is going to be hard to stop, because while they can’t do everything well, they may not need to. Why waste time trying to answer questions that may not need to be asked? Instead, they may just fall back on the one shining truth that got them this far (LARRY FITZGERALD AND ANQUAN BOLDIN ARE AWESOME) and dare teams to stop them. Throw in a chippy defense, and maybe, just maybe, we can get away with believing in a team without fully understanding how they’ll fill the gaps in our faith (defense? rush attack?). If that isn’t faith, what is?

Endgame: Baltimore Ravens

If the Ravens were a song…

Last Of A Dying Breed - Ludacris Feat Lil Wayne

It’s not safe to go into Baltimore, and it’s becoming equally unsafe for NFL squads with something to lose to face this team. Out of all the remaining teams, only one plays smashmouth ball as well as the Ravens (the Titans), and unlike them the Ravens have a nasty edge to their pass game courtesy of the Flacco-Mason connection. It’s everything we thought it would be (brutality on defense and ground wars on offense) and more (a potentially scary aerial assault?), turning what we thought would be a symphony into a rapid, angry cacophony that is still somehow music.

Who are the Ravens?


There’s a lost art in music: The art of the remix. Hip hop’s second golden age in the 90’s provides us with a good example of what remixes were always meant to be. Either they took the general nature of the original and improved upon it, or they morphed the original into something so different that it merited treatment as something new. No matter what, they never left the song the same, simply adding on bells and whistles to an essentially identical framework as the original. Doing so would have been the height of unoriginality, the calling card that the listener was being duped into throwing down additional cash (this was B.N….before Napster…) for something that they’d already gotten. If it wasn’t significantly different, or it wasn’t enhanced, we didn’t want it.

The 2008 Ravens are the remix of the Baltimore Ravens. What kind of remix they are, and whether or not their unique arrival at their current identity will work in the postseason, remains to be seen, but in the meantime, we can all groove to it.

We all know what we expect from the Baltimore Ravens at this point. Crushing defense, a ball that leaves the ground maybe ten times a game, and an offense designed to lull opponents into a blissful slumber. Pause, push the reset button, and recognize the game your playing: The 2008 Ravens are something different. Yes the defense is still pulverizing ground games and swallowing quarterbacks alive, but this version is something else entirely. It’s an enhanced version of everything we expect from this unit. Not only is the front line preventing anybody from moving the ball on the ground (81.4 yards per game), but the backfield is killing quarterbacks who decide to take the game on their shoulders. Case in point, Handsome Chad, who doesn’t throw picks often, threw four in the wild card game. Ed Reed isn’t just playing great football; he’s setting a new benchmark for what greatness at his position is (9 INT, including a three game streak of two per game). In short, the defense is taking what we knew we were going to get, then overloading us with our own expectations, to the point where it’s new for the sheer quantity we receive.

The offense, on the other hand, is the other type of remix, so changed from the original (while still tied to its roots) that we have to acknowledge it as a new creation. The ground game, which has sprouted three heads where there used to be only one, is every bit as relentless as any in the NFL, turning McGahee, Rice, and McClain into Baltimore’s “Lock, Stock, and Barrel” to the Giants’ “Earth, Wind, and Fire”. But the revolution on offense has to be credited in no small part to the revamping of the pass attack. Of course, in many ways, the team is just bringing more of the same, with Derrick Mason (yawn.) turning in a another (YAWN.) top tier year (snooze.) in which he put up over 1000 yards on a run first team (nod off like sleepy child.). Still, you can’t look at this offense and say that Joe Flacco isn’t a major factor in things getting better through the air. Yes, Matt Ryan’s rookie year got more (deserved) hype, but Joe Flacco is the more exciting career to watch develop (largely because we can be pretty certain that Ryan will be just fine). He’s Matt Ryan built out of war wreckage and raised on Jersey cheeseballs. In short, he’s boom or bust. Call it what you will, but boring it is not.

A large part of his personal story will be written as we watch this team’s story play out in the playoffs. Unlike just about every other team left, one is hard pressed to find a glaring weakness in the Ravens, but that is in large part due to how little we know about what Flacco is going to be able to do through the air. The tools are in place around him to succeed, including an offensive coordinator in Cam Cameron who is gameplanning like a mad scientist thrown to the fringes of football research (1-15 will do that to you…). If Jersey Joe can rifle passes in to his sure handed pass catchers against defenses that will be very, very focused on shutting down a run game, is there any reason to bet against the Ravens? After all, the two teams that beat them convincingly are either in the NFC or out of the playoffs. In a league built for speed, the Ravens came to the playoffs built for war, and just ousted the only other team playing grindhouse football. Welcome to Bodymore Football, NFL.

Endgame - Colts vs. Chargers

Time constraints have me holding off on individual team reviews until we’ve pared down the competition next week. Still, we’ll be taking a look at the upcoming games this weekend, starting with…

Also, because time constraints have me missing the first game, let me just say I think the Cardinals are winning it in an upset. Warner was brought on specifically for this purpose.

In a strange season, perhaps the strangest team of all has been the San Diego Chargers, who entered the season with aspirations of greatness, quickly became a caution for teams with boisterous attitudes by falling to teams that were obviously less talented and losing every meaningful close matchup they faced, and have stumbled into the playoffs as an 8-8 team while an 11-5 squad stays at home. The final strange twist? In doing so, they may have become the most dangerous, unpredictable team of the NFL playoffs. So you’re disappointed in the Chargers up to this point? Fine, but the fact remains that this team has the offensive firepower (thanks to a small RB renaissance courtesy of Darrel Sproles) to overwhelm ANYONE, let alone a defense that is good, but not great, and certainly prone to being hit hard by short, quick backs (for reference, look at what Chris Johnson and MJD did to this team during the year). Led by a quarterback whose chip on his shoulder has only gotten bigger thanks to a Pro Bowl snub following a league leading statistical performance, this Chargers team looks strangely similar to last years squad, an angry bunch of underachievers with enough nastiness to throw the knockout punch indiscriminately and the firepower to make it hurt.

Yet if there’s a team that’s learned to roll with the punches, it’s been the Colts, who, after a similarly bad start, have rallied to win shootouts, blowouts, grind it outs, and eventually won out from week nine on to enter the playoffs at a stunning 12-4. The rally point has obviously been Peyton Manning, who put together yet another MVP season while fighting both injuries to himself and his team. Despite a (relatively) inconspicuous season in terms of numbers, 2009 did more than perhaps even his Super Bowl run to shed Manning’s label as soft. Battling injuries to both himself and his team, there’s no question that it’s been Manning leading the Colts over the course of their nine game win streak, throwing a stunning 17 TD to just 3 INT and posting a QB rating under 92 just once. Transforming into the kind of quarterback who simply will not lose, Manning has his team looking like the team to beat in the AFC despite their wild card status.

All of this is made even more interesting by the fact that these teams have, over the last two seasons, tied their stories together with some of the most interesting games of their respective seasons, resulting in something akin to the grudge match rivalries of old. Let’s not forget last year’s two bizarre losses by the Colts, one of which saw Manning turn the ball over five times and another in which Billy Volek came off of the Chargers bench to put the nail in the Colts coffin. Then there was this year’s 23-20 slugfest, which the Colts won courtesy of brilliant game planning that kept Rivers and company off of the field just long enough to eek out a victory. This playoff contest, then, pits two teams that, at least early on in the season, were both written off as the “old guard”, relics of former greatness to be swallowed by a new generation of talent. For the Colts, this battle has been obvious all year, and it’s a credit to Manning, Clark, Wayne, and Bob Sanders that they’ve proven that they’ve still got the goods to hang with any and all comers.

For the Chargers, on the other hand, this season has been not just a fight against up and coming teams, but against their own classification as the “old guard”. Philip Rivers, Vincent Jackson, and Chris Chambers are far from the ends of their careers, and LT has yet to crack 30, yet the clamoring that this team is ready to be rebooted come from every corner of sports media. Perhaps no team is better suited to spit in the face of wise old sages like the Colts and angry mobs in the media than the Chargers, whose unique brand of talent and brashness is built for upsets such as the one they’ll need tonight. In essence, we’re seeing the process of aging gracefully face off against the staunch refusal to grow up, with the stakes for both teams, a passing into irrelevance, equally large.