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Past Matchups Won’t Matter on NFL’s Championship Sunday
Throw them out. Throw them all out, the NFL regular-season games between the Packers and Bears (two), and the Jets and Steelers (one).
For when those rematches are played next Sunday for the right to go to the Super Bowl, the regular-season meetings mean nothing. The 49-point turnaround in the Jets-Patriots matchup this weekend (Pats, 45-3 in Foxborough on Dec. 6; Jets, 28-21 Sunday in the same venue) tells us all we need to know. And if you read anything in the coming days, like the note that Devin Hester’s 62-yard punt return overcame a Green Bay edge from scrimmage in the first Green Bay-Chicago meeting, ignore it.
None of it matters.
Nor does home-field “advantage” — the Steelers have been in seven AFC title games in the past 17 seasons, six at home and one on the road. The home team is 2-5.
Green Bay and Pittsburgh are each favored by three points going into the title games, the Packers as a road favorite. That essentially means that the Vegas guys think of Green Bay as six points better, since Chicago gets three points as the home team.
More from NFL.com That’s based, of course, on the Packers’ 48-21 demolition of Atlanta in the Georgia Dome Saturday night, not the two games the teams played — a 20-17 win by the Bears in Chicago and a 10-3 win by the Packers at Lambeau, in a game the Bears had little incentive to win. In this case, it’s recent perception — and the perception is that a Green Bay team that was just 10-6 in the regular season and had to win two “playoff” games to end the regular season, now is the best team in the NFL.
That’s also the perception of the media and fans. Mike Ditka said on ESPN Sunday, in the hyperbole of the moment, that Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers played the best game ever played under pressure by a quarterback on Saturday night. Well, 31 of 36 for 366 yards and three touchdowns can mesmerize anyone, including a Hall-of-Fame tight end and Super Bowl-winning coach (who, in a later incarnation, gave up New Orleans’ entire 1999 draft for Ricky Williams).
Can Cutler Step Up Or Will Seahawks Capitalize On Their Experience?
Jay Cutler has reached the NFL playoffs for the first time, his first time in the next level of spotlight. So it’s time to get to know who he really is. Is the public image of him right?
“Just the opposite,” Chicago running back Matt Forte said. “Jay is a good guy and he comes to work everyday to work hard.”
Well, that was interesting. No one had mentioned anything about Cutler’s image being of a bad guy who is lazy. Forte came up with that on his own, also saying that Cutler isn’t arrogant at all.
The truth is, it doesn’t really matter what kind of person Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is, though he seems wholly unlikable.
What we need to find out about Cutler is what kind of quarterback he is, whether he is a star of the future, as he has been labeled forever, or just another person willing to coast on his great talent, never bothering to make the most of it.
This is it for Cutler, his big moment. The next step is right there in front of him, facing Seattle, with its losing record. It is such an easy step against a mediocre team, on the home field, that to blow this would be to define Cutler as all hype.
The city of Chicago knows it has a Super Bowl-quality defense and Super Bowl-quality special teams. So why isn’t it feeling super confident now, going crazy the way it did in 1985 with its one Super Bowl-winning team?
Cutler.
No one is sure who he is.
“I’m probably not the first quarterback who hasn’t ever been to the playoffs in his first five years,” Cutler said. “And I won’t be the last.”
Has anyone on the team with playoff experience said anything about …
Ride the Peaks and the Valleys With Josh McDaniels
In one NFL city, we find the Denver Broncos, who are 3-8 and losers of 16 of 21.
In another NFL city, we find the Chicago Bears, 8-3 and so far 
under the radar they don’t even qualify as stealth.
In the middle of both teams: Josh McDaniels. He’s the guy who gutted the Denver Broncos’ roster upon his arrival and sent the team’s one-time franchise quarterback to Chicago. There, Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo accepted the quarterback and have the opposite record of the dismal Broncos.
Sunday, the Bears beat the mighty Mike — Vick — in Chicago. They did it with defense, especially in the red zone, and with four touchdown passes from Jay Cutler, who would be the guy McDaniels could not wait to get rid of once he took over in Denver.
McDaniels alienated Cutler by first trying to acquire Matt Cassel. So Cutler got into a hissy fit and was traded to the Bears. Then, McDaniels alienated the standout wide receiver, Brandon Marshall, who lasted one season, then was traded to Miami.
In the offseason, McDaniels wanted Brady Quinn from the Browns. He gave Cleveland a couple draft picks and a throw-in running back by the name of Peyton Hillis. Few saw Hillis having the season he’s having in Cleveland, but if anyone could have it would have been McDaniels. He coached Hillis for a season in Denver. Read More >>
Remembering the Man with the Longest Football Career, George Blanda
George Blanda, whose 26-year career as a quarterback and kicker was the longest in history and who was the oldest man to play in an NFL game, is dead at age 83.
Blanda died early Monday morning at his home in California, the Pro Football Hall of Fame confirmed.
Blanda, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981, began his career with the Chicago Bears as a quarterback in 1949 and played until 1975, when he retired as a kicker for the Oakland Raiders at age 48 after having scored 2,002 career points, a record at that time. He even played some linebacker for the Bears after signing out of the University of Kentucky for a $600 bonus, money that George Halas demanded Blanda return when he made the team.
His best seasons came with the Houston Oilers in the American Football League from 1960 to 1966. In his first two seasons with the Oilers, he threw 60 touchdown passes in just 28 games in the pass-happy AFL.
They also were the only two years as a starting quarterback in which he had more TDs than interceptions. In the second year, 1961, he had 36 TD passes and 22 interceptions and threw seven touchdown passes in a game against the New York Titans, the precursors of today’s Jets. He also totaled 418 yards passing in that game. Read More >>
Bears a Breakout Contender in 2009
With the trade of Jay Cutler to Chicago, the Bears solidified their offense with a franchise QB, and could now be a real contender in the NFC North. The Bears didn’t do so well in the 2008 NFL season, but 2009 is looking up on all sides of the ball. The Bears offense will flourish under Jay Cutler, and though the Bears are lacking at the WR position, Cutler will make some of their players, like Devin Hester, much more potent offensive weapons. The Bears also have a lot of time left before the season begins to pick up another WR, someone like Marvin Harrison or Amani Toomer would make Cutler a lot more dangerous. The Bears have also fortified their defense in the offseason with the addition of Pisa Tinoisamoa, the leading tackler for the St. Louis Rams in 2008. In addition, the Bears picked up some promising prospects for their defense in the draft, including Jarron Gilbert, a big DE with a lot of potential, as well as Marcus Freeman at LB, who has athleticism to turn into a pro starter.
NFL critics agree that 2009 the Bears will be a contender in the NFC North, and could make a run for the playoffs or even the Super Bowl. With Cutler at the helm, the Bears have all the weapons needed to get Minnesota on the ropes. Expect Bears jerseys bearing Cutler’s name at the NFC playoffs in ’09!
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