Paul Domowitch | Super Bowl XLII: Jan. 20
Paul Domowitch | Super Bowl XLII: Jan. 20
IF I MAY, a suggestion to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell: When you go to Foxborough or Indianapolis for the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 20, bring along the Lombardi Trophy and just give it to the winner then, rather than wait 2 more weeks until after Super Bowl XLII.
With the Patriots and Colts marching through their schedule like Refrigerator Perry through a buffet line, it's clearer than ever that the eventual champion in the NFC, or NFL 2 as we like to call it in these parts, is going to get the proverbial crap kicked out of it on Feb. 3 in Phoenix.
Doesn't matter if it's the Cowboys, Packers or Seahawks. Doesn't matter if it's the Eagles, Saints, Lions, Bucs or Panthers. Doesn't matter if they all come and put together an all-star team. A fifth straight AFC Super Bowl win is as certain as rising gas prices.
Through the first 8 weeks of the season, AFC teams have won 18 of 31 inter-conference battles. The AFC has outscored the NFC, 716-538, in those 31 games.
The 8-0 Patriots, who will face the 7-0 Colts on Sunday in Indy, are averaging an unbelievable 41.3 points per game. Their average margin of victory has been 25.5 points. They've faced two NFC teams - the 6-1 Cowboys and 4-3 Redskins - and clubbed them by a combined score of 100-34.
The Colts have been almost as dominant. They've scored fewer than 29 points just once this season (22 in Week 2 vs. Tennessee) and have won five of their seven games by 18 or more points. They've faced three NFC teams - the 3-4 Saints, 4-4 Bucs and 4-3 Panthers. Combined score: 105-31.
Around the league
-- Before Bill Belichick, there was Buddy Ryan. Cowboys coach Wade Phillips was Ryan's defensive coordinator in 1987 when the former Eagles coach had quarterback Randall Cunningham fake a kneel-down and throw a pass to Mike Quick with 15 seconds left in an already-won game against Dallas. The play drew a pass-interference penalty, after which fullback Keith Byars ran the ball in from 1 yard out with no time left to give the Eagles a 17-point victory. Phillips admitted this week that it was a bush play.
"The game is over,'' he said. "Mike could've gotten hurt. Or Randall. Or someone on the play. I've just never coached that way. No offense to Buddy, but I was embarrassed.''
Phillips said he expressed his feelings about the play to Ryan, but the former Eagles coach "didn't care what I thought.''
-- Count CBS studio analyst Bill Cowher among the many who think Belichick is looking for trouble by leaving in key starters like quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss in lopsided wins.
"I think the risk he's weighing is that those guys could get hurt in those situations,'' the former Steelers coach said this week on a conference call with reporters. "I don't know if I would be willing to risk that. At some point, if this continues, someone's going to take a cheap shot. Is that worth subjecting your players to it if it comes to that?''
-- Patriots linebacker Adalius Thomas played primarily outside in Baltimore's 3-4 scheme. But Belichick has moved him inside in his 3-4. Belichick felt Thomas was plenty big enough to play inside, and he also wanted to move Mike Vrabel outside. While Thomas has been just OK to this point as an inside 'backer, Vrabel is having one of the best seasons of his 11-year career. He already has 7 1/2 sacks, as well as two touchdown catches in his other role as a goal-line tight end.
-- With the Jets benching Chad Pennington and going with Kellen Clemens, this almost certainly will be Pennington's last year with the AFC East team. The 8-year pro still feels he can be a starter in the league and the Jets aren't going to want to keep around a backup with a $7.8 million cap number in '08.
-- The Panthers thought enough of USC wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett to take him in the second round of the draft in April and then release veteran Keyshawn Johnson. But Jarrett, who caught 216 passes in just three college seasons for the Trojans, has appeared in just one game. Earlier this week, veteran receiver Steve Smith might have given a giant clue as to why Jarrett isn't playing. While the rookie was talking to a couple of reporters by his locker, Smith, whose locker is next to Jarrett's, looked at him and said, "Instead of talking to the media, why don't you go watch some film?''
This and that
-- Not everyone in the country will get to watch the Colts-Patriots game. Three NFL markets won't be getting the game - Cleveland, Houston and San Francisco-Oakland. The Browns' home game against Seattle is on Fox at 4, so Cleveland's CBS affiliate can't show a competing game. Houston and SF-Oakland will get the Texans-Raiders game, which is CBS' other 4 o'clock tilt.
-- They will meet Sunday. They likely will meet in January in the AFC Championship Game. And the Patriots and Colts probably will meet again during the regular season next year. The first-place teams in the AFC East and AFC South, which almost certainly will be the Patriots and Colts, are scheduled to play each other in '08.
By the numbers
--Through 8 weeks, two punters - the Broncos' Todd Sauerbrun and the Rams' Donnie Jones - are averaging 50-plus yards per attempt, and three others - the 49ers' Andy Lee, the Cowboys' Mat McBriar and the Raiders' Shane Lechler - are averaging 49.5 or better. In the last 10 seasons, only two punters have averaged more than 47.0 in a season - Sauerbrun (47.5 in '01) and Craig Hentrich (47.2 in '98).
