Detritus
12-11-2006, 08:10 PM
Peter King asked Jerome Bettis about this, and this (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/12/10/mmqb/index.html) was Bettis's answer:
The 2005 Steelers are the Holy Grail of hope for every coach and player of the middle-of-the-road NFL teams fighting for the two wild-card spots in each conference. After a three-game losing streak left them 7-5, the Steelers were faced with the tough task of playing an elimination game every week. One more loss would eliminate them from the race in the top-heavy AFC, and they faced a bumpy season-ending schedule: Chicago at home, at Minnesota and Cleveland, Detroit at home. And if they won out, they'd likely have to win three road playoff games (true, as it turned out -- at Cincinnati, at Indy, at Denver) and then win the Super Bowl in Detroit. Two games at Heinz Field, six games out of town. And they ran the table.
Since one of the best resources for understanding that Pittsburgh team was watching the games with me on a couch in a Rockefeller Center viewing room all afternoon Sunday, I figured Jerome Bettis would be just the guy to ask the question of the day to: "Are there any Pittsburghs out there this year? Of all the wild-card contenders -- Kansas City, Denver, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, the Jets, the Giants, Philly, Minnesota, Atlanta, Carolina and St. Louis -- do any of them have a chance to do what the Steelers did last year?''
Bettis didn't think long. "The Giants or Cincinnati,'' he said. "In order to do it, you've got to have a good defense playing well. The Giants are getting their guys back healthy, and if Michael Strahan gets back in the next week or so, they'll have a good enough defense. The Bengals have played great on defense in the last few weeks. Both of those teams can get hot on offense and score with anybody, but the important thing is you won't be able to outscore people every game. So you've got to be able to play defense.''
No. 2: "You've got to be physical. The teams that have won most of the Super Bowls have come from the physical divisions. The NFC East and AFC North are physical divisions right now. Look at how even the Browns played good teams. They beat Kansas City, the Jets and Atlanta. The Steelers and Cincinnati beat New Orleans. Lot of points scored there, but when those teams win, they punish people. Last year, when Chicago came into town, we were 7-5 and they were the hot team, but I knew their defense couldn't hold up to our physical style for four quarters.''
No. 3: "I think the teams that can go into playoff mode the earliest can ride it a long way. Can they be focused on every game being their season? That's what we did. The day after we lost to be 7-5, we came into our facility and coach [Bill Cowher] had our board with all the games listed and our goals for every game, and he erased everything except the one game we had that week. Nothing we did before mattered, nothing we do in the future mattered. Just now.''
Interesting. The Giants have said for the last week that they're in a playoff mode. And when I asked Cincy coach Marvin Lewis about the sense of urgency on Sunday, he said he'd told his team pretty much the same thing when they were 4-4 in early November. "I told them, 'I got a memo from the league office. It's an eight-game season, and it'll probably take 7-1 to get to the playoffs.' ''
"Interesting,'' Bettis said. "That's the way you've got to do it.''
The Bengals might be a better team than the Giants right now, but if they make the tournament, there's a good chance they'd have an extraordinarily tougher road than the Giants. New York's road could be something like at Seattle, at New Orleans, at Chicago. That's hard enough. But imagine in 15 days having to win at frigid Foxboro, at Indianapolis and at San Diego? Or at Baltimore, Indy and San Diego?
That's why Bettis said if he had to pick one team with the best shot to follow the Steelers this season, it's New York. But let's not assume anyone will follow in the Steelers footsteps this year, or next year. Or in the next 10 years.
"Or ever,'' Bettis said. "Do you realize how hard it was, what we did last year?''
History will be the judge. But the Giants and the Bengals do just enough things well that you think maybe they can shock the world too. I doubt it, but this is a funny game. Who'd have thought the Bengals, facing an Indy-Denver daily double on the road beginning next Monday, might be favored -- at least in the public's eyes -- in both games? Life changes quickly in these here parts.
The 2005 Steelers are the Holy Grail of hope for every coach and player of the middle-of-the-road NFL teams fighting for the two wild-card spots in each conference. After a three-game losing streak left them 7-5, the Steelers were faced with the tough task of playing an elimination game every week. One more loss would eliminate them from the race in the top-heavy AFC, and they faced a bumpy season-ending schedule: Chicago at home, at Minnesota and Cleveland, Detroit at home. And if they won out, they'd likely have to win three road playoff games (true, as it turned out -- at Cincinnati, at Indy, at Denver) and then win the Super Bowl in Detroit. Two games at Heinz Field, six games out of town. And they ran the table.
Since one of the best resources for understanding that Pittsburgh team was watching the games with me on a couch in a Rockefeller Center viewing room all afternoon Sunday, I figured Jerome Bettis would be just the guy to ask the question of the day to: "Are there any Pittsburghs out there this year? Of all the wild-card contenders -- Kansas City, Denver, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, the Jets, the Giants, Philly, Minnesota, Atlanta, Carolina and St. Louis -- do any of them have a chance to do what the Steelers did last year?''
Bettis didn't think long. "The Giants or Cincinnati,'' he said. "In order to do it, you've got to have a good defense playing well. The Giants are getting their guys back healthy, and if Michael Strahan gets back in the next week or so, they'll have a good enough defense. The Bengals have played great on defense in the last few weeks. Both of those teams can get hot on offense and score with anybody, but the important thing is you won't be able to outscore people every game. So you've got to be able to play defense.''
No. 2: "You've got to be physical. The teams that have won most of the Super Bowls have come from the physical divisions. The NFC East and AFC North are physical divisions right now. Look at how even the Browns played good teams. They beat Kansas City, the Jets and Atlanta. The Steelers and Cincinnati beat New Orleans. Lot of points scored there, but when those teams win, they punish people. Last year, when Chicago came into town, we were 7-5 and they were the hot team, but I knew their defense couldn't hold up to our physical style for four quarters.''
No. 3: "I think the teams that can go into playoff mode the earliest can ride it a long way. Can they be focused on every game being their season? That's what we did. The day after we lost to be 7-5, we came into our facility and coach [Bill Cowher] had our board with all the games listed and our goals for every game, and he erased everything except the one game we had that week. Nothing we did before mattered, nothing we do in the future mattered. Just now.''
Interesting. The Giants have said for the last week that they're in a playoff mode. And when I asked Cincy coach Marvin Lewis about the sense of urgency on Sunday, he said he'd told his team pretty much the same thing when they were 4-4 in early November. "I told them, 'I got a memo from the league office. It's an eight-game season, and it'll probably take 7-1 to get to the playoffs.' ''
"Interesting,'' Bettis said. "That's the way you've got to do it.''
The Bengals might be a better team than the Giants right now, but if they make the tournament, there's a good chance they'd have an extraordinarily tougher road than the Giants. New York's road could be something like at Seattle, at New Orleans, at Chicago. That's hard enough. But imagine in 15 days having to win at frigid Foxboro, at Indianapolis and at San Diego? Or at Baltimore, Indy and San Diego?
That's why Bettis said if he had to pick one team with the best shot to follow the Steelers this season, it's New York. But let's not assume anyone will follow in the Steelers footsteps this year, or next year. Or in the next 10 years.
"Or ever,'' Bettis said. "Do you realize how hard it was, what we did last year?''
History will be the judge. But the Giants and the Bengals do just enough things well that you think maybe they can shock the world too. I doubt it, but this is a funny game. Who'd have thought the Bengals, facing an Indy-Denver daily double on the road beginning next Monday, might be favored -- at least in the public's eyes -- in both games? Life changes quickly in these here parts.