Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

The divisional round of the NFL playoffs often provides the best games, but that wasn't the case this week after the dual-comeback barnburners of Wild-Card week. Nevertheless, there was some scintillating action this week, most of it coming from the Pittsburgh-Tennessee game.

:: First off, I didn't watch much of yesterday's games, so I don't have too much to say. I will note that the 49ers shockingly conceded defeat by electing to simply go to the locker room as the clock ticked away the last seconds of the first half, despite the fact that they were in a hole and they had two timeouts left. They might have been able to get into field-goal range, at least, and gone to the half on a positive note. When you're down at the half in any football game (excepting preseason games, only), the last impression you want to give is, "Let's get the f*** out of Dodge." But that's precisely what the 49ers did. Shame on them.

:: Michael Vick is still exciting as hell to watch, and he's only going to get better -- as long as his coaches don't do to him what Randall Cunningham's coaches did to him, way back when, and try to convert him into being a pocket passer. That effort resulted in Cunningham suffering a season-ending injury in the first game of the 1991 season, and Cunningham's career never really fluorished again, except for his remarkable season with the Vikings in 1998. (Oh, and I expect Eagles safety Brian Dawkins to be fined sometime this week for his helmet-skewering of Michael Vick on a play where Vick scored a touchdown. It was exactly the kind of hit the NFL seems to really frown upon these days.)

:: I was surprised at the lackluster performance by the Eagles on offense. Granted, they were playing one of the league's more underrated defenses, but the Buccaneers sport an even tougher defense. They need to step it up next week.

:: Sadly, it became official Saturday night: at least half of my original Super Bowl prediction was wrong. The Steelers have exited the playoffs, and as they head into the offseason they have some unexpected bright spots -- they can freely unload Kordell Stewart now, for example -- but they also have some uncharacteristic holes to fill, all of them on defense. When you create four turnovers and still give up 34 points and lose the game, especially by giving up big plays in OT, then you've got some serious problems on the defensive side of the ball.

As for the ref's call of roughing-the-kicker which gave the Titans another shot at the game-winner (which the kicker, Joe Nedney, had just missed), well: this one can't be blamed on the officials. It was the right call. The "running into the kicker" rule exists for a reason, and Pittsburgh cornerback Dewayne Washington really did run into him. Had the refs not thrown the flag, Titans fans would be justified in wondering why not. (There were other missed calls as well, including some very obvious interference with Titans tight end Frank Wycheck.)

Granting that it was the right call, given the rules, there's still a certain feeling of "Oh, come on!" that sets in when watching the replay of the hit in question. Washington did run into Nedney, 'tis true; but it was such a glancing blow that a visual dictionary could use that play as its definition of the very term "glancing blow". I was hit harder with wiffle balls in high school gym class than Nedney was hit by Washington; and for that matter, I'm getting a bit tired of the exaggerated pratfall that kickers and punters do when they come within inches of contact with another player. Are they actually coached in this? Yes, a placekicker who has just kicked a FG attempt is in a precarious position, standing on one foot with another pointing almost vertical, but these are professional athletes of whom I would expect enough balance and agility to not be vaulted into the air at the slightest hint of contact, with their legs soaring into the space where their head should be and their arms wildly flailing as if conducting the United States Marine Band in a performance of "The Stars And Stripes Forever". Whenever I see a kicker or punter do this little act, I'm invariably reminded of the scene in The Mighty Ducks when Emilio Estevez, having realized that his youth hockey team isn't particularly good, decides to coach them on how to fake injuries ("When he takes a shot, drop your stick and put your hands on your face and scream, Oh my EYE!.") I know why they do it, but I still don't like seeing grown men playing a game like football when they're wearing the modern-equivalent of chainmail armor acting like they're suddenly made of bone china.

One final note: I don't like the Titans ("Homerun Throwback" is just not forgiveable), and now I don't much like their fans, either. This was the game where they bring out all those young kids who won that "Pass, Punt and Kick" thing the NFL does. The fans did their duty and cheered the kids as they were introduced -- except for the last kid, a fourteen-year-old who just happened to be from Pittsburgh. He was booed. Lots of class, that.

(Actually, I find football fans a pretty scary bunch in general...I mean, what's up with these guys dressed up as skeletons attending the Raider games?)