Sportsfrog.com

A big shout out to winter for adding the element of fun for the casual viewer to the games yesterday. As for the games themselves, amazingly, with two weeks left, the Browns have a real shot at the AFC North. Romeo Crennel has done one heck of a coaching job there in 2007. As for what the chattering class is saying this morning, read on.

Don Banks at si.com with Snap Judgments and this observation among others:

“San Francisco’s upset home win over Cincinnati on Saturday night makes you wonder about the judgment of the 49ers offensive coaching staff, doesn’t it? If Niners third-string quarterback Shaun Hill is capable of playing that efficiently — 21-of-28 passing for 197 yards, with one touchdown pass and a 3-yard bootleg scoring run, what was he doing stuck behind both starter Alex Smith and backup Trent Dilfer, as San Francisco’s season swirled down the tubes the last three months?”

Wait, I got this one. Um, Don? I like you and all. You generally do rock solid work. But, and I promise you this, you canNOT take one game against a Bengals D and take any lessons from it. You just can’t. The list of living breathing NFL quarterbacks who would not show well against the Cincinnati (quitters/no-talenters/heartless/bad coached) Bengals is very, very, short. Maybe only Brock Berlin is on it (and he likely only had problems because G-d was still distracted with all things Tim Tebow). And that was likely skewed a week ago by the torrential rain he had to play in. Maybe Shaun Hill will be all that. But you will need far more than one game against the Bengals’ joke of a defense/team before you get to wondering about the SF coaches and why they didn’t dust Hill off before now.

Clark Judge at sportsline.com with Judgements and this thought amongst others:

“CBS analyst Dan Marino said that Indianapolis or Jacksonville can go into New England and beat the Patriots. I disagree. The Colts suffer from Dome Syndrome, which tells us that no dome teams have gone to the Super Bowl by playing outdoors. Yeah, Jacksonville can run the ball, but what’s the Jags’ weakness? Uh-huh, pass defense. Good luck against Tom Brady.”

Damn, Clark Judge, you are going to make me agree with Dan Marino, at least with respect to the Colts. Have you been watching Indy play games this year? Yes, they are still fully capable of winning games through the air (and have done so). But they are built much differently from their previous editions that had problem outdoors in January. If they do meet New England for the AFC title game, and the weather is frigid or sloppy, Indy is well-suited this time around both offensively and defensively to survive a game like that. Up until yesterday when the Patriots finally re-discovered Laurence Maroney, I was wondering if they had not morphed into the 2004 Colts and might be vulnerable in bad weather games. Actually, considering the mere 20-10 margin of victory over the Jets, and that one of the Pat TDs came from the defense, I still think they are vulnerable in bad weather games. Without the pass offense cranked up, the Pats can be had.

At espn.com, Last Call with this tidbit from the Heard in the Pressbox section:

“The Pittsburgh offensive line is a mess; the problems begin at center and move to the right. The Steelers have enjoyed superb play at center for more than 30 years, from Mike Webster to Dermontti Dawson to Jeff Hartings. That’s one Hall of Fame snapper (Webster) and one who deserve serious consideration for Canton honors (Dawson). But Sean Mahan, signed from Tampa Bay as an unrestricted free agent, has struggled for much of the season. And the performance from the right side of the line also has been subpar. Pittsburgh isn’t able to run the ball with any kind of rhythm, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is getting hit an awful lot.”

That paragraph likely has the sanction of uber-Swamper Jerloma who has been sounding the warning about the Steeler offensive line since the pre-season. For those who have not been paying attention, those same offensive line issues help to underscore just how good Ben Roethlisberger has been. If he doesn’t make the Pro Bowl this year, the process is more of a joke than usual.

As for my thoughts (NTYC):

1. Another desultory effort from the Giants last night. A quick scan of the conference standings tells me that at 9-5, the Giants are still not a lock for the playoffs. Figure in that New England will not be giving any quarter in Week 17 as they go for 16-0, and it puts quite a bit of pressure on the Giants next week at Buffalo. Either that or they need to start rooting against the Saints, who with two wins may have the edge in a tie-breaker situation if it comes to that.

2. I guess the Lions are closing in on mailing in the rest of their season. If they have not begun to do so already. Rod Marinelli has quite a bit more work to do, as it turns out, with regard to beating the losing culture out of the locker-room.

3. Several of the national talking heads are sounding little alarms over the Cowboys, and given Tony Romo’s play of late, they are not wrong in that. Dallas has two testers on the road left this season, stumble in either one of those and, with two Green Bay wins, the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC all of a sudden runs through Lambeau instead of Irving.

4. You have to feel somewhat bad for Houston, who is making a nice leap this year. They are adrift in a hellaciously challenging division. Put them almost anywhere else and they have legitimate playoff hopes and excitement for the future. While they deserve to be excited for the future in any event, that has to be tempered by the realization that Indy, Jacksonville, and Tennessee look well-positioned to stay just as strong for the next several years. The AFC South, as it turns out, is easily the best in football.

5. Mario Williams has turned into a beast. Let me add my voice of acknowledgement of that fact to whoever else joined me in questioning that pick for the Texans in 2006 and whether Williams would be able to be a difference-maker in the league. I think, at some point in the past in these spaces, I opined that you damn near had to be a Bruce Smith type impact player to be worthy of the #1 overall at defensive end. Well, as it may be turning out, Williams has a real shot at that. Props to the Texans for making the tough (and correct, as it turns out) call.