Monday morning NFL recap - playoffs

I couldn't get this posted on time because frankly I hadn't recovered from Saturday's ... I don't even have an adjective... game in Cincinnati. For the last ten years the Bengals haven't even been a blip in my radar. I didn't think the rivalry was as bad as the one we have with the Ravens. It use to be, but the Bengals haven't played well for so long that it was like playing the Browns. Then suddenly they started getting their act together a few years ago and bam! the rivalry was on like donkey kong. The last game was out of control resulting in over $100,000 in fines for both teams. This game wasn't any better and the NFL had better make some changes, and just in case they happen upon my little blog I'll give them a few:

1. Take a page from kids soccer - Move the benches farther back from the field. Paint some lines and tell the players and coaches that if they cross this lines there will be penalties. And stick with that rule. Right now it isn't working. Coaches and players are constantly moving past the sideline paint and on to the field. We've had coaches trip players. We've had people injured from a running player mowing them down. Steelers coach Mike Munchak was penalized for messing with a Bengals player on the sideline. Outside Lineback Coach Joey Porter wasn't the only coach on the field during an injury timeout as CBS Sports reported. Many Bengals coaches came on to the field during an injury to their player (and my fantasy player) running back Giovani Bernard. It's time to take a harder stance with the rules of who can and can not be on the field.
2. Take another page from kids soccer - When a player is injured then everyone on the field, and hell, lets add both benches, kneel while the injured player is being attended to. It's that simple. This way the trainers can do their job, players can pray if they choose to or fuel their anger or better yet take some deep breaths, and the injured player can be the focus of attention.

Hey, Roger Goodell, I'm available when the owners meet. Call me. I'll help you sort through some things.

Steelers:

• First of all, kudos to the two Steelers running backs, Fitzgerald Toussaint and Jordan Todman, who stepped up from their reserve positions to take the place of our injured running backs La'Veon Bell, out earlier in the season, and DeAngelo Williams, injured in last week's game. These two knocked it out of the park with Toussaint running for 118 yards and Todman for 65. They took the heat off of Ben Roethlisberger and kept the Steelers running game alive. 
• The Steelers owned the first half of the game. They played smart. They played it safe. Ben had help from the running backs and the passing game wasn't too bad. It wasn't pretty, but it was Steelers football. Then it all went to hell. Ben got hurt and the defense let the Bengals right back in again. We have got to control our own emotions when we lose our quarterback.
• Second of all, let's discuss the latter part of the game. The Bengals fans were atrocious. I get it. The team hasn't won a playoff game since football started. It's annoying. But to throw trash on to the field during a game? To throw full cups of soda at Ben Roethlisberger as he is carted off the field after being injured? Classless. This is a football game people not life and death. These players are real people and deserve some respect when they visit.
•  I like Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, but I blame him for some of the loss of control in this game. The Bengals players and fans were frustrated by the fourth quarter. Shut out by a team they despise and losing another playoff game, emotions were out of control. The Bengals players were mouthing off and pushing and shoving. I saw players push off of tackled Steelers players as they stood up, shoving heads into the ground. The refs were doing their best to control the situation, but it is up to the coach to control the players. Lewis stood stoic on the sidelines and later said that once players are out on the field it is out of his hands as he isn't allowed on the field. I know that was a slam at the Steelers sideline, but I disagree. These players are not suppose to behave the way they behaved, and if you have to get a penalty for marching out on the field to get these players under control then you take it. Anything would have been better than doing nothing and letting players get hurt. "Marvin Lewis shouldn't be on the sidelines if he can't control his players" was the theme after the game by both analysts Bill Cowher and former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason, who had plenty more to say about his former team.
• "This was a disgraceful performance by the Cincinnati Bengals. An ugly performance by Vonataze Burfict who should not only be fined, but should be suspended for a significant amount of time," an emotional Boomer Esiason reported after the game ended on his CBS postgame show. "I'm a former Bengal and I'm embarrassed by the way this game ended and by the way these guys acted on the field today." 
• What saddens me is that after the game, and days after the game, Marvin Lewis is still in denial that his players lost control. Seriously? Has he not watched the game on replay? 
• Vontaze Burfict, who has since received a three game suspension next year for his hit on Antonio Brown, has a nasty reputation and unfortunately once you have that you are open season for penalties. Just ask James Harrison. That being said he has got to play nicer. He racked up almost $70,000 in fines the last time he played the Steelers for face masks and roughness on the passer and players. He was fined $50,000 for a hit on the Ravens this year. I'm not necessarily referring to his hit on Brown. This is football after all and those types of hits happen more then the NFL would like to see, but I'm not sure that can be changed. I'm not saying he targeted Brown, but add up all of his actions from the game and tell me this is a player that deserves a place in the NFL. 
• Also, tell me why Burfict's action after an interception, running, with other players by his side, off of the field and up through the tunnel toward the locker rooms, wasn't a penalty. The refs called excessive celebration for William Gay shaking his booty after scoring (only it was overturned) after an interception, but leaving the field was okay? That should have been the first flag and perhaps that might have put a stop to the craziness that then followed.
• Bengals' Adam "Pacman" Jones was flagged at the end of the game after Antonio Brown was hurt. He intervened in an argument that had nothing to do with him, and instead of pushing back his teammates and stopping the debacle, he got right into the middle of it and ended up shoving a referee that resulted in the last penalty and allowed the Steelers to kick the winning field goal. He later videotaped himself shouting the f-bomb word over and over and over again as he shot down the Steelers players, Joey Porter, and the referees and posted it on Instagram. Yep, that did nothing to help your case Jones. He later removed the video, but has now come out and said that Brown faked his injury. Again, Marvin Lewis, step up and control your players. 
• I don't excuse the Steelers from their part in the madness either. Joey Porter on the field? He shouldn't have been. Arguing with the opposing players? Man up and keep your emotions under control. Pushing and shoving players? Stop it. If you want to retaliate, then beat the other team. I've said that once and I'll continue to say it. The only way to get back at a team, its players, and its coaches is to be the better person, shut your mouth, and kill them on the field by playing the better game and winning.
• Lastly, the good things about the game. Kudos to Ryan Shazier who had the forethought to pull the ball out of Jeremy Hill's hands as he was being tackled. That fumble was the saving grace for the Steelers that allowed them a chance to get back into the game.
• During the week Big Ben called out Martavis Bryant on his radio show challenging him to step up and play better. Bryant heard. Bryant listened. Bryant did just that making a ESPN SportsCenter top ten worthy touchdown that included controlling the ball while somersaulting out of the end zone.
• Big Ben Roethlisberger is no doubt the leader of this team. He went off the field with a shoulder injury only to return and agree to go back out on to the field to try to win the game. He kept the players in it, making huge passes to get them down the field and within the kicking target. We talk so much about his past and his mistakes and his rape allegations, but I think it is time to talk about a guy who has served his time, changed his ways, and manned up to lead a first rate franchise. I couldn't have been more proud of him then I was on Saturday.
• And yay for Chris Boswell who walked out on to that hostile field cool as a cucumber to score the winning kick. He came out, did his business, and turned back to run off the field without any excessive celebrating. That's the way it is done folks.
• The Steelers were told to get off of the field immediately and they had to zig and zag their way into the tunnel as the Bengals fans threw water bottles and cups and all sorts of debris toward the running players. I'm thankful that no was hurt both in the stands and on the field. I'm also thankful that several Bengals fans have written to the editor of the Cincinnati paper to voice their displeasure with the team and with the fans. As a fan of the NFL and my team, I agree we have to do that. Not all of us are ruffians with murder in our hearts taking this football as life and death. Those of us that understand the game and what it stands for in this country have to stand up and say, enough is enough. I cringe to think of next year's game between these two teams. Lets just hope both organizations hold the players and coaches accountable and control this now before anything worse happens.

Other:

• Now I'm torn because the Steelers now have to play a chosen Peyton Manning starting Bronco team next. Sigh. I want Peyton to do well. I want the Steelers to do well. Why? Why?
• Once again the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have fired their coach and done it in an unexpected and disrespectful way. Coach Lovie Smith had no idea that his job was in jeopardy and now word is that the thought of losing their offensive coordinator is the reason why he lost it. Will these three Glazer guys ever do things right? The Tampa Bay Times writer Tom Jones called them the Three Stooges, and I thought that nailed it. So they fired Smith so they could give offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter the job because they were afraid he would go elsewhere? Watch. He will go elsewhere because the Bucs must, per the Rooney rule, interview minority coaches before they make a hiring decision. Someone else will snatch up Koetter because why would he want the job? The Bucs owners have had five coaches since 2007. Would you want that job?
• Losing Lovie Smith, a Tony Dungy prodigy, makes me nervous about quarterback Jameis Winston antics off the field. With Smith, he had a chance. Without him? Hopefully, like Roethlisberger, he will rise above it and man up. We shall see.
• I'm sorry for the Minnesota Vikings who played a great first half and a respectable second half of football only to lose it in the last 22 seconds on a missed 27 yard field goal. WHAT? That poor kicker Blair Walsh wasn't anywhere near the goal posts. Heartbreaking way to lose a game.