NFL Monday recap - playoffs

Steelers: We planned our meal, went through game rituals, and convened at my buddy Scott's house. I love Steelers football, but I also love being with my boys around the TV during playoffs. I wasn't too worried for this game. I knew we would win. Next week will be harder, but we'll enjoy this win for a couple of days before focusing on Kansas City.

• First drive in the first three minutes got the crowd fired up and the first points on the board. Love to start out that way.
• The defense was fired up with Ryan Shazier strutting around Heinz Field with no shirt on prior to game time. They stopped the Dolphins left and right recovering fumbles, intercepting the ball, and making stops on third and forth downs. When our defense is on point we are better.
• My nephew, from Chicago I might add, is a Dolphins fan. We talk some smack with each other, but when he texted after Bud Dupree's hit on Dophins quarterback Matt Moore and called the Steelers a "dirty team" I disagreed with that statement, and frankly, am still annoyed this morning by it. First, this is football, and football is brutal no matter what the fans, the lawyers, and Roger Goodell says. Secondly, the NFL has worked hard at improving the game to ensure more player safety, but Dupree's hit on Moore who was running, was not planted, and who barely got the ball off before the hit, is not, in my opinion, something that can be stopped. How do you stop running full out in a tenth of a second? The hit was horrendous when shown live, and we all winced. No one wants to see that. Slow motion replay showed it wasn't helmet to helmet, but a hit to the chin, and again, I don't know how you can stop that. I'm not saying it was a clean hit. He hit the chin and knocked Moore's head back. But I don't believe it was intentional. There is a difference. My nephew argued that Dupree lowered his head. Uh, if he had stayed upright for the tackle wouldn't he have been more likely to hit helmet to helmet? Isn't lowering the head more likely to land in the chest of the quarterback as long as the other guy isn't lowering his head too? Dupree was so close to missing that chin and hitting Moore in the chest. Dirty? No, and one play doesn't make the entire team "dirty". The Rooney family doesn't run a dirty team. Steelers aren't dirty. The Rooney family wouldn't put up with that. Tackling involves the ducking of the head, and Dupree was full out running. I don't know how you stop that as I've blogged before. Full out run and a complete stop? Hard to do. If Moore hadn't of got the ball off in time this wouldn't even be a discussion. (And don't even get me started on the 2014 Dolphins bullgating issue) 
• I saw an interview with Bud Dupree in the locker room where he was shown a replay of the hit. Even he turned his head after seeing it, sucking in his breath. He called it "clean", and when the reporter asked him more about it he said what I did above. He was aiming for the chest. I think 95% of the players in the NFL are not wanting to cause injury to others. I really do. He'll be fined because it is a hit that gets fines, but I still say it wasn't intentional or dirty. Moore himself had no argument with the hit. "I just got smoked. It was really more my jaw than anything else."
• Speaking more on that hit. Moore went out for the concussion protocol, and was back in again on the next play. Uh...? That was a complete check? Shouldn't my nephew had been more concerned with that examination? Because I wasn't. This is the NFL cleaning up concussions? It reminded me of the of the Cam Newton non check. He ended up missing a couple of games after that. Moore, however, said he knew it wasn't a concussion because he wasn't hit in the head. Okay, then.....really? 
• Steelers with the penalties again. Why? Ugh. This makes me so crazy. We don't just do penalties, we make them during major key moments that screw us up and helps the opposition score. Frustrating.
• When the tempers flared and the pushing and shoving started, this was a good time for Coach Tomlin to cut through his "cheerleading" status and rein these guys in. Instead Ryan Shazier was the voice of reason.
• La'Veon Bell set a Steelers record with 167 yards rushing, and suddenly hear comes the MVP talk again. I feel the same way I do about Tom Brady and the MVP. NO. No, MVP for anyone who served suspensions in this year. Please.
• It was down right freezing in Pittsburgh at 4 degrees. It was so cold the line judge's whistle froze.
• With eleven minutes left in the game, Twitter was going nuts shouting for removal of the three "B's". Of course, Ben tried to get away during a passing play and was brought down, hurting his ankle and landing hard on his shoulder. He came to the press conference in a boot, but current and old players weren't convinced siting his good job of acting. I, however, wondered if he was making a statement to his own coaches. 

Other:

• Houston Texans Jadeveon Clowney had an unbelievable pick by tipping the ball from Connor Cook that was meant for Latavius Murray, batting it up in the air, and finally pulling it in for the interception.
• But I think Seattle's Doug Baldwin ins the catch of the day for his over and under the buttocks catch that he kept from hitting the ground. The catch was challenged, and overturned to a catch. Unfortunately, Baldwin then went out and stole a catch in the end zone that was meant for his teammate Jermaine Kearse. "I feel terrible," he said later, but really was any Seattle fan torn up about that steal?
• Green Bay does another Hail Mary, and it works? Seriously? Put your hands up and knock the ball out of the way! Hell, I could have jumped higher than the Giants and smacked that ball out of the way of Randall Cobb's hands. Credit the Packers for pulling this off for the 345,678th time.
• Big news after the Packers game was whether or not the Giants wide receivers' trip to Miami where they partied on yacht was the reason for New York's loss and Odell Beckham's sloppy play. Uh...well, I would say they shouldn't have been in Miami, but I would also say that Aaron Rodgers and the Packers kicked their asses and it didn't have a damn thing to do with any party on a yacht.
• ESPN's SportsCenter reported on a "Developing Story"regarding a 4"x 5" hole in a wall inside Lambeau Field. Reportedly, Giants Odell Beckham Jr. punched the hole in the wall after the game and after his press conference either with his fist or his head. ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio gave this serious report from the field, complete with pictures and video of the hole, by telling us his own timeline, his hearing of some "banging", and then by letting us know that security was interviewing the grounds crews, and would be "calling some of them on their cell phones" as if this was a CSI investigation. Madison was watching this with me and she said, "Pfft. A likely story. I think he was framed." Is this what we have come to? An NFL wide receiver is known as a hot head, and getting mad after a playoff loss, is worthy news? Now make him spackle and repair that hole, and I'd be interested.