“We’ve seen Eli (Manning) do that a lot of times this season and in other season,” Giants general manager Jerry Reese said. “We felt good. We had a timeout. We had a lot of time on the clock. We needed a field goal to win the game – and we felt that we were at least going to get a field goal – and he (Manning) put us in the end zone.”

Osi Umenyiora took it a step further: “I knew that we were going to win from the beginning – honestly,” the defensive end said. “There wasn’t any doubt in my mind.”

When your team has already run off five consecutive victories when one loss would have ended the season, then you can look at it two ways: the hot streak will continue or you are overdue for a bad game. The Giants actually made it look easy by continuing the former rather than starting a new streak with the latter.

Manning has made a habit of picking the Giants up off the mat and willing them to a win when it appeared that all was lost. This game was certainly no different – other than perhaps it seemed a foregone conclusion that somehow he would move his team down the field and get the job done again.

Confidence goes a long way. A lot longer than 88 yards.

In the divisional round against the Baltimore Ravens, Roethlisberger played less than stellar in the first half and had to lead his charges back in the second. The Steelers pulled out the game and two big dropped passes by Ravens wideouts largely played into the 31-25 outcome. Roethlisberger’s line ended up 19 for 32 for 226 yards and two touchdowns.

A week and a day later, the Steelers hosted the AFC Championship Game against the New York Jets and stormed out to a 24-0 second quarter lead. Rex Ryan’s crew seemed lost and a young Mark Sanchez looked overmatched. A late field goal put Gang Green on the board before the break and they looked like a different team in the second half. Two touchdown passes by Sanchez and a safety by Mike DeVito (who sacked Roethisberger in the end zone) put the Steelers on the brink of an epic collapse.

The Jets defense perplexed Big Ben and shut the Steelers out in the second half, but the deficit was too much to overcome. Even with an ineffective Roethlisberger the last two quarters, Pittsburgh held on by a 24-19 score and earned the Lamar Hunt Trophy, setting up a classic match-up in Super Bowl XLV with the Green Bay Packers.

Similar to the Baltimore game, the Pack started fast and had a 21-3 second quarter advantage, which included a 37-yard interception return off a wounded duck floater by Roethlisberger. Of course the Steelers rebounded and made this a very interesting game that came down to Green Bay needing a late stop to hold on for the 31-25 victory.

“They did a great job of taking away deep things and taking away the outside,” Roethlisberger said of the final offensive series. “You’re kind of stuck with very limited options there with that much time and no timeouts left. We just had to try to do what we could do.”

Roelisberger (25 for 40, 263 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions) was unable to do what Aaron Rodgers did. The Packers quarterback won the MVP Award with a memorable performance that included over 300 yards, three touchdowns and no picks.

Perhaps Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin summed it up best when asked to elaborate on his quarterback’s performance. “It was a losing one, just like mine.”

Photo by William J. Hauser

Now they get to take on the defending Super Bowl champions.

NFC WILD CARD

New Orleans Saints (5) at SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (4)

Qwest Field has what is called ‘the 12th man,’ but more importantly for Seattle is the return of starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. The veteran missed the Ram game with a hip injury and his experience will at least give the Seahawks a fighter’s chance on Saturday afternoon. That’s not to say that they will win, but they will at least be within two scores before it’s too late. If Leon Washington can break a punt or kick return to the end zone, then things will actually become interesting.

The New Orleans Saints will have to win three road games in order to get back to the Super Bowl, something that they did not have to do a year ago. A huge hurdle will be in their backfield, where both Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory were placed on injured reserve. Reggie Bush and Julius Jones will have to pick up the slack in a big way.

Drew Brees will be the difference in this game. His experience and poise will pay dividends and the Saints will go marchin’ in for at least another week.

PREDICTION

Saints – 28, SEAHAWKS – 17

We certainly are right in that mix, having predicted that the Indianapolis Colts would not only win their second championship in four years, but do so easily. Boy, were we wrong. Drew Brees (32 for 39, 288 yards, two touchdowns) led the New Orleans Saints to their first title and was named the game MVP in the 31-17 victory. When his team needed a strong drive, he delivered. Neither Brees nor Saints head coach Sean Payton panicked when they trailed 10-0 in the first quarter and they stayed with an agressive game plan.

They went for it on 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line in the second quarter (one in which they dominated) and came up short, but that didn’t stop them from going for a little trickery and recovering an onside kick to start the third quarter. The ensuing drive led to a touchdown and put New Orleans ahead, 13-10.

“We talked about it at halftime and it’s really a credit to every one of these players here,” said Payton. “There’s not enough room on this stage for all of them, but they carried out this play and I’m just proud. I’m proud of this team.”

The Colts answered with a 76-yard drive that culminated in a 4-yard burst into the end zone by running back Joseph Addai. No one could have surmised at the time that the 17-13 lead they now held would have been their last of the night.

Garrett Hartley hit a 47-yard field goal to cut the deficit to one and then in the fourth quarter, Brees went 7-for-7 on the drive of the game. He hit tight end Jeremy Shockey for a 2-yard scoring pass and then made it 24-17 by completing another pass on the two-point conversion.

Manning (31 for 45, 333 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception) took over with 5:42 remaining in the contest and was taking the underneath routes that the Saints defense was giving him. When he tried to go downfield, he was picked off by Tracy Porter, who brought it back 74 yards and the exclamation point.

When the scoreboard showed the final score, Bourbon Street exploded like 10 combined Mardi Gras parades. An unlikely turnover by arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the game sealed the deal, and pinpoint accuracy by his adversary led to that.

Photo By Bill Menzel

Although they still have a long way to go, the Jets (5-6) can at least think about the playoffs if not talk about them. But that word didn’t even come up after the game. “This was a great team win,” head coach Rex Ryan said. “It feels good to say that. It’s been a while.”

The team’s much-maligned secondary stepped up on this day with four interceptions and sent 76,381 fans home happy. It all began on the Panthers’ opening drive, one in which they converted three third down plays. Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme then tried to hit Steve Smith on a slant that would have gone for a big gain, but there was apparent miscommunication and the wideout had yet to turn in. The ball caromed off his heel up in the air and right into the hands of Darrelle Revis, who returned it 67 yards for the Jets first defensive touchdown of the season.

“The great ones are lucky,” joked Ryan.

After trading field goals, the Jets capitalized on Delhomme’s third pick of the day when Kerry Rhodes – who was removed from the starting line-up this week in favor of Eric Smith – pulled down the floater and brought it back to the Carolina 38-yard line.

“The message was sent to me by Coach and now I’m moving on,” said Rhodes, who also had another interception and received a game ball. The Jets extended their lead to 14-3 when Thomas Jones (25 carries for 75 yards, 1 touchdown) plunged into the end zone from three yards out.

The big talk all week leading up to this game was that Ryan was going to take a more active role in the offense to try to cut down on the mistakes of his rookie quarterback. A more conservative game plan seem to benefit Mark Sanchez, who completed 13 out of 17 for 154 yards and one interception, but the USC product was not totally satisfied with his performance.

“I was playing smart on offense and we still gave up a couple of turnovers,” he said. “They (the coaches) were telling me in the meetings, ‘If you take a sack, that’s OK. Just don’t lose the ball.’”

Ryan added, “I thought he did a great job. He really managed the game well and had some nice runs. When in doubt, he checked the ball down.”

At one point in the third quarter, Sanchez was shaken up with an apparent knee injury and missed the majority of one series, but returned the next one. “He said he was good to go,” Ryan said. “I was just anxious to get him back in there.” Sanchez had the knee checked out by the team’s medical staff after the game and said that there was nothing abnormal found.

The Jets sealed the win with a 47-yard field goal by Feeley with 3:39 left to make the score 17-6. The big play on the drive was a 16-yard completion to converted running back Danny Woodhead on third down to move the chains.

“Coach put me in a great situation, Mark put the ball on me and the line did a great job so I just had to make the catch,” the wide receiver humbly said.

The Jets do not have much time to enjoy this win due to the Thursday night affair against the Bills in Toronto. “This is a short week for us, so we can enjoy it for about five hours,” said Ryan.

Better to enjoy the victory than wallow in another loss.

Photo by William J. Hauser

When Larry Fitzgerald went 64 yards on a pass from Kurt Warner to give the Arizona Cardinals a 23-20 lead with 2:47 left in the game, it appeared that the vagabond franchise would win it’s first championship since the days of the Nuremberg trials. But Ben Roethlisberger directed the Steelers to the game-winning drive by dissecting the Cardinal secondary along with game MVP Santonio Holmes. The wide receiver’s leaping grab over double coverage in the right corner of the end zone was even more impressive when considering that he was able to keep both feet in bounds. Holmes finished with 9 catches for 131 yards and one touchdown.

“It was a play that we drew up that we were hoping to get open in the back of the corner,” said Holmes. “The defensive back bit up on the short route and Ben (Roethlisberger) held onto the ball long enough to get it to me.”

Arizona fought back from a second quarter 10-0 deficit and were poised to go into the locker room at halftime either tied or in the lead. With the score 10-7 and only 18 seconds remaining in the half, Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison picked off a Warner throw intended for Anquan Boldin and rumbled down the field 100 yards for the score. It set a Super Bowl record for the longest interception return.

Many teams would have been deflated by the sudden turn of events, but Arizona held Pittsburgh in check and Warner directed them on an eight-play, 87-yard scoring drive culminating with a one-yard pass to Fitzgerald. A subsequent safety on a Jeff Hartwig holding penalty in the end zone made it a four-point game. The Cardinals received the free kick, setting up Fitzgerald’s long touchdown run and, unfortunately, false hope for many.

“Yeah, I was confident we were going to be able to get a stop and we were going to be champions,” the wideout said. “I never lost faith. Sometimes things just don’t go your way.”

The Steelers became the first franchise to win six Super Bowls, and head coach Mike Tomlin now has a title in only his second year at the helm. “I’m not concerned about my personal milestones,” he said. “I just want to contribute to the legacy that is the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

By accomplishing what he did, Tomlin now becomes an important part of that legacy.

The Cardinals fought back from a 10-0 second quarter deficit only to see a golden opportunity blow up in their faces. Quarterback Kurt Warner tried to hit wide receiver Anquan Boldin on a quick slant pattern and Harrison stepped right in front of him to pick it off. It appeared that Larry Fitzgerald was breaking off into the left corner of the end zone and would have been wide open on the third down play. 

Momentum was obviously on the Steelers side heading into the locker room after Arizona dominated the second quarter. The game is still surprisingly close, even with the possible 14-point swing. Most predictions had the Steelers winning by at least a touchdown.

Are you ready for some (more) football? I’m sure the answer is ‘yes,’ especially with the “one-year hiatus” of the Arena Football League. Back from the dead comes the reincarnation of perhaps the best rival to the NFL since the AFL merger, and this time we won’t even have to deal with that annoying Donald Trump trying to be a sports guy.

Scheduled for 2010, the New USFL (www.newusfl.com) will be on the landscape. Break out the mullets and Duran Duran albums! Gridiron from the tackiest of decades will be making a triumphant return after a quarter century. And I must admit that I’m a little pumped up for it.

Games will be played in the spring and I suppose that they can use that $1 court settlement to get things off the ground when Trump and the boys sued the NFL back in 1985 to play in the fall. States awarded teams so far are: [Western Division] – California (2); Nevada; Portland; Texas; Louisiana. [Eastern Division] – Florida; Arkansas; New York; Michigan; Ohio; Alabama.

According to the league website, there will be a 16-game regular season, no touchbacks on kick-offs (ball spotted at the 15 if it goes out of the end zone), 4 points for a field goal over 50 yards, 3-point PAT from 10 yards out, one foot inbounds for a catch, no kneel downs, 4-point safeties and the ssame OT rules as in college.

Also, fans can buy stock in any of the teams. That sounds like something the United Football League has been trying, but still hasn’t gotten off the ground.

Can this work? Absolutely, as long as the league knows where it stands. The NFL will never be touched by any league in any sport in this country. So keeping that in mind, they can play a full schedule during the offseason and maintain some type of fan base.

What will be key is where the teams will play. Full-sized arenas are very important and with the shaky economy, paying rent at a 70,000-seat venue hoping to get good attendance may be too much to ask for. If teams play at small or D2 college stadiums, that will take a lot of the energy and ‘mystique’ away that this is a serious professional league. The XFL and the original USFL played in large venues, but much of the time the dreaded ‘black drape’ was part of the upper deck.

The league has set up an Advisory Committee that includes some former NFL and USFL players, Jack Youngblood (former LA Ram) being the most recognizable.

Capital was never an issue with the original league until the end and many an NFL star began his career playing in the USFL. Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie and Reggie White just to name a few. That probably will not be the case this time around.

The guys taking the field will be back-ups who have been released from an NFL team, hanger-ons, AFL and CFL players. Without NFL Europe and the likelihood that the AFL is gone for good, there will be a talent pool. The USFL can make a slight dent, as long as they stay away from the “He Hate Me” gimmicks.

New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce can spin it any way he wants, but anyone that has watched him play in the past can clearly see that he was not himself in Sunday’s 20-14 loss to Philadelphia. Although the entire team had a lousy day, Pierce stood out for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps the most obvious example of that was on Brian Westbrook’s second touchdown on the day. After catching a third down pass from Donovan McNabb, the crafty running back easily outran Pierce – no shock – but when the linebacker appeared to pull up at the five yard line, Westbrook walked into the end zone untouched.

“Obviously everyone os going to use that as an excuse,” Pierce said, referring to the talk of distractions affecting the team’s play. “It’s not an excuse. The Philadelphia Eagles came ready to play and they more plays than the New York Giants today.”

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While not totally inaccurate, Pierce did back some of that up by leading the team with 12 tackles during the game. It just didn’t seem like the same team out there and even though it is easy to point to the Burress situation as the reason, the Giants may have been overdue for a bad perfoemance.

Falling to 11-2, they dropped their first home game of the season. Maybe things are aligned right for them, though. Because the Dallas Cowboys lost in Pittsburgh, the Giants clinched the NFC East. That is clearly not a case of ‘backing in,’ and Big Blue still is being viewed as a favorite to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

Not falling for the ‘trap game’ mentality that has haunted so many teams over the years, the Jets totally dominated the hapless St. Louis Rams at the Meadowlands by a score of 47-3. After beating the Bills in Buffalo last week and having to go to New England this Thursday, it would have been easy to look past an out of conference 2-6 team.

That is not head coach Eric Mangini’s style. He prepares his team the same every week and was visibly happy after the convincing win. “With the completeness of the game, it’s something we’ve been stressing week in and week out,” he said.

With the largest margin of victory in team history, the Jets improved to 6-3 to maintain a share of first place in the AFC East. The second three-touchdown game of the year for running back Thomas Jones paved the way, and he gave a lot of the credit to the guys in front of him for the success.

“I’m lucky to be able to run behind those guys,” he said. “They’re one of the best offensive lines in the league.”

Jones, who finished with 149 yards on 26 carries, had a 20-yard gain on the Jets first offensive play of the game and capped off the eight-play, 80-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown run to the right corner of the end zone, following a key block thrown by wide receiver Laveranues Coles.

The Jets put up 10 more points before the first quarter came to an end. Abram Elam sacked St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger on a blitz, knocking the ball loose. On a play that proved that the ball was bouncing the Jets way on this day, Calvin Pace basically had it jump off the ground and right into his hands. The linebacker took it the other way 50 yards for his first career score.

Quarter number two was even more one-sided, with three field goals by Jay Feely, another rushing score by Jones and a one-yard pass from Brett Favre (14 for 19, 167 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions) to tight end Dustin Keller. The contest became a laugher and a 40-0 advantage at halftime for the Jets.

The 78, 073 in attendance enjoyed themselves on Military Appreciation Day, and only booed when the Rams broke the shutout when Josh Brown kicked a 37-yard field goal with 9:51 left in the third quarter.

By winning five out of their last six games, the Jets have a chance to take over the top spot in the division by defeating the Patriots on national television after a short work week preparing for the game.