VITO'S VIEWS

When Mike Tomlin coached the Pittsburgh Steelers to two Super Bowls in his first four years as a head coach, winning one and losing one, he seemed destined to be an elite coach in the NFL.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Seven years have gone by and Tomlin hasn’t made it back to another Super Bowl. His playoff record is now 8-7.

Even worse, he had the most talented offensive team in the league in 2017 and lost his first playoff game to Jacksonville despite a 13-3 regular season record, although the loss of Ryan Shazier during the season was huge.

Still, Tomlin must take most of the blame for how undisciplined the Steelers were during the season. And his premature talk about playing the New England Patriots twice were certainly ill-advised.

Continue reading “Steelers’ Tomlin looking more and more mediocre with each big-game loss”

They might be called the Other Seven.

They are the quarterbacks heading into the divisional NFL playoff round with a chance to win the Super Bowl not named Tom Brady.

Brady, of course, is the one with a chance to make the most history. He’s already become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls (Bart Starr also won five titles but the first three were before the Super Bowl was invented)  and now can become the first to win six.

Despite the drama surrounding the Patriots recently, he still overshadows the rest of the QB field in the playoffs. But the other seven can also put their names in the history book by winning it all this year. A Super Bowl victory is a defining moment for a quarterback’s career.

Two others — Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees — have already won rings.

Continue reading “Assessing the NFL Divisional Round quarterbacks”

Start the popcorn popping.

NFL fans may be in for quite a show in the next month as the New England Patriots begin their drive for a sixth Super Bowl victory.

Or maybe not. But the anticipation keeps things interesting.

At first glance, the Patriots appear to have an easy road to the title.

Their first opponent, Tennessee, lost three of their last four games. And both their possible second opponents are vulnerable. Pittsburgh has lost its best defensive player, Ryan Shazier, and its defense has a history of being carved up by Tom Brady. The other possible opponent, Jacksonville, has probably the league’s best defense, but is quarterbacked by Blake Bortles.

Continue reading “If the Patriots come up short, the drama in Foxboro could be delicious”

Five observations on the final weekend of the NFL season:

1. The top two seeds in the NFC go into the playoffs with 13-3 records and backup quarterbacks, but that is the only thing the top seeded Eagles and second seeded Vikings have in common. The Eagles have to be worried if they can win with Nick Foles at quarterback. He only played a quarter in the team’s ugly 6-0 loss to Dallas and was only four of 11 for 39 yards and pick. Meanwhile Case Keenum played most of the season, going 11-3. The Vikings seem the better bet in the playoffs with Keenum than the Eagles are with Foles. The Vikings also could become the first team to play the Super Bowl in their own stadium.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 17”

Looking ahead to the final day of the NFL’s 2017 regular season:

1. New Year’s Eve won’t be Football Night in America The NFL won’t close the regular season with a prime time game on New Year’s Eve because it got unlucky this year. They try to schedule good matchups for the season finales. Like Dallas-Philadelphia and Carolina-Atlanta. But it turns out Dallas is out of the playoffs and Philadelphia has nailed down the top seed so nothing is at stake. And nothing may be stake when Carolina plays Atlanta if Seattle loses to Arizona and the Saints beat the Bucs. So the NFL decided to pass on Sunday night and flexed games so playoff contenders play at the same time.

Continue reading “Taking a look ahead: NFL Week 17”

Looking back on Week 16 in the NFL:

1. The 16^th week of the season brought the playoff picture into focus and left the NFL without a good enough matchup the final week for a prime time Sunday night game. So the regular season will end with the second games when the 12 playoff spots will be set. In the AFC, the four seeds are set with the Ravens and Titans needing victories in final week to clinch wild card spots. The Bills and Chargers need wins and help. In the NFC, only one final spot is open. Atlanta gets a spot with a victory over Carolina while the Seahawks sneak in if they beat Arizona at home and the Falcons lose.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 16”

Just three weeks ago, when the San Francisco 49ers were 1-10, their Christmas Eve matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars seemed likely to attract little intention.

But now it is suddenly an intriguing matchup between two young quarterbacks who’ve been on fire the last three weeks.

Jimmy Garoppolo has led the 49ers to three consecutive victories since taking over as quarterback and now is being hailed as the team’s franchise quarterback of the future.

But the victories were against the Bears, Texans and Titans. The Jaguars defense, the best in the league, will present him with his toughest challenge yet.

While Jimmy G is trying to establish his reputation, Blake Bortles of the Jaguars is trying to change his reputation.

Continue reading “Can the Jaguars’ “Trashman” continue to pick them up?”

1..   Going into the second to the last week, five teams have clinched playoff berths (Philadelphia, New England, Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Jacksonville) and four (Eagles, Patriots, Steelers and Vikings) have clinched division titles and one (Eagles) has clinched a first round bye. Two more AFC teams (Jaguars and Chiefs) can clinch division titles with a win  Christmas Eve. The Eagles can clinch top seed in the NFC with a win while the Rams can clinch a division title and the Saints, Falcons and Panthers can clinch NFC playoff berths with wins. Baltimore’s win Saturday night means they can clinch a playoff berth with a victory over Cincinnati in its season finale. Minnesota’s victory over Green Bay Saturday night means they can clinch a bye Sunday if Carolina loses to Tampa Bay.

Continue reading “Taking a look ahead: NFL Week 16”

A look back at Week 15 in the NFL:

1. The highlight of the weekend was New England’s 27-24 victory over Pittsburgh in the best game of the season and the highest rated TV game of the year. It shows the fans are still attracted to a great matchup, but the NFL doesn’t have enough good matchups and good teams this year as overall ratings decline. Even the bad things about the game – Pittsburgh’s coaching mistakes and another controversial no catch ruling — created more talk and buzz after the game. The biggest consequence about the game is that the Patriots now will win the No. 1 seed and have home field advantage in the playoffs if they win their last two. If the Steelers and Patriots wind up in the AFC title game, it will be the most hyped game of the year.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 15”

Mike Tomlin and Todd Haley, c’mon down!

You are now members in good standings of the NFL coaches Game Mismanagement Club.

Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell of Seattle and Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan, who was then in Atlanta, are among the members.

Carroll-Bevell and Quinn-Shanahan both lost Super Bowls because of their game management blunders.

We all remember Seattle being a yard from a second consecutive Super Bowl title before the Seahawks braintrust decided to have Russell Wilson throw from the one on second down instead of running Marshawn Lynch. We all know how that worked out.

Continue reading “Still hard to comprehend Steelers’ last-second bungling in Patriots loss”