The Rucker Report: Week 14

Week 14 of this NFL season was all about the play-offs … Yeah I said play-offs. For most of you that play fantasy football your leagues may have entered the play-offs this weekend and for real life NFL teams they were trying to make a push for post season as well.

With that being said we start our coverage with Thursday nights match up between the Steelers and the Browns. For the Browns a roller coaster season has them settled into the role of spoiler for certain play-off teams. The Steelers were looking to move ahead of the Ravens for the AFC North division title, but there were also some big questions for the Steelers with Polamalu returning from a concussion last week and Big Ben coming into the game with a broken thumb on his throwing hand. True to the ” Black & Blue” division we saw a hard hitting, low scoring game that saw both teams turn the ball over all game, so who would make the big plays. The Browns were only able to manage a field goal in the first half and Ben would find Jericho Cothcery for an early touchdown strike for a 7 – 3 halftime lead. The big news before halftime was Ben going down with a major ankle injury, now we all knew he was coming back its Big Ben the question became how well would he play. The third quarter was scoreless with more turnovers and a major goal line stand by the Browns.

Onto the fourth quarter Browns QB Colt McCoy was able to mount a drive that got them in scoring range, but a bad throw would result in an interception in the end zone by Steelers CB William Gay giving Ben and the offense another chance to close the game. With 3 minuets left Ben only needed two plays to connect with WR Antonio Brown for a 79 touchdown throw sealing a 14 – 3 victory.

The Steelers moved to 10 -3 with the win, a half a game ahead of the Ravens in the division and solid positioning in the AFC playoff picture.

The “Dirty Birds” were up next as they traveled to Carolina to face “Super-Cam” and the Panthers. For the Falcons this was a must win game to keep pace in the NFC playoff picture. Now early in the season they were surprised by the Panthers and there rookie quarterback as they went into the fourth quarter of that game down 17 – 14 before mounting a comeback win. Fast forward to today’s match up how would this game shake out? The first quarter was an even match up as both teams scored early touchdowns for a 7 – 7 tie. The second quarter was all Panthers as they exploded for 16 points in the quarter taking a 23 – 7 halftime lead.

I guess the young Panthers ain’t learn from the last time because the Falcons came out the locker room ready to get back in the game trying to steal this one on the road. With the combination of explosive plays on offensive and takeaways on defense the Falcons proved to be too much again for the young Panthers outscoring them 24 – 0 in the second half. ” Matty Ice” tied a career high throwing for four touchdowns capping a 31 – 23 win moving the Falcons to an 8 -5 record solid for NFC playoff seeding.

The J-E-T-S were up next looking to steak claim to a wild card spot in the AFC as the welcome the Chiefs. This had to be just what the doctor ordered for the Jets as the Chiefs came into this game with there 3rd string quarterback ……. Bart Scott was said to be running around all week screaming “CANT WAIT”

For the game it was domination by the Jets as QB Mark Sanchez lead 4 first half scoring drives leading to a 28 – 3 lead. Sanchez would stay the course as the offense and that defense held the Chiefs to a late score wrapping up a 37 – 10 win. OK so I gotta stay in the AFC because no matter what people say about this dude for the last six weeks all he has do is help the Denver Broncos win games and stay in the play-off hunt. This week they faced the Bears at home, now the Bears are missing some key players but they’re the Bears right? After a scoreless first half the Bears would start the scoring in the second half with a Marion Barber touchdown. The Broncos and there much talked about QB couldn’t put any points on the board and for three quarters they just looked out of sync with dropped passes, penalties, etc. , but wait isn’t this the way all there games have gone? Fourth quarter …… down big …… Yup it’s Tebow Time. All he did was lead them down the field on a drive finding WR D. Thomas in the back of the end zone for a touchdown cutting the lead to 10 – 7 with 2 minuets to go on the game clock. On the kick-off the Broncos set up for the onside kick , but the Bears would recover it. OK so 2 minuets left right just run the ball a couple of times , stay in bounds to keep the clock moving , make them use there timeouts ….. game over. If it was that simple …… the Bears did no of that giving the ball back to the Broncos and Tebow did what Tebow does making enough plays to put the Broncos in field goal range for the tie. Bronco kicker Matt Prater got them into overtime with a 59 yard kick.

Now in OT the Bears would win the toss and get the ball …. so just protect the ball and get into field goal range right. What do they do …. fumble the ball giving it back to Tebow aka “god’s Son” (don’t believe me check the pic) so you know what happened next lead them down the field for another win. All I can say about this one is THE BEARS ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE (Dennis Green Voice) and there play-off hopes may be slipping away.

The prime time game was another good one as the Giants coming off there loss last week to the Packers look to rebound against division leading Dallas who had a painful loss last week against the Cardinal’s. For Dallas could they hold onto the division lead and put a nail in the coffin of the Giants playoff hopes or would the Giants fight back to stay in the hunt? In the first quarter both defenses seemed to be up to the task leading to a 7 – 5 Cowboy lead. The second quarter would see both teams establish some type of offensive rhythm scoring 10 points apiece , but the Cowboys still lead at halftime 17 – 15.

Eli would lead the Giants to a touchdown scoring drive as the Cowboys could only manage a field goal in the period. Romo and the Cowboys would answer throwing two touchdowns in the period that seemingly won the game, but as Eli has done many times this season he lead the Giants to another fourth quarter comeback and late lead. The Cowboys would have one last chance as they attempted a 47 yard field goal as time expired to send the game into overtime, but a timeout was called. So for the second week in a row Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey would have a do-over ….. and for the second week in a row he would miss after making it prior to the timeout. This one was really his fault as Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul blocked the attempt sealing the Giants 37 – 34 victory and NFC North division tie.

Here’s the rest of this weeks scores…..

Ravens 24 – Colts 10
Texans 20 – Bengals 19 ( Texans win the division … wait does this count when Peyton hasn’t played all year?)
Lions 34 – Viks 28
Jagz 41 – Bucs 14
Eagles 26 – Dolphins 10
Saints 22 – Titans 17
Pats 34 – Redskins 27
Cardnials 21 – Niners 19
Packers 46 – Raiders 16 (GO PACK GO)
Chargers 37 – Bills 10
Seahawks 30 – Rams13

In this weeks version of “Say Word” I want to spend a quick minute on the Cincy and Xavier brawl from this weekend. I really don’t wanna spend to much time on it because after the initial ” Oh Snap he got dropped and he leaking ” …… I started to think of the situation and how it played out in front of the world. First thing if you didn’t know the yearly Cincy vs. Xavier game in the state of Ohio is a big thing ….. and has been for years proving to be on of college basketball’s biggest and most watched rivalry games. As usual the hype during the week leading up to the game set the tone. An early radio interview with one of the Cincy players got things started , then came the twitter comments which we all know turns into twitter beef for today’s “Internet Thugs” making the average person that might have come from a so so neighborhood into Nino Brown

In the word’s of my brother Mitch Jules (Yes people he is famous) ……. “This got bigger than Nino Brown”….. so now its game time and no matter what the national rankings are its always and intense and well played game. This year Xavier would prove to be too much for Cincy leading much of the game and blowing it open mid way through the second half. Now during the game there was jawing on both sides even to the point where two players had to be separated by a ref as the buzzer sounded for halftime. Then it happened with 9.4 seconds in a near 20 point blowout the pot boiled over and the rest as we say is history. Again I cant front and say I wasn’t in front of the TV like I said in the opening saying …..”You got knocked the hell out” and Yes I started texting people, calling people, and looking for comments on Facebook about it …… Yeah I did all of that but what really hit home for me was the aftermath.

Now let me say this first the media sometimes can be unfair (in my estimation) to minorities helping to portray all the stereotypes that surround us, but what happened next had nothing to do with the media it was all on us. Moving to the post game press conferences in which both coaches denounced the behavior of their players and they were embarrassed as coach and how these players embarrassed there respective universities. Yes this was everything that you expected to here from these coaches as they have been well versed in how to deal with situations like this in the media. Understand this in past “Rucker Reports” I have given credit where credit is do with my classification of “today’s athlete” regarding there understanding of the sports they play and all the other things that come along with it (media relations, branding, financial impact, etc) but this press conference proved they still have a long way to go. Cincy forward Yancy Gates or D-Bo was for the moment the focal point to what went down, but what happened next was unbelievable. So up steps Xavier guards Mark Lyons and Tu Holloway (Holloway was seen to be one of the nations best players certainly worthy of player of the year nominations) two key factors in pre game chatter, during the game trash talk and overall spark plugs for what all went down. Even with all that being said what they said next at the post game press conference was far worst than the actual fight ….. Tu Holloway was quoted saying ” Were a tougher team , we got nothing but grown men over here , ….. WE GOT A BUNCH OF GANGSTA’S IN OUR LOCKEROOM, not thugs but tough guys on the court” …… Really ……. Really Son …… That’s really what you want to say to America ….. you couldn’t have saved that for Twitter or Facebook (even though that doesn’t make it any better)….. We zipped them up …….. (cmon pic) I know you didn’t think it through before y’all went up there but that was the answer you gave and felt good about that?

What this means for the players involved of course the NCAA and school will suspend players, however the deeper impact has many levels.First the media scrutiny and how it will follow these young men as they try to hopefully finish there college careers. Second how this will impact them as they try to start a professional career. Third and most important what was the message that you sent to younger athletes across the country. Today we got news of what the NCAA planned to handing out suspensions which most including myself don’t feel were enough to send the right message to these players. Oh don’t worry though the media has already started with most people calling for an end to a career for Gates and the end of a season for Lyons and Holloway. Overall people for all the yelling that we do as a people saying we get a bad deal from the media, how the “Man” wont let us get ahead , or the excuses when we say “Look at where we come from ” …… all these players showed this weekend is when we are given those opportunities or put on the same playing field “WE” just don’t know how to act. People I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again these can all be altered if “WE” do a better job at home exposing our children to both sides of the game not just one truly preparing our children for life and everything that comes with it. Or lets look at it this way in other sports news this weekend Robert Griffin III QB from Baylor University won the Heisman trophy marking it the first time ever that two black quarterbacks won the award in consecutive years. Funny thing is how unique and historic of an event this was , how great a story RG3 has been this year in college football this moment was overshadowed by a fight between some “locker room gangsta’s”.

Til next week people “Be Easy” …. You’ve just read The Rucker Report