Bill Belichick had a press conference this morning to discuss the deflated footballs in the AFC Championship Game, and the accusations that the Patriots were cheating.

For those who missed it,  the highlights:

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I meant to post about last Sunday's football games on Monday morning, but I was too (a) busy, and (b) wrung out.

The NFC Championship contest will go down as one of the greatest, and strangest, games in the history of professional football.  It was either one of the greatest comebacks of all time, or one of the most spectacular collapses.  Maybe both.

Now, I am a fan of the Jets and Giants.  I hate and despise the Patriots and Cowboys, and I have a milder antipathy toward the Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles, and Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Peoples (thank you, TMQ).  Toward the Packers and Seahawks I have no particular feelings.  When they are playing a team I like, I root against them.  When they are playing a team I hate, I root for them.  When they are playing each other… well, I just want a good exciting game.  The NFC Championship wasn't an especially good game — too many turnovers — but they don't get much more exciting.  If I was a real true Seahawks fan, that improbable win might have made my heart explode.  If I was a real true Packer fan, I'd have slit my wrists.  I don't know how you get over that.  There was no way the Packers could lose that game, just no way.  But they managed.  Incredible.  I still hardly believe it.  "This can't be happening," I said several times, as it happened.  What's to say that a thousand sportswriters haven't already said?

Wow.  Just wow.

As for the AFC Championship… what a snoozefest.  I said last week that I didn't think the Colts could offer the Patriots much of a contest.  And they didn't.

But the aftermath is proving much more intriguing than the game itself.  What do you know?  It turns out Evil Little Bill and his Patriots were cheating.  Again.  The New England Deflatriots.

When the news first broke that the Patriots had illegally deflated their footballs, I shrugged it off, like most of the country.  Probably nothing to it, I figured.  They were so much the better team and they crushed the Colts so completely, why would they need to fiddle with the balls?  But with every passing day, this begins to look more serious.  Now the NFL is reporting that 11 of the 12 Patriot balls were under-inflated, so it definitely looks deliberate.  Was Evil Little Bill involved?  Was Tom Brady?  (Brady had to have known.  The Colt defensive back who intercepted a Brady pass knew at once, the moment he caught the ball, and Brady handles the ball on every offensive play).  What will the NFL do?

Much as I like to root against them, I would never deny that the Patriots have been a great team under Kraft and Belichick.  They have one of the greatest QBs in the history of the game, they have one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time, they draft well, they manage free agency and the salary cap well, they win and win and win.  In light of all that, you really have to wonder why they feel the need to cheat.  "Deflategate" marks the second time they have been caught at it, Spygate being the first.  Which has to make one wonder — how many times have they gotten away with stuff without being caught?  Even when the Patriots aren't crossing the lines, they are dancing right along the edge, as with the "substitution trick" they played against the Ravens.    Everyone in the NFL wants to win, sure… but win within the rules, please.  This seeming need to win at all costs, even if it means cheating, seems almost pathological.  And I don't believe for a moment that Evil Little Bill knew nothing.

I hope that the league comes down on New England like a ton of bricks.

And as for the Superbowl….

GO SEAHAWKS!

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So the Buffalo Bills have hired Rex Ryan as their new coach, and my New York Jets have hired Todd Bowles, formerly the defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals.

Ryan's opening press conference with the Bills was very impressive.  He seemed to be the old Rex again, brimming with confidence and swagger, all leavened with a healthy sense of humor.  He promised to make the Bills a "bully," a team that no one will want to play.  I believe him.

I have not seen Bowles address the media yet.  Must admit, I don't know much about him.  He has a good resume, and from what I hear, a very different persona than Rex.  They are both defensive coaches, but Rex is a so-called player's coach while Bowles is a disciplinarian.  Which might be great if the Jets suffered from a lack of discipline, but I really don't think that was their problem.  It was lack of talent, especially at the quarterback position, that doomed Gang Green.

Ryan and Bowles both face the same problem: neither the Bills nor the Jets has a NFL-calibre starting quarterback, in a league where you really need a star at that position.  Buffalo got by last year with journeyman Kyle Orton, who has since retired, leaving them only with E.J. Manuel.  The Jets have Geno Smith.  Manuel and Smith were both high drafts picks, and both appear to be busts.  Backing up Smith, the Jets have the aging Michael Vick.  The Bills… I have no idea, actually.

Unless Marcus Mariota falls to sixth in the draft, or the Jets pick up a new quarterback in free agency, I fear they are going to have another very bad year in 2015.  Neither Geno Smith nor Michael Vick is the answer.  And Rex may not fare much better in Buffalo.

But both teams should have hellancious defenses.  Maybe they will play a couple of 0-0 ties next season.

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If I was a Detroit Lions fan, I'd be screaming for referee blood about that.

Picking up that flag on a FLAGRANT pass interference by Dallas in the fourth quarter was the worse call… or non-call… the NFL has seen since… well… since the non-call on the botched field goal attempt in the Giants/ 49ers playoff game ages ago.

Shocking.  Really shocking.

The Lions could still have won the game.  They did lots to blow it afterward, from penalties of their own (none as flagrant, none picked up) to blown coverages to a shanked punt and a fumble.  But still… Detroit could well have locked up the victory on that drive, the play was textbook pass interference, the penalty needed to stand.  The defender mugged the tight end.

One for the books.

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So now the rumor mill tells us that the leading candidate for the Jets' head coaching job is Doug Marrone, who just stepped down as coach of the Buffalo Bills, where we won… how many SuperBowls was it?  Oh.  Zero.  Well, how many playoff appearances?  Oh.  Zero.

Having dumped Rex, one of the best coaches in the NFL, will Gang Green reach out for mediocrity?

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/mehta-consultants-pushing-doug-marrone-jets-article-1.2062892

These are the Jets.  Maybe they will be smart this time around.  (Hah)

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Black Monday is here, and true to expectations, the Jets fired John Idzik and Rex Ryan.

Idzik was a disaster from day one, and set the franchise back years.  He did leave plenty of salary cap room for his successor, which is about the only good thing that can be said for him.  He was bad at drafting and worse at free agency.

Firing Rex was a huge mistake, though.  Gang Green will have a hard time finding anyone even half as good.  All that talk about Jim Harbaugh was as empty as I suspected.  Rex will turn up again as head coach, and soon, and will lead his new team to the playoffs… sooner than the Jets will be returning there, I fear.

So the Jets need a new GM, a new head coach, and… most of all… a quarterback.  It makes no difference who occupies the front office and stands on the sideline so long as Geno Smith and Michael Vick are the choices behind center.  With Rex and his defense, we only needed an adequate quarterback to win; without them, we need someone good enough to go up against Tom Brady twice a year.

The future does not look bright.

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So the Jets won and the Giants lost, and this painful and depressing NFL season is finally over… for my teams, at least.

The Giants O looked terrific against the Eagles, right up until Eli threw that final fatal interception.  Odell Beckham continues to look like a budding superstar, and Reuben Randall has started to make some great plays as well.   Next year, with Victor Cruz back, the passing attack should be as dangerous as any in the league.  But the running game still needs a lot of help.  Might be that's more the O line than the RBs.  And the defense… the defense could not stop the Eagles, and really, hasn't stopped anyone all season, which is a disgrace for a franchise with a proud history of defensive excellence.  I'd keep Tom Coughlin as head coach, and Ben McAdoo as offensive coordinator, but I think the G-Men need to replace Perry Fewell as defensive coordinator, and draft defense, defense, defense.

As for the Jets, beating the Dolphins is always a nice way to end the season, though all the victory really did was move Gang Green lower in the draft.  Geno Smith played the best game I have ever seen him play, aside from that one absolutely idiotic fumble.  Even so, I do not believe he is the answer at QB, and I hope both he and Michael Vick are somebody else's problems next year.  Tomorrow is Black Monday, when coaches and GMs are fired all over the league, and it is widely expected that the Jets will be cleaning house.  I certainly hope they do give John Idzik his walking papers; his two years have been a disaster, and the team today is significantly less talented than when he came in.  He started his tenure as GM by trading away Darrelle Revis, one of the team's best players and a cornerstone of Rex Ryan's defense, and it's pretty much been downhill from there.  Idzik was a salary cap guy, just like Mike Tannenbaum, his predecessor.  I really hope Woody does not make that mistake again.  The Jets need a football guy in charge.

As for coach… if it was up to me, I'd keep Rex Ryan.  Defense wins championships, and Rex has proven himself one of the best defensive minds in the NFL.  Give him some cornerbacks, and a quarterback and wideout who are at least adequate, and he can take you to the playoffs, as he proved his first two years.  Even more crucially, though… if you fire Rex, who do you bring in?  I don't see anyone out there who is going to be a sure-fired improvement.  Change for the sake of change never gets you anywhere in the NFL.  Unless the Jets have a better coach than Rex in their pocket, firing him would be a big mistake.

But these are the Jets, and big mistakes are standard operating procedure, so watch… Rex will get fired tomorrow.
 

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The Giants won.  The Jets lost.  Both teams have long been eliminated from playoff contention, so it did not truly matter in either case, but still… it was good to see the G-Men win, and it stung to see Gang Green lose again, especially to the hated Patriots.

The Giants pretty well dominated the St. Louis Rams from start to finish, though there were a few spots in the middle where the score got closer and I worried that Big Blue might be letting this one slip away.  But no, though the defense was shaky at times, the offense looked great.  It has become more than apparent that the Giants have a new star in Odell Beckham Jr.  Barring injury, he may turn out to be the best wideout the team has ever had in its long and storied history.  He already seems to be in a class with Megatron and Dez Bryant as one of the very best in the NFL, and he should be a cinch for Rookie of the Year.  Next year, with Victor Cruz back to play beside him, the Giants' offense should be truly dangerous.  But we need to do something in the draft and free agency to shore up the defense before Big Blue can hope to contend.

And yes, I think Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese should both be back.

One last comment on the game.  I have never hated the Rams, the way I hate the Cowboys and the Patriots (though I certainly feared to play them when they were the Greatest Show on Turf), but under their present coaching staff, they have become the dirtiest team in the NFL.  The late hits and general nastiness today were so flagrant even the commentators had to take note of it.  I hope the NFL does as well.  Big fines, please.

As for Jets v. Patriots… sigh… well, they blew another one.  Or, to be more precise, Geno Smith blew another one.  Some people were calling this a blowout, but Gang Green actually outplayed Evil Little Bill and his minions for most of the game, and held a slim lead late into the second half.  Rex Ryan's defense played lights out, harassing Tom Brady all morning, sacking him several times, and Geno was playing decently on the other side of the ball.  Until the fourth quarter, that is.  Until it really counted.  Then he served up an INT to set up the Patriots go-ahead touchdown.  Still, New England was only ahead by one point, all the Jets needed was a field goal, and they drove down into field goal range, and things were looking good… until Geno took a sack on a crucial third-down play, and the game-winning 40-odd-yard field goal attempt became a 52-yarder.  Which got blocked, of course.  Game over.

One more game on the schedule, then the house cleaning begins.  Win or lose next week, I think Rex Ryan should be retained as Jets coach.  THe team still plays hard for him, he's a great defensive mind, and … most crucially… I don't see where the Jets are going to find anyone better.  Evil Little Bill is not leaving his Evil Empire to coach the NYJ.  Bill Parcells is not coming out of retirement.  Vince Lombardi is not returning from the dead.  I would rather have Rex than the latest phenom from the college ranks, or the hot coordinator from some playoff team.

I do, however, hope that John Idzik gets his walking papers next Monday.  And they need to get rid of Geno Smith and Michael Vick as well.  The Jets will never contend with either of them at quarterback.

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