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Sunday, January 03, 2010

New England, Cincinnati trying to avoid SD?

Word around the league is that both the Patriots and Bengals would prefer to finish as the No. 4 seed in the playoffs.

Why?

Both teams would rather put off a trip to San Diego until they absolutely have to go there.

The view around the league is that San Diego is the hottest team in the league at this point and teams would rather face Peyton Manning - coming off three weeks off - rather than San Diego.

© Steelers punter Daniel Sepulveda was very much under the weather Saturday but looked much better today.

© Brett Keisel is inactive today for the Steelers, as is Troy Polamalu.

Nick Eason will start in place of Keisel at DE.

Interestingly, despite being down another defensive end, Sunny Harris is still down as well.

That could mean some time at DE for Chris Hoke.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had thought that all along, that you definitely look ahead and the implications of being a certain playoff seed. So, the NFL moving the Cincy game to tonite will have was a big blunder for competitiveness, imo.

Now, that being said, if NE wins, Cincy rests theis starters, Jets win and in. So, then it would come down to the Baltimore game and if they win?? So, if Baltimore loses, and Pitt wins, what else would have to happen for Pitt to get in??

Anonymous said...

We need a Steelers in and a Hou loss + either Bal or NYJ loss. Or if Hou wins we would need NYJ, BAL and Den to lose.

paulbenedict said...

Bellicheck is crazy; the Patriots will play and play hard. The Cinci backups might just beat the Jets. They'll run on the Jets and Sanchez will throw pics.

I'd like to think the Ravens will choke in Oakland. It's possible... Most teams have figured out how to cover the Ravens receivers, but this is the Raiders.

Dale Lolley said...

Belichick may be kicking himself after the Wes Welker injury. That looked bad.

adamg said...

It's football, players get hurt. NE still has Brady, Moss and a host of other WRs.

Don't know why teams are scared of SD. They might be "hot", but I don't think they're that good - they did lose to the Steelers after all.

adamg said...

BTW, Goodell was asked during the game about teams not caring about "competing" at the end of the year.
Goodell said the integrity of the game trumps all and the league is looking into ways to incentivize teams to play to win in situations where the outcome affects other teams' playoff chances.

Anonymous said...

You have got to be kidding me!! Where is this D against a 3rd stringer??

Anonymous said...

Good Bye to Mike Tomlin and his Tampa rejects GTFOOH

alexrkirby said...

Wonder why they are keeping Sonny Harris on the bench? They seemed to go to all that trouble to resign him after they cut him.

Anonymous said...

I think they're sort of stashing Sunny for next year, along with Trae Williams. They must not think he's ready to play yet.

adamg said...

Really, does whether or not Sunny Harris played matter? I guess Tomlin was more comfortable with Kirshke, Hoke, Eason and Hood. The DL has to be rebuilt so I think there will be a lot of competition in training camp next year.