Ten Observations from the Divisional Round

1. I have been to pretty much every Steelers home playoff game since 1995 and certainly every one with the exception of maybe one or two since Heinz Field opened and I can say without a doubt that was the best home crowd in Heinz Field’s history. I don’t know if it was the extra 3,000 seats that were added, or if those seats helped to hold some of the noise in on the open end, or the fact those bleachers made everyone sit in their own seats instead of hanging out under the scoreboard, or maybe even just the shell-shock of being down 21-7 at halftime that made everyone explode in that second half, but that was the loudest I have ever heard Heinz Field. It was probably the third best playoff game I have attended behind the two AFC championship game wins, which are altogether different.

2. The difference, as I and many expected, was Ben Roethlisberger once again. That 58 yard bomb to Antonio Brown on 3rd and 19 was an absolute thing of beauty.

3. Gun to my head and I had to win a football game tomorrow, I would still choose Manning, Brady and Roethlisberger in that order, but I would have to think awfully hard about Aaron Rodgers at this point. He’s playing as well as any of those guys right now and is just oozing with ability and confidence.

4. Between celebrating the Steelers win, getting some dinner and getting over to the bar I was not able to see all of the Packers-Falcons game. I think some of the Falcons players probably feel the same way…

5. It was interesting to see what happened to the Bears defense in the fourth quarter on Sunday. Should we ignore Matt Hasselbeck carving up the secondary, chalk it up to the big lead and taking the foot off the pedal or was it showing us something more that we could see Rodgers taking advantage of this week?

6. Jay Cutler won his first postseason game since high school…and you were wondering why the Packers are three point road favorites?

7. As great as Tom Brady is, and he should be in everyone’s top five QBs of all time at the minimum, can anyone think of the great comebacks he has had? I know there have been a few, but it just doesn’t seem like he brings his team back the way you always expect Manning or Roethlisberger to do. Brady seems to either have it or not (and almost always he does), but when he doesn’t he usually doesn’t recover. That is three straight playoff losses for Brady and Belichick by the way.

8. Even the best coach in the world screws up sometimes. Trailing by ten, the Patriots should have kicked a field goal when they reached the Jets 18 yard line or so. If they would have spiked the ball after Gronkowski’s first down catch and immediately kicked the field goal, they would have been trailing by seven with over two and a half minutes to go. The Patriots could have then kicked off deep and potentially held the Jets to a punt following the two minute warning. Instead, the Patriots ran three more plays, wasted the two minute warning and settled for a field goal anyways forcing their hand with an onside kick. I am not saying this after the fact either; I was telling everyone I was with that they should kick right then as it happened. It never ceases to amaze me how often these coaches screw up these situations.

9. The conference championship games will feature Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Chicago and New York…four of the top six defenses in the league in terms of scoring and four of the top nine in yardage. Who says defense doesn’t win championships?!?

10. Mark Sanchez is getting a ton of credit for his performance Sunday, and deservedly so, but if you are a Steelers fan I don’t think you could have asked for a better situation in the AFC Championship game. Sanchez was terrible against the Colts, looked pretty bad in the first few possessions against the Patriots until he hit a couple of big plays, and really struggles against the blitz. The Jets should not be able to run the football putting everything on Sanchez’ shoulders. That should make Steelers fans feel pretty good inside.