Saints March, Pitt Goes Quietly, New Era in Happy Valley, and Other Thoughts

Some Football Thoughts halfway through Wildcard Weekend:

• Unlike many football fans, I seldom watch any non-Steelers NFL game from start to finish until the playoffs begin. As a result, the only time that I saw the Detroit Lions all season was when they got thumped by Green Bay on Thanksgiving Day. Despite their 45-21 loss to New Orleans last night, I was really impressed by them. I came to three conclusions: (1) Matthew Stafford is really good, (2) Calvin Johnson is really, REALLY good, and (3) unless he is the coach of the team that you root for, Jim Schwartz can be really, really, really irritating.


• I thought going into the weekend, that the Lions-Saints game could be the best one of the weekend, and both games today will have a long way to go to top it. With a 24-21 score after three quarters, you might have said the Saints were in control, but you wouldn't have bet the mortgage payment on that, would you? Early in the fourth Stafford made his first big mistake with an interception, and, to use a tasteless metaphor for a New Orleans game, the levees burst wide open from that point forward.


• No special insight on my part here, but the Saints look awfully good.


• If you are a San Diego Chargers fan, how did you feel watching Drew Brees and Darin Sproles playing for the Saints last night?


• Texans beat the Bengals. I missed most of this one, but was anyone really surprised?


• While out and about in the car yesterday I listened to Pitt fall behind 21-0 in the first quarter of the Compass Bowl. Thus, a nightmare of a season comes to an end for the football Panthers. In all honesty, I don't know how any of those Pitt players could have had any heart or enthusiasm in playing this game.


• Saw Paul Chryst interviewed in the booth on TV during the second half of this game. Good luck to him in building this team up. I hope that everyone will give him the "honeymoon" that Todd Graham said he didn't need.


• Attendance at the Compass Bowl was 29,000 and change. Should have felt like a home game for the Panthers.


• Staying on the college front, Penn State finally hires its new head coach, Bill O'Brien, currently the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. PSU boosters and former players have angrily denounced this hiring. "He has no roots at Penn State," they cry. They want him out before he even coaches a game. (Seriously. Bob Smizik posted a link to some Penn State booster blog that stated this very sentiment.) Seems that the Lions boosters, who haven't had to see their school hire a football coach for the last 45 years now get to do what boosters at every other school get to do every five years or so: act like that hundred dollar check they write to the booster club each year gives them the right to set University athletic policy.


• Bill O'Brien may be great head coach. Or he may be a lousy one. There is no way to predict how any new coaching hire will turn out anywhere in Big Time sports, but he certainly brings strong credentials to the position at Happy Valley and seems to deserve the opportunity that he is getting. Lions fans who have watched Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin battle it out for the QB job the last few years should realize that O'Brien has most recently coached a guy named Tom Brady.


• I admit that I am an outsider here, but my own thought is that Penn State was probably wise to go with someone who has NOT been associated with the program of recent years.


• That said, I do feel bad for Tom Bradley. None of the Sandusky Stink has seemed to brush off on to him, he has served the University loyally for decades, he stepped in as interim coach under the absolute worst possible circumstance and held the team together, and for all that he is now looking for a job. I hope that he lands on his feet somewhere, but his association with the Penn State will probably now end up hurting him in his career. Another victim of the collateral damage done at Penn State over this whole mess.


• While I can be supportive and optimistic about the O'Brien hiring at Happy Valley, I have to wonder why it took over two months to fill that position. Somebody is probably going to write a very good book on that subject one of these days.


• And on the topic of Tom Brady (I did mention him a few bullets ago), there is a very good article in the current Sports Illustrated about him while he was at the University of Michigan, how he struggled there, and how he battled with super recruit and two-sport star Drew Henson for the QB position while at Ann Arbor. If you now see Brady as the Golden Boy prima donna of the NFL, this story will give you different insight. It also tells an interesting cautionary tale where Drew Henson is concerned. Recommended reading.


• To recap, The Grandstander went 2-0 with his Wildcard predictions yesterday. I'm calling for Giants and Steelers wins today.


• With each Steelers playoff game, we face the possibility of seeing Hines Ward's final game as a Steeler. Call me a sentimentalist, but I sure would love to see one final big game for Number 86 somewhere during this post-season.