Wild-card action: Dolphins visit Steelers, Giants at Lambeau
The Dolphins’ first practice for their first playoff game in eight years was commencing Wednesday, and quarterback Ryan Tannehill was back out there, football in hand. He tossed the ball a foot or two in the air a few times, catching it himself. That was the extent of his throwing. He wore shorts and a T-shirt. On the sideline. He did not practice. Later, he ambled through the team’s locker room with no limp evident but with the flexible black brace on his left knee unmistakable.
The coyness from the Miami camp is cute. Tannehill has not yet been ruled out of playing this Sunday. It is Gamesmanship 101, standard-issue subterfuge. The Dolphins and coach Adam Gase want to give the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday’s hosts, one more thing to think about, to maybe plan for. Because they can. It is pointless, though, on a few levels. First, Tannehill ain’t playing, folks, nor should he, and everybody knows it. That No. 17 was unable to participate even on a limited basis Wednesday meant he is not as close to recovered from his December 11 knee injury as he needs to be, and the idea he might have a physical epiphany in the next day or so – be as mobile, be himself, enough to shed a month’s rust and face a very tough defense in 10-degree winter – is beyond credulity. By the end of practice even Gase seemed no longer interested in the ruse.
Matt Moore will start a fourth consecutive game, Gase had to admit Wednesday, “unless something changes drastically in the next two or three days.”
Tannehill is the future. But here’s the thing. In the short term, for Sunday’s game, it isn’t as if even a healthy Tannehill would change much. Miami would still be the biggest underdog of the NFL’s wild-card weekend. Maybe the betting line would eke down from 10 points to eight or nine? (Or maybe not, if the perception was Tannehill wasn’t fully ready.) Tannehill isn’t an elite QB or a superstar, and Moore isn’t an inexperienced unknown you’re afraid to play. Tannehill is more mobile and a threat on read-option plays, but, otherwise, well, Tannehill’s passer rating this season was a career-high 93.5; Moore’s, in a smaller sample, is 105.6. “Matt’s done a good job,” Gase said. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said the Dolphins offense is pretty much the same with both passers and that no different preparation is required. “I would agree with that,” Moore said. This isn’t like the Green Bay Packers preparing for their playoff opener if Aaron Rodgers was injured and Brett Hundley was starting instead. (Hands, please, if you knew Rodgers’ backup was a person named Brett Hundley.) Miami’s Tannehill-to-Moore dropoff isn’t even as bad as the playoff fate of the Oakland Raiders, who go this weekend from Derek Carr, injured at the end of a Pro Bowl season, to one Connor Cook.
Good teams (and ostensibly all playoff teams are) find ways to overcome even calamity at the most important position. New England reminded us of that earlier this season when Tom Brady was docked four games on account of Deflategate and the Patriots won with Jimmy Garoppolo, and even with Jacoby Brissett.
Now Miami must find a way to win with Moore, and not see that as a crutch of an excuse if it fails to do so. But it will take far more than Moore, of course.
The Dolphins, if they are to shock the NFL on Sunday and win the franchise’s first postseason game since 2000, must find a way to take on the road the same formula that beat the Steelers here, 30-15, this past October. Miami sort of dominated, if you’ll recall.
Jay Ajayi that day rolled one of this three 200yard games. The offensive line was great. The defense intercepted Ben Roethlisberger twice and sacked him twice and held him to a 57.1 passer rating. Le’Veon Bell had a modest 53 yards rushing. Cornerback Byron Maxwell limited Antonio Brown to four catches for 39 yards, which is like reducing a monsoon to a light sprinkle. Tannehill wasn’t great that day, had no TD passes. It was the entire team being good enough, being better than the Steelers. It may have been the best showing of the season. It is in the Dolphins to do that. Now, though, can they again?
Ajayi has one of those red plastic gas cans hanging from his locker stall and a sign on it asks, “Can you fill your tank every week?” – with a fuel gauge pointed to full.
If the Dolphins can get that this week, a full team performance, just like in October, then who starts at quarterback for Miami won’t matter much. The Dolphins will have given themselves a chance.
(Miami Herald/TNS)
NEW YORK GIANTS AT GREEN BAY PACKERS
Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. will be the most famous names in road white jerseys when America turns its TV eyes to Lambeau Field on Sunday afternoon.
But when it comes to deciding the Giants’ wildcard playoff game against the Packers, history suggests the most important thing will be what happens when those two are watching from the sideline.
As anyone paying attention since 1925 knows, when it comes to the Giants, it almost always comes down to defense.
Friday brought another reminder, when The Associated Press put two Giants defenders on its All-Pro first team (safety Landon Collins and tackle Damon Harrison) and three on its second team (cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and end Olivier Vernon).
“We definitely knew we could be special, but how special could we be?” DRC said. “You still have to go out there and play, and for the most part, that’s what we did.” This tradition began at the beginning. In the Giants’ first NFL championship season, 1927, they outscored opponents 197-20 and recorded 10 shutouts en route to an 11-1-1 record in an era before postseason games.
They played their first playoff game in 1933 and have a 24-24 record in the postseason. In those 48 games, opponents have averaged only 18.5 points (the Giants have averaged 18.0).
In the 24 victories, the Giants have allowed an average of 11.4 points, including seven games in which they have allowed seven or fewer. And they never have won a playoff game while allowing more than 21.
The list includes some of the most storied games in franchise history:
Beating the Bears, 30-13, in the “Sneakers Game” in 1934; routing the Bears, 47-7, in 1956; shutting out Jim Brown’s Browns, 10-0, in 1958; a 17-0 shutout of the Redskins in 1987; a Super Bowl run in 1991 in which they allowed a total of 35 points in three games, including 19 to the K-Gun Bills; a 41-0 rout of the Vikings in 2001; and a quirky 24-2 win over the Falcons in 2012.
And remember, as much as Super Bowl XLII is recalled for Manning to David Tyree and Super Bowl XLVI for Manning to Mario Manningham, the Giants held the explosive Patriots to a total of 31 points in the two games.
The point is, there is a long, blue thread that runs from Sam Huff to Lawrence Taylor to Michael Strahan to the likes of Harrison and Collins, who on Friday were sporting new “NYPD” hats – the hats courtesy of real New York cops and the nickname courtesy of Newsday’s Tom Rock.
A victory over Aaron Rodgers’ Packers would go a long way toward turning the “New York Pass Defense” into a national brand.
“I don’t know who did the scouting or brought this group together,” said Harrison, who like Jenkins and Vernon arrived via free agency this season. “I know [GM] Jerry Reese had a big part in it. But the group of guys that were here before and the guys they brought in, you don’t see that too often that different groups genuinely get along on and off the field.”
Vernon said the chemistry has developed organically. “It just shows the type of caliber guys we’ve got on our team,” he said. “They’ve been putting in the work since Day One, even before they got here.”
The last time the Giants had a first-team All-Pro was defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul in 2011. That also was the last season in which they won a Super Bowl.
“I mean, honestly, I’m very appreciative of the recognition,” Vernon said, “but now it’s time to get back to work.”
The work to this point has allowed the Giants to yield an average of 17.8 points in the regular season, best in the NFC and second in the NFL to the Patriots’ 15.6.
Hmm. Might we be headed for another low-scoring Giants-Patriots Super Bowl? What else is new? (Newsday/TNS)