National Football League

Pats the real deal; Ravens made mistake?

Published Dec. 9, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Every week, the experts of FOX NFL Sunday will candidly reveal their observations and make their opinions known as they prepare for football's top-rated pregame telecast — seen each Sunday at noon ET/9 a.m. PT. We'll share some of the highlights from Curt, Terry, Howie, Jimmy and Michael grabbed from their weekly conference call with insider John Czarnecki.

This week, Czar probes the FOX NFL Sunday crew on the Patriots as Super Bowl favorites, the Steelers and Don Meredith.

Czar: That was some butt-whipping Monday night. Are the Patriots, who are the favorites now for the Super Bowl, that good?

Jimmy Johnson: It was pretty obvious to me that Tom Brady was ready to play. He knew exactly what he was doing. Also, I think getting Deion Branch, a guy who used to play there but was kind of a bust in Seattle, fits this offense perfectly. Brady trusts him and knows exactly where he’s going to be on certain comeback routes. He’s a more precise route runner than Randy Moss was. Moss was a good player there, but Branch fits what the Patriots want to do now.

Terry Bradshaw: I have never seen Brady look better this season. He was sharp, and calm in the pocket. They moved him a little, and he wasn’t fazed at all by the Jets’ pass rush. Right now, it’s looking like Rex Ryan may be eating some of his words, not that he has to eat anymore. The Patriots look more like a Super Bowl team than the Jets right now. The Jets must figure out a way to get Mark Sanchez to play better than that, too.

Howie Long: When they put the foot on the gas pedal up in New England, they just keep coming at you. They played super on both sides of the ball.

TB: It looked to me like the Jets didn’t trust their offensive line with the kind of pass plays they were calling.

HL: Is that the offensive line or is that the quarterback?

***

Czar: Didn’t the Ravens make a costly mistake by throwing the ball at the end of the game against Pittsburgh?

HL: Well, when Joe Flacco saw Troy Polamalu walking up to the line, I thought he would take a faster pass drop but he was so slow in his drop. He had to know there was a chance of Polamalu coming after him, but he didn’t seem to know where he was going with the ball.

TB: I would think if you are a quarterback playing against Pittsburgh you always keep your eye on Polamalu because he’s a freelance blitzer. I was one of those quarterbacks who would take my time dropping back, reading and making my adjustments and then stop immediately once I knew where I wanted to throw. I don’t think it matters how many steps you take. Just get rid of it once you see where the free receiver is. If he does continue to lumber back, the Ravens may have to put Flacco more in the shotgun, especially in obvious passing downs.

JJ: The bottom line with this, though, is that Harbaugh should have just called a run there. It was second-and-5 with about 3:20 left in the game and they were at their own 43-yard line. I mean run it twice more, punt it and the way their defense was playing, they win the dang game.

HL: One reason why they should have done it that was because Pittsburgh wasn’t really lighting it up on offense.

TB: The other thing is this is how the Steelers win games. They blitz, and they cause turnovers. Don’t play into what they do best.

JJ: Now before anyone blames Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron for the play call, that situation was John Harbaugh’s responsibility. Cameron’s job is to make first downs and score. The head coach’s job is to manage the game. He needed to tell Cameron, ‘No, I just want to run the ball.’ He needed to step out there and say that. This is really a waste of conversation because he should have run the ball.

***

Czar: How many of you believe that Brett Favre will play this weekend?

TB: Is that a trick question?

JJ: I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s going to play.

TB: I heard he is practicing out there throwing left-handed passes. I’m sure that’s going to work. I would have trouble getting out of bed if I was hurt that badly.

HL: Everything with Brett is altered now because of how his career has gone these last couple of years. But he has been a great player for such a long time.

TB: I can’t wait until his Hall of Fame ceremonies when he has to talk about how tough he was.

Czar: Speaking of quarterbacks, I know that Terry was pretty close Don Meredith, who passed away last Sunday night.

TB: He was such a great guy. He used to tell me to always be myself. I wasn’t even thinking about TV as an option at the end of my career and wasn’t even going to sign with CBS until Don convinced me it would work for me. He always told me to have fun with it and don’t listen to the criticism. He was a real good guy. I didn’t know how sick he was.

HL: Watching the highlights of Meredith, he kind of reminded me of you.

TB: The thing about Don was when he retired, he really went away and got out of the public eye.

***

Czar: Any opinions of the $15,000 fine to Detroit’s Ndamukong Suh for hit on Jay Cutler last Sunday?”

HL: When you look at the play from behind the defense, from the defensive perspective, it looks like he punches him in the head. But in reality he hit him right at the top of the jersey. It wasn’t a dirty shot. But because he is so strong, it looked a big kid hitting a little Pop Warner kid. I mean, it just didn’t look right.

Curt Menefee: When I watched it live, it does look like a penalty. But when you look at it in slow motion, it didn’t look like a penalty at all. So, it doesn’t make sense that he got fined because the slow-mo shows you that it really wasn’t a malicious hit.

TB: Well, he can afford it.