General: Sterno's Talkin' Smack -- Episode #85

Sterno's Talkin' smack. No holding back here. It's all trash, all the time.

Happy New Year and welcome to the 2004 edition of the world's highest rated column. Okay, I made that up. Sue me! Rather than bore you with a million New Year's resolutions that nobody cares about, I am going to hit you with some hearty tidbits from this past weekend in the NFL. Let's get to it.

Smack This: NFL Playoffs -- The most important thing about the first weekend of the NFL playoffs is getting to next week's games. The Division Playoff weekend is always the most exciting and these four games were all about seeing who gets to that point. However, we saw some great football in a couple of spots. Let me break this down for you.

The first game of the weekend was terrific. No, it wasn't full of highlight reel touchdowns and cell phone celebrations, but it was a tough, hard nosed game between two teams that quite obviously didn't spend Christmas together. I take a few things from this game. First of all, if anyone didn't know already, Steve McNair and Eddie George are two incredibly tough athletes.

McNair, who never seems to be healthy, had one of his poorest performances in a big spot since his arrival. However, as always, when his team needed him, he stepped it up in a big way. George was even more inspiring. The guy goes to the locker room with an apparent separated shoulder, and the next thing you know he is rushing for 88 yards against a defense that you can't run against. No, George isn't what he once was. However, he isn't a joke either. I think he surprised a lot of people.

Where was Jamal Lewis in this game? How in the world can Brian Billick, the masterful offensive coach, give Lewis the ball only 12 times in this game? Was he trying to lose? Maybe Pete Rose won't be the only one to come out on the issue of gambling. Seriously, Billick gave Anthony Wright the ball and asked him to win the game. That was a bad move. No, Lewis wasn't running roughshod on the Titans defense, but if this guy can eclipse all but one season in the history of the NFL, then he can rush the ball 20 times. It isn't like the Ravens were losing badly and needed to pass!

What can you say about the Dallas Cowboys? We all knew that Quincy Carter was terrible. Sure, he can throw the deep ball. That's great. He can run too. That's great. He still can't take a team deep in the playoffs. Bill Parcells knew that. That's why he was so shocked that his team went 10-6. The Carolina Panthers defense shut down Carter and the rest of the Cowboys and made Parcells' team look heavily outmatched. The big surprise for me was the way that Jake Delhomme played. The whole season I have thought that John Fox's D was tough, but that his QB couldn't do nearly enough to get them to the promised land. While I still don't think the Panthers will win another game this season, they may have a future with Delhomme. He performed well under pressure and that is big for his career.

The first game on Sunday was as exciting as they come. Up and down with barely any defense (except for the last play of the game)! The Packers were very lucky to get out of this one alive. I take a few different things from this game. First of all, it is obvious that Matt Hasselbeck is a real quarterback. People have been very hesitant to see him with a bright future in the league but I think he showed the world, on a grand stage, that he has something going.

While a lot of people are killing this guy for what he said on the loudspeaker at the coin toss ("We're going to score"), I thought it was pretty funny. The guy is young and excited and he had just driven down the field for a game tying score. He let out his emotion and I think that's fine. It wasn't his mouth that cost him the game, it was his head. I knew as soon as I saw him audible on that interception play that something bad was going to happen. You could tell he didn't know how to read that defense.

I have a bone to pick with Mike Sherman. This game shouldn't have gone into Overtime. When the Packers drove down the field at the end of regulation, Favre had 12 seconds left and the ball at about the 33 yard line. He had owned this defense for most of the day and there was no reason to believe that he couldn't come up with one more completion. How in the world do you run up the gut to center the kicker, when you have a timeout? Brett was pissed off and rightfully so. He could have thrown a patented Packers screen to Green and let him scamper before going out of bounds or thrown an out route to Javon Walker. Either way, the call almost cost them the game when Longwell didn't hit that field goal.

Boy, what a game Peyton Manning had. What can we say? We were all wrong. If you are the one person who thought Manning was going to play that well in this, let alone any playoff game, then give yourself a round of applause. I thought he was going to choke again. Who said I was any kind of genius?

Manning had stats at halftime that were impressive for any full four quarter game. He was on target with his throws and you could see and feel his confidence growing as the game went on. However, where was this fourth ranked defense of the Broncos? Was that fourth in the Arena league? Yikes! They got ripped apart on every drive.

However, nothing was nearly as embarrassing as that Marvin Harrison touchdown play where he was never touched, then got up and ran to the end zone for the score. What the hell was Al Wilson doing there? He is a good linebacker and to not have your head in the game there is disgraceful. Wake up! You are in the playoffs! The Colts needed that one win to make them dangerous. Now, they are confident and they know they can do it on this stage. That's bad news for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Stay tuned for an in depth preview of this week's games on Friday.

NFL Playoffs -- Smacked!!!

One for the Road: The New York Knicks have been a different organization since Isaiah Thomas took over as their GM and President. Scott Layden was a coward when it came to making moves that Jim Dolan didn't want to make and he was a moron when it came to making trade proposals to other teams.

Thomas has come in with a winning attitude, using words like Championship, and he is acting on his promises. The move he made to grab Stephon Marbury will be scrutinized on some levels because he gave up a couple of draft picks and he didn't really dump that much salary.

However, as a Knicks fan, would you rather pay Howard Eisley and Charlie Ward that kind of money, or give it to Marbury. The guy can score, he can dish, and he can run the break with Jason Kidd. I love the move. People around the league are once again talking about the New York Knicks. For that Isaiah, I thank you!

Hit me up with feedback at eSports (click the Write the Editor link) or email me directly at sterno17@hotmail.com. Unless, of course, your afraid to go toe to toe with Sterno? See ya' all next time folks! Until then, don't be the one who's smacked!