Monday Morning Coffee: 1/7/08

After a holiday break I'm backkkk!!!!!!! Let's get to it.

--NFL playoffs this past weekend. Biggest disappointment at this point has to be the Pittsburgh Steelers. They played their last few games looking like a team trying not to lose and they did just that. Yes they came from 18 down to lead by 1 last night, but how do you give up a 32 yd. QB draw on a 4th and 1 situation? A decent first season for Mike Tomlinson but I really thought this team would go farther in the playoffs.

--Whether you are a Steeler fan or not, you have got to respect WR Hines Ward. This guy is a true warrior in every sense of the word. He catches 10 balls in the biggest game of the year after being injured a good deal of the regular season.

--Jacksonville's defense was relentless last night. They spent the whole night in the Steeler's backfield saying hello to Big Ben. They let down a bit in the second half but this defense could just carry them through the playoffs.

--Washington's run came to an end on Saturday against the Seahawks. The playoff experience this Seattle team has really payed off and Matt Hasselbeck had one of his best games of the year. He's not a flashy guy and doesn't get the press that some other QBs do, but he wins a lot of games and seems to come up big when he needs to.

--I guess the Giants should still try and trade Eli Manning, he just isn't that good............All he did today was throw 2 TDs and play an almost perfect game. He has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 5 or 6 six games and with that Giant defense, going to be very, very interesting next week at Dallas.

--Somewhere today Marty Schottenheimer shot his television, thinking, "Why couldn't you guys do this last year for me?" After a less-than-stellar start and people calling for both GM A.J. Smith and coach Norv Turner's heads, the Chargers absolutely shut down the Titans in the second half finally found a way to score some points. Phillip Rivers played a great game today and made some big plays when he needed them. LT didn't do much today but he didn't have to. Next week is going to be a different story.

--Roger Clemens' interview on "60 Minutes" tonight was pretty much what I had expected. " I have never used banned substances" and that's the story he is going to stick to. The part of all this that is bothersome is that Pettite has since admitted using HGH to overcome an elbow injury and thus verifying that part of Brian McNamee's story. So why would McNamee lie about Clemens and tell the truth about Pettite? Pettite and Clemens were teammates both in Houston and in New York, they trained together and apparently spent time in the off-season together yet Clemens says that he had no idea what Andy was doing? Hmmmmmm?

Gonna keep it short this week!! Have a great day and a better week?