Must be blind.

Color blind. Ethnicity blind. Politically blind.

Just plain blind.

You say Carolina’s Cam Newton could deal with dialing it down a notch or 50 on his, ahem, emotional displays. Interesting. Hadn’t even noticed that Cam Newton celebrated much, if at all.

​Didja ever?

Gotta say, never been an issue for me. Perhaps it has been a lifelong affinity for Auburn University (gotta love big and bad Alabama’s little bro) and passion for college football, and Newton’s much-deserved legendary status with both, but his “act” that supposedly offends so many has never bothered me. Heck, it’s never even registered.

Frankly, since he turned pro and inevitably became the face of Carolina’s NFL franchise, he has been, in my eyes, the poster boy for all that is right in sports. Talented. Productive. Talkative in a way that shows he has a brain. He’s involved with his teammates, coaches and even fans. A leader both on and off the field.

Not for nothing, but his commercials completely kick ass, too, and show a poke-fun-at-himself side that would behoove the greater part of the planet to adopt itself.

If anything, he promotes what being a “good guy” is about, that one of ’em actually can be a great player in possession of a personality, and a charitable side to boot.

If he were a lesser athlete, a performer who wasn’t so singularly successful, then, maybe, the excessive celebrating and “Superman” posing would be annoying, or at least get my attention. Maybe …

Thing is, Newton has been a revelation ever since stealing the national stage with a one-year Tour de Force at Auburn in 2010 that ranks, at worst, among the top five single-season efforts in college football history.

​With more than 2,800 yards passing, 1,400 yards rushing and 50 combined touchdowns paving the way to SEC and BCS championships for his Tigers, securing the Heisman Trophy in the process, Newton cemented his place among the sport’s elite.

Standing 6-foot-6, weighing 250 pounds and possessing the speed and moves of a running back, he entered the NFL as an anomaly in 2011. Not so much that his individual skills had never been seen in a quarterback at that level, but that they all existed within such a large package.

Oh, he has contemporaries in regards to that skill set. Maybe not exactly the same size or the same speed, but close. Comparable. So, if anything, Newton’s claims of his athleticism being totally unrecognizable to followers of pro quarterback play is a bit pretentious, and throwing the race card into that same mix as making him supposedly unlikable among the masses is completely preposterous.

Put it this way, Colin Kaepernick totally debunks the former myth and Johnny Manziel the latter.

Regardless, he remains likable here because he is very good to great, and, really, isn’t he making tons of plays worthy of celebration anyway? You know, the dude is five years into his NFL career, has earned three trips to the Pro Bowl, is the likely 2015 NFL MVP, is in the midst of his third playoff run and headed to the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., next weekend.
​
So, maybe ease up a bit on the hate out there. Perhaps a little “Dab” will do ya just fine.

​- Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]

Just a few things that may have slipped by the masses with all the Cam Newton talk of late.

'RACIAL' PROFILING
Carolina owner Jerry Richardson came under some heavy criticism, often being labeled a “racist,” for asking Newton to maintain his clean-cut image before the Panthers made him the No. 1 pick of the 2011 draft and then the face of their franchise. Whether you feel it was right or wrong for Richardson to go all-George Steinbrenner on Newton, the player agreed to the owner’s appearance-code wishes (no tattoos, body piercings, long hair) anyway as a condition of being taken first and has generally maintained that “look” throughout his NFL career.

PRO PIPELINE
Auburn, obviously, has a history of having its players move on to the NFL, but the amount of high-caliber talent it produces is about as good as it gets. How so? Well, Newton is the fourth former Tiger to be taken with the first pick in the draft, following RB Tucker Frederickson (1965), RB Bo Jackson (1986) and LB Aundray Bruce (1988). Like Newton, Jackson won the Heisman Trophy (1985) and is one of the truly legendary players in college football.

SOME HYPERBOLE
With a QB being as talented as Newton, the talk surrounding him sometimes surpasses reality. On sportstalk radio right now you’re liable to hear how Denver LB Von Miller won’t put a finger on Newton because the latter is too fast. Well, Newton runs a 4.59 in the 40, and Miller a 4.49. You do the math. Also, the never-seen-before talent in a QB chatter, uhhh, simmer down now. Steve Young ran a 4.53 in the 40, and Colin Kaepernick runs the same now.

FURTHERMORE ...
The overwhelming talk of the NFL never having seen the likes of someone with Newton’s mix of size and skill pretty much puts a rubber stamp on how short a memory the masses have. We’re talking anywhere from 2 to 10 years, which covers the time from when Newton arrived on the NFL scene after Daunte Culpepper left it for good to when the latter was at the height of his physical powers and doing major damage. At 6-4, 255 pounds, he was every bit as intimidating as Newton is now, and, frankly, a bit faster, running a 4.52 in the 40. Statistics will show he was a far more accurate passer than Newton (63 percent to 59) and almost as effective a runner (5.2 yards per carry to 5.4). Right now, at 6-5 and a chiseled 235 pounds, Kaepernick ain’t exactly much different, either.

Did Belichick blow it for Patriots?
Brady is NFL's greatest QB ever
Clock-work concerns really legit?
Eagles new coach likes Bradford
Birds fans No. 1 target? Owner​

It’s not registering here.

The legitimacy of it at least.

Why so many seem so adamant about coming to the defense of New England head coach Bill Belichick for his play-calling in the final frame at Denver is beyond me.

Big-timers, little-timers, those who like him, those who loathe him, it doesn’t seem to matter. They’re all coming out of the woodwork to rationalize what he chose to do.

Me? Uhhh, no.

Frankly, he seemed foolish at the one juncture. Just with one call.

Going for it on fourth-and-1 with 6:03 remaining at the Broncos’ 16.

Down 20-12 at the time, the Patriots had two options. The view here, even as things were unfolding at Mile High, was that Belichick and Co. chose the wrong one. The panicky one. The defeatist, “we can’t win unless we take a chance right here because they’re better than us” one.

With apologies most of all to those who genuflect at the feet of such anointed geniuses as Belichick, it really, truly, seemed to be the boneheaded one.

Instead of taking a likely 3-pointer from the leg of Stephen Gostkowski to cut the gap and set the stage for a game-winning TD in regulation, New England opted for a little misdirection pass to Julian Edelman that resulted in a 1-yard loss … and possession going to Denver.

Sorry, won’t ever understand the decision … or accept it as being viable, and certainly not “smart.”

Make all the field-position, clock-management or altitude-adjustment excuses or arguments you like, not buying any of ’em. Doesn’t matter that the Patriots ultimately scored a TD in the final minute and had a chance to send the game to overtime.

Had Belichick kicked there instead, New England was in position to win in regulation.

There is too much time left in that situation, not to mention the Patriots still had all their timeouts – and quarterback Tom Brady – in tow, to make any other call right then. Not doing so, as much as anything else that happened in the game, cost them a chance to repeat as Super Bowls champ in two weeks.

Denver had been largely inept all day on offense, and especially so in the seven drives leading up to that fateful decision by Belichick, totaling just 100 yards on 35 plays – and that’s with Peyton Manning dropping back to pass on 18 of ’em.

If you are the Patriots then, rest assured, you were going to get the ball back.

So, with brain cells fully functioning, you kick there, pull within 5 and play for the win after stopping the Broncos.
​
But, noooo … Belichick had to outsmart everyone. Including himself.

The real beauty with all of it, the Patriots didn’t just get the ball back, they got it back twice more. Sure, the narrative could have changed had they kicked the FG, but it all comes back to that same decision.

It was unnecessary at that time, and, frankly, it forced New England to go for broke three additional times later on fourth down … just in order to have an opportunity to tie the game, not win it, in regulation.

Down 5, you’re not as desperate. You don’t need a TD and a 2-point conversion to force an extra frame. You only need a TD to win it then. Heck, considering how lame Denver was on offense, the Patriots may have been able to kick another two FGs down the stretch to win it.

But Belichick took those winning options off the table by jumping the gun … when he didn’t need to do so.

​- Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]
​

Just a few more football thoughts ... ​As if there'd be anything else following NFL's conference-title games.

Comparison shopping
Can we cool the jets on any suggestion of Temple’s Tyler Matakevich being even remotely in the same ballpark as Carolina’s Luke Kuechly? Matakevich was a wonderful player for the Owls, setting a new legacy for linebacker play at the school that may never be matched. But he’s a not a seek-and-destroy animal like the Panthers’ perennial All-Pro. Kuechly is 6-3, 240, chiseled and quick as a cat. Matakevich is, well, none of those. Yeah, he has a similar knack for being around the ball; in fact, Matakevich may be blessed with better instincts because he doesn’t possess the same kind of speed. But, c’mon. Kuechly was a standout in the secondary in high school before moving to linebacker at Boston College, where he became one of the all-time great defenders in the history of the collegiate game, racking up 532 tackles. Yep, T-Mat posted a school-record 493. He also did that in four years, not once leading the nation in a single season. Kuechly did all his damage in three years, leading the nation twice and finishing runner-up once, before declaring for the NFL draft and going to the Panthers with the 9th pick in 2012. He then led the NFL in tackles as a rookie and won the league’s defensive player of the year award the following season. Sorry, T-Mat just might be my favorite Temple player ever, but he’s not that kind of player. Might be a good pro, but not at Kuechly’s level. Few in the game are.

Peyton's Place
For all the silly “in your face” babble and “he kicked Tom Brady’s ass” claims, the shining moment for Denver quarterback Peyton Manning in Sunday’s AFC title game was the 12-yard run he made on third-and-10 to keep a drive alive in the third quarter. The old man looked rather spry in the process, showing – seriously – a burst to get himself into position to make the first down before actually sealing the deal with a dive forward. It was as athletic a play as he’s made, frankly, in his entire NFL career. But trying to intimate in any shape or fashion that his detractors are dead wrong and that he took Brady to school is preposterous. Manning was OK in this one, completing 17 of 32 passes for 176 and a couple TD passes to tight end Owen Daniels, who juked Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins out of his jock both times, and accounting for 187 yards of offense. Aside from that run, Manning was completely ineffective after intermission. Brady, harassed all afternoon, only connected on 27 of 56 passes. But he amassed 310 yards that way, and 323 all told. Keep it real, people. C’mon.
​
Big deal ... or not?
Like Zach Ertz. Like that the Eagles drafted him three years ago. He’s a quality tight end with seemingly tons of untapped potential. But two questions kinda cling to the third-year pro: Will he ever fulfill that potential and, in conjunction with that, is he really worth the 5-year, $42.5 million contract he signed with the Eagles on Monday? Yes, he had a nice season in 2015 when you look at the numbers, 75 catches for 853 yards. But, not for nothing, so many of those numbers were compiled when the team’s campaign had gone awry and he still only got into the end zone twice despite all that production anyway. At this point, he remains a somewhat limited tight end in that he doesn’t block well enough to be the full-time, every-down guy at the position for the Birds, and his main skill, making catches, should come under a much less forgiving microscope than it has thus far since Ertz drops an incredible amount of passes – often on balls right to him, with not a single defender on him.

It was bound to blow up.

From the moment former University of Illinois offensive lineman Simon Cvijanovic took to Twitter last spring and started making accusations about then-Fighting Illini head football coach Tim Beckman’s supposed mistreatment of players, anyone with some sort of attachment to the Orange and Blue had to figure dark days were on the horizon for a program not exactly sunning itself in the first place.

Beckman got canned before the season.

Athletic Director Mike Thomas got canned during it.

The Illini regressed under interim coach Bill Cubit throughout it.

The university’s administration then rewarded him with the full-time gig and an extension prior to the season finale against Northwestern.

Since then, Cubit has lost, among others, his best recruiter, Alex Golesh, to a lesser program (Iowa State), two high-profile commits to the upcoming class and no less than eight players to transfer, including two-year starting linebacker T.J. Neal and quality sophomore wideout Marchie Murdock. Oh, well, at least he was able to give his son/offensive coordinator, Ryan, who orchestrated the nation’s 96th-best unit, a 400-percent raise.

From dysfunctional to disastrous, there it is in a nutshell.

Respectability, we hardly knew ye …

Not for nothing, but the reality is, for all his flaws and dopey malapropos, Beckman had the Illini pointed in the right direction – on the field and off. They’d made small, but clear strides between the lines, improving from 2 to 4 to 6 wins in his three seasons, and copious ones in the classroom, where his student-athletes set records every year.

Whatever happened, whatever really happened, no one actually knows because the university did an in-house investigation with results that were never shared publicly, yet Beckman was dismissed a week before the start of the 2015 season. Casting further confusion on this rather black comedy is the fact that the NCAA, ever attempting to be the strong-armed police of intercollegiate athletics, hasn’t even contact Cvijanovic about, well, anything.

Can’t blame the kid for coming forward if he felt there was a problem and he was mishandled by the coach and the team’s medical staff through injuries. But, even now, five months after Beckman was let go, there is no concrete evidence that he ever deserved to be let go, and, frankly, the same could be said for Thomas, whose fantastic fund-raising talents are evident with glaring improvements to Memorial Stadium and the State Farm Center right across the street.

OK, so you can question his coaching hires with Beckman and men’s basketball coach John Groce. But not Cubit.
​
That’s on the save-face administrators who dumped both Thomas and Beckman.

Why they chose to hand over the keys to Cubit, even just for a two-year trial run, is a mystery. He’s an offensive-minded coach whose offense has taken dramatic steps back each of the past two seasons, even with his type of quarterback in Wes Lunt at the helm. After taking over for Beckman, yeah, sure, his folksy, we’re-in-this-together charm worked for a few weeks with the troops ... until the reality of a 1-6 stretch drive crashed down on them.

Prospects have noticed. Students have noticed. Alumni have noticed. Fans have noticed.

Until those in charge do, though, and actually do something about it, dark days are here, my friends. For awhile.

​- Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]​

Recognized for his offensive Xs and Os prowess, Bill Cubit was hired by Tim Beckman in 2013 to run the Illinois offense. He turned the 122nd-ranked unit of 2012 into a respectable one his first season as Illini OC. But since then, its has been all downhill.

71
​Illinois national ranking for total offense in 2013

85
Illinois national ranking for total offense in 2014

96
Illinois national ranking for total offense in 2015

29.7
​Illinois points per game in 2013 |  62nd in nation

​25.9
Illinois points per game in 2014  |  86th in nation

22.7
Illinois points per game in 2015  |  102nd in nation

Extending mediocrity
Big Ten best in 2015
​Illinois drops Thomas
It is a B1G weekend
Solid start for Illini
No more MACness
Positive step or no?

​2015 B1G Game Recaps
Northwestern
Minnesota
Ohio State
Purdue
Penn State
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska​​​​

At some point, you just have to accept reality.

We can judge with a slanted view, put up unfair parameters and rationalize all we want to downgrade his accomplishments, and it doesn’t matter.

Tom Brady trumps ’em all.

Truth be told, not a fan. Never have been. Haven’t been too thrilled with the man-crushing sports geeks out there, either, who laud the guy for seemingly “living the life” and being married to a supermodel and then actually overrate his play at times because of that. But that’s another topic for another snowy day.

Thing is, love him, hate him, don’t give a rat’s ass about him … that’s your own call.

But when it comes to recognizing and acknowledging who the best quarterback in NFL history has been, you can deny it for only so long.

The white flag, finally, has gone up here in regard to that.

Oh, he may not remain in that spot. If, say, Aaron Rodgers gets his head screwed on straight again, or some better receivers, Brady’s time at the top may be somewhat short-lived.

But, for now, he has been the game’s greatest at its most critical position … and he’s proven so in a way that no one can argue, even though many will.

Record-setting individual accomplishments? Check.

Record-setting team accomplishments? Check.

Clutch performances? Check.

Examples of carrying a team on his back? Check, and double check.

In guiding the New England Patriots to their 10th AFC Championship Game appearance since he took over as the starter in 2001 after serving a one-year apprenticeship that was cut short due to Drew Bledsoe getting injured, Brady has the reigning NFL champs locked and loaded to repeat.

Should he lead them past Denver this afternoon, against fellow QB legend Peyton Manning, it would mark the Patriots’ seventh trip to the Super Bowl with him at the helm, and a chance for him to become the first QB to ever win five of them.

To me, it’s not that he has taken them to this point. It is how he has taken them to this point. Pure and simple, he dominates … regardless of who is or isn’t around him. Basically, he makes my argument that it’s silly to judge individuals so highly off team titles moot.

Why? Because more than any other player in his sport Brady is the primary driving force in whatever success his team has enjoyed.

Every year. Consistently, every year.

Never seen anything like it in the NFL.

The fact he shows no signs of slowing down is both fascinating and frightening – especially for those of us who do not possess New England No. 12 jerseys or bootleg copies of “Ted 2,” hoping they contain any clips highlighting Brady that may have hit the cutting-room floor.

This is a guy who couldn’t supplant Brian Griese (hmmm) or Drew Henson (who?) as the University of Michigan’s QB and ended up getting chosen in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. After winning three Super Bowls in his first four years as an NFL starter, Brady suffered a knee injury that seemed like it could have halted his career at its midpoint.

That was in 2008. Ever since returning he has been on a tour de force to obliterate every NFL passing record he can. Put it this way, in the seven seasons he has been back, Patriots fans can take 4,511 yards, 33 TDs and a playoff spot to the bank.

Sorry, not even Joe Montana or Dan Marino were that strong down the back end. Neither was John Elway. Nor Favre.

Oddly, contemporaries such as Manning and Drew Brees are close in that regard, but, then, you know, they ain’t stacking up on that pesky “championships won” stuff.

Of course, Brady might not be that near the end anyway. Yeah, he’s 38 and he’s already thrown for 58,028 yards (fifth all time) and 428 TDs (third) … but he just posted his highest passing yardage total (4,770), his highest completion percentage (64.4) and his highest passing TDs total (36) in four seasons, and his lowest interception percentage (1.1) in five.

The guy always had touch, but it’s been amazing to watch him develop a fastball, a big-time fastball, as he’s aged.

Just can’t deny this anymore: He is the best. Ever. For now.

C’mon, Rodgers.

Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]
​

This may seem an eclectic group, but more than any other QBs these guys stoked some sort of passion and loyalty the last several decades.

1. Drew Brees
A runaway “winner” on this board. Fantastic college player at Purdue, where he made the Boilermakers relevant and took them to the Rose Bowl. He’s actually ahead of Tom Brady in career passing yards with 60,903 to rank fourth all time and is tied with Brady on the career passing TD chart at 428, a mark that places them third in NFL lore. Undersized, but hair-trigger quick with his decisions and release, Brees has completed 66.4 percent of his passing attempts in his career and has one of the best passer ratings of all time with a 95.8. After being let go by San Diego after the 2005 season to make room for the younger Philip Rivers, himself a future Hall of Fame candidate, Brees led New Orleans to its only Super Bowl victory in 2009.

2. Bert Jones
May make no sense to anyone else, but the guy was a special talent – when he could stay healthy, and there’s the rub. Why? Because he couldn’t. The second overall pick of the 1973 NFL Draft by Baltimore, Jones was the strong-armed, fleet-footed QB everyone GM dreams about, except he also came with the “injury-prone” tag as well. Very few guys in the history of the NFL have displayed a cannon worthy of comparison to what Jones possessed, with Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath and Michael Vick being the only ones to come to mind. If you ever get a chance to see some NFL Films production that displays Jones and his fellow Colts, do yourself a favor and check it out.

3. Steve Young
Incredible athletic talent who expected to blossom in San Francisco once he was exiled from Tampa Bay, Young actually had to spend four years of his prime backing up NFL legend Joe Montana before finally taking the reins in 1991 at age 30. Didn’t matter. He was so good he still managed to earn a place in the Hall of Fame after racking up 33,124 yards and 232 TDs passing, and another 4,239 yards and 43 TDs rushing. Following a four-time Super Bowl champ in Montana, obviously, was difficult. But Young managed to win one of his own, and currently sits atop the all-time NFL passer-rating list for those who have completed their careers.

4. Ben Roethlisberger
Part of the 2004 NFL Draft that included Rivers and fellow two-time Super Bowl champ Eli Manning, Big Ben has been a testament to toughness and often overlooked brilliance while throwing for 42,995 yards and 272 TDs in his career. Frankly, he seems to embody everything about the Steelers and what they strive to have – production at the highest level without having a big production to go with it. Even his trademark talent of extending plays is all about trying to make something happen for the team, not headlines for himself. Though Manning and Rivers have had great careers as well by the teams that drafted them, the Giants and Chargers, respectively, Roethlisberger has been just about a perfect fit for Pittsburgh from the moment he arrived in town.
 
5. Aaron Rodgers
My best hope to unseat Brady as the NFL’s greatest ever. Stuck behind Brett Favre for three years after being selected 24th by Green Bay in the 2005 draft, Rodgers unleashed the beast in 2008 and really hasn’t stopped. This season was, by far, his worst and it yielded these numbers: 60.7 percent completion percentage, 3,821 yards and 31 TDs (against just 8 INTs) passing, as well as another 344 yards and a score while running at a 5.9 yards per clip average. At this point, he’s already 32 and a little behind the 8-ball, so to speak, with catching Brady due to that aforementioned delay. But he has thrown for 32,399 yards and 257 TDs thus far and holds the top spot all time in NFL passer rating at 104.1. Has led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory.

Wildcards
Michael Vick and Mark Brunell. Must be something about being lefty and having wheels. Both dual-threats who were good enough to carry their teams to conference title games, neither will go down as all-time greats. All-time talents is another story, and while Vick’s abilities were often recognized, Brunell’s were not exactly chopped liver. The guy threw for 32,072 yards and 184 TDs in his career, adding another 2,421 yards and 15 TDs on the ground while averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Vick’s wheels are legendary, him racking an NFL QB-record 6,109 yards rushing by averaging 7.0 yards per pop. Through the 2015 season, he also had accumulated 22,464 yards and 133 TDs passing.
​

Not really sure what the hang-up is with this one thing?

For the most part, Eagles fans and Philly media have settled down on the Doug Pederson hiring as the team’s new head coach. In rather short order after the initial “sky is falling” pandemonium following him being selected after a ridiculously inept coach-search process, they’ve accepted the Andy Reid underling, even rationalizing a little bit how this rather “boring” choice may be good for the franchise.

You know, especially after the rock-star option last time around seemed to create a lot of unnecessary drama and ultimately an implosion that led to a losing season and Chip Kelly’s dismissal.

All is OK, if not good, right now. Pederson seems like a quality individual, a decent guy and, frankly, a smart one since he has encased himself with a well-rounded, experienced staff, both in terms of playing and coaching background.

Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to wait and see on this guy after all.

Or so the narrative goes.

With one nagging, gnawing caveat …

That being the supposed mismanagement of the clock by Pederson a week ago in an AFC divisional round game at New England in which his Kansas City offense seemed to have little grasp of the words “urgency” or “losing” when down two scores in the final minutes of the game.

The Chiefs didn’t hurry at all, grinding out a 16-play touchdown drive that ate up 5:16, in an attempt to close the gap while simultaneously stifling the Patriots, prepping them to be had by an onside kick or a forced, timeout-controlled three-and-out.

It failed. Most of all because Tom Brady is Tom Brady and Bill Belichick is Bill Belichick, and because of that the Patriots tried and converted a second-and-12 with 1:08 to go, effectively ending the game and diffusing Reid and Pederson’s thinking. Not that such thinking was inherently flawed. Or stupid. Or lame. Or oh, so “Andy.”

Still, it bothers some so much that the most pro-Pederson people out there continue to cling to this notion that the Birds’ current main man merely was covering for his NFL coaching sensei by taking ownership of a situation that eventually yielded nothing more than a seven-point defeat.

Whatever works …

Not for nothing, but Pederson doesn’t have to hang his head for any of it. Well, except for how he explained things. Frankly, he probably was giving others too much credit, thinking they’d be able to read his mind and fill in the blanks of some missing data from his “guilty plea.”

Stuff such as …

• Prior to punting the ball to KC following a three-and-out and pushing the Chiefs back to their own 20 with 6:29 remaining, the Patriots had gone through the visitors’ defense like Swiss cheese for two straight quarters, scoring on four consecutive possessions (not including the one-play kneel-down before halftime).
• With that, and four Super Bowl victories under his belt, we already know Brady is special. But, on this day, he also had been red hot before that quick series resulted in a punt, completing 15 of his previous 19 passes for 188 yards and two TDs.
• Teams that are ahead are more likely to continue with their regular offense when they get possession of the ball with three or four minutes remaining.
• Teams that are ahead are more likely to go conservative with their offense and run the ball when they get possession of it with less than three minutes remaining.
• The Patriots, typically, are a passing team and certainly were in this game with Brady heaving 42 attempts that netted 302 yards.
• The Patriots only had 38 yards on the ground in the game on 14 carries.

Instead, Pederson almost apologized for the next-level, outside-the-box thinking that, really, was as sound as any traditional, conventional ideas, pointing out that not having wide receiver Jeremy Maclin factored in whatever the Chiefs opted to do down the stretch.

Yo, coach, stay away from the excuses. We had enough of that pass-the-buck BS with Kelly. Stick more with the solid reasons for trying such a tactic, like saving all your timeouts remaining to use after scoring the TD last week and how that factored in your decision making. That was decent. That we can buy ... for good reason.

Hang-up be damned.

​Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]

Love him or loathe him, sometimes FOX Sports’​ Colin Cowherd can unleash a little ditty for his national sportstalk audience’​s consumption that doesn’​t regurgitate, voluntarily or not.

​Oh, it may not go down easy ... but when you're digesting some thoughts that vary from conventional wisdom that is kinda how things go.

​In regards to the Doug Pederson/Andy Reid clock-management philosophy employed last week at New England, there are many takes on it. Most of them negative.

​Like the one shared to the left, Cowherd’​s is not ... and if you’​d like a different take on what we tried to point out, give his explanation a shot RIGHT HERE.

Sound the alarm
Lurie under fire
Process was pathetic
Jaws involved? Ugh
NFL​’s laughingstock
Philly connection key
Take trip up N. Broad
Search pretty sad

​