Hall-of-Fame back "Bullet Bill" Dudley, the #1 pick in the 1942 NFL Draft and a member of the Steelers' 75th anniversary team, passed away early Friday morning at the age of 88 in his home town of Lynchburg, Virginia.

Dudley was drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers and signed a $5,000 contract with the team. Despite the "Bullet" nickname, Dudley wasn't known as an exceptionally fast runner. At 5' 10" and 182 pounds, his running style was unorthodox, but it was also effective. In the first game of his career, he scored a touchdown on a 55-yard run. In his second, he scored on a kickoff return. Dudley led the league in rushing his rookie season with 696 yards, helping the Steelers finish with a winning record for the first time in franchise history.

Bill Dudley missed two full NFL seasons and most of a third serving his country in the Army Air Corp during World War II. But he picked up right where he left off in 1946, winning the league's rushing title a second time. "Bullet Bill" did more than just run the ball, though. He passed, blocked, kicked, and defended. It's hard to find a statistical category in which he did not contribute— and excel. In addition to rushing yards, Dudley led the league in punt returns, interceptions made, and lateral passes attempted. He was the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1946.

Bill Dudley career scoring
Scoring Play	No.
Extra Point	121
Field Goal	33
Rushing TD	18
Receiving TD	18
Punt Return TD	3
INT Return TD	2
Kickoff Return TD	1
Fumble Return TD	1
TD scored on Lateral (category no longer exists)	1
*Also threw 6 touchdown passes. Stats : Pro Football Reference.com

A number of clashes between Dudley and Steelers head coach Jock Sutherland led to the all-pro back leaving Pittsburgh after the 1946 season, but Sutherland recognized Dudley's ability. He told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Sure, go right ahead and print that I consider Bill Dudley one of the greatest backs I have ever coached."

Dudley went on to play three seasons for the Detroit Lions and three for the Washington Redskins before retiring after the 1953 season. Over the course of his career, he scored a total of 484 points in nine different ways.

In 1966, Bill Dudley was enshrined at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. "I feel humble, very humble, to be considered to be a member as well as to be as considered a part of Pro Football," he said, "because it’s great today, it was great years ago when it was first started here in Canton, and it’ll be greater tomorrow."

The last AFC North team was eliminated from the playoffs when the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Baltimore Ravens 21-3 in the Divisional Playoff round at Lucas Oil Stadium.

I just finished writing a decent-length post about the game, and my computer ate it, so I don't feel like typing the whole thing over again. Here's the gist of it.

• The Ravens' only score came on their opening drive on a 20-yard Billy Cundiff field goal, and for the rest of the first half, they were held without a first down.



• The defense kept Baltimore in the game until the final two minutes of the half, when Peyton Manning led the Colts on two touchdown drives against the tired Ravens.



• With the offense shut down, the Ravens almost got the big plays they needed from Ed Reed in the third quarter when he intercepted two of Manning's passes for long returns. But the first was jarred out of his hands with a well-placed hit from Colts WR Pierre Garcon, and the second was negated by pass interference on Baltimore.



• If this ends up being Reed's final game (after the game, he said he was "50-50" about whether to retire after this season), it was yet another standout performance by the six-time Pro Bowler.



• The Ravens' fate was sealed when RB Ray Rice lost the ball on a long run into Colts territory.



• Indianapolis moves on to face former Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan's New York Jets in the AFC Championship.



• With the loss, the Ravens slipped back to second place in all-time postseason winning percentage (8-5). Only the Packers have a better postseason record, at 25-15.



• The Ravens have still never allowed a 100-yard rusher in the playoffs.

"I wanted to be the guy today to start fast... I wanted to be the guy to say this will be a fast-tempo game. We want the other team to play catch-up to us."

-- Ravens RB Ray Rice

The Ravens entered their Wild Card game in Foxborough, Massachusetts, with some bad history to get rid of. The Ravens had never beaten New England in five meetings, and although they had come close in the previous two contests (including a nationally televised 2007 game in which they nearly derailed New England's 16-0 regular season), the Patriots always seemed to get the benefit of penalties just when they needed them.

On the first play from scrimmage, the Ravens started to unload that irritation on the vaunted three-time Super Bowl Champions. Ray Rice took the handoff from QB Joe Flacco, found blocking on the left side, accelerated, and was gone for 83 yards. In just 17 seconds, the Ravens had taken the lead.

Then the defense went to work on QB Tom Brady. Brady's first pass was stopped for a gain of two yards. His second was stopped for a loss of three. LB Terrell Suggs made sure he didn't get to throw a third. Suggs took the ball out of Brady's hand and set the Ravens up in the red zone. Five running plays later, FB Le'Ron McClain rumbled into the end zone, and Baltimore was up 14-0 less than five minutes into the game.

New England started its next drive in a hole thanks to a Ray Lewis sack of Brady on first down, and the Patriots went three-and-out. On the following drive, CB Chris Carr picked off Brady's pass, setting the Ravens up with a short field again. A few plays later, Rice scored his second touchdown of the day. and the Ravens led 21-0.

But they still weren't done. On just the second play of the following drive, Brady tried a long pass to WR Sam Aiken. CB Domonique Foxworth tipped the ball away from Aiken, Ed Reed snatched the ball away and returned it 25 yards, then pitched the ball to SS Dawan Landry, who took it 25 more yards to set up a Ravens field goal.

When the first quarter came to a close, the Ravens led 24-0 in front of a frustrated Gillette Stadium crowd. "I'd have been booing us too, the way we played," said Tom Brady after the game. Continue reading "Ravens run all over New England"

The AFC North champion Bengals made a sad exit from the playoffs in a 24-14 loss to the New York Jets at chilly Paul Brown Stadium on Saturday.

Cincinnati scored first on an 11-yard pass from QB Carson Palmer to WR Laveranues Coles, but the Jets answered with a 39-yard touchdown run by rookie RB Shonn Greene and took the lead in the second quarter when rookie QB Mark Sanchez's pass from midfield was pulled in by TE Dustin Keller on the sideline. Keller walked the sideline like a tightrope and held the ball over the pylon to give New York their second touchdown, and the Bengals were never able to catch up.

According to NFL.com, this was the first time since the 1934 NFL championship that rookies from the same team scored a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown in a postseason game. (In 1934, both rookies were the same person, Giants QB Ed Danowski.)

The Jets' Mark Sanchez looked like anything but a rookie, finishing the day at 12 of 15 for 182 passing yards. The Bengals offense found itself thoroughly flustered by Rex Ryan's defense, starting with Carson Palmer, who completed only half of his pass attempts. Bengals WR Chad Ochocinco was effectively removed from the game by CB Darrelle Revis's blanketing pass coverage. Revis made an interception in the second quarter to set up the Jets' second scoring drive. Ochocinco didn't have his first reception of the game until the fourth quarter, when New York began to back off into a prevent defense format.

The lone bright spot for the Bengals was RB Cedric Benson, who racked up 169 rushing yards and scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to pull Cincinnati to within 7 points of the Jets. The Bengals tried to claw their way back into the game, but they couldn't get back into the end zone, and when PK Shayne Graham missed field goals of 35 and 28 yards, they were sunk.

The Jets will go on to face the San Diego Chargers in the Divisional Playoff round, while the Bengals are now going on 20 years without a playoff victory. Still, they have plenty of accomplishments to be proud of this year, including their second AFC North championship and an undefeated year in division play for the first time in their history.

Jets RB Freeman McNeil

Tomorrow, the New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals will face off at Paul Brown Stadium in the first game of the 2009 postseason. It's a playoff matchup that has happened once before, in memorable fashion, though Bengals fans are hoping for a different result this time.

The 1982 season was unusual, because almost half of the games were canceled by a player strike. There weren't enough games played for division records to be meaningful, so the NFL used a 16-team tournament format for the playoffs, with eight teams from each conference. The 7-2 Bengals earned the AFC's #3 seed and hosted the sixth-seeded, 6-3 Jets in the opening round.

Coach Forrest Gregg's Bengals entered the game favored to win as the defending conference champions.

The big question before the game was the status of Jets starting RB Freeman McNeil. McNeil led the league in rushing yards during the abbreviated 1982 season, but it was feared that a lingering hamstring injury would keep him from contributing much in the playoffs. McNeil was confident in the week leading up to the game, though:

"I'm not going to Cincinnati to lose. If I have to be Superman Sunday, that's what I'm going to be. We've come too far this season to lose. This team has a lot of pride and it's going to show Sunday."

The first quarter was full of long passing plays. The Bengals scored first in front of a supportive Riverfront Stadium crowd. They moved the ball from the Cincinnati 19 to the Jets' 32, and then QB Ken Anderson capitalized with a strike to WR Isaac Curtis for the opening touchdown. The Jets responded with a 49-yard pass from QB Richard Todd to WR Wesley Walker that set up a New York field goal.

Faced with a 3rd and 30 on the following drive, WR Cris Collinsworth burned the Jets with a 53-yard reception that set the Bengals up for another touchdown, and the home team led 14-3 at the end of the first quarter.

But "Superman" was about to make an appearance. Continue reading "Bengals history: 1982 First-round AFC Playoff vs. Jets"

The Cincinnati Bengals are in the unusual position of being able to choose their first playoff opponent. Their playoff position is secure heading into tonight's game at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. But its outcome will determine which team will claim the AFC's last open playoff spot. Either way, the game will be played next week at Paul Brown Stadium.

• If the Bengals win (or tie), they will be the #3 seed and will play the Houston Texans in the first-ever playoff appearance for the expansion franchise.
  


• If the Bengals lose, they will be the #4 seed and will turn around to play the New York Jets again next week.

Do the Bengals match up better against one opponent than the other? Is the difference enough to merit playing starters like Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco? We have seen vastly different approaches to meaningless or near-meaningless games in the last few weeks. The Colts showed no interest in winning even with the possibility of going undefeated, while the Patriots played some of their starters into the 4th quarter even after WR Wes Welker left the game with an injury. It will be interesting to see how head coach Marvin Lewis approaches the game. (Of course, for Texans and Jets fans, the choice may be crucial!)

This game will be the Bengals' last chance to get a win at Giants Stadium before the facility is torn down. They have never won there-- not against the Jets, and not against the Giants-- in ten tries.