Go get 'em, T.O.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Paul Daugherty wrote in a column Wednesday that Terrell Owens should get some credit for sacking up and playing Sunday on half a leg.

It's true. If it was almost anybody else, we'd be making Willis Reed comparisons. But because T.O. is a little er uh flamboyant, anything he says or does now is scrutinized for the worst possible motives.

I'll make two predictions for this game as regards Mr. Owens:

1. Don't expect Andy Reid to call any running plays that require Owens to get anywhere near the line and block. One of them Patriots would whip the leg for sure, Karate Kid style.
2. The first time the Eagles make a first down, the very next play they will throw a home run ball to Owens. Not for the last time. The Patriots secondary needs to be stretched deep if you want to have any hope of beating their defense. You have absolutely got to make Rodney Harrison and Eugene Wilson, the Pats' safeties, help their sub-par corners. Otherwise they will be killing your tight end in the middle, doubling Westbrook out of the backfield, spying McNabb, and that sort of fun shit.

I have no earthly idea why the Steelers did not do this. Roethlisberger can certainly make that throw, and they have two (really, three) excellent wide receivers. Yet they stubbornly continued to try and pound the ball, and Bettis disappeared under a pile of New England linebackers and safeties. Harrison's interception return for a TD, he jumped an out to who? Right, the tight end. Why wasn't he back in a two-deep? Because the Steelers did not force him to be.

Andy Reid will not make this mistake.