At a time when Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco claims that coach Marvin Lewis has said the team will go all out on Sunday in an effort to beat the Jets, others think that the Bengals will be tempted to go easy on the Jets, since a win by New York will help keep the defending Super Bowl champs from defending their Super Bowl title.
Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley believes that Patriots and the Bengals will “lay down” against the Texans and Jets, respectively, in the hopes of keeping the Steelers out of the tournament.
“Cincinnati is probably going to go into New York and lay down for the Jets and not play them hard, just because they don’t want to see Pittsburgh in it, because they know if we get into the playoffs, we’re a dangerous team,” Woodley said after practice on Wednesday, according to WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh.
“All of them will lay down. No one wants to see Pittsburgh in it. That’s just how it is,” Woodley explained. “Like I said, everybody knows that we’re a dangerous team once we get into the playoffs. No matter how we played throughout the whole year, once we get in the playoffs, Pittsburgh Steelers is a playoff team.”
Woodley isn’t the only one who thinks that teams are tanking it against the likes of the Jets in order to keep the Steelers out. Several league and media insiders have expressed to us strong suspicion that the Colts’ real reason for yanking starters against the Jets on Sunday was to let the Jets into the postseason field, in the hopes of slamming the door on the Steelers, who went into Indy and beat the 14-2 Colts in the 2005 divisional round.
One Steelers source doesn’t think the Colts care.
“Our secondary would seem pretty inviting to [Peyton] Manning,” the source said.