The Super Bowl in Review

          I don't think football fans could have asked for a better Super Bowl. Now the commercials, that's a different story. Between the story lines of Eli Manning playing in the "House that Peyton Built," Eli potentially being a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback if he wins, Brady and Belichick losing back-to-back Super Bowls to the same team, the impact Rob Gronkowski's injured ankle would have on the game, Julian Edelman playing as New England's "shutdown" corner, the list goes on and on.
          On a side note, the NFL finally picked someone who can sing an appropriate National Anthem with Kelly Clarkson. It wasn't too long, it wasn't too dramatic, there were no wardrobe malfunctions, and it wasn't self-centered. Now to the actual game....
           The consensus of most of the talking heads, "know-it-all" fans, and everyone else in the United States with the exception of Boston residents and the direct family members of the New England Patriots seemed to be that the New York Giants were going to win. Some predicted NYG by a field goal, while others thought it would be a blowout in their favor, but the point is the same--that Eli would lead the Giants to victory over Tom Brady and the Pats in their second meeting in the Super Bowl. All things considered, I don't think anyone expected the Giants to start the game as strong as they did. When the first quarter ended at 9-0 in favor of the Giants, I thought the game would be over by halftime because New York would be winning by such a large margin. Seeomg Tom Brady commit an intentional grounding penalty resulting in a safety shocked me. While it may not have been Brady's fault, that's not something we've grown to expect from the Patriots or their franchise player. One of the keys to a New York win was for its front four to put pressure on Brady and to see Justin Tuck force two quick points by forcing him to throw a pass deep downfield to no one seemed ominous for the Pats. At the end of the first, Eli capped off a seventy-eight yard drive with a short touchdown pass to Victor Cruz. I'm not sure if the pass was skill or luck but Eli fit the pass in right behind Brandon Spikes,who was dropping back into coverage and never saw the ball. Cruz bobbled the catch a few times but there were no defenders around to knock it out of his hands.
          The Patriots responded in the second quarter and took the lead 10-9 going into halftime. Brady led New England on two long scoring drives of sixty and ninety-six yards, the second of which resulted in Danny Woodhead scoring on his first receiving touchdown of the season. Brady was lights out on offense in the second quarter and at one point he completed fourteen straight passes. With Gronkowski limited due to his injury, Aaron Hernandez, New England's lesser-known but equally-talented tight end, was Tom Brady's favorite target. Hernandez had eight receptions for sixty-seven yards and one touchdown.
          The halftime show was a huge improvement from the Black Eyed Peas' performance acoustic nightmare last year. I didn't think Madonna was amazing because, frankly, I think it is impossible to have an A+ performance at the Super Bowl, where artists are forced to recreate a multiple-hour concert in twelve minutes inside a dome filled with judgmental fans, half of which probably doesn't like that artist's music. The incorporation of younger, more modern artists made the show much more exciting, with LMFAO, Cee Lo Green, Nicki Minaj, and M.I.A. It's sad that M.I.A. had to flip off the camera, but we've grown to almost expect something scandalous from the halftime show.  While it was incredibly innappropriate, in the scheme of things, it was not nearly as bad as Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction," which is still fresh in our memory.
          The Patriots continued their scoring in the second half, when they received the opening kickoff of the third quarter and drove seventy-nine yards down the field for a touchdown as they extended their lead to 17-9. Lawrence Tynes hit a pair of field goals in the third quarter to bring the Giants' deficit to only two points entering the fourth quarter.
          Both teams exchanged punts before New York started its game-winning drive with 3:46 remaining in the game. Eli Manning had been fantastic in the fourth quarter all season long, and his late-game heroics continued when he connected with Mario Manningham on their first play for thirty-eight yards down the sideline, bringing the Giants to midfield. In the 2008 Super Bowl, the play that is still played over and over again is David Tyree's catch against his helmet over Rodney Harrison that led to New York beating New England at the end of the game. Different wide receiver. Different defensive back. Same team. Same game. Same result. Eli Manning made the pass of his life by fitting the ball in the narrowest of spaces to Manningham's outside shoulder, where he was able to catch the ball in double coverage and drag both feet on the ground before being forced out by Patrick Chung. The Patriots challenged the ruling on the field and lost, which also hurt them because they lost a timeout. With a few more short pass plays and a run by Ahmad Bradshaw, the New York Giants were at the Patriots goal line with roughly one minute left in the game. The Patriots decided to let the Giants score in order to give Brady a chance for a game-winning drive of his own, so Ahmad Bradshaw had a gaping hole to run through and tried to fall on the one-yardline, but ended up stumbling and squatting backwards into the endzone.
          Brady and the rest of the offense hustled onto the field to try to regain the lead, but dropped passes killed the Patriots. Both Wes Welker and Deion Branch dropped passes, but despite their shortcomings, Brady was able to launch the ball into the endzone on the last play of the game but it was batted down and the Giants won.
         
          That win did not guarantee Eli a spot in the Hall of Fame, but as Mike & Mike said on their radio show today, he is on the trajectory of his career to someday be a Hall of Famer. While Eli played very well in the Super Bowl, I don't think he outplayed Brady. Their numbers were very similar and Eli has a much better receiving core. Gronk was out for the Pats, Ochocinco and Branch are old, so Welker and Hernandez were Brady's only two legitimate options. Plus, the game may have had a different ending if the Patriots' receivers were able to hold onto the ball on their final drive. Even though New England lost, the season was by no means a failure. They overachieved if anything. They went 13-3 in the regular season and still made it to the Super Bowl with a sub-par defense, especially in the secondary, and Tom Brady ran the entire offense with virtually one threat alongside him. And don't forget that they only beat one team with a winning record all season long, so it's very impressive that they made it that far by beating teams that were .500 or worse. They shouldn't have drafted Ryan Mallet in the third round of the draft last year when they knew he won't play for at least five or six years. They need to make some major improvements  on defense, the offensive line, and with their wide receivers for next season if they want to capitalize on the Brady-Belichick Era before Brady starts his decline. Their schedule next season lacks any elite quarterbacks on the opposing teams, so the Patriots will most likely host a playoff game again next season.

Super Bowl Preview 2012

No NFL Team Will Finish with a "0" in Its Record

            Most football fans had taken Green Bay's 13-0 record and Indianapolis' 0-13 record for granted. Everyone assumed for the first time in NFL history there would be an undefeated team and a team that lost every game. However, the Kansas City Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts had different intentions on Sunday.
            Entering their game on Sunday, the Packers had impressively won nineteen games in a row. Also, Green Bay is widely considered the current Super Bowl favorite, which begged the question, "When would the Packers lose again?" While the media may deserve part of the blame for shoving microphones in the players' faces and asking them about their chances on an undefeated season, Green Bay got caught looking too far ahead of themselves. They had three winnable regular season games left. One at Kansas City, followed by home games against the division rivals the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions. The Chiefs were having a horrendous year, losing five out of six entering the game against Green Bay and their only wins came against the Vikings, Colts, Raiders (Carson Palmer's first game where Oakland's quarterbacks threw six interceptions), Chargers in overtime, and the Bears with their depleted offense. Green Bay would win handily against the Chicago Bears at home with Jay Cutler and Matt Forte out for the season with injuries. The Packers would then go on to beat the imploding Lions to finish the season. Green Bay would be the #1 seed in the NFC and own the luxuries of a first round bye and home field advantage. However, this scenario is overlooking win number fourteen against the Chiefs.
            Arrowhead Stadium has historically been one of the worst stadiums for opposing players, so Sunday would be no walk in the park for the Packers. The Chiefs has nothing to lose. They are last in the AFC West and were three games below .500 before beating Green Bay. Kansas City has played three different quarterbacks and have unsuccessfully been trying to establish an identity this season. They have two standout players in wide receiver Dwayne Bowe and linebacker Derrick Johnson, but the rest of the Chiefs players are by no means stars. While Kansas City may not have an abundance of individual talent, as a whole they showed real character when their season is over but they still compete for four quarters. The Chiefs were playing to prove themselves against the best team in the league, to be the one blemish on Green Bay's probable 19-1 season. That's something Chiefs players can tell their grandchildren someday--that they were the ones who ended Green Bay's 19-game win streak an perfect season bid. After watching game film, football analysts are still trying to figure out how an underdog like Kansas City was able to knock off the unbeaten giant of the NFL. The biggest explanation to take away is time of possession. The Chiefs had the ball for 36 minutes to Green Bay's 24 minutes.  The Chiefs were able to run seventy plays against the Packers and maintained an even distribution between passing and running the ball. While no single Kansas City running back had a great statistical game, the Chiefs were able to pound the ball down the field on the ground for 140 yards and take a lot of time off the clock. In addition to rushing the ball, newly acquired quarterback Kyle Orton was able to spread out the field on offense by finding ten different receivers for three-hundred yards. The key was to run the ball often and keep Aaron Rodgers on the sideline for as long as possible. Other teams will break down the film of this game and develop similar game plans to limit Green Bay's scoring opportunities.
            Similar to Kansas City, the Indianapolis Colts had a pride factor kick in against the Tennessee Titans. It is absolutely embarrassing to step onto the national spotlight every week and come out on the losing side each time. The Colts had a great opportunity to record their first win against the struggling Titans at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Colts defense stepped up to force two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, and they knocked Matt Hasselbeck out of the game. On offense, they took the pressure off of Dan Orlovsky by running the ball for the majority of their offensive plays. Running back Donald Brown had a huge game for Indy, rushing for 161 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries. It was great to see the Peyton Manning-less Colts come together and win a game. They may have the opportunity to double their win total against the Texans if Houston decides to rest their starters or on the last game of the season against the dismal Jacksonville Jaguars. 
            It would have been quite a season to have a 16-0 team as well as an 0-16 team, but in the big picture these games will have little to no impact on the playoffs or Super Bowl champion. Green Bay will learn from its mistakes against the Chiefs and will face the Bears on Christmas Day with a whole new energy we have yet to see from the Packers. The Colts will most likely lose their last two games, have the number one overall draft pick and select Andrew Luck.

It's Hard to Lose with Chicago's Defense

                The Chicago Bears got revenge at Soldier Field today after losing to the Detroit Lions in Week 5 at Detroit. The Bears were able to score in four different ways today and what is most promising for Chicago is that they were able to win despite Jay Cutler having a mediocre game. Cutler went 9-19 for 123 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. Matt Forte also had a bit of an off-night with only 64 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. However, the Bears defense and special teams carried the team against the Lions. Detroit never got into an offensive rythm after turning the ball over on their first two possessions in both halves. Detroit's fumbles, both lost by wide receivers, turned into ten easy points for the Bears and they never looked back. The second quarter started with a Robbie Gould field goal and less than a minute later, after the Lions went three-and-out, Devin Hester returned his NFL-leading 12th career punt for a touchdown. Despite being questionable leading up to the game he turned a mishandled punt into his third special teams touchdown this season. The Lions went into halftime down 20-6 and their woes continued when quarterback Matthew Stafford threw two pick-sixes on consecutive possessions to Major Wright and Charles Tillman. After Stafford's third interception to Tim Jennings, he took his anger out on Bears defender D.J. Moore, tackling him by his helmet, setting off a chain reaction that escalated along the Lions' sideline. Moore ended up charging back at Stafford before getting pummeled by two Lions players. Moore ended up getting ejected from the game, but that was the least of his worries since his team was up 37-6 in an absolute rout of Detroit.

Courtesy of  http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14112011/5/photo/14112011004810.html (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

                     The Lions picked up a touchdown in garbage time, but seven more points could not heal Detroit after such a bad loss. While I wasn't thrilled with the Bears' offense, this was the type of game I love watching Chicago play. They didn't rely on Cutler trying to throw the ball across the field and be Tom Brady, but their defense forced six turnovers and they scored three touchdowns while their offense was on the sideline. Chicago definitely has a long way to go to make it to the playoffs, but having such a potent defense and special teams that can both limit their opponent's scoring opportunities and find their way to the endzone will give them an extra advantage against most of the Bears' opponents. As seen by Stafford's temper tantrum, a defense as good as Chicago's gets in the heads of their opponents and causes them to make more mistakes later in the game.The Chicago Bears are in great position at 6-3 in second place in the NFC North behind the Super Bowl Champion Packers. With a few more stellar performances by the Bears defense and if Hester can continue to tear it up on special teams, Chicago has great chances at making it to the playoffs, hopefully after finishing first place in the NFC North.