The Bizarro Bowl

by dave on February 8, 2010

We should have known that the defense would make the game-sealing play in Super Bowl XLIV.

When everything leading up to that point in the game had been the opposite of what we had expected, it was only fitting that with the game on the line, an unheralded defensive back from the Saints would make a play.

Just think about some of the things we saw in this game:

- The Colts having a more impressive running game than the Saints

- Queen Latifah going with the understated jeans look for singing God Bless America

- The Saints using a controlled short passing game to move up and down the field at will on the Colts defense

- Jay Leno appearing in an ad for the Late Show with David Letterman

- The Saints, rather than the Colts, making adjustments at halftime to change the course of the game

- Only one shot of the Manning family suite

- The old veteran kicker from the Colts missing while the young kicker from the Saints went 3 for 3

- Back to back ads featuring guys not wearing pants.

- An on-side kick outside of the final two minutes that was successful

How many of these things would you have been willing to bet on before the game? Any of them?

Yet, we saw them all and to me that is what defined this Super Bowl. Everything was the opposite of what we expected coming in

Everyone rushes to put Super Bowls in their historic context immediately after the confetti lands on the Lombardi trophy, but this year is going to be tough. Where does this fall?

After the last two years in which the game could be instantly classified (Giants over Pats: biggest upset in Super Bowl history; Steelers over Cardinals: top-five entertaining game) this year isn’t as easily categorizable (I don’t think that is a word either but you know what I mean).

Maybe above and beyond this game putting a light smudge on Peyton Manning’s incredible career (would Joe Montana or John Elway have ever thrown an interception on the final game winning drive in a Super Bowl?), maybe it is also the early warning sign of a shift in the tectonic plates of NFL power.

Historically, we may look back on Super Bowl XLIV as the bowl in which momentum shifted back to the NFC. After a decade of dominance in which the best teams and quarterbacks all played in the AFC, maybe this game shows that the power of in the game is going back to the NFC where it sat for all of the 80’s and most of the 90’s.

Two times in three years, the most heralded team in football, teams seriously contemplating completing a perfect season, led by a quarterback being compared against the greatest of all time brought their teams into the Super Bowl and lost to an underdog. And as you look across the NFC, there are a number of real contenders, while in the AFC we are beginning to see the relics of three potential dynasties that haven’t been able to re-load as they have lost talent and aged.

The Saints are a young team and as they continue to strengthen their defense are built for continued success. The Cowboys might have gotten over a major mental block this year. The Vikings’ only deficiencies sit in their Head Coach office and their reliance on a 40-year old quarterback incapable of making a decision in the off-season and in-capable of not making the big mistake in the big games. The Cardinals could pick up right where they left off with Leinart replacing Warner.

We have all been brainwashed to believe AFC teams are superior to NFC. Maybe the lesson of this Super Bowl is that we can no longer do that. The Saints proved that starting with that supposition is completely wrong.

Unlike all of those announcers on TV who are never held to account for their picks being wrong, I will take this opportunity to point out how wrong I was. I was exactly 180 degrees wrong to be precise.

I picked a final score of 31-17 last week.

I just picked the Colts to be the team scoring 31.

However, being proven completely wrong doesn’t change how happy I am that the Saints won. After the 5 year struggle to re-emerge from the devastation of Katrina, no town, state or region has ever been more deserving of a three week celebration than New Orleans and the entire gulf coast.

In fact I can honestly say that I have never been happier or cheered harder for a team not named the Broncos to win the Super Bowl. I know I am not alone in that there are a lot of us around the country that cheered like a bayou local last night and when Tracy Porter returned that interception for the game-sealing touchdown let out a yelp heard all the way down on St. Charles Street.

Who would have thought that the Saints could one day be the most unifying Super Bowl champion the country has ever seen.

Bizarro indeed.

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Here’s What Really Happened

by dave on February 5, 2010

When I was growing up one of my favorite movies was Clue. I was always a detective geek and the classic locked mansion murder mystery was my Star Trek. The first time we rented the videotape (kids, ask your parents), I remember seeing the three alternate endings and wondering if we rented a different copy would there be three other endings. Like a movie Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (kids, you may need to go to your grandparents for that one) each tape would bring different possible resolutions.

While the movie made each scenario as possible as the last, the final one was introduced with the placard “now, here is what really happened” and of course found a way to incriminate the entire cast – like a modern day Murder on the Orient Express (kids…umm… maybe grandparents again? If you have great-grandparents you can try them).

Anyway, in honor of Clue, I have decided to not just provide one preview of the Super Bowl but three separate previews with the final one being what will really happen. Almost like I am getting ready for my March Madness brackets a month early.

Scenario #1: The Saints are exposed as frauds and are steamrolled by the Colts machine. The Saints showed serious deficiencies toward the end of the season losing at home to the Bucs (seriously, the Bucs!) and have the 20th ranked defense. If the wide receivers can’t get open or Brees doesn’t have time to wait for them, then the Colts could do what they do and we could be looking at a 21-3 halftime that puts everyone to sleep even before The Who come on. The Who will also be struggling to stay awake but that is mostly because halftime comes about 2 hours after their own bedtimes.

Scenario #2: The lack of running game finally catches up with the Colts. Has a Super Bowl champion ever had the worst running game in the league? Let’s say the Saints clamp down on Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark and the already jittery young, unproven Colts wide receivers can’t get open for Peyton. The lack of running game could leave the Colts machine stuck in neutral. The Saints pop one or two big plays and their running game grinds out the clock.

Those are both perfectly acceptable possibilities for what could occur. But here is what will really happen.

The first half will inevitably be choppy as nerves impact the ability to make plays and both teams feel each other out like boxers in the early rounds of a championship fight (at least they did the last time I watched a fight which was probably back when Peyton Manning was still losing to Florida every fall).

The Colts won’t be able to run and will settle into an approach of short passes, probing and prodding the Saints defense. The Saints will have some success running the ball but won’t be able to sustain long drives as their big plays get shut down by the Colts secondary. A couple field goals in the first quarter and maybe one touchdown for each team in the second quarter, as Peyton finally finds a weakness and exploits it while the Saints finally get a big play out of their stable of playmakers. 13-10 Colts at the half.

Barring Reggie Bush taking over the game like he did against the Cardinals, the Saints just won’t be able to cobble together enough offense to offset the machine that is the Colts. As the second half wears on, the Colts are able to slowly grind down the Saints offense and slowly pull away, one long touchdown drive at a time. Final score: 31 – 17 Colts.

My logical side wants to talk about how the Saints will win due to the lack of running game for the Colts and their big-play ability but there is just one factor I can’t get over. A factor that is “six-five, 230-pound quarterbacks with a… laser rocket arm”. As I said the other day, this all comes down to the quarterbacks and right now Peyton is playing as close to perfect football as we have seen since the old Forty-Niner juggernauts.

I really wish I could come up with some unique spin on the game that all the experts are missing so I can call them all idiots (and for once be justified in my name calling). But I can’t.

Much like Jim Nantz owns CBS. Peyton owns the NFL right now. We are all just pawns in their chess game for global domination.

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