Ancient of Days on :
come on, you stupid blog package, give me the right IP address already - 10.0.1.1 is completely useless!
Thursday, January 31. 2008The View from the Crossbar
Well we are almost there. That magical last game, that pits the NFC best vs. the AFC best. The AFC squad looks tough and hard to beat, but the NFC squad seems to be a bit more scrappy. At least the losing team though will get to enjoy a weekend in Hawaii.
What? Oh wait you mean the game everyone is looking forward to is the Super Bowl? Well, I guess we can talk about that game as well, but before we do let's review a couple things that were shown during conference championship weekend. Welcome Back, Kotter
Well it took longer than expected but the real Brett Favre finally showed up. Too bad for Packers fans it was in the Playoffs, as Favre had a pretty miserable Second half, that ended with a terrible pass being picked off by the G-Men. This is not to discredit the Giants Defense that played a great game, but Favre was back in full force, even at one point throwing a typical Favre special interception in the third quarter. And as is usually customary with Favre the media is giving him yet another Free pass. Favre is no doubt a great qb. He's in the top 10. Some would argue top 5, not I though. However that does not excuse the fact that Favre has a history of killing his team with horrible interceptions and general gunslinger mentality. About that game Now onto the actual Super Bowl itself. There's a lot of talk of people who want you to believe the Giants have a chance. Don't believe them, they don't. First people will tell you that the Giants almost beat the Patriots in week 17. This is true. However the Giants played probably their best Football of the year for the first 50 minutes of that game. And Still the Patriots were hanging around, despite not playing their best. And then the Giants fell a part, it what was a 10 minute display of everything not to do. To beat the Patriots a team must play perfect for all 60 minutes. They must even take a gamble or two. Settling for field goals (This means you SD) will not cut it. The Patriots are always hanging around, and always make it seem like they are in complete control of a game no matter what the scoreboard says. Next people will talk about the relentless pressure the Giants Defensive front 4 has, and how they will hassle Tom Brady. Really this same front 4 that only managed a single sack against Brady in week 17. A performance that caused one friend of the Crossbar to remark that Brady must have mirrors on his OL's helmets the way he's moving out of these guys' way. Third, you'll hear how the Patriots have looked beatable the last two months. Which they have. They haven't been steamrolling opponents like they did the first half of the season. And while they may struggle at times, the key for the Patriots is they never lose control. Take the Pittsburgh game for example when Randy Moss fumbled a lateral. Rather than react to the fumble, the Patriots merely kept going with the play. Pittsburgh db's reacted and moved up to recover the fumble, Moss picked it up, tossed it back to Brady. Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing, TD, Dagger. Finally the motivation factor. The Giants have been playing the we're disprespected card. Trouble is, that card has been copyrighted by the Patriots, who find motivation out of even the tiniest things. And to make it worse, Plaxico Burress had to open his mouth and guarantee a Victory for the Giants. Ask the Steelers what happened the last time someone guaranteed a victory against the Patriots. It all adds up against the Giants. True MVP Recently Tom Brady was awarded the league's MVP Pick. He is a fine choice, however he is also the easy choice. Watching the Patriots this season I notice they did have the league MVP on their roster, but it shouldn't have been Brady. It should have gone to a WR, and not Moss. WR Wes Welker had a phenomenal year for the Patriots leading the team in Receptions, but what made Welker so Valuable was the fact that he took over the middle and the short zones for the Patriots. Whenever Teams would focus and double team Moss, Welker went to work. He would force the teams to focus on him, and lessen coverage on Moss. Brady would then take advantage and hit Moss for the TD. Brady might have been the limelight, Moss may have broke the WR records, but Welker was the cog. Predictions As you've already guessed I'm picking the Patriots to be victorious, and while at Halftime the scoreboard will say it's close, the truth is it won't. The Patriots will come out in the second half and finish off a 17 point SB Victory. MVP Will go to Brady of course. After a riveting, and somewhat controversial show last year, This year's Halftime show will severely dissapoint, as will the commercials which will continue the recent trend of too many beer/bad taste commercials. Next Week Next week the crossbar will sign off for a few months, with a review of the Patriots 19-0 season, a discussion of their place in history, and Why the NFL is improperly using the Pro Bowl. Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
Ancient of Days on :
come on, you stupid blog package, give me the right IP address already - 10.0.1.1 is completely useless!
Ancient of Days on :
Oh, look everyone - Sideshow is a funny man!
|
Handy LinksItems of InterestCategoriesBlog AdministrationSyndicate This BlogPowered byTheme dropdownBookmark |