reactions Archive

The ‘I told you so’ post died with 4 minutes to go

By
Zuri
Published: February 7, 2010Tags: , , , , ,
The ‘I told you so’ post died with 4 minutes to go

The New Orleans Saints' Tracy Porter returns an interception for a touchdown. It was the deal breaker.

Man, it sucks to be wrong. But I’m glad I am.

There’s no way I should take a loss well after my last post, but I think I can accept this one. The New Orleans Saints were galvanized by the soul of their city (no laughing matter) for a 31-17 win in the Super Bowl. It showed when they came out in the second half, immediately puncturing the placidity of the game with a successful onside kick. (Surely an instant addition to the best plays in Super Bowl history.)

The scrum in that pile was some of the most inspiring stuff I’ve seen in a long time, with players grappling and fighting with one another for almost five minutes. Five minutes.

Five minutes.

Tracy Porter’s interception on Peyton Manning’s go-to play (a three-step drop and slant pattern to one of three receivers) was the obvious deal breaker. But it was the constant poise of quarterback Drew Brees — an accurate 32-of-39 for 288 yards and two touchdowns in the game — that paced an almost methodic New Orleans team. He was much better than I could have ever expected. (A whopping 114 quarterback rating.)

And it was because of his long passes to Marques Colston, two-point conversion to Lance Moore and dump offs to Jeremy Shockey and company, that the Saints were able to keep the Colts and Manning off the field long enough to stunt Indianapolis’ fast start.

I’m just glad the Saints won in this fashion. Because it was suspenseful. It was inspired. It was a culmination of an amazing season and an even more amazing Cinderella story for the city of New Orleans. Prospects of a Saints win were doubtful all the way up until Shockey scored that touchdown. It was pretty much a guarantee that the Colts were going to beat the spread (-6).

Everything unraveled on that onside kick. That Saints recovery meant everything to the team — its first break of the game. And it kept Manning off the field long enough for Brees and company to finally put six on the board the old fashioned way.

Amazing.

And yes, I’m glad to be wrong about the outcome.

A turnover special, referees put Saints in Super Bowl

By
Zuri
Published: January 25, 2010Tags: , , , ,
A turnover special, referees put Saints in Super Bowl

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints, beneficiaries of six fumbles (three lost) and two interceptions as well as two questionable calls by the referees in overtime, giving the “Who Dat” nation a superb 31-28 overtime victory against the bumbling Minnesota Vikings.

Somewhere in Louisiana, kicker Garrett Hartley is getting laid.

Hartley’s 40-yard game-winning field goal came on the heels of a questionable catch by Robert Meachem (trapped on the ground) and a phantom pass interference penalty on the Vikings’ Ben Leber (barely touched him). Both plays put the Saints in just enough distance for the second-year player to nail the field goal comfortably.

But don’t think these minuscule observations are reason to believe the Saints won — or rather the Vikings lost. The game’s result is a product of all four quarters. And in this case, five. The Vikings played like crap, losing the turnover battle which proved to be the team’s downfall.

All week long, critics remarked that if the New York Jets had beaten the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, it would’ve been ironic because it was the Colts who could’ve knocked the Jets out of the playoffs before they even got started. Well that didn’t happen. But as the Vikings and Saints game wore on, casual observers could note how many times the Vikings could’ve put the Saints away (twice) if they had not turned the ball over. Their mistakes came back to bite them.

Adrian Peterson, a fantasy treasure, accelerated his abnormal fumbling adding two on the day (nine on the season) and Brett Favre ended his third consecutive season (with three different teams) on an interception. Two of those games were in the NFC championship.

While the Vikings might have lost this game, the Saints certainly played their part. The combination of Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas at running back, carried New Orleans throughout the game. And despite only 69 yards rushing between them, and only one touchdown, they each came up with huge plays to give the Saints new life and capitalize on Minnesota’s mistakes. Thomas’ 4th-and-inches run proved pivotal and Bush’s 5-yard screen pass for a touchdown in the fourth quarter was a key turning point.

A couple of storylines that will most definitely appear after this game:

  • What will Brett Favre do next? — I’m soooo glad we don’t have to go through two weeks of Favre stories. But I’m sad that now we’ll be subjected to six to seven months of Favre watch.

  • New Orleans is playing in its first ever Super Bowl — With all that New Orleans has been through, this positive is long overdue.

  • Peyton Manning vs. Drew Brees — The inevitable great quarterback matchup. I’ll likely dissect this one here.

  • Peyton Manning vs. Archie Manning’s legacy team — Ain’t nothing like a good ol’ family story about how Peyton will be facing the team of his father.

Is there something I’m forgetting?

The fallacy of picking the New York Jets

By
Zuri
Published: January 24, 2010Tags: , ,
The fallacy of picking the New York Jets

Trey Wingo put it accurately in the midst of the the New York Jets crumbling to the Indianapolis Colts: The Colts attempted to win 14 games, and they won 14 games.

Good point Wingo.

Now with an AFC championship in tow, the Colts are headed to the Super Bowl on the heels of demolishing the hottest team in the NFL, 30-17. I should’ve been looking at all the signs of a bad pick on my part.

  • I found myself becoming fond of the Jets’ team personality – It’s never a good sign when you’re picking a game and the reasons are influenced by how loose one team is over the the other.

  • The deficiency of the Jets’ offensive play-calling was astounding — As I noted to my roommate, the Jets were showing their cards too soon. All of their trick plays, a wildcat fake screen pass and a some new misdirection runs, were all run in the second quarter. Subsequently, the Jets scored all 17 of their points in that period. I should’ve taken into account how the Jets would respond in later quarters, regardless of an 8 1/2 point spread.

  • Peyton Manning — I used to tell people, never bet against Peyton Manning. He’s a killer quarterback and he’s a lock in most situations. But even I was skeptical with the spread.

This was one of those games that went according to script for the Colts. The Jets made their run, but were unable to sustain an offense that is junior varsity in comparison. While Mark Sanchez was crisp (17-of-30 for 257 yards and two touchdowns), there was no rabbit getting pulled out of the hat when the team fell behind. Remember, the onus of the Jets was to live up to their defensive hype and shut down the league’s most valuable player and his many weapons. While one receiver was taken out of the game (Reggie Wayne had three catches for 55 yards), two others blew up. Pierre Garcon had 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown while Austin Collie had seven catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. All on the one side of the field cornerback Darrelle Revis was not playing.

Apparently, the Jets didn’t understand that they needed to adjust to give their other corner, Lito Sheppard, more help.