Think about that for a second. The Cardinals, who like the Clippers in basketball and well, previously the Rays in baseball, were so dependably bad for years might win the Super Bowl. They've got the better quarterback, better receivers, the better offensive line, better special teams and the better wildcard in this game.
Their coach Ken Whisenhunt knows the Steelers like no other coach in the league aside from Steeler's coach Mike Tomlin. Whisenhunt ran the Steelers offense for years and has seen all of defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's blitz packages.
That's a huge advantage.
The only situation that was remotely similar was Jon Gruden coaching the Bucs against the Raiders in the Super Bowl. Gruden knew the Raiders offense and had his team so prepared to face it, that they knew how the plays would develop before they actually did.
I could see the same thing happening here. Whisenhunt might have his offense so well prepared that they'll be able to know who's blitzing and who's dropping into coverage before they even get set at the line of scrimmage. And if the line can protect Kurt Warner, he should be able to take apart the Cover 3 and Zone Blitz looks that the Steelers favor.
One more thing: I've heard a lot about how this will basically be a home game for the Steelers because their fans travel so well. I think the large number of non-fans who go to the Super Bowl neutralize the impact of the real fans there. Again, I point to the Raiders-Bucs Super Bowl, as much as I hate to remember that game. That game was in San Diego, where there's a huge contingent of Raiders fans who show up to every Raiders-Chargers game. They had no impact on the Super Bowl whatsoever.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl
Clearly, I know nothing about football. I give up trying to predict what's going to happen. The 9-7 Cardinals were supposed to be the worst team in the playoffs. They scored 427 points and gave up 426 in the season. That's terrible. They played in the worst conference in football. They gave up 56 points to the Jets, 48 to the Eagles on Thanksgiving and 47 to the Patriots in December. They're not supposed to be good, let alone in the Super Bowl.
There's only one logical conclusion: everyone is lousy this year, or at least severely flawed. The Eagles were a super shaky team that alternated between overachieving and underachieving. I, along with the rest of the world, wrote them off after the Ravens loss, and they managed to sneak into the playoffs with a 9-6-1 record. This was clearly the worst NFC championship game ever.
The best team in the conference, the Giants, had a quarterback that couldn't handle the winds of the Meadowlands despite having played there all year. Go figure.
Back to the Eagles, their biggest flaw was red zone and short yardage offense. They had problems converting short yardage situations all year. Ditto for Arizona, who also couldn't play defense.
Dallas was a paper tiger with a bunch of me-first primadonnas that sank the team with whining and poor effort. They also have the most unclutch quarterback ever in Tony Romo (a great place for ribs).
Carolina had Jake Delhomme at quarterback. Nuff said.
The Falcons were just OK on defense and had a rookie quarterback who didn't vary his snap count at all in a playoff game and cost his team the game. Seriously. Arizona jumped the snap on almost every play because they knew the count. That's a huge rookie mistake.
Green Bay couldn't play fourth quarter defense. The Bears' defense was mediocre, the offense inconsistent, and the special teams just ordinary. Minnesota has Brad Childress as its coach and the Tavaris Jackson/Gus Ferotte combo at quarterback.
I could go on and on, but that's pretty much it. Every team, at least in the NFC, had one killer flaw.
There's only one logical conclusion: everyone is lousy this year, or at least severely flawed. The Eagles were a super shaky team that alternated between overachieving and underachieving. I, along with the rest of the world, wrote them off after the Ravens loss, and they managed to sneak into the playoffs with a 9-6-1 record. This was clearly the worst NFC championship game ever.
The best team in the conference, the Giants, had a quarterback that couldn't handle the winds of the Meadowlands despite having played there all year. Go figure.
Back to the Eagles, their biggest flaw was red zone and short yardage offense. They had problems converting short yardage situations all year. Ditto for Arizona, who also couldn't play defense.
Dallas was a paper tiger with a bunch of me-first primadonnas that sank the team with whining and poor effort. They also have the most unclutch quarterback ever in Tony Romo (a great place for ribs).
Carolina had Jake Delhomme at quarterback. Nuff said.
The Falcons were just OK on defense and had a rookie quarterback who didn't vary his snap count at all in a playoff game and cost his team the game. Seriously. Arizona jumped the snap on almost every play because they knew the count. That's a huge rookie mistake.
Green Bay couldn't play fourth quarter defense. The Bears' defense was mediocre, the offense inconsistent, and the special teams just ordinary. Minnesota has Brad Childress as its coach and the Tavaris Jackson/Gus Ferotte combo at quarterback.
I could go on and on, but that's pretty much it. Every team, at least in the NFC, had one killer flaw.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Happy Birthday, Jake Delhomme!
For your 34th birthday, Jake, you're getting a backup quarterback job on a new team. Not much of a present, but the demotion is certainly justified. A whopping six turnovers for a team that was favored to win its game by more than 10 points.
Jake added a meaningless touchdown pass to Steve Smith with 50 seconds left with the game out of reach.
Final stats:
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT
J. Delhomme 17/34 205 6.0 1 5
FUM LOST REC
J. Delhomme 1 1 0
So the numbers improved slightly with that last meaningless drive, but that still should be enough to force Carolina to get a new QB in the offseason. I knew Delhomme had a bad performance in him, but I couldn't fathom that he'd crap the bed this much. His previous worst performance this year:
WEEK OPP RESULT CMP ATT YDS CMP% LNG TD INT RAT
10 @OAK W 17-6 7 27 72 25.9 27 1 4 12.3
Ouch. Not franchise QB numbers at all.
Jake added a meaningless touchdown pass to Steve Smith with 50 seconds left with the game out of reach.
Final stats:
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT
J. Delhomme 17/34 205 6.0 1 5
FUM LOST REC
J. Delhomme 1 1 0
So the numbers improved slightly with that last meaningless drive, but that still should be enough to force Carolina to get a new QB in the offseason. I knew Delhomme had a bad performance in him, but I couldn't fathom that he'd crap the bed this much. His previous worst performance this year:
WEEK OPP RESULT CMP ATT YDS CMP% LNG TD INT RAT
10 @OAK W 17-6 7 27 72 25.9 27 1 4 12.3
Ouch. Not franchise QB numbers at all.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Cards-Panthers
Jake Delhomme is putting on a bad performance for the ages. There's 2 minutes left in the game and these are his stats:
CP/AT YDS TD INT
J. Delhomme 14/30 171 0 5
Fumbles FUM LOST REC YDS
J. Delhomme 1 1 0 0
6 turnovers in one game. He's played his way off the team next season, that's for sure. I expect these numbers to get worse in the last two minutes. Cards are up 33-7 and Steve Smith has one catch for 35 yards. More on this game later.
CP/AT YDS TD INT
J. Delhomme 14/30 171 0 5
Fumbles FUM LOST REC YDS
J. Delhomme 1 1 0 0
6 turnovers in one game. He's played his way off the team next season, that's for sure. I expect these numbers to get worse in the last two minutes. Cards are up 33-7 and Steve Smith has one catch for 35 yards. More on this game later.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Miami has the Dolphins, the greatest football team?
Had a big viewing party for the Dolphins-Ravens game and it ended on a down note. The Fins lost big, but I should have seen that coming. The Dolphins' offense did not match up well against the Ravens' D. Pennington had his worst game of the season and the team just couldn't get anything going until the game was out of reach. On defense, the Dolphins were solid, but they couldn't get any pressure on Joe Flacco, and the Ravens physical running game wore that defense down by the end of the game.
The Eagles won the Bad Coaches Bowl in the second game of the day. I didn't watch much of the game, but I think I can safely say that both coaches were actively trying to avoid 3rd and short because neither team has been able to convert that all season. Of course, in the Eagles' case, when you NEVER run the ball on 3rd and 1 and you always settle for these rinky dink passes in the flat, you won't have much success with short yardage conversions. While the Ravens look like a Super Bowl team, I think the Eagles still have to notch an impressive win against a team that is not fundamentally flawed (i.e. not Dallas or Minnesota).
The Eagles won the Bad Coaches Bowl in the second game of the day. I didn't watch much of the game, but I think I can safely say that both coaches were actively trying to avoid 3rd and short because neither team has been able to convert that all season. Of course, in the Eagles' case, when you NEVER run the ball on 3rd and 1 and you always settle for these rinky dink passes in the flat, you won't have much success with short yardage conversions. While the Ravens look like a Super Bowl team, I think the Eagles still have to notch an impressive win against a team that is not fundamentally flawed (i.e. not Dallas or Minnesota).
Saturday, January 3, 2009
why i don't usually comment on hockey
I'm watching SportsCenter and they're showing NHL highlights where hockey star Sidney Crosby cheapshots a guy and gets into a fight. This is why I don't watch hockey. The NHL uses fights as a cheap sideshow to get people interested in the league. It's both pathetic and unprofessional. And unlike other sports where fights usually result in suspensions for the players involved, the NHL puts these guys in a penalty box for a few minutes and then lets them continue playing the game. This is why you see teams with players that have little ability save that of fighting to play the role of enforcer. If they dumped the fights, got rid of teams that don't play in cold weather states (looking right at you, Florida Panthers and LA Kings) and played more games outdoors (that visual is one of the best in sports), I'd actually start watching.
Ugh...the Colts
The Falcons lost, and whatever, they weren't great on the road this year and a rookie QB starting his first playoff game on the road isn't likely to win it. The Cardinals played a better game and came out with a better gameplan, neutralizing Michael Turner and putting the game in Matt Ryan's hands.
Ok, that's out of the way. Now to the more interesting game. The Colts and the Chargers. Save for one magical post-season when their running game and defense were clicking and Peyton led a remarkable comeback against the Pats, they have had post-season letdowns every year. Losing to the Pats is one thing. Those Patriot teams had better defenses. But to lose to San Diego two years in a row, especially this year's team that was a fluky 8-8 division champ, that should have never been in the playoffs to start with, that was only in because Herm Edwards is the worst clock manager in football by far, this loss was just indefensible and inexplicable. The Colts defense, built for speed, couldn't contain Darren Sproles.
The key play of the game though had the Colts on offense. Up 17-14 and trying to grind out the clock, the Colts had a 3rd and 2 on the Indy 9 yard line. There's two options and only two in this situation: run for the 1st down or play action fake and throw for the first down. That's it. Instead, inexplicably, the Colts come out lined up with in the shotgun with an empty backfield. This is the first time I've seen them come out in that formation all year. So of course, Manning gets sacked and they're forced to punt. And that was the game.
Ok, that's out of the way. Now to the more interesting game. The Colts and the Chargers. Save for one magical post-season when their running game and defense were clicking and Peyton led a remarkable comeback against the Pats, they have had post-season letdowns every year. Losing to the Pats is one thing. Those Patriot teams had better defenses. But to lose to San Diego two years in a row, especially this year's team that was a fluky 8-8 division champ, that should have never been in the playoffs to start with, that was only in because Herm Edwards is the worst clock manager in football by far, this loss was just indefensible and inexplicable. The Colts defense, built for speed, couldn't contain Darren Sproles.
The key play of the game though had the Colts on offense. Up 17-14 and trying to grind out the clock, the Colts had a 3rd and 2 on the Indy 9 yard line. There's two options and only two in this situation: run for the 1st down or play action fake and throw for the first down. That's it. Instead, inexplicably, the Colts come out lined up with in the shotgun with an empty backfield. This is the first time I've seen them come out in that formation all year. So of course, Manning gets sacked and they're forced to punt. And that was the game.
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