Super Bowl Thoughts – As Tedy Bruschi said after the game, “we’re a team that lives for the free tee shirts and hats games……” Did the game play out as I expected? No. It wasn’t until the 3rd quarter that NE started going 4 and 5 wide and spreading out Philly’s defense. They started running screens off that formation and opened up the game for them. From the Eagles standpoint, I said going into it they needed McNabb to have an error free game in order for them to win, and obviously that didn’t happen. I don’t care how many yards he threw for, for a guy who threw only 8 interceptions on the year, for him to throw 3 in the Super Bowl, is just unacceptable. Do you credit the Patriots defense or did McNabb just have a bad day??? (yes sarcasm is dripping off the page right now….). I tip my hat to Owens for a courageous game. What he did was unbelievable. Westbrook also played well for Philly. From the Patriots standpoint, it was once again a huge team effort. Branch, Brady, Dillon, Bruschi, Harrison, Seymour all played excellent. In the 2nd quarter their depleted secondary took another hit with the broken arm of cornerback Eugene Wilson so they inserted their 51st player on the roster and kept going….. In the end, New England just wore Philly down, and even when the Eagles got the ball back with 46 seconds left, did any one think Philly could score? They were not just beaten physically but mentally as well. NE is a great, dominate team who have won 34 of their last 37 games(some by close scores, some by blowouts), which is something no team in the history of football has done. Did you realize that the combined regular-season record of the New England opponents was 40-8. Based on regular-season records of opponents, that makes this the most difficult Super Bowl title in NFL history. The previous best combined regular-season record of opponents on the way to a Super Bowl title was the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs, at 34-7-1. Which leads me into my next topic.
The “D” Word – Are the Patriots a dynasty? Five years ago that would have been like saying “Halle Berry is going to win an Oscar some day”. Seriously what were the odds of that happening?? Everyone seems to have an opinion on this dynasty thing, so I’ll throw mine out too. Yes I feel they are a dynasty but not one of the great “teams” of all time. You look at some of the rosters of the great teams, the 85 Bears, the Steelers in the 70’s, the 49ers in the 80’s, Packers in the 60’s, Boys in the 90’s, Browns in the 50’s, they were all filled with stars. New England, in this era of salary cap, has to approach it differently. They may not have the best 22 players on the roster, but they have the best 53. They are able to fill holes when starters go down with injuries and not miss a beat. They have an owner, player director and head coach who are all on the same page about what type of players they want (how unusual to say that in sports today?) and they stick to that philosophy. With the salary cap it’s hard to stay on top now. Look at the teams in recent years that have made it to the Super Bowl. They’ll have 1 or 2 years, then they blow out the cap, have to unload talented veterans and start over from scratch again. Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Tennessee, Oakland and Carolina are all teams that in the last 5 or 6 years each built themselves up, made it to the Super Bowl (some won, some didn’t), but then had trouble with the cap, age, etc… and had to retool their teams. Just look at the NFL draft this year. Tampa Bay picks 5th, Tennessee 6th, Oakland 7th, Carolina 14th and St. Louis 19th. As Jerry Glanville so elegantly said one time, “you know what the NFL stands for don’t you? Not For Long…..”. That holds true nowadays more than ever…. As for New England, who knows what’s going to happen to them over the next couple years. They’ve lost their offensive and defensive coordinators, so that is priority one over the next few weeks. I’m sure Belichick has been preparing for this but it’ll be interesting to see who he picks. From a salary cap standpoint, they’re pretty well set. They have two contracts that will need to be addressed. Brady (who has already gone on record saying he’s willing to renegotiate) and Ty Law who keeps going back and forth on whether he wants out or is willing to stay and take less (his latest is that he’s willing to talk). From my standpoint, Law is expendable, let him go. If you’re Belichick you can always replace a cornerback, no matter how good. Keep the rest of the defense in place, and keep acquiring as many talented players as possible. The formula has worked great, why stop now? So to recap, dynasty? Yes. One of the all time great teams? No.
Jose Canseco – With his new book scheduled to come out next week, reports are saying that he’s naming some former players like McGuire, Giambi, Palmerio, Gonzalez and Pudge Rodriguez as steroid users. Well as you can imagine, they are denying any usage.
My opinion? Innocent until more information comes out (with the obvious exception of Giambi, which the information has already come out)……. One persons accusation shouldn’t ruin someones career, but I do feel they shouldn’t also just be blown off as baseless accusations. We’ll have to wait to see if anyone else steps forward and can corroborate Canseco’s story (Pudge, is it true you got your nickname when you, Jose and Raphael were doing Viagra together???)…… Until I read the book and see what else in it, I’ll withhold judgement, but needless to say, this storyline is dominating the airways right now and will continue to be a big story. I'll have more on this next week.
Donald Young – Yes, I know right now you’re saying, “huh,who is Donald Young?” Well in my never ending quest to allow you to win bar bets, he’s the future of men’s tennis. At 15, this American is the youngest ever ranked number 1 junior player in the world. He won the Australian Open Junior Title this year and became the first American to win the Australian since Andy Roddick did it back in 2000. As a left hander, he is frequently compared to John McEnroe. Ok, now your informed about the future of men’s tennis.
Link of the Week –
This takes balls to do this……. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050208/80/fbzpn.html
Until next week,
Bill
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment