Super Bowl XLVI, The Game (very quick thoughts)

Here we are, another season over.  This Super Bowl has been nothing short of brilliant.  I’m not a Patriots fan (though I do like Brady) so I was all for the Giants (even though I’m a hardcore Eagles fan I like the Giants more than I despise the Patriots).  There were times during the game that I was sure the Patriots were going to take the lead and finish off the Giants.  However, at the same time I had faith in Eli and his reputation for fourth quarter victories.  I’m not going to give a recap of the game, as I’m sure everyone reading this watched it, so I’ll keep this very brief (and talk about the commercials more).

I realized just how bad my Eagles are, and at the same time saw a good amount of their mediocrity on the field.  For instance, the Giants let the Patriots walk all over them at the end of the first half, which did not inspire much confidence going into the half.  Even the beginning of the second half wasn’t overly impressive, but then the Giants got back in the game.  Tom Brady was rushed, hurried, hit, and sacked enough to throw off his game somewhat.  Though, none of that matters when his receivers dropped balls with under a minute left in the game.  That’s not to say they played a bad game, but in the end Eli continued to prove just how good he is (definitely amongst the elite quarterbacks in the league right now).

So yeah, there we have it, Giants over the Patriots, 21 to 17.

I’ll leave with some predictions for the NFC East next season:

Giants: 10-6 or 11-5

Cowboys: 9-7

Eagles: 8-8 (if lucky)

Redskins: 6-10

 

Times Have Been Better, but There’s Always Some Hope

Well then, I really don’t have much to say.  This NFL season’s playoffs have pretty much disappointed me with every game.  The only good was watching Tebow go down and the 49ers beating the Saints.  Other than that every game has turned out rather bad.

Let’s start with the Ravens game.  I don’t want to blame Billy Cundiff for the loss.  After all, he wasn’t the only player in the game.  Granted, he should have made the kick, but that’s not the point.  Would it have killed Lee Evans to have caught a touchdown and trip to the Super Bowl?  It’s his job to catch those passes.  Likewise, where was the defense?  Ed Reed, Mr. Tough Guy decides to put down Joe Flacco during the week leading up to the game.  I don’t see where the Ravens defense is so intimidating, letting the Patriots score 23 points.  Reed had one nice play at the end of the game and that was basically it.  Switching back to offense, where was the offensive line?  More importantly, receivers were dropping easy catches or at least catches that should have been made.  This seems to be an ongoing problem with the team as I watch them each year.  I have been a Flacco supporter ever since he came into the NFL, and he always seems to be stuck without a strong receiving core (sort of like McNabb with the Eagles all those years).  Now, I expect the Ravens to have another run for the Super Bowl next year, but it would have been nice to see them take down the Patriots.  I rather despise the Patriots.  Mainly because they cheated, yes they cheated, remember Spygate?  Fun stuff that was.

Now the Giants win.  Actually, I’m not annoyed that they won, I just wanted the 49ers to win more.  I’m a fan of their defense, which is something many teams had trouble maintaining this season.  Plus, first year coach, that would be rather awesome.  Bringing back Alex Smith, also rather awesome.  While I have not followed him that much I’m glad they stuck with him after all the coaches and offensive coordinators he had to go through, plus injury it was nearly impossible for him or probably any other quarterback to succeed.  Honestly, being an Eagles fan I can’t really say I despise the Giants.  Perhaps it’s because they’re right up the road and it’s more of a “friendly rivalry” since Philly and NY fans are always arguing about their teams.  That and the fact Eli Manning is a great quarterback who I wish the Eagles had.  To me the Giants are that team that everyone seems to forget about.  In recent years they haven’t really done anything flashy or shocking.  They go through ups and downs and when they hit an up it seems to lead to a good playoff run or the Super Bowl.  Were the Giants a better team than the 49ers or do the 49ers desperately need a new punt returner?  I think it’s the latter, but that doesn’t take anything away from the Giants.  They’re the team I’ll be supporting on February 5th.  Hopefully we’ll get Cris Collinsworth as an announcer, as the game is going to be on NBC.

There we have it.  Another year nearly over, with one game left to go. Giants and the Patriots going at it again.  Will Big Blue, the New York Football Giants, the G-Men pull it out again?  I sure hope so.  While the title of the post isn’t exactly optimistic I’ll be an optimistic right now.  Sure, things didn’t go as I had hoped, but there’s no point in living in the past.  What’s done is done.  It’s a time to look forward, a time to hope the Eagles get McNabb back as a backup, but until we get to that there’s hope.  Hope that the Giants will win the Super Bowl.  I’m all Giants all the way!

Division Weekend Day 2: Ravens Sneak By, Big Blue Rolls on Through

Here we are, the end of division weekend.  What a weekend it was.  Saturday was great and Sunday, well wasn’t nearly as exciting.

First, the Ravens vs. Texans.  Truth be told, I was out for most of the game, so I didn’t get to see it.  However, what I did see wasn’t overly impressive.  Though, to say the team’s played poorly isn’t fair.  After all, the Texans had a rookie, and a rather good one at that.  It seems what he really needs to do is get a better understanding of the deep ball, as that’s where he seemed to struggle.  Other than that, against a tough Ravens defense he looked better than playing in what I believe was only his 6th start in the NFL.  What I’m worried about is the Ravens next week.  They only put up 20 points, and I know the Texans have a solid defense, but they’re going to have to somehow figure out how to get more points on the board if they want to compete against Tom Brady’s lethal passing attack.  Well, either way, good job Ravens, who do continue to impress me and I wish them the best of luck next week.  You know what, for their first playoff appearance and without a starting Quarterback, the Texans really show a lot of promise for next year, and I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for them.  I say the Ravens sneak by mainly because they let the Texans hang on, or rather the Texans wouldn’t let the game get out of hand.

Ravens: 20

Texans: 13

What’s there to say about the Packers vs. Giants game, it took forever to get remotely exciting.  The Packers looked incredibly unorganized for most of the game, and their receivers were about as useless as could be most of the time.  Neither defense was impressive, and they did that fake tackling.  What I mean by that is they didn’t wrap people up, but rather tried to push them or trip them up.  I can’t stand that, it never works and it hurt the Packers a few times as Giants were able to just push them off and keep running.  Honestly, the Packers looked as bad as the Eagles on defense and not much better on offense (granted, Rodgers is a lot better than Vick, but that’s a given).  Still, the Giants put on an impressive show.  Now, it’s really not hard to put up a lot of points, as the Giants proved in their last meeting, the hard part is stopping the Packers offense.  Sure, the Packers didn’t play well, but the Giants did, and their defense got it going more and more as the game went on.  While I didn’t like the referees ruling the fumble in the beginning of the game as not a fumble, it proved to barely bother the Giants.  Eli Manning continues to be a big time Quarterback, which you would never guess by listening to Philadelphia media that find the need to constantly lie and say he’s not good.  I’m kind of glad the two offensive powerhouses have been eliminated, this way the NFC Championship game will be more balanced across the board, forcing each team to play their best at every position.  That’s next week, right now congratulations to the Giants, who were often forgotten in the NFC East that had all the hype go to the Eagles and Cowboys.

Giants: 37

Packers: 20

Now, for next week.  Oh my, next week is going to be a fun one.  Championship weekend.

For the AFC Championship game I’m very interested to see how the Ravens defense faces the Patriots offense.  Assuming they are able to keep it close the focus switches to the Ravens offense and Patriots defense.  Now, it was impossible to judge the Patriots defense against the Broncos since Tebow just isn’t good.  I’ve always been a fan of Joe Flacco, and want him to have a good game.  The problem is, the Patriots just look like a team on a mission they aren’t willing to let get away from them.  The few times I was able to watch the Ravens in the past two years it seems like while Flacco gets his job done, the receivers drop what seem to be sure catches.  Even watching some recap of the game today it looks like that still is a lingering issue.  Though, with their defense I see the Ravens making it a close game that should go down to the last minute.

Then there’s the NFC Championship game, the one I’m more interested in (mainly because I want to see Alex Smith continue proving he’s not a “game manager”).  Granted, it would be rather awesome to see the Giants and Patriots back in the Super Bowl together, but two Harbaughs would also be great since they both have teams that are somewhat similar, especially in terms of strong defenses.  Now, the Giants and 49ers are on a role right now, there’s no denying that.  Each look like they really want to win, and I have to give the edge to the 49ers.  Unlike the Giants, their defense actually hits, and hard.  They don’t try to trip people up or push them down.  No, they grab them and wrap them up.  Their hits are hard.  After watching the final touchdown of their game it was shown to me what a team that wants nothing more than to win and get to the Super Bowl looks like (much like the Patriots in the AFC).  The Giants do have a lethal offense, but a slightly better than serviceable defense (there were quite a few opportunities for the Packers to come back, their receivers just weren’t catching anything).  I’m looking forward to the 49ers beating the Giants.  Though, if it’s the other way around I won’t really care that much, as the Giants really aren’t a hated rival for me, that honor goes to the Cowboys.

Divison Weekend Day 1: Smith’s not a “Game Manager,” See Ya Later Tebowmania

Oh what a great day of football it has been today.  First, the NFC game.  I liked both teams going into it, but was tired of the Alex Smith hate so I was hoping they’d win.  Truthfully, I didn’t think the 49ers would win.  I thought they had a really good chance, but I fell for the Saints hype, which is usually deserved.  Looking at it as an Eagles fan, I was kind of surprised to watch a hard hitting defense, and it was really nice to see.  Sure, we all kind of knew how great their defense would be, but I still had faith in Quarterback Alex Smith.  Yes, Quarterback, not “game manager.”  Really?  Game manager?  What is that, especially when Tebow has to wait for the second half of a game to reach over 30 passing yards?  That’s just degrading, and Smith proved today to the haters that he is a true Quarterback.  Though, I was really in shock to see that he can run, and you know what, he looked a lot faster than Tebow did today.  But that last drive, all I can say is they truly deserve to be in the playoffs.  So who won the game?  The 49ers.  Not their defense, not their running game, not their passing game, the team as a whole won the game.  They looked like they wanted to win, and that’s what they did all right.

49ers: 36

Saints: 32

Then there was Brady, Tom Brady.  Or as I like to call him, the best Quarterback in the NFL (sorry Rodgers, you’re a very close 2nd).  For those who know me they’ll know I do not like Tebow.  Rather, I don’t like the hype around Tebow.  I’m sure as a person he’s probably a really nice guy, sort of like I assume Tony Romo isn’t a bad person, it’s just the unearned hype they get.  Anyway, to the game.  Tom Brady was simply brilliant (well, there was one pick, but it didn’t really matter) tonight, and went up and down the field picking apart a visibly broken defense.  Brady looked like a man on a mission, to snap his playoff losing streak and to take down Tebow and the hype (of course the 2nd part is speculation but I wouldn’t be surprised if Brady’s tired of hearing about Tebow all week).  Not just that, but the team was very well disciplined.  That is in contrast to the Broncos, who are rather sore losers and ended up drawing 2 penalty flags for attacking Patriot’s players.  Now for the fun part, Tim Tebow.  The man who has proven he can take down injured, broken down teams but still can’t beat a real team.  Come on, just 9 completed passes?  Now, some of them weren’t his fault since the receivers didn’t look like they were fully in the game.  Which leads to my next point, the play calling was one of a team that had given up in the first half.  When they were down 21 to 7 he still wasn’t allowed to pass.  What does that say about the coach’s faith in him?  Not much at all, and I wonder if he has any faith in him (honestly, no pun intended).  So there we have it, the truth that is Tebow.  An over-hyped “game manager.”  Though, I was surprised to see that he didn’t really seem to care in his postgame press conference that they lost.  Really, there was barely any passion in his voice.  I would have loved if Brian Dawkins had played just to have heard him after the game.  I was also annoyed at the end of the game when the entire press camera crew went over to Tebow rather than Brady, who I don’t know, won the game.  I still like how Bill Belichick said there are things to improve on.  That just shows how much he wants to win, and I imagine Brady is thinking the same thing.

Patriots: 45

Broncos: 10

As for tomorrow’s games, I shall give my predictions.

Packers vs. Giants:

It will be a close game, but with the way the Giants have been going I favor them.  By no means will it be a blowout or a shootout, but rather a game much like the Saints vs. 49ers one.  The Giants defense is coming  alive, as is there offense.  We all know of the Packers explosiveness, and it will be interesting to see how their defense handles Eli Manning and his offense.  I hate giving scores, but it would be interesting to have it be the same as their last meeting but reversed.

Ravens vs. Texans:

As much as I want the Texans to win, I don’t see it happening.  Again, it won’t be a blowout or a shootout.  I see it being a rather low scoring game, with two strong defenses (with the Ravens having the better of the two).  This is alright since I do rather like the Ravens.  I see the score being somewhere around the territory of 21 to 17, with the Ravens pulling out the victory.

DeSean, DeSeason, DeGone

Well, I think we all realize that the Eagles are pretty much out of the playoffs.  However, today’s game against the Patriots did help clear some things up, or at it did for me.  Vince Young looked rather good today, especially for his second start of the season.  I like how he plays QB by mainly playing QB.  What do I mean by this?  Rather than running around like some other QBs (Vick), Young stays in the pocket and stays calm.  Sure, he had some bad moments, but they weren’t overbearingly bad.  Now, what has Vick done lately?  Well, he won 1-8 of the last home games since Decemeber 3rd, and has only beaten a broken down Rams team and two division teams (one of them being the Redskins).  I’d also like to note that one of his last year December loses came at the hands of a Vikings team that had Joe Webb as the starting QB and looked better than Vick.

What am I getting at with all this?  Vick isn’t looking like the answer as starter.  Am I saying Young is the answer?  What I’ll say is he’s shown to be a lot more stable in the pocket.  He seems to wait for receivers to get open, and by staying in the pocket he’s allowing the offensive line to help him rather than struggle as they do with Vick running around.

So, after beating only one decent team this year (Cowboys), Vick has been everything but impressive.  I realize it’s not all on him, as the defense is rather lacking all around, but at some point he has to be able to put together a game winning drive.

As of right now I’d rather have Young as starter.  He’s proven he can throw the deep ball and with starter receivers he has potential to be very good.  Plus, the season is done so why not see what other options are available?  After all, I look at it that Vick beat one decent team and Young beat one decent team so they’re basically in the same position.

Now, there’s DeSean Jackson.  I’m not going to lie, I am not a fan of him.  Every time I watch him it seems like he’s getting a penalty, showboating, or deciding not to catch passes.  Today he managed to drop two sure touchdowns.  Granted, the Eagles defense probably would have allowed the Patriots to win, but at least it would have brought them back into the game.  The second drop may have been the worst since it was where only he could have gotten it and it was the type of play that would have gotten the fans back into the game (I’ll discuss the fans in a moment).  Does dropping two touchdown catches and taunting coaches (last week vs. the Giants) really warrant a big contract like he wants?  Simply put, I think not.  Not to mention it seems like there are a lot more problems with him in regards to missing meetings and being benched twice this season.  Personally, I’d be fine without him.  Bring in a bigger receiver without a giant ego (this smaller/faster strategy isn’t impressing me much) and get back on track.

OK, the fans were basically horrible today.  First of all, frontrunner Patriots’ fans were everywhere.  I’d like to see where they go when Brady isn’t the QB and the team starts to do bad.  Even the Eagles’ fans were annoying today.  This is something I’ve noticed all season.  It seems like they’re concerned with everything but the game.  Most of them leave as soon as the Eagles get behind and/or are on their phones the whole game for fantasy football.  Don’t even get me started on the constant standing up and down because people need to get food or beer.  Now, I’m not against that, but they’re so out of the game that they walk in front of people while a drive is going on.  Overall, the fans were rather poor today, with many of them leaving at the end of the third quarter and even the parking lot, an hour before the game, wasn’t even close to full.  I guess that’s what separates the true fans from the frontrunners.

I would like to make a note of one thing, and that is Andy Reid.  The “fans” were chanting for him to be fired.  Come on, he’s only had 2 or 3 losing seasons throughout his time here, and do you really want to risk getting new players in the off season and a new coach?  I’m giving him another year or two to see what he’ll do.  However, I (and probably many people) think the defensive coordinator (if you can call him that) has to go, along with Jackson, and I’m tempted to put Vick in that group.

Overall, it was a very disappointing day from the game to the fans.

Oh, and Jackson, how about proving you need to be paid the big money?

(On the plus side, Young and Avant looked like they wanted to win)