Championship Weekend in the NFL has come and gone. As I sit here in Miami reflecting on the events that transpired, I am left wondering the matchup that could've been: Jets v. Vikings. I am not sure if this dream scenario arose from my love of Jared Allen and the fact I have been brainwashed into being a Jets fan by a close friend...or if last weeks Bill Simmons article had me so excited about the possibility that I couldn't sleep Saturday night. Regardless, it didn't happen. What we are left with now is having the most bland team in the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts, pitted against America's bandwagon team, the New Orleans Saints.
Without giving the normal, mundane game recap that all of America can comprehend, I feel my thoughts of the games are more vital to me getting over the Super Bowl we are subjected to now.
Thoughts of Indy over J-E-T-Ugh:
- The Gift That Jim Caldwell Was Given: Jim Caldwell is the luckiest rookie head coach in NFL history for the following reasons. 1) he has the greatest quarterback to ever play in Peyton Manning (said it, meant it) 2) the team that he coaches is and has been in autopilot for winning games for 5 years now. In the last 5 years they are 65-15 in the regular season (average of 13-3) and have won a Super Bowl. Minus Marvin Harrison the team they have right now has been practically the exact same 3) Tom Moore is an offensive genius 4) Tony Dungy teed it up for him, blasted it down the fairway, knocked it to a foot, then handed over the reigns to Caldwell to just tap it in... he basically did nothing but keep people healthy all season 5) his "gamble" of resting his starters paid off and now that they're in the Super Bowl he'll always be referred to as a "brilliant rookie head coach.
- The House That Peyton Built: I said it before and I will say it again, Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback to ever walk. The guy is so mind-boggling efficient and accurate you cant give him enough accolades. Stat #1, in the six major statistical categories for quarterbacks Manning is top-4 in all six and on pace to break all six records (and no, interceptions thrown is not a category, Favre has that one on lockdown). I know that he is hated by a lot of people (see: Tony C's Black Eye) but you cant ever argue his talent. Behind Brett Favre's ridiculous streak of 309 consecutive games started the second longest streak in the NFL belongs to Peyton. When Indianapolis drafted Peyton first overall in the 1998 draft (a pick they struggled with in taking him over Ryan Leaf) the Colts were God awful. His rookie year they went 3-13 in large part to having the worst defense in the entire NFL. He responded however in going 13-3 the next season and has transformed the Colts into one of the premiere organizations in the league. Stats 2-7: along the way he has amassed 4 MVP awards (most all-time), as well as 30 NFL records, 7 Playoff records, 7 NFL rookie records, 7 Pro Bowl records and every conceivable Colts record you could ever imagine. Look at what he did this season. He lost his favorite target in Marvin Harrison and a very good Anthony Gonzalez, replaced them with two rookies (one from Haiti another a Mormon from BYU) and made them look like veterans and Pro Bowl caliber players. The have the worst rushing attack in the league and don't care. They pass every play, even when up 10 with 4 minutes left, knowing full well you could have 6 DB's and still not stop them. The guy is good, and marketable, and funny, and good. End of discussion.
- The Jets Defense Fell Flat: People will look at the game and think that the Shonn Greene injury was a huge reason that they lost the game, which has a lot of truth to it, but the injury that KILLED the Jets was to starting corner Donald Strickland. Tom Moore and Peyton target your weaker defense players with complete insensitivity and when you throw a back up into the mix its game, set, match. Why was this such a big deal? Strickland was already the back up as Lito Sheppard was already out of the game with injury. Dwight Lowery, bless his soul, was the backups backup and got picked on all game. It was brutal to watch the reoccurring theme of Peyton targeting him every pass but it was what it was.
- The Arrival Of Sanchez: I cant believe I would ever think this, as well as ever type it, but anybody who watched Mark Sanchez play the last 5 weeks witnessed the rookie grow up right in front of your eyes. This guy was bad for a while. Everytime you saw him drop back to pass you held you're breath praying it wouldn't get picked (which was always a 50-50 chance). Come week 17 he was openly giddy when he knew what coverage the defense was in. However, the guy learned...and grew up...and started to become a winner. And at the end of the day was the reason that the Jets were even in the AFC Championship game. Cant believe I'd say that but he stayed in there, delivered very accurate balls while getting obliterated in the process but knew he had to for his team to win. The Jets are going to be dangerous. Nobody is gonna wanna play that team for a long time. With the nucleus of Sanchez, Greene, Keller, Ferguson, Mangold, and Revis this team is gonna be around for a while. The experience they all received will prove to be invaluable but nobody benefited more than Sanchez did.
- Major Penalties Costing The Jets Big Time: If anybody watched a Baltimore Ravens game all season you saw two reoccurring themes: the fact that Ray Lewis is the most intimidating player in the NFL and the fact that ill-timed penalties cost them almost every game they lost all season. They couldn't get off the field and neither could the New York Jets. The Colts offense is too good to stop them on third down and then commit a silly penalty and give them a first down. Peyton will eat you alive if you do that...and he did. The Jets gave the Colts offense four first downs that they should never have had. Those penalties cost the Jets more points than just the ones the Colts actually put up on those specific drives because keeping the Colts on the field just gives them more confidence, wears on your defense mentally and physically, and gets your own offense out of rhythm, which proved to be the case yesterday. The Jets killed themselves with penalties almost as bad as the Vikings killed themselves with turnovers.
Thoughts on the Saints over the Favre's:
- T-U-R-N-O-V-E-R-S = DEATH: The Vikings are the better team. They have a better defense. They have a better special teams. They have a more balanced offense. They also have a MASSIVE turnover problem and it reared its ugly head Sunday in New Orleans. The Vikings put the ball on the ground 6 times (losing 3 of them)! And threw 2 picks! What the f@*#!!!! How the hell do you do that and expect to be in a game with a chance to win? Well however you do it the Vikings did it and it KILLED them. Two turnovers in Nola's 10 yard line, 1 in their own 10 yard line...death. If you were to ask any NFL fan who the best running back in the league is Adrian Peterson would get almost all the votes. However, if you were to ask the same fans which running back has fumbled more than any other player in the league since 2007 they would have a hard time believing it would be that same Adrian Peterson. The fact that Minnesota only turned the ball over 18 times in the 17 games leading up to Sunday was an enigma with #4 and #28 on that roster. Karma struck with the wrath of great fury and the demons of Favre and Peterson rose from the ashes and gift wrapped the championship for New Orleans. The Vikings had no business losing that game...but they did...brutal truth but truth nonetheless.
- Please Say It Is So Brett: Was it just me or did every other human on the face of the planet know that somehow, someway Minnesota was going to do something to lose that game at the end of the 4th quarter. I was praying that it wasn't gonna be Ryan Longwell's fault because I was sick and tired of seeing pro kickers miss kicks in the playoffs (they're hitting at an astonishing 57% rate for the playoffs) and I had seen enough fumbles to make me puke, so I was just wondering how it was gonna happen. Then Brett Favre reminded me why all Jets fans hate him, why his record of interceptions will never be equaled and what the power of having all Packers fans alive and dead rooting against you equates to: the most inexplicable but predictable INT in history. Minnesota had 475 yards, 31 first downs and more plays in New Orleans territory than the Saints had all game and still lost. Unbelievable. Inexplainable. But then again, it was Brett Favre, so was it?...
- America's Bandwagon: This will be short. The New Orleans Saints somehow have a billion fans this season. I am mentally torn between whether or not them making it to the Super Bowl after how terrible they looked the last five weeks of the season (3 straight losses and the choke job of the season squeek out W against the Redskins) is a bigger shock than how many Saints fans have come out of the woodworks this season. I almost threw my phone last night when I got a text from an obvious non-football fan that said "My Saints Baby!". I didn't even know this kid watched football and now they're his Saints? Wow. I live down here in Miami and am bracing myself for half of Louisiana to migrate down here next week, an although Cajuns travel better than any other sporting fan on the planet period (a fact I picked up on being a UGA fan and playing LSU all the time), more fair weather Saints fans will come down here to support their team than the NFL ever thought possible. We should all remember, this is the same proud organization that took over forty years to get to their first Super Bowl, took thirty years to have a winning season, had never hosted an NFC Championship, had bags over their fans heads for decades and were known more affectionately as the New Orleans Aints. But then again, how does that not scream America's Team to you?...I know it does to me.
- Already Sick Of The Storylines: I am starting to wonder when Vegas is going to put betting lines out for how many times the 'Archie Manning having split allegiances between the Saints and Colts' story as well as the 'New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina' story are gonna be highlighted between now and the Super Bowl. It is Monday morning and I have not even turned on a t.v yet today and am already sick of it. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE NEW ORLEANS. I have had more nights that I don't remember there, automatically qualifying them as fantastic, as well as have participated in Mardi Gras, so my affinity for that city is strong...but lets try to keep the massive sucking up to the entire state of Louisiana as well as rehashing that story to a minimum.... please.
Overall, NFL Championship weekend reconfirmed the NFL as the greatest sporting league on the planet and my favorite sport to watch and follow without question. No matchup that made it down to Miami was gonna be a dud with the four teams that were left, and although the Indy team substantially lacks the personality that would've been on display if Rex Ryan or Jared Allen would've graced Super Bowl Media Day with their presence, it still will prove to be a fantastic game showcasing the #1 team from the AFC and NFC for the first time since 1993. Personality or not the Colts score points, throw it all over the yard and are usually fun to watch. The Saints will have 99.8% of America, or whatever percentage of America doesn't include Indianapolis, cheering for them and are another high flying offense. Because of the high number of passes that will be thrown it will be a great game. I will refrain from writing my thoughts for a later time but as for now I will just sit and contemplate what could've been...
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