|
|
(Before we begin: I wasn’t going to write a recap of this game at first. Then I realized that we’re roughly nine months away from the next meaningful NFL game. That changed my mind.)
The Who Dat? Nation has finally reached the top of the mountain.
They did so as the New Orleans Saints pulled off a dramatic 31-17 upset of the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday night in Miami.
Since plenty of other commentators have weighed in on what this means, not just to the Saints but to the city of New Orleans as a whole, I’m going to focus strictly on the game itself. There’s plenty of enough to talk about there, anyways.
The Saints’ turnaround from “Aints” to champions was keyed by two people – head coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees – and it’s really no surprise those two were the reasons the Saints were victorious Sunday.
(Just a quick, completely uncalled for reminder: Vikings’ fans STILL have no idea what this feels like)
Payton rebounded from his conservative approach in the NFC title game two weeks ago on Sunday with a masterfully aggressive gameplan. It wasn’t always smart and it didn’t always work – the decision to go for it on fourth-and-goal late in the second quarter was baffling, to say the least – but by being aggressive, he showed his team he had confidence in them at every single turn. In sports, that stuff matters.
It certainly mattered on the opening kickoff of the second half.
Payton and Co. shocked the nation by going for an onside kick. After a lengthy pile-up (which had to have been the craziest pile ever), the Saints came away with not only the ball, but the momentum. And when Brees led the offense down for a score – giving the Saints a 13-10 lead – it was official that, no matter what Indianapolis did to counter that, the Colts would be behind the cliched eight-ball the rest of the way.
In the biggest games of your life, you turn it loose. Payton did just that.
Of course, it’s easy to turn it loose when you have a signal-caller like Brees.
As Adam said in giving his prediction, New Orleans’ hopes would rest on Brees’ shoulders. By going 32-of-39 for 288 yards and two touchdowns (no interceptions), Brees showed he was more than up to the task, turning in the closest thing a quarterback can to a perfect game. Playing behind a dominant offensive line (seriously, was he pressured more than a handful of times?), the game’s MVP found every single open patch in Indianapolis’ Cover 2 defense. He spread the ball around to eight different receivers and showed that, if anyone doubts he should be considered the game’s best quarterback, they should doubt no more.
Payton and Brees have become the league’s elite coach-quarterback combo. When you have that, more often that not, you’re going to be the best.
The Saints were Sunday. And it’s absolutely deserved.
Other random thoughts on the Super Bowl
- Peyton Manning had his chance to become the best quarterback ever in this one and he blew it. Sure, he completed over 66 percent of his passes for 333 yards, but it was a very non-discript 333 yards. And with the game hanging the balance, Manning made a terrible throw to Reggie Wayne that Tracy Porter (officially my favorite non-Packer) picked and took to the house for the game-clinching score. Manning is still top 10, but he’s nowhere close to where he could have been (plus, Brees has surpassed him as the best in the game today). Somewhere, Joe Montana is smiling. His status as the best ever is safe.
- I tried to tell you The Who should be stopped. If you doubted me then, you can’t now after watching their abysmal halftime performance. They just can’t get it done anymore. Can we officially declare the 1960s are over, for God’s sake? Can the NFL get a band that actually, you know, appeals to its target demograpic (me, for example)? How about Pearl Jam? Or Kings of Leon, maybe? Why does the halftime show always have to be classic rock radio?
- Sort of a down year for the commercials. That said, I had two favorites (for different reasons). The funniest was the David Letterman/Oprah/Jay Leno promo for Letterman’s show. Hilarious. The best was the Megan Fox ad for…well, I don’t even know what it was for. Megan Fox in a tub? Yikes. Here’s how you know it made an impact. Adam and I were having a conversation. We stopped when the commercial came on. When it was over, I said, “What were we talking about?” He stared blankly at me before responding, “I can’t remember.” That’s the effect Fox has on men. I doubt we were the only guys experiencing this.
- I love, love, love that Boomer Esiason and Dan Marino were the two former quarterbacks-turned analysts for CBS’ halftime show. Two guys who know a little something about Super Bowl-winning quarterbacking right there. They know as much as you and I do about that.
- Esiason had another gem, too, when talking about Brees holding his recently-born son on the field after the game was over. Esiason: “It’s really a great moment between a father and son.” He said it as though every father and son experiences that. Yeah, I remember when my dad and I did that after he won it back in ‘81. We talk about it all the time. And, again, what would YOU know about that anyways, Boomer?
- Next year, the Super Bowl is in Dallas. How ’bout the Pack goes down there and wins it, shoving it right in Jerry Jones’ cosmetically-altered face? How fun would that be? Just saying…
-Chris Lempesis
The Indianapolis Colts.
And the final score will be 34-24.
And the Super Bowl MVP will be not Peyton Manning, but Dallas Clark.
And he will have 9 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns.
It’s to no one’s surprise that I picked the Colt’s after I admitted to the world my man crush on Peyton Manning. I am actually a little surprised that Chris didn’t try to make up his Nostradamus-like pick of his Tennessee Titans by going with the Saints and hoping for the best. To have the record show, prior to the year in a small circle amongst friends, including Chris, I picked the Colts to win the Super Bowl and the Titans to miss the playoffs entirely. Being the unified voice that OBOD is, we went the Titans and I am still shaking my head to this moment.
After reading the Super Bowl previews from both Chris and Gene, there really isn’t anything left for me to say that they didn’t cover. Both did bang-up jobs of breaking down the game (eat your heart out Peter King), so I am going to try to pick up a couple table scraps and explain why I think the Colts win by two scores that doesn’t involve Manning.
First, who is going to cover Dallas Clark? If Visanthe Shiancoe gave the Saints problems last week, Clark could be an absolute nightmare tonight. Reggie Wayne steals a lot of the attention, but it is basically Clark, not Wayne, who has replaced Marvin Harrison. Check out these identical stats.
Wayne: 100 rec, 1264 yards, 12.6 avg, 10 TD
Clark: 100 rec, 1106 yards, 11.1 avg, 10 TD
Jabari Greer can probably hold his own against Wayne, but it is Clark who will present a tremendous matchup problem for Gregg Williams. The X-factor is Darren Sharper. He may be the best Clark-kryptonite the Saints have, but he will then be forced to leave his ball-hawking centerfield position in game where turnovers will be critical for a Saints upset.
My second point why the Colts will win is the running game. A lot of Manning’s success comes from playaction. I expect the Colts to coming out running, not passing early. Looking beyond his fumbles, Adrian “All Thumbs” Peterson ripped up the Saints run defense pretty good a couple weeks ago. Joseph Addai is not Peterson, but Manning is not Brett Favre. The Colts don’t need a 140 yards from Addai, but more like 75 yards, enough to get the playaction going. If they are successful with that the Saints secondary will be on their heels the whole game.
On the flip side, Pierre Thomas could be the key for a Saints upset. The Colts defense is predicated on speed, which in my opinion will make Reggie Bush a non-factor. But what if the Saints come out and pound the ball with Thomas right at Dwight Freeney and Raheem Brock? The Colts are not great against the run (24th in the NFL), but have righted the ship some in the playoffs. However, the Colts have to respect Drew Brees, unlike Joe Flacco or Mark Sanchez. The Saints cannot go conservative like they did against the Vikings, but if they success running the ball, it could give Brees enough time to exploit any mismatches down field.
I do believe the Saints can win and as it should, the game will rest of the shoulders of their best player, Brees. However, actually winning is a different story. Brees will play well, but I think Manning plays better. Either an early turnover or the Saints inability to get Manning off the field will lead to an early hole for the Saints, which will feel like the abyss against Manning. Chris is right saying that if the Saints force a shootout they have a chance because they are best-equipped team in the league in playing from behind. However, on the other side ol’ corral is Manning, who will have just one more round in the chamber than Brees.
-Adam Somers
So the fine folks at Gatorade have sent us a sneak preview of their brand-new “Journey” commerical that’s going to run today during the pre-game show.
(That’s right. A sneak preview. We got your back here at OBOD.)
Having seen it myself, I have to say it’s pretty cool.
As such, we figured we’d pass it along to you guys to check out for yourselves. The commercial – an ad for Gatordade’s new “G Series” drink – gives viewers a rare look into the gameday experiences of the 12 playoff teams from this season (which, of course, includes our beloved Green Bay Packers). It includes various footage from before, during and after the games.
Plus, I mean, the voice-over is done by rapper/actor Common. How cool is that?
You can download the commerical here. It’s definitely worth watching as you prep yourselves for Colts-Saints.
-Chris Lempesis
First, let’s get a few things out of the way:
–Adam’s piece on changing your view of Peyton Manning really resonated with me. I’ve always been a Manning hater, but as the Colts have made this Super Bowl run, I’ve found myself less and less bothered by him. Here’s why: In Manning’s last Super Bowl, I was clinging to the small hope that he wouldn’t pass Brett Favre in the record books and unseat him as the greatest quarterback of all time. Well, when Favre went turncoat on us, my view on quarterback legacies was returned to a saner realm, and I realized that Favre cannot compete with Manning, or a handful of other quarterbacks, for the title of greatest ever. He’s probably in the top five, but his playoff follies knock him to the edge of that list, and Manning has a chance to blast all of his records. Manning’s a better quarterback than Favre. That distinction is only going to get clearer. And I’m OK with that now.
–That said, if you’re a Packers fan, you should root for the Saints for several reasons. First, we owe them — really, the entire nation owes them — a debt of gratitude for sparing us two weeks of “the Brett Favre fairytale,” and ending that farce in such hilarious fashion. Well, maybe they were bumming in Bristol, Conn. But if Manning burnished his legacy two Sundays ago, Favre shot another hole in his. Second, I’m a firm believer in rooting for the NFC team, unless there’s a legitimate reason not to (like if the Vikings, Bears, Cowboys or Lio…OK, maybe only the first two scenarios are possible). Third, the city of New Orleans deserves it.
–Side note: If you’re the Saints, and you win, do you say, “Screw it, we’re not going to visit Obama. We’re taking this thing to Crawford, Texas, and celebrating on W’s front lawn. And then when he comes out, we say to him, ‘You left our city for dead, but look at us now!’” Just a thought…
–And one more thing: I know it’s the Colts, and I know it’s Miami again, but this Super Bowl halftime show has NO CHANCE of being as cool as the last Colts-in-Miami halftime show. Prince, in the rain, playing “Purple Rain?” Come on. I love “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” but nothing The Who does tomorrow will measure up to that. Although, there is a little humor in the fact that Prince wrote that God-awful song for the Vikings (I’m not linking to it, because I like Prince too much to acknowledge its existence), and now his adopted team fell short of making it to the stadium where Prince put on the second-greatest Super Bowl halftime show of my life (just behind U2, just ahead of Michael Jackson).
OK, enough of my Bill Simmons impersonation. On to the game:
The key to beating the Colts, obviously, is controlling Peyton Manning, and as Chris said, the teams that have done that usually have done it by disguising coverages and confusing Manning at the line. The Patriots have done it in the past, and the Packers did it last season. But it’s going to mean a Saints secondary with depth issues playing above their heads for four quarters. This is where Darren Sharper comes in; he’s best when he’s unpredictable, and him being unpredictable is going to be a big part of the Saints’ game plan. If they can create a couple turnovers, it’s conceivable the Saints might have enough leeway to keep up with the Colts.
And I’ll agree with Chris again as it relates to the Saints’ offense. I don’t know why a team that prides itself on aggressiveness became so conservative in the NFC Championship Game (maybe too much time with Brad Childress polluted Sean Peyton’s brain?). But that can’t happen again in the Super Bowl. They need to stay aggressive against the Colts and keep the pressure on Manning to answer. They don’t have the luxury of playing a quarterback as mistake-prone as Favre, and they won’t be able to afford the long lulls in production they had against the Vikings.
It’s going to be an entertaining game, but in the end, I don’t think the Saints have enough defensively to stop Manning.
Final score: Colts 31, Saints 27.
–Gene Bosling
At last, it’s almost here.
Soon, there will be no more hype. No more injury reports. No more analysis. No more rumors of some band claiming to call themselves The Who playing the halftime show.
Seriously, fellas, you need to stop. You’re killing all of us.
Soon, Super Bowl XLIV will be upon us, with the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints battling it out to determine the world champions. But, since it’s not quite time yet, I figured I’d weigh in with my thoughts on the game. There’s a good chance Adam and Gene will give their respective thoughts and predictions rather shortly, so make sure to check back for those.
(Quick aside: You might have noticed that I stopped doing the weekly “Breaking down…” posts right after the week of the Cowboys game, way back in mid-November. The reason for that was simple: The Packers were on a winning streak. And you don’t you-know-what with a winning streak. Like I’ve said before, I’m superstitious to an astounding degree.)
Since pretty much everyone on the planet is picking the Colts – currently a five-point favorite the last time I checked – I’m going to use this post to try and answer a simple question: How do the Saints go about winning Sunday?
Continue reading A look at (and prediction for) Super Bowl XLIV
In the next few days Chris, Gene and I will give our picks and prognostications on Super Bowl XLIV, but I wanted to touch on a subject that has been stuck in my crawl for quite sometime and it involves my favorite non-Packer in the NFL: Peyton Manning. Maybe I talk to the wrong people and monitor the wrong social media channels, but I have long gotten the impression that people are growing sick of Manning.
Why?
One could argue the fact that he is in more advertisements than all other NFL players combined, which is true. But wasn’t it the same for Michael Jordan? What about (pre-scandal) Tiger Woods? Derek Jeter? The players who dominate their sports usually dominate advertising and marketing. Remember when Favre was everywhere when he was in prime from a non-news standpoint? Sure, Manning’s face is all over, but honestly there isn’t a vast lot of marketable NFL players in 2010.
People may be growing tired of him because of his ‘aww shucks’ demeanor and he is kind of dull. Well, would you rather have a good, clean, but dull Manning or say an exciting, flashy, but controversial player like Terrel Owens? Everyone loves someone who charismatic, but today it comes with a double-edged sword for most players. I still think the greatest celebration or insult you can give him an opponent after a big play is just acting like you been there before and it’s no big deal. Greats like Starr, Montana, Rice all did that and Manning does that as well.
Maybe the reason is that people are just sick of him always winning and breaking records? If that is the case, my response is simple – grow up. When did it become ‘uncool’ to cheer for someone who is successful? I am not expecting Patriots or Titans fans to cheer for Manning or if the Packers play the Colts I am going to secretly hope Peyton does well because that is lunacy. However, if your team isn’t a rival with the Colts or has them on their schedule this week you should consider it ‘cool’ to cheer Manning and be honored to be able to watch what will be one of the top-5 quarterbacks play when it is all said and done.
This season more than any other showed the greatness of Manning with no running game, unknown depth at receiver, new head coach, etc. All he does his lead his team to a 14-0 start, en route to a Super Bowl. There has never been anyone greater in game preparation to the point that he is literally an on-field coach. No one in the history of the game calls plays at the line like Manning and while he has done it for years it still astonishes me.
Since Manning is the best quarterback in the game, playing on the best team, maybe this makes me bandwagon-ish and I really don’t care if it does. I’m not going to run out and buy a #18 jersey or new Colts stocking cap, I just like watching winners. Guys like Manning are good for sports. They are leaders, teachers and role-models. They make it easy for us to root for them and there isn’t anything wrong with that.
However, when is comes the age that it isn’t cool to cheer for highly successful players or programs that are not your own? Remember when most of us were younger, we all had Michael Jordan posters up on are walls and that was fine because we were innocent kids. But as we got into our teenage years, through college and even into adulthood, it isn’t easy cheering for the best player or team in the game, if they aren’t your own, in front of your buddies.
Now, this doesn’t apply cheering for your rivals if your team is out of the race, as that is just sacrilegious. However, if you aren’t an alum from Florida St. or an SEC school, why hate on Tim Tebow and the Gators? I get questioned by a few people close to me as I openly cheer for Tebow. He’s had an outstanding career, a great teammate and leader by all accounts and doesn’t get into any trouble. What is wrong with that? I hate the excuse of ‘well he won’t make a good pro.’ I agree with that, but doesn’t mean you can’t root for a player like him to make it. His stance on certain issues like abortion turn people off as well, but how rare is it these days for athletes to take a stance on any widespread important issues?
Staying in college football, why do people hate on Ohio St.? I know this is a hard argument to cast in Big Ten country, but nationally people are down on Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes. Yes, the vest is drab and Tressel doesn’t excite many fans or the media with his interviews, but he runs a pretty clean program, which is rare for big-time programs it seems, and gives every indication that he will in Columbus until he retires. They may have choked in a couple title games, but I can’t hate on that.
Tim Duncan and the Spurs get a lot of the same flack as Manning and the Colts. Too good and too boring. When did championships become boring? I can’t stand the NBA, but Duncan is one of maybe three players in league I would watch for more than two minutes because he is just great at his craft and doesn’t have to let the world know about. I still have a vintage Wake Forest #21 jersey that always makes a few appearances on the beach in the summer months.
Chris (bitter Red Wings fan) will disagree with me, but Sidney Crosby is another great athlete that it is ‘cool’ to root for. For any of you out there who are big hockey fans like I am, watching Sid the Kid out there is a thing of pure art and is just as great off the ice. Like Manning he is in every commercial for the league and for once the league got it right by making him the face of their marketing. The Penguins are on national TV more times than not and that annoys people, but I don’t see why. Crosby is one of the only chances the league has to expand it’s audience and even a big hockey rube like myself would rather watch Crosby dominate than a close Vancouver-Colorado game.
They spend the most money, some of their players have done steroids, their fans are arrogant, but I found myself cheering for the Yankees this fall. Maybe it was guys like Jeter, Rivera and Posada that overshadow the flaws of other players and make baseball fun to watch (and yes, I did get sucked into that storyline). Mark Teixeira signed a huge contract, but never acted like it. As a lifelong Brewers fan, the memories from miraculous summer of 2008 are still fresh and I will always cheer for C.C. Sabathia. He embraced Milwaukee and I can’t blame him for leaving with that kind of money on the table. He made the Yankees somewhat easy to cheer for this fall and I kept it to myself because of the backlash that would have followed. Well, I am outing myself now and I’m ok with it.
So for everyone wavering on if it’s ‘cool’ to cheer Peyton Manning, I say go ahead and cheer as loud as you can on Sunday. Then again, I also argued why I’d like cheering for Brady and Belicheck before Spygate happened. Please stay clean Coach Caldwell.
-Adam Somers
I really wanted to run the final part of our list of the top 10 moments/games of the decade on Thursday night.
Then, I saw Jim_in_DC’s comment on my original update, which went up Thursday morning. In short, Jim reminded me that it’s a LONG offseason and that I might want to pace myself. That’s always been a problem of mine, Jim (in more areas than one, sadly), and I’m thankful for your reminder.
As such, I’m saving the final part until Monday. It’s pretty much done, but I really want to make sure it’s as good as it can possibly be. Plus, we’ll all be a little sad on Monday since football season will officially be over and, just maybe, the final part of our list can help combat that a bit.
If you came here looking for that specifically, I am sorry. Don’t feel too bad, though. We’ve already started our Super Bowl coverage and we’ll be bringing you more very shortly as we are now in the final days leading up to the big game (and wait ’til you get a load of our picks!).
We’ll never leave you hanging at OBOD. Bank on that.
-Chris Lempesis
Just wanted to pass along a quick link from the Super Bowl, where the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caught up with Saints safety (and former Packers Pro Bowler) Darren Sharper. You remember him, right? The guy who told Brett Favre to keep his mouth shut about Javon Walker’s contract? Well, now he’s opening his mouth about Nick Collins’ contract.
Sharper didn’t relay a lot of news, other than some wistful talk about how well he and Collins would have fit together in Green Bay (Sharper was released a few months before the Packers drafted Collins) and Collins’ own desire to stay in Green Bay.
But as Tom Silverstein points out in the blog post, Packers GM Ted Thompson could be taking the same approach with Collins that he did with Sharper. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to us here at OBOD, since Collins is clearly not in decline, but if Thompson plays it the same way, we could be learning something about the value he places on safeties.
Sharper, who was a defensive player of the year candidate this year with the Saints, is enjoying a resurgence at age 34. ESPN’s Kevin Seifert had a good read on Sharper the other day; his blog is one of our go-to sources for NFC North news and insight. He covered Sharper with the Vikings, and felt that Brad Childress constrained Sharper in his later years in Minnesota after he made the Pro Bowl his first year there. Brad Childress, devising a scheme that takes away what his players do best? Yeah, we can’t fathom that either.
Anyway, Sharper seemed to harbor some bitterness about his exit in Green Bay, and he’s certainly made Thompson look foolish on a couple of occasions for letting him go. But his price, at the time, was deemed to be too high, and if Thompson takes a conservative view on paying safeties, it explains why he let Sharper walk. Hopefully he won’t do the same with Collins.
Brad Childress…heh heh. That guy cracks me up.
–Gene Bosling
For the past week, we’ve been running our decade wrap-up posts in the morning. Unfortunately we will not be able to bring you part two of our list of the top 10 moments/games of the decade until later tonight, however.
Some stuff popped up with my other job, basically, and I just didn’t have the time to finish it. I’m extremely sorry for that and I guarantee it will be up later tonight, so make sure to check back.
-Chris Lempesis
So, the Green Bay Packers’ All-Decade Team is in the books.
But what about the best moments or games of the decade? We’d have to talk about that, wouldn’t we?
Yes we would.
After all, the past 10 years have been filled with those “Wow” moments for us Packers fans. Narrowing them down to a list of 10 proved no easy feat, to say the least. But after much deliberation, I’ve been able to do just that. Again, I know some of you won’t necessarily be happy with some of the moments/games I picked – or, at the very least, you might not like the order in which I ranked them. I’m cool with that and, as always, your comments are welcomed.
We’ll be running the bottom half of our list today. The top five will run tomorrow. I’ve also tacked on links to some of the moments/games at the end of the descriptions, so you can go back and watch for yourself. I was, unfortunately, unable to find clips for some.
Is that all the background info you need? Yeah, I think so.
Here are the first five moments/games of the decade.
Continue reading Top 10 moments/games of the decade: Part one
|
|
Recent Comments