While it might appear that I was so gutted over the football results that I quit blogging, it was technical difficulties. I did see the games last weekend and wrote a bit about them on Sunday evening, while they were fresh in my mind. I even included a Superbowl prediction. So here's that, just to get it out of the way before I post something new(er).
------I didn't have internet access all last week, and I was super busy in RL anyway, so I'm not sure how much I would have read if I'd had the chance. I was disheartened and depressed at San Diego's loss -- well, more by how they lost, than that they lost. Being beaten isn't any fun, but all but giving a game away with flukey mistakes is harder to swallow.
At any rate, as a result of my distaste and disinterest and technical difficulties, I didn't read a word of preview about the Championship games, and since I refuse to watch the substance-less idiocy that passes for "analysis" on ESPN and elsewhere, my ideas on the games were untainted by outside sources. AKA objective information. I didn't make any actual predictions, and even if I had it would be pretty pointless to post them 4 days later, but both games actually went pretty much as I expected. If I had made predictions, I would have been half right. I don't know what the spreads were, but I would have picked Chicago to win pretty handily, and NE a close one on the road. Chicago did, NE didn't, and I assume they failed to cover. Something like, oh... 27-24 NE, and 27-13 Chicago.
I thought Chicago's tough defense and sloppy field would neutralize New Orleans' flashy, speed-based offense, and that Chicago's offense would be just decent enough to score some short-field points after New Orleans' mistakes. And that's basically what happened, though Chicago tacked on 2 or 3 garbage time scores as N.O. kept fumbling and trying for 4th downs deep in their own end in the 4th quarter. Watching the game (which I did live, for a change) it seemed like New Orleans was about to get back into it and perhaps even pull away several times, but they never could quite get over the hump, and then things got out of hand late. In retrospect though, having yet to look at any analysis or stats, they were murdered. Even without the late Chicago scores in garbage time, N.O. only managed 14 points, and half of that came on a 90 yard short pass that was all Reggie Bush's legs. If the safety makes a play at the 30 instead of whiffing and letting Reggie run another 70 yards, New Orleans probably doesn't even break double digits on the scoreboard.
In Indy, I thought NE would score a fair number of points, and win a squeaker. Indy's defense had allowed like 15 in the whole playoffs, but they hadn't played a real offense yet; just the horribly-coached Chiefs and weaponless Ravens. New England had weapons and a smart QB and a good game planning coach, and I knew NE would put up around 28. I figured Indy would probably lose around 28-24, but thought they could win if Peyton could play like it was October, instead of January. I was surprised at how bad/nonexistent each team's defense was, and especially how helpless NE's defense looked in the 4th quarter, but the outcome wasn't a real shock, once I got over the fact that Peyton had actually played well in a playoff game. And really, wasn't he due? He was awful in the first two this postseason; he'd just lucked out playing two teams without any offense or smart coaching of their own, and won anyway. KC or Baltimore puts up 20+, what the Colts' defense was allowing all year, the annual "why can't Peyton win in the playoffs?" debate has been in full swing for 2 or 3 weeks by now.
Superbowl! So now it's Indy against Chicago in the warm Miami superbowl, where Peyton's got a chance to shut up all the office chair critics like myself. I wouldn't give him a chance if the game were in Chicago; it would be N.O. getting out-muscled and slipping on the snowy field all over again, but in Miami, even on grass, I think Indy's got a chance. And just to go with the momentum of my non-picked, "1-1 but accurate on the flow of the games" choices from this weekend, I'll make my Superbowl pick now. Plus doing so now will give me a better excuse not to waste time reading endless previews and news about the Super Bowl over the next two weeks.
20-16, Indy. I don't really care who wins, mostly since I don't much like either team or any of the players on the teams, but not enough to really root against either of them. My gut tells me to pick Chicago, and I won't be surprised if they do the same thing to Indy that they just did to N.O., and win despite their horrible offense/quarterback. I don't think Indy will fall apart as badly as NO did though, and if they don't give the Bears 20+ free points on fumbles and short field possessions, I don't think the Bears can score enough on their own to keep up.
Best of all, with his team in the Superbowl, perhaps Peyton Manning will finally get some media attention and recognition? It would be cool if he got some sponsors and maybe filmed a TV commercial or two; you hardly ever see the guy except in his Colts uniform and helmet.
Labels: football
