Championship-Level Post

This weekend provided us with a couple of pretty good games. One looked like it was going to be a blowout, then it looked like it was going to be close and then it morphed back into a blowout and stayed there. The other one looked like it was going to be a blowout and another epic failure in a laundry list of missed opportunites, but it turned into a fantastic game that really had a twist at the end that almost no one saw coming. So, here we go with my thoughts on the two games, taken in chronological order by game.

The New Orleans Saints at the Chicago Bears:

Much has been written about the city of New Orleans and how it's been recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Also, much has been conveyed about the Saints and the struggles that they went through last season to simply be able to practice, let alone try and field a competent team. Through these struggles and a season in which they notched three victories and 13 losses, they emerged victorious thanks to a bit of luck and the stupiditiy of the Houston Texans. In other words, they lucked into Reggie Bush, hired a new coach, got a new QB and suddenly things were better. They went from 3-13 to 10-6 and the #2 seed in the NFC playoffs. The Bears played in a division which essentially spotted them six victories. Most people outside of Illinois were pulling for the Saints. Most of the pundits picked them to win. The Bears were essentially underdogs as the top seed in the NFC in their own building. Naturally, this meant that the Bears were going to win. It seems as though God likes watching people being able to play the "no one believed in us" card, which is turning into my least favorite card in sports. It ranks right up there with the "I just wanted to give 110%" card.

All things considered, it was a pretty good performance by the Bears, while the Saints, except for a 14-point burst, essentially pooped down their legs by turning the ball over four times. However, there was something that bothered me something fierce. No, it wasn't that the Bears won. Well, not just that the Bears won. You see, the Saints had just pulled within two points after the afore-mentioned outburst. They fell back another two on a horrible decision by Brees to get an intentional grounding penalty in his own end zone. Then the Bears scored on an odd touchdown pass from Grossman to Berrian. It was odd because he was falling down when he made the catch and rolled into the end zone since the defender that was covering him on the play completely whiffed on an interception. Did he actually make that catch? Was he touched when he was down at all before he rolled into the end zone? Did one of the Saints players cause him to fall to the ground? Did the ball hit the ground at all? These were things that we couldn't be sure of. Sean Payton wasn't certain either. He had his red flag out to challenge the play, but he was waiting for word from the booth about whether to challenge it or not. The word never came. Why? It seems as though the producers (or whoever makes these calls) decided to have an extended shot of the crowd and the Bears celebrating on the sidelines instead of showing the replay. This is important, believe it or not, because NFL rules state that the coaching staff in the booths cannot have any sort of recording mechanism with them to determine whether to challenge. They have to rely on the network replay. No, that's understating it a bit. They have to rely on the network replay. Essentially, you have the fates of teams in the hands of the network that is broadcasting the game. Was the catch actually made? Yes. Did Berrian get in to the end zone before being touched? I think so. That's not the point. The point is that the Saints weren't given the option of reviewing the play because of the decision made in the network truck or somewhere else. This could very well cost someone a game some day. Deep breath. Ultimately, the Saints did nothing more of note in the game after this and lost 39-14.

So now, we have Rex Grossman as possibly the worst QB to ever "lead" his team to the Super Bowl. Of course, if they win, he'll be "Super Bowl-winning QB Rex Grossman." Yeah, that thought kinda makes me ill too.

The New England Patriots at the Indianapolis Colts:

Some people had wanted this contest from the very beginning of the season. Some people seem to be completely bored with another Colts/Patriots playoff game in which Manning will fail miserably through the fantastic scheme that Bellicheck would devise and Brady will pull it out at the end with the help of his clutch kicker. There were only a few problems with this scenario: the kicker was now sporting a horseshoe, Manning played pretty well, it took place in Indianapolis, and Brady's the one that choked.

It looked like a blowout for a bit. The Patriots surged a head for a 21-3 lead, and all of the columnists were getting their laptops warmed up to write scathing articles about how Manning and Dungy just aren't able to get it done come playoff time. I'm sure one of them would "accidentally" throw in a Peyton Marino for good measure. They quickly had to switch this to fantastic praises of his performance and talk about how he was "finally" able to get it done. In fact, my friend Ike seems to be a Peyton Manning fan, and he wrote me an email today that essentially said that Peyton proved something on Sunday. Yes, he was able to beat the Patriots. However, he still has not one the big one, and the stigma of choking in the big game will remain with him until he wins the Super Bowl. That being said, it's also not fair to him to say that he's a choker until we see his entire career in the review mirror and can definitively say whether or not he was able to win championships. Has he been able to so far? No, but he still has probably three years of a career ahead of him.

I'm happy for Peyton, and I'm happy for Tony Dungy. I still look back and wish that the Vikings would have been able to keep him on the staff, but it's fun to see him succeeding with the Colts.

Looking ahead:

The match-up in the Super Bowl should be interesting. Manning and the offense against Urlacher and the defense. The easily-rattled Grossman against a good pass rush from Dwight Freeney and the Colts. A large portion of the nation is going to be pulling for Manning and the Colts to get the final monkey removed from their backs. In fact, I'll be pulling for the Colts. This is unusual for me since I generally pull for the underdog, and the Colts should be fairly well-favored in this game. Which, of course, means that the Bears are probably going to win.