Where’s the Outrage?

What a disaster. The Colts do everything wrong in the first 25 minutes of the game. They have no defense. Their offense isn’t moving the ball. Everything that could go wrong did. Peyton even threw an interception. The score is 21 - 3. The crowd is out of the game. Stick a fork in them they are done. NOT!!! The defense stiffens. Peyton finds the only receiver who isn’t double covered - Dallas Clark. The Colts begin to…dare I say it - run the ball! There were plenty of opportunities for the Colts to say that the Patriots are the greatest and we can not overcome their hex. The Colts continued to fight. They battled.

Let me just tell you some numbers 27/47 for 349 yds, 1 TD and 1 INT. That was Peyton’s numbers against the great Belichek. Brady had an average day - 21/34 for 232 with 1 TD and 1 INT.

There were several great plays but 2 standout. First, it is 3rd and 3 from the 3 yard line. There is a little over a minute on the clock in the fourth quarter. The Colts have the ball. What was the call? Delay hand off up the middle. Addai scores. The PAT was good. Now, everyone is nervous. New England had about a minute on the clock and 2 timeouts and Tom Brady is the quarterback. 2 plays later, the Patriots are at the 44 yard line of Indy. They have used one timeout. There is 24 seconds left and they need to score a touchdown. Brady drops back, Freeney is coming fast and hard off the left corner.  Brady steps up and fires a dart over the middle. I think that Freeney got a hand on Brady. No matter. The ball was intercepted. Marlon Jackson makes a perfect hands interception and instead of trying to run one back, he drops to the ground. Game over.  Peyton only has to take a knee. That was probably the sweetest kneel down that Peyton has ever done. The crowd was losing their mind.

What a game. What a fantastic game. Peyton vs. Brady. Dungy vs. Belichek. The history of losing time after time to New England. To win like this was really remarkable.

Tags: Sports by ecthompson
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The Saints were probably everybody’s favorite team and everybody’s favorite story. They really played brilliantly throughout the season.

Football is really a simple game. On offense you need to protect the ball and make first downs. On defense, you need to stop the opposition for making first downs. Also on defense, you need to force turnovers. Unfortunately, the New Orleans Saints did neither of these. They were unable to force turnovers on defense and coughed the ball up too many times on offense.

In spite of this the Saints had the Bears on the ropes.  The Saints had just scored the Bears did nothing with the ball.  The Saints missed a 49 yard field goal and the momentum that they had built up over the last 10 - 15 minutes was slipping away.  The Bears punted and pinned the Saints inside their own 5.  This is the game.  If the Saints can mount a  long drive and score anything (field goal or touchdown).  They have the momentum again.  This is the game.  Brees drops into his end zone to pass.  There was no blocking.  3 Bears are going to sack Brees.  He throws the ball in the right flat. There was no one over there. Safety. Game Over.

The Bears took momentum and the snowball began to roll.  New Orleans couldn’t or didn’t run the ball.  More pressure on Drew Brees.  More dropped passes.  More missed receivers.  More turnovers.  As Jimmy Johnson said about the great Eagles defenses over the early and mid-90’s a feeding frenzy starts once those turnovers begin.  New Orleans was never in the game after the safety.

We’ve heard it before, defense wins championships. Today, in the frozen tundra of Chicago, defense (with a capital D.) won Chicago their first NFC championship since 1986.

With these caveats in mind, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are putting on their helmets and getting ready to do battle. I’m hoping for another great game.

Tags: Sports by ecthompson
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Looks like we had some server problems.  They are corrected … we hope. 

Tags: Blogging issues by ecthompson
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