Super Bowl XLVI Recap

Picture courtesy of unlimitedradio247.com

Well I learned one thing on Sunday, always go with your gut. In my last post I pointed out all the reason why the Giants were going to win and simply turned the other cheek. In reality, the aspects of the game that people thought would be influential took a back seat to other aspects of the game. People looked at the Giants receiving core and thought they would smoke the Patriots secondary. However, while the Giants averaged 13.7 yards per reception in the regular season, they only averaged 9 yards in the Super Bowl and, if you take away Manningham's ridiculous reception in the games final drive (also the longest play of the game at 38 yards) they averaged only 8.2 yards a reception.

Another presumption people were claiming was that the Giants defensive line would put pressure on Brady and cause him to make bad decisions. In truth, Brady was only sacked twice and hit three times where the Patriots defensive line sacked Manning three times and hit him six times, doubling the amount of the "speed rushing" Giants. No this game wasn't decided by how hard the other team hit the quarterback or the one on one match ups outside the box. Instead it was decided by the Giants complete domination of the clock and field position. New York held the ball for 14 more minutes than the Patriots did and had an average starting field position on their own 25 yard line. New England however had a hard enough time simply starting outside of the opposing red zone with an average field position on their own 16 yard line. It is pretty hard to score many points when you continually have to drive over 80 yards to get a touchdown.

Picture courtesy of wina.com

Along with an exciting finish to the game, many more questions of the future were raised from this game maybe more than any other Super Bowl I can think of. Did Eli solidify his Hall of Fame ticket with the victory? Is Brady still considered one of the greatest of all time? Do be short, yes and yes. Eli has many more years to play and still must play at a high caliber but he's got pretty good chances. And to Brady, show me another quarterback who has played 10 seasons (Brady didn't play his rookie season in 00' and was out of the 08' season with a knee injury) been to the Super Bowls in 5 of those years and won 3 of them. If you can, it's a very short list. Brady top 5 all-time in my book.

Please let me know your thoughts on the game, Eli Manning, Tom Brady, the lack of good commercials and your suggestions for what the Super Bowl committee should do to get the performers of the half time show to stop doing inappropriate gestures on television. Don't know what I'm talking about?
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Super Bowl XLVI Predictions

Well boys and girls, the time as finally arrived. We are now counting down the hours until Eli Manning and the New York Giants take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Indianapolis. The top story these past two weeks surprisingly has NOT been the biggest game of the year, but of the future of Peyton Manning. I will get to that topic on a later date because unlike main stream media, I will not get sucked into the soap opera that has formed within the Colts organization. So on to the game.

The analysts were very divided on their picks. Of the 32 analysts I chose, 16 picked the Patriots and 16 picked the Giants. The analyst picks have not been this divided through the playoffs.
I think this shows that we are going to have a real good game on our hand no matter what. This is a hard one for me to pick. At first glance I want to take the Giants. They are facing the 31st ranked defense in the league defending the pass and with the weapons the Giants have in Cruz, Manningham and Nicks and with Eli playing as well as he is, how could they lose. But the Patriots defense (while statistically flawed) ranks in the top 15 in points allowed. So they may give up a lot of yards, but not a lot of points come from it.

Then I look to these two teams previous match-up where the Giants won 24-20 on the road with a last second touchdown. In that game the Giants claimed to "get in the head" of Brady. If that was true then why did he throw for 300+ yards and 2 TD's where Eli only went for 250 and a pair of TD's (one coming in the last seconds of the game)?

While my gut tells me to go with the "hot" team with the skilled receivers facing an inept secondary, and the defensive line that will cause mayhem up front, I just can't go against The Golden Boy.

Brady rides into immortality on Sunday with a 34-27 Patriots victory.

NFL Conference Championship Recap

Giants celebrate after winning kick in OT

So I dropped the ball on getting analysts predictions this week but they were very difficult to find. Most of them either didn't say their pick until the last minute, or were very cryptic in who they were going to decide all week. In addition, they spent the first three to four days discussing story lines from last weeks games such as "Is Eli better than Manning?" or the story of Ed Reed calling out Joe Flaco. A little over the top and over dramatic but that's what sports news finds important these days. On any note, here is what I got for this weeks rap-up.

Ravens attempt FG with seconds remaining - wide left

Both games this weekend came down to the wire and were decided by a field goal. Difference is one went through, and one didn't. A lot of potential discussion points and controversy in both games but I'll get to that later. Here's how the analysts did over the weekend.

	Patriots	Ravens		49ers	Giants	% Correct
Me	X				X	100%
Bayless, Skip	X				X	100%
Golic, Mike	X			X		50%
Hodge, Meril	X				X	100%
Jaworski, Ron	X				X	100%
Mortensen, Chirs	X				X	100%
Schefter, Adam	X				X	100%
Schlereth, Mark	X				X	100%

I wasn't able to find many predictions so if you heard of any others please let me know by leaving a comment below. We have a long layoff now until Super Bowl Sunday, but what do you think of the match up?

NFL Divisional Playoffs Recap

We had all types of games this weekend.

- There was the expected annihilation of the Denver Broncos losing to the Patriots 45-10.
- The assumed win that turned into a close game by the Ravens beating the Texans 20-13.
- The best game of the week which needed the very last seconds of the game to put the 49ers on top of the Saints 36-32.
- And last but not least, the "red hot" Giants went into Lambeau Field and went to town on the Packers winning by a convincing 37-20 score (which could have easily been 37-10 of not for some questionable calls).

So lets jump right to it and see which analysts you should listen to for their Conference Championship predictions:

 

Analyst		Patriots	Broncos	Saints	49ers	Ravens	Texans	Giants	Packers	% Right
Me		X		X		X			X	50%
Bayless	Skip		X		X	X		X		75%
Billach	Bryan	X		X		X			X	50%
Edwards	Herm	X			X	X		X		100%
Golic	Mike	X		X		X			X	50%
Greenburg	Mike	X		X		X		X		75%
Hodge	Meril	X			X	X		X		100%
Jaworski	Ron	X		X		X			X	50%
Mortensen	Chris	X			X	X		X		100%
Schefter	Adam	X			X	X			X	75%
Schlereth	Marc	X			X	X			X	75%

Herm Edwards, Meril Hodge and Chis Mortensen got all 4 games right this weekend, and Skip Bayless would have gone 4/4 if he wasn't such a blind Tebow supporter.

NFL Conference Championship games:
 Take some time to think about who's going to win. I'll post analyst predictions later in the week.

New York Giants VS.

San Fransisco 49ers

       

Baltimore Ravens VS.

New England Patriots

NFl Divisional Playoffs

Some great games this weekend, let's see what the professionals are predicting.

New Orleans Saints vs. San Fransisco 49ers:
- My Pick Saints: Offense has been the top headline all season and I don't feel that trend will stop here. While the 49ers defense is stifling, I just like Drew Brees in this one.

Professionals Picks:

Analyst Overall Pick: 49ers

Analyst		Saints	San Fran
Bayless	Skip		X
Billach	Bryan	X
Edwards	Herm		X
Golic	Mike	X
Greenburg	Mike	X
Hodge	Meril		X
Jaworski	Ron	X
Kornheiser	Tony	X
Mortensen	Chris		X
Rosillo	Ryan
Schefter	Adam		X
Schlereth	Marc		X

 
Denver Broncos vs New England Patriots:
- My Pick New England: It was a prefect storm last week for Tebow. Not only did he play the best game of his career, but he was also facing a team that was decimated by injuries and probably a little over confident in what they thought they would be able to do defensively. This week however, they play an organization that has prided itself on being humble and downplaying hyped up games such as this. Plus, they have the nephew of God on the team. The Golden Boy Tom Brady.

Professionals Picks:

Analyst Overall Pick: Patriots

Analyst		New England	Denver
Bayless	Skip		X
Billach	Bryan	X
Edwards	Herm	X
Golic	Mike	X
Greenburg	Mike	X
Hodge	Meril	X
Jaworski	Ron	X
Mortensen	Chris	X
Rosillo	Ryan	X
Schefter	Adam	X
Schlereth	Marc	X

 
Houston Texans vs Baltimore Ravens:
- My Pick Baltimore: This game makes me nervous only because I have never trusted the Ravens. One week they look like the team to beat in the league and then the next they look like a team with a chance for a top 5 draft pick. With that being said, there's just no way I can pick against them playing at home against a team that is starting TJ Yates at QB. No offense, but he was drafted as the 152nd pick for a reason.

Professionals Picks:

Analyst Overall Pick: Ravens

Analyst		Ravens	Houston
Bayless	Skip	X
Edwards	Herm	X
Golic	Mike	X
Greenburg	Mike	X
Hodge	Meril	X
Jaworski	Ron	X
Mortensen	Chris	X
Schefter	Adam	X
Schlereth	Marc	X

New York Giants vs Green Bay Packers:
- My Pick Green Bay: Honestly, I flipped a coin on this one (it landed on heads if you were wondering). I think this is going to be a great game and I say that who ever wins this game will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

Professionals Picks:

Analyst Overall Pick: Packers

Analyst		NYG	Green Bay
Bayless	Skip	X
Billach	Bryan		X
Edwards	Herm	X
Golic	Mike		X
Greenburg	Mike	X
Hodge	Meril	X
Jaworski	Ron		X
Mortensen	Chris	X
Schefter	Adam		X
Schlereth	Mark		X
Smith	Stephen		X
Stewart	Kordell		X

 


So, who ya got? Let me know.

Robert Griffin III Declares for NFL Draft

The 2012 Heisman Award Winner Robert Griffin III (RG3) declared for the NFL draft earlier this week and it didn't take long for analysts to make predictions on the future of his NFL career. Both Bill Simons of ESPN and Comman Man of KFAN 100.3 have said they believe RG3 will be a better draft choice than the presumed #1 pick Andrew Luck. I mean they make a good point. Griffin threw for more yards, had a better completion percentage, ranked 1st in the country for yards per completion, equaled Luck in TD passes with 37 (also adding 9 more on the ground compared to Luck's 2) and threw less interceptions than Luck. So the data is there, but football isn't played by statistics. If that were true, then the Steelers should have rolled over Denver in last weeks Wild Card Playoff game.

In my opinion, if we are looking only long term results (meaning look 10-13 years down the road), I feel that Andrew Luck will be the better QB in the end. I will admit that for the first few years (years 1-3), RG3 will look better only because he will be able to cover up some of his rookie year mistakes but escaping pressure with his feet and simply being an athletic freak, where Luck will instead try to use his arm to get out of trouble resulting in more interception early on. But as Luck progresses and grows, I feel he will have a hirer ceiling than RG3.

One thing that really scares me about Griffin is his uncanny resemblance to a certain Michael Vick. Now I think Griffin seems to be a good kid and will stay out of trouble (he graduated with a 3.67 GPA in political science and is currently studying for a Masters in Communication) but his play style and physical traits that have NFL scouts drooling I feel have already been played out by Vick. RG3 is listed as 6'2'' 220 lbs. Vick is listed as 6'0'' 215. Now while RG3 is taller and heavier than Vick, I still the chance of Griffin having the same problem that has plagued Vick throughout his career where he has only played one complete 16 game season.

So to conclude, I feel that while Griffin is no slouch when it comes the Quarterback position, and that he has a good chance to be a SOLID player, my gut just keeps telling me that Andrew Luck will live up to the hype and be the next GREAT quarterback in the league.

So what are your feelings on RG3? Where do you think he'll get drafted? How do you think he'll do short term? Long term?

BCS National Championchip

 While there was much debate on whether or not Alabama should have been in the BCS National Championship, they sure made the best of their opportunity by laying a beat down on LSU winning the game 21-0.




 Here were some of the predictions I heard about the upcoming game:

                          Chris Carter - Alabama               Bob Ryan - Alabama

Michael Wilbon - Alabama         JA Adande - LSU

Mike Golic - Alabama                Woody Paige - LSU

Mike Greenburg - LSU               Skip Bayless - LSU

Bomani Jones - Alabama

To add onto some of the final game predictions, there were some guesses on what would happen in the actual game itself.

- Kirk Herbstreit said that the game would be a wide open offensive battle. He predicted the final score adding up to somewhere between 40-50 total points. Wrong.

- Skip Bayless added onto his prediction that LSU would "dominate" and "over-power" Alabama in every aspect of the game. He also said that Alabama QB AJ McCarron would crack under the immense pressure of this game and not make any game changing plays. Wrong again Skip.

Were there any other analyst predictions that you heard? What were some of your predictions/thought about the game? Let me know by leaving a comment.