Football fix

I don't know whether I'm the only one who had a tough time coming off my football high, but now that the season is over and done I've been looking for a way to scratch the itch. This led me to check out and read an excellent sports book "Bringing the Heat", by Mark Bowden. It's all about the Eagles (big surprise I know), the 1989-1992 teams that couldn't quite make it over the hump, but I think it's worth reading if you're a football fan. It describes the players, coaches, and team chemistry in an insightful and colorful way that I think would appeal to anybody. It's worth it for the casual reader just because of its profile of then Eagles DT Mike Golic, now star sportscaster. I'd highly recommend it.

I hate the Giants

Wow, that was quite a game. Let me start by saying that I'm not going to take anything away from the Giants; they played phenomenal defense, pressured Brady like nobody else had, and made the plays on offense that they had to.

But with that being said, what happened to the Pats? They were the highest scoring team in history this year because they had a shotgun-spread offense that couldn't be stopped. It just couldn't. No team has the personnel to cover Moss, Stallworth, Welker, and Watson all at the same time. And if they managed it for a little while then Jabar frickin Gaffney would run amok and the defensive coordinator cried.

Then towards the end of the regular season they get cute, and start running more, and setting up a more "conventional" looking offense. Ok, fine, show people you can run. That's fine. But hey, here comes the Superbowl and the Giants, whose defensive specialty is rushing the QB. They smack the crap out of big Tom in the first half and it's time for the legendary Belechick halftime adjustments; so of course they open up the second half throwing those pansy bunch WR screens that hadn't worked for the whole game and running plays for Kevin Faulk, a nice guy but maybe the fifth best receiver on the team. Finally, finally at the end they go shotgun and drive down and score, but they leave 2:45 on the clock! Is it just me or did they play this game backwards? Why not open in shotgun, let the Giants' pass rush guys run themselves down and get used to aiming at Brady, and then in the second half Maroney draw them to death? I don't get it.

And good golly do I hate the Giants.

Final note, Steve Spagnolo is going to be the most successful coach to fall off of the Andy Reid tree. I'm calling it now.

SUPER SUNDAY!

And the Super Bowl is tonight. The Giants and Patriots are ready to rumble and people are ready to eat inordinate amounts of food. Let us all pray for great commercials as well. Also, isn't it nice to have all this "new" Spygate information coming out each and every day as the Patriots prepare for the Super Bowl? Does the media really feel the need to give the Patriots MORE motivation to win this game? I'm expecting a blow-out, I just can't see a conceivable way that the Giants can win.

Keeping you posted,
Andrew.