There ya go. Defense wins titles.
Nest Stop HOUSTON.
Yaaaay Nest! Go Skins!
hey I’m a bit drunk giff me a break mmmkay?
Yawohl, I giff you ein break! Ein Bier bitte! :)
Jeez, tell me about it. As a native Bostonian abroad, the entire night was spent drinking American tourists under the table at the local Dublin sports bar, interrupted only by the frequent “booyeah”-ing necessitated by my heritage. I tried to climb into three obviously occupied taxis before I found one to take me home. However, a good game: the Pats have the Super Bowl in the bag.
That game blew. Because the Colts sucked.
I don’t think the score reflected the game, 34-14 is more like it.
Crypty you are still over there? Man, the Sox and Pats this year and you have to watch it in German?!?
The Colts sucked cuz the Pats D rocked. There wasn’t alot of dropped passes, they were converting 3rd downs, but as ususal the D is just clutch. Ty Law with 3 Ints, - just saw that Manning from Car. just got three also- bunch of hurries a few sacks (J Green? There is a name not called often). Rodney’s End zone Int changed the game.
That said, with 50 seconds left on the clock and up by 10, Payton still made me just a wee bit nervous.
So that is 14 in a row, matching the 14 in a row of the 72 'Fins.
As of now it is looking like Carolina, I would have ratherd the Eagles, just cuz the look kinda lame.
Midnight: Halt den Mund!
I’m not so sure about that. The Panthers look like the Patriots of two years ago. I think they’ll win.
I’m not so sure about that. The Panthers look like the Patriots of two years ago. I think they’ll win.[/quote]
I agree with this - the Panthers looked damn good against the Eagles. It’s going to be a battle of D versus D this Super Bowl. I can’t wait.
Oh, and that Goal Line run where DeShaun Foster broke 6 or 7 tackles and turned what should have been a blown play into a score was a goddamned thing of beauty.
Grundy: Der Panthers Uber Alles!
Carolina played much better football yesterday, the Patriots depended on turnovers coupled with good defense to win. Ultimately the Colts, frankly, beat themselves. They choked, didn’t execute, made crucial errors (stop throwing anywhere near Ty Law dammit!) (what was up with that punt snap?!?). Despite that the Pats couldn’t manage more than a single TD in all those Red Zone attempts? That’s scary because the Colts D isn’t THAT good. By then end the Patriots came dangerously close to throwing away all that good luck and going into OT.
Looks like Carolina is going to win next week folks, unless the Patriots get it together (Belicheck is capable of that). You can’t win a Superbowl with the kicker! Looks like a coaching battle to me because Carolina proves my point that a great coach can take a mediocre team anywhere.
That’s not fair. The Panthers have great players. The OL is one of the best in football, even if people don’t know their names. The DL IS the best in the NFL. Davis and Foster are both great RBs (I thought Foster should have been a first round pick. He was incredible at UCLA). Analysts have been acting like this Panthers team is a fluke all year and it is annoying. I picked them to win the NFC south before the season started. They had everything in place last year except a half-decent QB. Now they have that. Delhomme is cool under pressure and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. The Patriots could change that, of course, but either way it should be a great game and the Panthers have a great shot.
I agree that Fox is a good coach, but I disagree that he is doing it with a mediocre team.
No offense intended to Carolina’s players… but aren’t they a bunch of cast offs, arena and Euopean league players, and rookies? Sure, they have talent, but I think it takes a fucking great coach to get a disparate group like that to play this well together, with a QB who’s played backup all his life. Anyway, this group, to me at least, came out of nowhere playing like they’ve been winning together for years.
I would say that Carolina played much better football as a team overall, but against a much weaker team. I don’t know if the facts support me on this, but my guts say the Eagles are a terribly overrated team that should not have been in the playoffs, nevermind the NFC championship game. They have been for years. And while I don’t agree with Rush Limbaugh on politics, I readily agreed that McNabb is an overrated quarterback, at least these last few seasons. Maybe he was a breath of fresh air when he first came to the league, but I feel that faded. I don’t think McNabb can win Philly a super bowl just as I don’t think McNair can win the Titans a super bowl. Good scramblers and hearts of champions that make them play better than they actually are. But it will probably get called out when it really counts.
Well, Delhomme backed up Kurt Warner who played pretty good for a couple of seasons… and don’t get me started on Stephen Davis, who should be part of the new Joe Gibbs era Redskins, DAMMIT!!!
I agree with you on the Eagles. They HAVE been overrated all year. but they still won a lot of games, and that means something. It didn’t surprise me that they lots (obviously). If they HAD made the superbowl, I think the Patriots would have destroyed them. But it is NOT McNabb’s fault. HE could get them there, IF they would give him some backup (WRs in particular). Their WRs stink…I don’t think any of them could play for teams like the Colts, Titans, Rams, and MANY more. As for McNair, did you see him play when he was healthy (well before the playoffs)? He is as good a passer as anyone in the league. He is NOT a scrambling QB. He is a QB who can scramble. He is more accurate than McNabb. While QB ratings are a bit overrated, check his. It was the best in the NFL this year. He can throw it. He won’t be the reason the Titans don’t go all the way (assuming they don’t).
A scrambling QB is an overrated commodity, I agree. But none of them would be playing if they couldn’t pass, and getting to championship games (or even the playoffs) means something in the NFL. McNabb and McNair have nothing to prove, in my book. Manning hasn’t gotten to a superbowl, and he is still a great QB. Lots of QBs don’t make it. They aren’t the only players on the team.
See, to me, the Eagles winning a lot of games doesn’t mean anything (part of what I was talking about with the facts not backing me up). It just reinforces bad habits. They win a lot of games, so they look at their formula and decide it’s good but needs tweaking. In my mind, the Eagles need an overhaul. Their WR’s suck, their running backs seem very inconsistent, McNabb can move to create opportunity, but he seems off the mark more than he his on it. Very inaccurate. Defense is weak, secondary has big names that don’t seem to consistently back up their names with performance.
McNair may not be a scrambling quarterback per se at this point, but he definitely gets a lot of yardage on the ground compared to most quarterbacks, or he did before he got turned into a cripple with his jillion injuries he often plays through. His passer rating was very good this year, but still seems to make stupid decisions. Bret Farve has been doing this more and more each year since he won the super bowl. It doesn’t help that the Titans stick with Eddie George at RB. So I feel that either the Titans need to dump Eddie George for a real threat at RB that allows McNair more leeway, or the Titans need to dump McNair for a QB that can really explode and take pressure off the running game. But in the end, all I have is this gut feeling that McNair doesn’t have what it takes to win a super bowl.
The Eagles, as a team were overrated, yes. But McNabb wasn’t, just look at his numbers from October this year on. Rush Limbaugh made an idiotic statement and McNabb ground it in his face by being, pretty much, the player who took his team to the NFC championship this year.
Truth is the Eagles were much stronger last year and the year before. This year they overperformed.
The fact that many of the players were cast-offs makes for a great story, but don’t rush to judgment on their ability to play. Thay have a great offensive line, and any coach will tell you a line lives and dies by the athleticism of its linemen. The Redskins loss of Davis to Carolina was denounced by analysts as a terrible decision on Washington’s part before Davis ever took a snap in a Panthers uniform, and his numbers, Pro Bowl honor, and where he helped take his team is proof of that. Steve Smith is one of the best WRs in the league, and Mushin Muhammad has matured into a solid starter as well. Smith and Muhammad are as solid a WR pair there is in the league; their ability to get open and fight for the ball (especially in the end zone; how many post-season TDs were made by them purely by the virtue of them out-playing the D for them?). The bench for the running and passing game is deep. Ricky Proehl, Kevin Dyson, DeShaun Foster, Brad Hoover, these are all very good players. Jake Delhomme did nothing all year but methodically prove everyone wrong about his abilities or lack thereof. He isn’t perfect, but it has been his play, not just what the coaches conservatively set up for him to modestly achieve, that has won them games. His play, as good as any QB, beat the Bucs and Rams in OT this year, to name a few. Likewise, the defense is unquestionably as good as any this year, again starting with the line, the best in football. Coaching does play a big part in this unit, they will change their tactics quite dramatically over the course of the game if need be, but they have the players to do that. You’ll notice, they get better penetration later in the game still using the front four, a rarity in the league. Ricky Manning is the third string CB, promoted due to injury. The D has also been playing without two other star players, Kavika Pittman and Mark Fields. This team is deep, talented, and does not know the meaning of the word quit. They have every conceivable tool a team needs except for veteran play from some of its starters and respect (which, in fact, I believe they use to their fullest advantage).
Of course, Bill Belicheck is at least one of the three best coaches in the league, if not the best. The Patriots’ run defense finished 4th overall, and it’s no mystery how athletic their LBs and secondary are. However, Dalls’ run D finished 3rd, so it’s no foregone conclusion that that NE will be able to stop the Panther’s running game (especially since nobody has yet). Some have wondered what answer the Panthers will have for the Patriots’ five-wide sets, which Indy’s D did not have an answer for. It will come down to that pass rush (another thing Indy didn’t have). Carolina showed against St. Louis that an elite passing game does not scare them, and that was in a hostile stadium. Vinatieri as as good as you’ll ever find, Kasay not so much. Todd Sauerbrun earned a Pro Bowl with his ability, while NE is at the bottom of the league in punting. Having played in the Super Bowl before is a big advantage on the Patriots behalf, however.
Still, the teams match up pretty evenly. Both possess the ability to make their opponents play terribly on both sides of the ball.
Every time a Cleveland Browns’ fan reads this sentiment (and Lord knows we’ll be reading it a lot in the next two weeks), it’s like yet another knife plunged into our guts and twisted. Not that it’s not true, it is. That’s what makes it hurt so much. But it’s like he used his stint with the Browns to make every mistake a head coach could make and then the bastard, unlike 99% of other coaches, had the nerve to learn from his mistakes.