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Tag Archives: Tom Brady
Justin Tuck Should Be Super Bowl MVP
Justin Tuck pressured Tom Brady in his own end-zone during the first quarter of the Super Bowl forcing Brady to throw the ball away. The officials awarded the Giants a safety and the score was 2 – 0 Giants.
This one play changed not only the whole game but, more importantly, the final minutes of the 4th quarter. And yes, some of you might argue that the officials should get the MVP award . . . 😉
With less than 4 minutes to go the Giants were down 15 – 17. They only needed to kill time and score a field goal to win the game. Once they got inside the Patriots 30 yard line, they were only concerned about killing time.
Had they been down by 13 – 17, they would have NEEDED that touchdown to potentially win the game. Their entire attitude, play calling and strategy would have been different.
Of course,thanks to an almost brilliant defensive call, the Giants ended up failing to run out the clock effectively and only scoring the field goal by running it in for a TD. Belichick would have most likely used this same strategy if he thought the chances of the Giants scoring a TD were good. And from inside the 10 yard line, this might have been a reasonable thought.
So with 57 seconds left and the score now in the Giants favor 20 – 17, all the Bradiots would have to do is march 50 or 60 yards down the field to score a tying field goal instead of 80 yards and a TD and send the game into overtime.
Of course there is no telling what would have happened but still, that safety changed the entire complexity of the game and the final minutes of the Super Bowl.
Some Amazing Things Happened This Week
Cheetah, the chimpanzee from the Tarzan movies, lived to the amazing age of 80. Then he suddenly died. Considering most chimps don’t live much past the age of 50, both events seem, well, amazing.
Regardless of whether you believe he was who everyone said he was. The chimp that died, was said to like watching football and making people laugh. And that is OK in my book.
He was also rumored to be an ace at throwing poo. One caretaker said he could hit anybody over 30 feet away; even behind bars! That is amazing. And, according to one research article, throwing poo is a sign of higher intelligence. Of course, hitting your intended target, which I suspect would be trying to move out of the way at the same time, is an amazing feat of physical and mental prowess too!
Another sign of amazing physical and mental prowess is Drew Brees breaking Dan Marino’s record of passing yards in one season.
But, he may not be alone in the record books for very long. And no, I am not talking about chimps anymore.
Tom Brady stands a good chance of eclipsing Dan Marino’s record this weekend as well. He only needs 187 more yards himself.
In fact, both he and Drew have been on a record setting pace all year!
That would make two record breaking passing events in the same season. Amazing!
And yet one more amazing event happened, or really did not happen, this week. An NFL player with an amazing streak of starting consecutive games and currently leading the entire NFL in tackles this year, did NOT make the Pro Bowl. Amazing! Now I know how this works, it is not about stats and performance both on and off the field. It is a popularity contest. I realize the Redskins are perhaps not the most popular team in the NFL right now, but to have a player of London Fletchers caliber on your team, any team!, and NOT make the Pro Bowl, is , well, simply amazing to me. So to all you folks who did not vote for London . . .
Poo on you!
Best and Worst
OK, So SI had a whole bunch of “10 best and worst” articles on the NFL for this decade…
Seems they don’t think anything memorable is going to happen over the next 3 weeks?
Sheeesh….
Would you say Belichick was the BEST coach of the past decade?
Or that Priest Holmes was the best free agent pickup of the decade?
If that were the case then there would be absolutely no reason to even bother picking upsets each week….
So here we go again with my fabulously accurate predictions…
Hopefully I can do better than last week.
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Cleveland Browns = STEELERS
Carolina Panthers @ New England Patriots = PANTHERS
Cincinnati Bengals @ Minnesota Vikings = BENGALS
New York Jets @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers = JETS
Seattle Seahawks @ Houston Texans = SEAHAWKS
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs = CHIEFS
New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons = SAINTS
Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears = PACKERS
Miami Dolphins @ Jacksonville Jaguars = JAGS
Denver Broncos @ Indianapolis Colts = COLTS
Detroit Lions @ Baltimore Ravens = RAVENS
St. Louis Rams @ Tennessee Titans = TITANS
Washington Redskins @ Oakland Raiders = REDSKINS
San Diego Chargers @ Dallas Cowboys = CHARGERS
Philadelphia Eagles @ New York Giants = EAGLES
Arizona Cardinals @ San Francisco 49ers = CARDINALS
Something to talk about…
And it all revolves around Quarterbacks!
I could have called this “The Class of 2005”
“The new kid in town”
“Size matters…NOT!”
“Who really cares about number 1”
“My predictions…”
Lets start with the class of 2005.
Aaron Rodgers was drafted in the 1st round and is now flourishing as a big time starter.
Alex Smith, also drafted in that very same first round (actually #1 overall), has fallen off a cliff!
Jason Campbell, drafted one spot behind Aaron, does not have any more excuses and needs to step up in this, his contract year.
Will he follow the path of Alex or Aaron?
The jury is still out on him – for now…
Now for the “new kid in town and size matters… NOT!”
The new kid is Chase Daniels. He ,amazingly, went undrafted. Came to the Redskins because he wanted to study under Zorn. And now has shown everyone that he has the talent and the brains to run a NFL offense.
Actually, all the Redskins have to do is look at their history for top QB’s who do not necessarily fit the BIG and TALL mold of the NFL Franchise QB’s.
Joe Theismann
Height: 6-0 Weight: 192
4th round pick
Career Stats
TDS 160
INT 138
YDS 25,206
RTG 77.4
Sonny Jurgensen
Height: 5-11 Weight: 202
4th round pick
Career Stats
TDS 255
INT 189
YDS 32,224
RTG 82.6
This leads me to my “who cares about number 1”
I took a quick look at the history of Superbowl QB’s…
Out of 56 QB’s,
27 were drafted in the first round
29 were not
2 of those 29 were not drafted at all!!!
Some of the noteworthy non 1st rounders…
Of course Tom Brady
The previously mentioned Joe Theismann
Joe Montana
Fran Tarkenton
Johnny Unitas
Roger Staubach
Bart Starr
You can look at the list here
And last but not least… My predictions…
This is actually tied into the class of 2005, non 1st rounders, and undrafted QB’s.
Shaun Hill has been named starting QB for the San Francisco 49’s.
He beat out Alex the cliff jumper.
His career stats so far…
TDS 18
INT 9
Passing yards 2,547
QB Rating 90.5
Not bad for a local 2002 undrafted University of Maryland football player.
Fumbled Returns 