This was an odd Super Bowl. Basically, another boring, blowout type game for the first 2 and a half quarters, and then it turned into a college football game. In the NFL, no one comes back from being down 21-0 and then 28 – 3 in the 3rd quarter. It just doesn’t happen much less in a playoff game or Super Bowl. Sure, there was that wild Buffalo comeback against the Houston Oilers in the playoffs but those are few and far between. We have become used to these types of games at the college level where the offenses run no huddle and the clock stops on 1st downs.
New England is not even a quick strike team. Most of their drives took up some clock. SU believes it was really just a case that Atlanta’s defense was on the field for so many plays, so many passing plays, and they wore down in the 4th quarter. There was one turnover by Ryan on the sack and they could have played the clock better with some runs. But SU believes they were gassed in the 4th quarter. The killer was giving up 2 2-point conversions – that never happens. It’s like recovering 2 onside kicks.
SU also believes that the Falcons will miss the playoffs next season. In the NFL, there is the carryover effect when you come up just short or implode like yesterday. The experts will say that they’ll be back and will play in this game again. Could be – but not next season. One step forward, 2 steps back.
Many thanks to the NFL faithful for their Super Bowl predictions. In case you weren’t following along, here they were:
- S. Goldman: 31 – 23 Pats
- Trigs: 31 – 23 Pats
- A. Grossman: 35-32 Falcons
- P. Bok: 27 – 23 Pats with the Falcons losing in heart-breaking fashion (I think Pete may have come closest to predicting just how this would play out and he is a Falcons fan)
- Mark N: 35 – 31 Falcons
- Jeff: 31-17 Pats (but not happy about it as he is a Jets fan)
- Bob D: 35-21 Falcons
- Steve G: 34-21 Pats (as a big-time, long-time Pats fan)
Some pretty close picks there by highly educated SU subscribers, and SU applauds everyone for weighing in and putting their reputations on the line!
Sports Update Intergalactic 
For the record, Trigs Super Bowl pick was 34 – 21 Pats. And as a Jet fan, that was not easy to say. I believe the turning point was Mr. Brady’s dying quail that occurred after his arm was hit. It ended up being a completion and I said to myself this is a harbinger of things to come. All in all, there is such a fine line between winning and losing, being a playoff team and a non playoff team…. 2 weeks to pitchers and catchers? Let’s go Rangers!
Sorry about that, Steve! Time to hire more research staff. Good point on that deflected pass and how things play out. And I am with you: bring on baseball!
2 running plays, even they gained no yards and the game is most likley over with a field goal. This has replaced the Seattle pass being picked off as the worst calls made in Super Bowl history. You also had Edelmans version of the Tyre catch against hese Pats. yoss in a critical turniver by the Falcons and with a very winded Falcons defense the rest is history.
Edelman caught that ball after it hit everything but the ground. The slo-mo replay of it hanging there about 2 inches off the turf while he gets a hand underneath is amazing.
I agree on the defense wearing down and the fact that converting two 2-point conversions when you have to is a rarity. It is going to take a few days for us to recover in the Bok house as I have some upset boys. Unfortunately I have to agree that it is going to be difficult for the Falcons to get back to this game (or playoffs) next year. Carolina is going to play better, Dallas is still strong, the Giants are headed in the right direction, and the Seahawks and Packers are always competitive. Not to mention the Cardinals and any other team which may turn into “that team” next year (Bucs?). Perhaps if they had just run the ball more (or thrown to Julio more than 4 times) things could have been different…
It was definitely a shocker and highly entertaining in the end but it really wasn’t a great game. It looked like a blowout for most of three quarters and 31 unanswered points was only thrilling in context. Had the Patriots had the lead before scoring all those points, Fox would have cut away to start 24: Legacy earlier. It was hard to get a full grasp on the game while watching it at a party where a significant percentage of the guests wondered if “LI” meant they were playing on Long Island. Still, some observations.
– Hard to remember but the teams were tied at 0-0 after one quarter.
– The first half score was lopsided but the interception that lead to 21-0 happened at the tail end of a drive where NE was looking ready to close the score to 14-7. Obviously that would have felt very different.
– Absolutely nobody pointed it out at the time but Mike Golic mentioned this morning how lopsided the # of plays was in NE’s favor, even at the half. Clearly the Evil Genious was simply wearing down Atlanta’s defense in preparation for the late game comeback.
– It was hard to imagine it at the time but a missed extra point almost made a difference in this game.
– Back in the days where overtime could be won by an early field goal you often saw teams kick field goals on 1st, 2nd or 3rd down to wrap up a game. It’s a bit less common now but you have to wonder if that would have been a reasonable call for Atlanta when they got into field goal range for what would become their last possession of the game. Instead a sack and a penalty pushed them out of range of the field goal that would have made it a 2 score game with about 3 minutes to play.
– To me Bellichick is the best coach ever. I’m not even sure there’s any room for discussion. You can count the titles but you can also look at how he’s done it. He’s had great defense. He’s had great offense. He adapts to the changes in the game over the years and he adapts within a game. He does this better than anyone. And look at the talent. He can win with anyone. Well not anyone. He needs the right types of players but that means players who work hard and buy in. Their offense has 1 first-round pick. Hogan and Amendola were undrafted and Edelman was a 7th rounder…that’s the world champion receiving corps for you. It’s shocking that nobody learns from them. Other teams are falling over themselves for draft picks and free agents while the Patriots just keep chugging along. How is it that nobody else can figure out how to make this work? (Note: I do not doubt Tom Brady’s greatness but I believe he’s nearly as replaceable as all the other players Bellichick has replaced over the years.)
– Much was made of Lady Gaga avoiding politics during the halftime show. She made the right choice to focus on entertainment rather than controversy and I have a feeling that she (or someone close to her) realized that any political commentary may have felt a little awkward coming on the heals of her 60 second Tiffany spot.
Wondering how SU’s scouting team evaluated Carmelo Anthony’s “audition” in front of Cleveland this weekend. I don’t know how strong a friendship James and Anthony have, but there is no way he’s pushing his team to acquire Antony. James knows basketball and he knows Anthony has never made any team better. There’s zero interest here. James basically runs the Cavs. If he wanted Anthony, a deal would already have been made.
One more thing: Really interesting to hear fans, despite their elation at the end of the game, to still figure it was worth it to boo Roger Goodell…for his entire appearance. Not a good sign for him. People have said that the owners don’t care about Goodell’s reputation as long as he keeps making them boatloads of money. But it can’t be helpful for the face of the NFL to be loudly booed during what is likely the only appearance many of us will see for another year. He’s going to be the face of the leauge in negotiations with sponsors and partners. I know that these were all Patriots fans that were booing. And sometimes the entertainment business benefits from a villain. But this is not the WWE. The owners may start to grow tired of him because there are just too many flashpoints when you factor in his relationship with the league’s best team and QB, the domestic violence, the injuries, etc.
Seth, on this last point, I do believe that the owners were actually okay with the Brady suspension and that they are all fed up with the Pats’ cheating over the years. While I personally felt the suspension was too severe, I do believe that the owners have had it and are happy to have Goodell take the booing. I thought the limp handshake from Jonathan Kraft was a little weak there. Man up, you won and stay above the fray. Bob Kraft was once Goodell’s biggest advocate among the owners. Time heals all wounds. As there is no likely successor, I would be very surprised to see a change at the top.
What a torturous game. I would have been obviously fine with the Falcons winning, but short of a winning outcome I would have rather been blown out than lose in that fashion. A good game in a losing effort would have been both teams trading blows all game long.
There were so many ways that the Falcons could have won that game but the most obvious is to just run the ball non stop after Julio’s amazing sideline catch. You would eat up clock, burn NE time outs, and almost certainly get a field goal making it a three possession game.
PS – Dan Quinn has actually had 2 Super Bowl losses to the Pats now based on questionable 4th quarter offensive calls. The first was the Seahawks throwing at the 2 and getting picked off when they had the best running back in the lead wanting the ball. The second was last nights fiasco of a call mentioned above.
I agree with you, Mark. Other than the obvious fumble (which was their only turnover of the game), in terms of play calling running the ball there and letting the play clock run down was the smart play. But they had been playing up tempo all night so I understood a little why they wanted to go faster. Of course, in hindsight, it was a no brainer: run the ball and get the field goal. You had to adapt your play calling to the time of the game. Tough one to swallow for Falcon fans.
PS – Let me know when I can go back to the sports pages without seeing an infuriating Super Bowl recap story. Give me a good old “trade Melo”, March Madness, or spring training is here story. I only really watch hockey during the playoffs which is like the regular season since almost every team gets in.
Agreed. I am one and done with the Super Bowl. Time to move on and be irritated by the Yankees (see new post).