NFL Flexes Giant Muscles, Bullies NCAA

Apparently the NFL has caused a bit of a scheduling conflict with the NCAA and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. They've scheduled the Packers @ Cardinals game one day prior to the Bowl game, where the NCAA reportedly has a contract in place with the stadium operator saying a game cannot be played less than two days before the event. The Cards deal apparently says the same thing.

So now the NFL front offices are leaving the Cards out to dry and let them apologize...for what, I'm not sure. But one way or the other, the NFL has said they have no intention of rescheduling the game.

"Oh, what, you have a game scheduled a day after ours? Oh, there's a contract saying our game isn't legal? Sorry, I don't know anything about that contract. If you'd like, I hear there's another stadium close by that you could play in..."

What's interesting to me about this is how the NFL has in the past always seemed to get out of the way when dealing with the NCAA. They never schedule games on Saturdays where there's NCAA action, just like they don't on Fridays for high school football. Classically they've seen it as protecting their own future. So why they're picking now to fire up such a confrontation, over something that's really so small as a regular season game, is beyond me. How tough is it really to just say "Oh man, sorry, we didn't realize it, we're taking actions immediately to rectify the situation?"

The NCAA "isn't threatening legal action" (not a direct quote) although they're pretty clearly threatening legal action, wink wink nudge nudge. Will be interesting to see who's got the muscle for this one.

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The Stories of the Superbowl Contenders

With this weekend’s two match-ups staring us down, begging for sides to be chosen, smack to be talked, and eventually beer to be cried in; I think we have a unique opportunity to choose which side we’re rooting for not because of the love of the team, but rather the love of the story that the team will become.

Each of these four teams has an “amazing story” (as it will undoubtedly be called by media pundits) to be told. And should they win this weekend, their reward shall not only be a trip to a place where you want Florida, you want it all, and you only want to unpack once, it will be to have this story hung round their neck like an anvil for two weeks. For 14 days, the media will beat it into our heads as though it is the most amazing story in sports. They will drive it into our souls. And they will make us think that these stories are so unbelievable, that it’s not possible that any such amazing story has ever happened before. After all, what is the probability that two teams would have made it to the Superbowl???

Anyway, I’m going to beat the media to the punch. I’m going to tell their stories up front, before the media gets a chance to sink their teeth into them like a leech. Get ready…you’re going to half get a preview of your next two weeks, and half get a preview of what would have been, but never will become…..

Arizona Cardinals
There are actually two stories to this team’s improbable run to the Superbowl, and they both bleed nicely together. First, you have the lowly Cardinals, the definition of dismal, the lovable losers. It’s a franchise almost 90 years old, and they’ve had seven (7) playoff appearances. This Superbowl will be their eleventh (11) playoff game in franchise history. For perspective, this is close to the number of prefixes their franchise has held (Chicago, St Louis, Phoenix, Arizona). For some additional perspective, Tom Brady has been playing this game one tenth the number of seasons the Cardinals have, and has played 17 playoff games.

I mean, really, what’s happening here? This is a franchise that hasn’t simply made a job of losing, they’ve perfected it. Prior to this year, only once in the last 20 years have the Cardinals finished with a winning record. Combine the regular season records of their two winning seasons, they were 18-14…four games over .500! And it took two seasons to do it! You know how many times they were four games (or more) under .500 in those 20 years? Thirteen. And now here they are in the Superbowl!

The second story is that really, this franchise really should have continued their losing ways this season. The “reality” is that this is a crappy team that was just lucky to be in a division that makes “crappy” look like the 2007 New England Patriots. The Cardinals were 6-0 in a division that featured three teams with a combined 13 wins. They were 3-7 against the rest of the NFL. It’s the team Don Banks called the worst NFL playoff team in recent history.

Yeah, well, what does Don Banks know, anyway?

Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles Superbowl appearance is virtually the opposite of the Cardinals. This is a perennial winner. This team has had one losing season under the Reid/McNabb watch. But that’s not the story. No, the story is that just two months ago, Reid and McNabb, arguably the two guys most important to this franchise on the field on game days, were a stone’s throw away from being tarred, feathered, driven up to New York, and dropped off at the Meadowlands in the hopes of ruining a divisional rival.

That’s right, the same Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb that have shown up in the playoffs seven of the last nine years. Note please that’s the same as the Cards all-time playoff appearances. Not once in those seven appearances have they gone one-and-done. They’re 11-6 in the playoffs coming into this Superbowl. McNabb has played in five Conference Championship games, and is about to play in his second Superbowl.

To say the city of Philadelphia suffers from multiple-personality disorder might be the understatement of the century. I wonder how it is that McNabb’s jersey isn’t by a country mile the top selling jersey in the NFL. Every year, it seems Eagles fans must buy his jersey, proudly display it until his first poor game, burn it, then go buy another one as he begins to play well again, repeat cycle ad infinitum.

You can be certain that anything less than a Superbowl win will once again bring the mutterings calling for a change.

Baltimore Ravens
Joe Cooooooool. The city is Wacko for Flacco! Three months ago, Baltimoreans had to pinch themselves to be sure they weren’t just dreaming. Could it be? Could the QB carousel the Ravens have ridden for so long finally be over?

This is a story of a rookie quarterback. Quite possibly the best rookie quarterback ever. Not because of what he did in the regular season, although his regular season is maybe the fourth best in the last 25 years or so for rookie QBs (behind Marino, Roethlisberger, and Matt Ryan, in that order).

But because he’s doing something that no other rookie quarterback has ever done: He’s led his team to the Superbowl, and he’s done it by winning three games on the road.

This game is too complex for rookie QBs to grasp. This game moves too much faster than the college level for rookie QBs to handle. The playoffs are simply too big for a rookie QB. Certainly a D1-AA QB wouldn’t be the one to buck the trend…would he?

Hey, he’s not a rookie anymore.

Pittsburgh Steelers
With their second Superbowl appearance this decade, it makes one wonder if we have somehow flashed back into the ‘70s. I, for one, certainly hope not, since the only truly great thing that the decade gave us was the Steel Curtain. Has there ever been a picture that more clearly defines the dynasty than Jack Lambert's scowl?

Here are the defensive ranks from the ’72-’79 Steelers, and the ’01-’08 Steelers. They may not be in that particular order. You see if you can guess which is which…
8, 4, 1, 4, 1, 7, 3, 2 (average = 3.75)
1, 7, 9, 1, 4, 9, 1, 1 (average = 4.13)

Does it even matter which was which? One was never worse than 8th, and averaged better than 4th overall. One was 1st half the years in that stretch. The difference is that from ’72 to ’79, the Steelers never missed the playoffs and won four Superbowls; while the ’01 to ’08 Steelers missed the playoffs twice and only won one (maybe now two?) Superbowls.

But then again, back in the ‘70s, you didn’t have free agency to deal with. Their roster didn’t suffer anything close to the turnover that this version of the Steel Curtain has suffered. So which accomplishment is more impressive? Asserting defensive dominance to the tune of four Superbowl wins in eight seasons? Or one/two Superbowl wins in that span in an era where nearly the entire roster has turned over?

Have there been better defenses to play in any given year? Sure, a few. Have there been other teams known for a strong span of defensive dominance? Baltimore recently and Chicago in the mid-80s come immediately to mind.

But Pittsburgh has truly built a new dynasty out of the same foundation they laid three decades ago. Many franchises in the major sports are synonymous with winning tradition. A very precious few have their greatness that so clearly defines an aspect of the game. When someone thinks of defining defense in the NFL, there can be no other franchise they think of first than the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Divisional Weekend - v1

Balt @ Tenn

A really exciting football game, but as I discussed with Patrick he's turned me to note it wasn't really a "great" game but more just a sloppy game, at least by one team.

This game actually reminded me a lot of the Ravens @ Titans game from the '00 season. The Titans really beat the Ravens up and down the field that weekend too, except two. Turnovers, and scoreboard. This one was the exact same way. The Titans almost doubled up total yardage, but couldn't finish their drives. Three drives in scoring position resulting in turnovers, one a missed FG.

Was there anything more critical in that game than Chris Johnson's injury? LenDale White didn't have a horrible game, but Johnson was averaging almost 7 per rush and a virtual lock to put up 100 rushing yards on the game. When the Titans came out in the second half with Johnson limping on the sideline, all the wind just seemed to come out of them offensively. The Ravens were dropping an extra guy into coverage, able to attack Collins more and disrupt him, and keep a lot of those passes from being completed. It was like two different offenses in the first half and third quarter.

One of the big differences between this game yesterday and the regular season was the end-game play of Joe Flacco. This regular season, his biggest issue has been the inability to mount end-of-game drives to put the team in position to win. Last night, with about four minutes left, Flacco got the ball deep in his own territory, needing about 35 yards to have at least a shot at a winning FG. This season, those drives have gone nowhere. Yesterday, he picked up 51 yards to put Stover well within his range with the wind at his back.

The Ravens will limp into next week's game, banged up after such a physical game. But they've got to be feeling pretty good about their chances after going in and knocking off the #1 seed.

AZ @ Car

So Larry Fitzgerald is completely taking over on offense. What a huge difference he's making offensively to this team.

Third and one and we see virtually the exact same play that went for their first TD in the Atlanta game. Double covered, Warner puts the ball up, and Fitz just goes up and gets it. If he's going to be making plays like that, how is it even possible to defend the guy?

Then a play that in my opinion was even bigger, where Fitz came across the middle of the field clean, took the pass, and cut up-field. He knew exactly where he had to get the ball for the end zone, left his feet, and basically punched the pylon with the ball.

Fitzgerald seems like what I'd call the "perfect" receiver. The only thing I'm not certain of is his blocking ability, more cause they just don't run the ball a lot, and when they do it doesn't seem like they're hitting the perimeter with their rushers a lot. But other than that, the guy really is the full package. Tall, fast, incredible hands, fights for the ball, runs fantastic routes, exceptionally aware of where he is and needs to be with the ball in his hands...he's everything a team could want in a receiver.

And how 'bout Jake Delhomme? No one can melt-down quite like him. He had an average season this year, which was good enough with their run game and defense, with 15 TDs against 12 INTs, and an 84.7 QB rating.

But 7 of those 12 INTs came in two of their 16 games this season. With his 84.7 rating, he had only six games with a QB rating under that, and only three rated under 70. Those three games, his ratings were 55.3, 38.6, and 12.3.

He's a pretty classic hot-and-cold QB that's good more often than he is bad. And we know he can do it over sustained stretches as he almost beat the Patriots in the Superbowl. During that stretch he was never rated under 96 in those four games.

But there's no question he's capable of dropping one of those stinkers. He did it in the '05 post-season to bump them out of the Conf Championship game with a 34.9 QB rating. and last night went 39.1 in what was almost assuredly the biggest reason for the Panthers losing that game.

Meanwhile, now we've got a situation where two teams with a combined 15 regular season losses could be hosting the Conference Championship games next week. How amazing would that be?

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