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Cyd Zeigler
The Eagles played a
phenomenal game. There is no taking that away from them. All
of the players on that team should be SO proud of their
performance – and all of the fans should be so proud of this
team.
How could
you not want the New England Patriots in every Super
Bowl? They have been in three Super Bowls in the last four
years and all three have been won by a field goal.
My
boyfriend Dan and I had a fun party with about half the
people not caring about who won, and the other half evenly
split between Eagles and Patriots fans. Of the guys playing
close attention to the game, I would say damn close to
100%thought it was a phenomenal game.
The New
England Patriots have won three games in February. No other
NFL team has won a single game that month.
Donovan
McNabb and Terrell Owens were unbelievable. I am
stunned that Owens did what he did – nine catches for 122
yards. What an amazing feat. For a guy who broke his ankle
six and a half weeks ago, he played the best you could
possibly anticipate for him. I have a whole new respect for
this player. Amazing.
The
touchdown pass to Brian Westbrook by McNabb was
amazing. He is THERE as an elite NFL quarterback.
I hope the
Eagles fans recognize the accomplishment of their team. They
have won 48 games in the last four years – tied with the
Patriots for the most wins in that span; and they have won
the most games in the last five years by six games!!! Lots
of talk is being bantered right now about the Patriots being
a dynasty – the Eagles, despite the lack of a championship,
are just as deserving of that title.
You also
have to respect the New England Patriots secondary.
Remember, this was a team without their two best cornerbacks
– Ty Law and Tyrone Poole – who were both
knocked out for the season weeks ago. Asante Samuel
and Randall Gay both started the Super Bowl and both
– despite no official picks – played very well, with Gay
forcing the only fumble by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Tom
Brady was, I thought, undeserving of his first Super
Bowl MVP trophy – he won it anyway. This year, I though he
was actually quite deserving – and he didn’t win it. A 110+
quarterback rating in the Super Bowl? That’s as good as you
can expect. That isn’t to say that Deion Branch
wasn’t deserving – he was, as he set a record for receptions
in consecutive Super Bowls (21) and tied the record for most
receptions in a Super Bowl (11) and is the third-leading
receiver for most receptions in the Super Bowl in NFL
history (21). It was a toss-up with the voting at our Super
Bowl party. Either Brady or Branch would have been very
deserving of this win.
While all
the eyes were on Terrell Owens as a player who was coming
back from a long-term absence, the Patriots’ Richard
Seymour also came back – and recorded a sack. He went
unnoticed these past two weeks yet was a force in the game.
Dan, my
friend David (who’s an Eagles fan) and I all had dreams this
week that the Patriots won the Super Bowl.
So, here we
are, thinking about who could be the top teams in the NFL
next season. Well, here’s my preview for 2005:
AFC
CHAMPIONSHIP:
Houston
Texans at New England Patriots
NFC
CHAMPIONSHIP:
Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons
SUPER
BOWL:
New England
Patriots 27, Atlanta Falcons, 24 |
Jim Buzinski
--“The
saddest thing is what might have been." Those words
accurately describe the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21 losers to
the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. The Eagles
will spend the off-season replaying a game that was theirs
for the taking, but four turnovers and the clutch Patriots
conspired against them.
Two bad
interceptions by Donovan McNabb (one near the
Patriots’ end zone, the other at the New England 24) were
killers. Both passes were terrible and the result of bad
decisions. McNabb is too experienced to be making what were
rookie mistakes, but the Patriots have a way of doing that
to quarterbacks.
In
addition, two Patriots drives at the end of the third and
into the fourth period led to 10 points and eight minutes
run off the clock and put the Eagles in too deep a hole at
24-14. The result was New England’s third Super Bowl in four
seasons and makes them the team of the new century.
--The
Eagles need to invest in a stopwatch in the offseason
since their clock management was atrocious. In the fourth
quarter, down 10, they moved like they were playing in
quicksand. Lollygagging around, no sense of urgency. This is
the Super Bowl. There are no more games. Where was their
two-minute offense? Do they even have one? I imagine Eagles
fans everywhere were screaming. When Philadelphia finally
got the ball back at its own 4 on their last drive, there
were only 46 seconds left and they were out of timeouts.
They should have had at least another minute.
--More bad
clock management occurred at the end of the first half, when
the Eagles failed to stop the clock inside of two
minutes while the Patriots were inside the Philly 10. Had
the Eagles used their timeouts, they would have had an
additional 40 seconds and time to mount a drive after the
Patriots scored to tie it at 7-7. This was more of a mistake
since New England got the ball to start the second half.
--Hats off
to Terrell Owens. I was among those who thought he
would be a mere decoy given the severity of his injury. Nine
catches for 122 yards showed his competitiveness. He had an
honest and accurate postgame quote, when he said had
Brett Favre (i.e., revered player loved by the media)
tried to play with such an injury, everyone would have
hailed his courage, but Owens was called selfish. If the
rest of the Eagles played as well as Owens, they would be
making parade plans for Broad Street.
--Pretty disgusting to see
openly racist posts on a postgame discussion board run by the
Philadelphia Inquirer. A lot of the posts were directed at
Donovan McNabb, with titles such as "It's time to admit, a
black QB loses." "Rush [Limbaugh] was right." "SORRY
BLACKS!! THE WHITE MAN WON !! " etc. A sad commentary of the
thought process of some fans, and one more thing that will
give Philadelphia fans a bad rep (even though it is a
distinct minority).
--Cyd
called this a great Super Bowl. To me, it was merely
good. Few dramatic big plays, too many punts (12) and
little real tension. It doesn’t make my Top 10 of all-time
Super Bowls and my guess is that most fans outside of Boston
and Philadelphia will forget about it rather quickly.
--The less
said about the Paul McCartney halftime, the better.
As for the commercials, I found most of them lame (but I’m
not a big commercial guy). I did laugh at the monkeys,
though. It’s kind of hard to go wrong with monkeys.
--Speaking
of monkeys, were a group of them in charge of
Fox’s telecast? What an awful job by the director. We
got few relevant replays and action was often shown from
weird angles. It was a sloppy effort more worthy of a
midseason Cardinals-49ers game than the Super Bowl.
--Tom
Brady is now 9-0 in postseason games and he did not
throw an interception in three playoff games this year. All
he does is win. He had a gaudy 110 quarterback rating on
Sunday. McNabb, in contrast, had a 75 rating with three
interceptions.
--I thought
a key was the Patriots' creative play-calling,
especially their use of screen passes to neutralize the
Eagles' blitz. The calls were effective in moving the ball
and keeping the Eagles off balance.
--The
turnover battle in the Patriots’ three playoff games:
Opposing teams, 11, Patriots 1. This just about tells it
all.
--The Pats
only flaw is their inability to cover the pointspread
the last two Super Bowls.
--I did
enjoy this Top 10 list on the David Letterman show
Friday night as presented by the Patriots:
Top Ten Things You Don't Want to Hear In A
Huddle
10.
"I hope this game ends soon--I'm parked at a meter."
Wide Receiver Troy Brown
9.
"I hope someone's Tivoing 'Desperate Housewives'."
Linebacker Ted Johnson
8.
"See you losers later--I just won the Iraqi election. "
Tackle Matt Light
7.
"Hey, I thought of another word that rhymes with
huddle--cuddle."
Linebacker Tedy Bruschi
6.
"Does anyone else's helmet smell like egg salad?"
Linebacker Roosevelt Colvin
5.
"Dude, John Madden's hitting on your wife."
Linebacker Mike Vrabel
4.
"Oh my God, Leonardo Dicaprio is in the first row--I think
I'm gonna pass out."
Linebacker Larry Izzo
3.
"The equipment manager screwed up, so we're all gonna have
to share a mouth guard."
Linebacker Willie McGinest
2.
"Hold Me."
Wide Receiver Deion Branch
1.
"Since we live in Massachusetts we should think about
getting hitched."
Kicker Adam Vinatieri
--Freddie
Mitchell shot his mouth off prior to the game, then was
silent where it mattered the most: on the field. One catch
for 11 yards.
--I liked
this comment from Yahoo! columnist
Dan Wetzel:
"Media around the country
characterized the [Super Bowl host] city of Jacksonville as
a backwater, bucktoothed and not ready for prime time.
"The area's sole daily
newspaper [the Florida Times-Union] repeatedly (and
repeatedly) made these pathetic attempts to fight back, and
in the process made the city of Jacksonville appear
backwater, bucktoothed and not ready for prime time."
--I felt
sorry for Steve Belichick, the father of Pats coach
Bill Belichick. The 86-year-old was caught in the
celebratory Gatorade dump (see
photo) on a chilly night and I hope the poor guy doesn’t
get pneumonia.
--Anyone
would be foolish to pick against the Patriots next season.
They will be odds-on favorite to become the first
team to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
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