February 06, 2005

The player introductions blew. I miss the individual player names being read and the high fives and dance moves.

posted by rcade at 05:53 PM on February 06, 2005

The line was Pats by 7, right? Was that a little too conservative?

posted by alumshubby at 06:08 PM on February 06, 2005

The player introductions blew. I miss the individual player names being read and the high fives and dance moves. Didn't see the last few SBs, didja? By being introduced as a team, the Pats made the others look like cheap showboating chumps. It's a good trend. Your two or three star-boys -- which is all you ever got out of the "individual player names"; the spear-carriers never got mentioned -- were not the ones who won the game anyway. (Now can we please get a drive going, Pats? And no more of those friggin' annoying yellow flags???)

posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:59 PM on February 06, 2005

geekyguy -- hit shoutcast.com. I think there's at least one other feed. Or try NFL.com and see if they have any premium broadcast links. Iggles score -- yea!!!

posted by alumshubby at 07:07 PM on February 06, 2005

Actually, Sir Paul is not sucking. Interesting to see an honest-to-God musician for a change at one of these shindigs. (and best Star Spangled Banana I've seen in a while as well)

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:44 PM on February 06, 2005

Ufez, you were close on the Pats but way off on the Igles. Defenses definitely on top both ways so far. No great commercials either.

posted by billsaysthis at 08:26 PM on February 06, 2005

lbb, at least they brought Cheadle back for that one. And now the Pats are up 10. I seem to have been way off base with the Troy Borwn MVP pick, though he did have one great punt return called back because of someone else's unnecessary holding penalty.

posted by billsaysthis at 09:00 PM on February 06, 2005

Just when you thought the Igles might get back in to it with Owens' game-best catch and run, Donovan remembers the script and throws it to Cold Beer.

posted by billsaysthis at 09:10 PM on February 06, 2005

Worst clock management ever by the Eagles.

posted by swank6 at 09:43 PM on February 06, 2005

Da Patriots win it! (and so does billsaysthis...dammit, if I'd got the MVP I'd have won the Pick 'Em)

posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:52 PM on February 06, 2005

Brady declines to make rcade happy once more.

posted by yerfatma at 09:57 PM on February 06, 2005

Brady was lucky though, Yerfatma, don't forget that. *snicker*

posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:09 PM on February 06, 2005

MrB, that is a completely unreasonable assertion to make after being the winning QB three of the five years he's been in the NFL. Now, if you were to suggest McNabb had a bit of bad luck, I might go a long since he was really off with his passing despite throwing for over 350 yards. But Brady? He's not lucky, he's already guaranteed himself a spot in Canton even if he never plays another down.

posted by billsaysthis at 10:28 PM on February 06, 2005

posted by dusted at 10:34 PM on February 06, 2005

Worst clock management ever. I don't care if they've been in the top 4 in the league for four years straight, the offensive coordinator of the Eagles should be fired.

posted by tieguy at 10:41 PM on February 06, 2005

Didn't see the last few SBs, didja? I know the Patriots have done the team thing, but my vague memory is that most teams in recent years have introduced individual stars, and it's more interesting. I do know individual intros were used in the Ravens-Giants bowl, because Ray Lewis did his idiotic strut, and I thought they were great in the last Bowl trips by Dallas. You may think it emphasizes the team nature of the sport to avoid individual introductions, and I know that all Patriots fans think that Bill Belichick invented the concept of teamwork. But to me, if they want to start the game looking like a high school team, they should run through a big paper banner.

posted by rcade at 11:05 PM on February 06, 2005

Not too bad a game. Plenty of mistakes by the QB's, but some great "behind-the-scenes" plays by the unsung heroes on the lines. When will the NFL stop blitzing on every other play, though? It almost always results in a weakened secondary and a big gain.

posted by rocket88 at 11:47 PM on February 06, 2005

Eagles 24-21. Touchdown for TO. Two interceptions for Brady. bold prediction. Is that the NFC East bias coming out rcade? mcnubb looked pedestrian (numbers weren't bad but he never 'made' a play.). TO was better than you could hope for. clock management down the stretch for the Iggles was maybe the worst on memory. WHERE IS THE 'NO HUDDLE'????? Belichek schemed 'em again. never bet against BB when he has two weeks to prepare.

posted by stofer71 at 11:55 PM on February 06, 2005

Holy crap! Was the Super Bowl tonight?! Oh damn! I went out for dinner and forgot it was on! No wonder the restaurant was so empty! Just kidding! The first half was one of the ugliest ones I've seen two teams play in a Super Bowl in a long while. "You take the ball!" "No, you take it!" "No, I insist!" "Wait! I'll get a penalty and give it back!" Ugh.

posted by grum@work at 01:30 AM on February 07, 2005

Remember when Boston and its fans were lovable underdogs? Me neither. You should definitely tune into WEEI's net broadcast then: they're talking about the game like it was a blowout and how McNabb had a terrible game. That final TD? It was during "garbage time". The two weeks leading up to the game were insufferable with the blowout predictions and the "Do you think we can shut the Eagles out?" callers. If this is anything more than the normal morning show idiocy, next year will be difficult. How to root for a team while separating one's self from the "fans" that showed up 4 years ago?

posted by yerfatma at 07:16 AM on February 07, 2005

How to root for a team while separating one's self from the "fans" that showed up 4 years ago? now you know how yankee fans feel. :-)

posted by goddam at 07:29 AM on February 07, 2005

There are fans who don't do cocaine and have boob jobs? tie'born and bred miami hurricanes fan'guy

posted by tieguy at 08:35 AM on February 07, 2005

sad. hungover. But now it's basketball time. I'm going to Penn-Princeton tomorrow (my birthday) and then Wednesday is Duke-UNC I. Sadly I won't be at that game.

posted by mbd1 at 09:35 AM on February 07, 2005

exhaustion induced dementia That is about the only logical explanation. What in the world was Andy Reid thinking? I am at a loss as to what the strategy was down the stretch...hey...let's run the clock for them!

posted by stofer71 at 09:48 AM on February 07, 2005

Quotes from Andy Reid: "Well we were trying to hurry up, it was the way things worked out." There is no try, Andy, do or do not. Nobody watching thought your team was trying to hurry up. In response to a question about clock management down the stretch of the first half (the eagles bled a 1:10 off the clock in 3 plays with two TO's available...passing on a FG possibility): "I don't remember that at all, to be honest with you." wha what WHAT?? If I was an Iggles fan I would be freaking out if my coach sounded like he didn't have a clue.

posted by stofer71 at 10:11 AM on February 07, 2005

T.O. was amazing. Absolutely above and beyond everything I expected. If he was named MVP, I wouldn't have been suprised at all. The game was a nail biter and I wasn't sure the Patriots were going to pull it out for a while there.

posted by jerseygirl at 10:23 AM on February 07, 2005

To add to the list of coaching blunders... Why on Earth were there no Eagles back to return that punt? It probably wouldn't have mattered, but if they had someone deep he could have caught that punt on the 15 yard line and the Eagles would have started their desperation drive from there rather than on the 4.

posted by 86 at 10:33 AM on February 07, 2005

Actually, the announcers did call out that Dillon block -- a little rushed, but they got it. This does not mean I liked 'em, though -- they were pretty sloppy about replays, particularly on penalty calls.

posted by Bryant at 10:46 AM on February 07, 2005

NoMich, thanks for that link. that cat/gravy/knife spot was tops.

posted by garfield at 11:01 AM on February 07, 2005

nomich, you rock! life imitates art in those careerbuilder.com ads

posted by jasonspaceman at 11:24 AM on February 07, 2005

Ufez, my girlfriend called that out to me in the kitchen and my immediate response was, "Bernadette Devlin must be so proud."

posted by yerfatma at 12:02 PM on February 07, 2005

There's got to be some strange stories to come out of Philadelphia this week. Reid was barely coherent in any post-game interview I read or heard and McNabb said about two words. You just know somebody's gonna bust out on the clock management and probably the complete inability to take advantage of the two rookies and one second year player in the Pats' secondary--those young guys were absolutely the difference with downfield coverage.

posted by billsaysthis at 02:24 PM on February 07, 2005

Weedy, I agree with you... It's way too early to start making dramatic changes in Philly. Naturally, as a Redskins fan, I hope they trade McNabb, Reid retires, and Mitchell becomes their go-to guy. In all seriousness, Freddie Mitchell has to go. He's like a poor man's Todd Pinkston. I remember when he came out of UCLA, he was supposed to be the shite. That didn't work out too well. You think the Eagles wish they could go back and re-think that selection, 25th overall in the 2001 draft? They could take Reggie Wayne (taken with the 30th pick overall), Quincy Morgan (33rd), Alge Crumpler (35th), Chad Johnson (36th), Robert Ferguson (41st), Chris Chambers (52nd), Steve Smith (74th), Justin McCareins (124th), or T.J. Houshmandzadeh (204th). And just so you know David Terrell went 8th, Koren Robinson 9th, Rod Gardener 15th, & Santana Moss 16th.

posted by 86 at 03:39 PM on February 07, 2005

Ufez: Odd tangent: Anyone else find if kind of wrong that they used 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' as the leader into the second half? Very much so. It's sick and disrespectful to use a song about unarmed people being gunned down as a theme to a game, even if it's a game where bones get broken occasionally. Weedy: I think Philly would be making a huge mistake in overreacting to this loss. If this team stays intact - right now they'd be an early favorite for next year.... Me three. Pro sports teams are too much like corporate America: try something, and if it doesn't get you a world championship in six months, declare a New Direction, fire the scapegoats, and jerk everybody else around mercilessly with a bunch of meaningless mumbo jumbo so they can't be productive at all, at all. The difference between flip-flopping and driving the bus over the cliff isn't a particularly fine line; it's comfortably wide, and if you can't figure out how to find the difference between those two extremes -- it's called "staying the course", by the way -- you shouldn't be running a lemonade stand, much less anything of consequence. (and I like lemonade)

posted by lil_brown_bat at 05:00 PM on February 07, 2005

Oh, BTW -- interesting column from Bob Ryan on why the Patriots aren't a dynasty. Agree, disagree? Makes sense to me...

posted by lil_brown_bat at 05:21 PM on February 07, 2005

How was the show Ufez? I see he's hitting Canada in a big way very soon. /derail

posted by NoMich at 07:28 PM on February 07, 2005

Ach, it was great, NoMich. Allison Moorer, who opened and then join Earle and the Dukes for a few songs, has a fantastic, powerful voice. Steve played for a solid two hours, and included a Stones, Beatles, and Townes Van Zandt cover. If he comes close by and you're a fan, I definitely recommend it.

posted by Ufez Jones at 08:09 PM on February 07, 2005

Agreed rcade. I just recalled that Wayne was taken not too long after Mitchell and when I went to confirm it, I noted Johnson, Chambers, and Smith... And then I went a little overboard listed them all.

posted by 86 at 08:19 PM on February 07, 2005

Dynasty is a word that has been co-opted by sports writers to mean something very different than what historians mean when they discuss ancient China. Maybe it's hyperbole, but so is almost all writing about sports, so big deal, get over it.

posted by fabulon7 at 08:13 AM on February 08, 2005

How many Superbowls did the Canadiens win then? I missed those years. I don't think that comparing football, (especially modern day football with its CBA, free agency and salary cap), to baseball and hockey is especially useful. This now is just the media writing about itself - I don't call the Pats or anyone else a dynasty. The papers do and now they've started arguing with themselves.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:16 AM on February 08, 2005

Being a dynasty is how these teams are remembered as the greatest of their era in the NFL. If you're a Pats fan who thinks they belong in the same sentence as teams like the '70s Steelers and '90s Cowboys, you should be using the word dynasty as much as possible, not running from it. The Dallas team of the '70s was almost as good as the Steelers, but over time they seem to recede further away from them in the eyes of the media and fans. As a Dallas homer, the thing I liked best about Switzer ekeing out a Super Bowl with Jimmy's players was that three wins in four years invited the dynasty talk. And since no one else matched it in the '90s, Dallas is widely regarded as the team of the decade.

posted by rcade at 12:42 PM on February 08, 2005

I remember growing up in Connecticut hating the Cowboys in the 1970's. I was surprised when, later in life, I discovered that they were not really the dominant team of the 1970's. I remembered them being an absolute juggernaut of a team. Funny how your brain plays tricks on you like that. When they started winning again in the 90's, I was able to muster up some of that old passion. I loved rooting against them and was, I confess, a little bummed when they stopped being so dominant. Of course, I also thought that the 70's Dolphins were a team that would be listed among the all time greats, and, with the exception of Ryan's column, I've seen very little reference to them since the Patriots' streak ended. Short memories, these writers.

posted by Joey Michaels at 12:48 PM on February 08, 2005

I did read the column. And comparing what's been done in the NFL to what's been done in the NHL is almost as ridiculous as comparing NFL-Dynasty to Ancient-Chinese-Dynasty. The criteria are different because the sports and the leagues are totally different. There haven't even been 40 Superbowls. The Stanley Cup has been awarded every year since 1893. (And exclusively to NHL teams since 1927.) So if you want to say that the NFL's short history means there can't be a real NFL dynasty, fine, but where's the fun in that? Why not let everyone call this (and the Steelers, and the Cowboys) a dynasty until something more dynastic comes along? You have to start somewhere.

posted by fabulon7 at 01:04 PM on February 08, 2005

Yeah, but bombast is the killer for athletes, not for sportswriters who really have no other purpose than to inject some kind of sense of the epic into what is otherwise just a football game.

posted by fabulon7 at 02:26 PM on February 08, 2005

The Patriots know. Are any of them using the D-word? Are we seriously limiting our sport discussion vocabulary to words the athletes in question know? You better alert all those old white guys that wax rhapsodic about boxing.

posted by yerfatma at 03:19 PM on February 08, 2005

It did need that orange puck though.

posted by yerfatma at 07:59 PM on February 08, 2005