ROTOWIRE.COM NFL MLB / Minors NBA NHL GOLF RACING    COMMUNITY FORUMS PODCASTS MYROTOWIRE ASK AN EXPERT GAMES

Super Bowl Observations

I watched the Super Bowl at home by myself in the dark yesterday for reasons I detailed on the SXM show. I was sober, and after a large meal at 1:30 pm PT, didn't eat anything. I didn't Tweet or blog during the game. Someone across the street had a party, and I found the cheering and noisy drunken idiocy emanating from their house increasingly infuriating.

After the Patriots took the lead at the end of the first half, one largely dominated by the Giants, I realized how much I hate the halftime show. I have nothing original to say about Madonna, and the insults about her age I saw on Twitter were fairly predictable. But I kept thinking "who gives a f*** about this?" (I did find the dude in the dress bouncing up and down on the rope seemingly on his testicles to be disturbing.)

For most of the second half, I was nervously alternating between despair and faint hope. The commercials seemed to be more frequent, even more inane than usual and designed specifically to annoy me. When the Giants got the ball on the final drive, it was the first time in the second half I thought they might actually win.

Of course, I was ecstatic when they scored the go-ahead touchdown, even if it was a bad play. In 2007, I would have been beside myself as those Patriots were far scarier. Even so, the Pats 4th-and-16 conversion, and the hail mary getting tipped made it more stressful than it needed to be.

Most of the key plays have been discussed elsewhere, but there are a few that stood out to me:

  • Chase Blackburn's interception was a great play. Tom Brady escaped what looked like a sure sack, bought a lot of time and saw Rob Gronkowski standing by himself far down the field. While Brady's pass was short, Blackburn was nowhere near Gonkowski when he released it and somehow got himself into position and made a nice catch. Blackburn is a middle linebacker with average-at-best speed, but it showed incredible alertness to stay with the play and get into position. Of course, had Gronkowski been healthy, you have to think he would have at least broken up the play. And while the result was like good punt for New England, it was a first-down throw, so it was essentially worth two incomplete passes.

  • The Giants were lucky to recover both of their fumbles (the Victor Cruz one was a non-event because the Pats had 12 on the field, and it's not clear that he wouldn't have been more open, or someone else wouldn't have instead if there were only 11). They should be expected to recover only one.

  • The Wes Welker drop was huge. Granted Tom Brady threw the ball a little behind him, but Welker usually makes that catch. It would have given the Pats the ball on the Giants 10 yard line with four minutes left. The Giants would have had to keep them out of the end zone (otherwise the game was over), and even so they would have been down five with no timeouts and two minutes left.

  • It's understandable why Ahmad Bradshaw couldn't stop himself from scoring the go-ahead TD, but why weren't the Giants kneeling on it twice there anyway? Does it really matter if they kick from the 1-yard line or the 8? The Pats would have gotten the ball down two with 17 seconds left and no timeouts. Assuming a touchback on the kickoff, a FG is impossible, so NE would still have needed a TD to win. Also if Hakeem Nicks sits down after the first down, the Giants could kneel three times and run the clock down to three seconds and kick the FG. Of course, Nicks might not have known he had the first down.

    Some other notes

    The Giants defense held Brady to 6.7 YPA. They held Aaron Rodgers to 5.7 and Matt Ryan to 4.9. Somehow Alex Smith got 7.5.

    I had Justin Tuck at 50:1 to win MVP. He had two sacks, three tackles and caused a safety. After the game, I knew Eli would be part of the equation, but thought they might be co-MVPs as a make-up call of sorts from 2007 when Tuck should have won.

    I didn't understand how the Patriots were able to take away the deep throws AND double Victor Cruz. And even Hakeem Nicks wasn't running around wide open most of the time. Even the deep throw to Manningham was into perfect coverage.

    I didn't like seeing Aaron Ross celebrate a tackle after an 11-yard gain, or Victor Cruz doing a salsa dance after a short completion. Focus on the war, not the minor skirmishes.

    The Giants FG drive down 17 - 9 seemed futile at the time, but it was actually huge. The Pats offense had the Giants defense on its heels for two straight long drives, and it gave both sides just enough of a break to reset.

    Eli Manning seemed less nervous than Tom Brady. In fact, Eli is as calm as any quarterback I've seen in the Super Bowl. (Aaron Rodgers is similar in demeanor).

    The Giants are in good shape heading into next year with Manning in his prime, Nicks and Cruz returning and Jason Pierre-Paul and Tuck on the defensive line.

    • Comments

    By: Erik Siegrist
    On: 2/7/2012 9:07:00 AM    		 People need to stop letting Brady off the hook for that throw to Welker. Wes doesn't "usually" make that play; if he pulls it down, it's as great a catch as Manningham's and maybe better. Most receivers wouldn't have even gotten their hands on the ball.
     
    By: Scott Pianowski
    On: 2/7/2012 10:16:00 AM    		 When was the last time the Giants didn't recover a fumble? It's been a run of them. Hey, that happens. Nine champions out of ten need some luck; once in a while, a juggernaut will win no matter what.

    Brady and Welker certainly share responsibility on that play, though I think it's more on Welker. Receivers have to make adjustments on passes all the time. If you can get two hands on a ball like that and there's no one laying the lumber to you, you should make that catch. Welker knows it.

    I've seen it speculated that Tuck's third-quarter hit on Brady may have concussed him, which is an interesting conspiracy theory.
     
    By: jnowak2799
    On: 2/7/2012 10:18:00 AM    		 Giselle is so stupid, doesn't she know the rules, everybody knows a quarterback CAN catch his own pass, ask Brad Johnson.
     
    By: Jason Thornbury
    On: 2/7/2012 11:04:00 AM    		 It wouldn't surprise me if Brady was concussed. He played like his brain was foggy. Like Siegrist, I think he's getting off way too easily. He flat out missed Welker. And missed a few other key throws too.
     
    By: Zenguerrilla
    On: 2/7/2012 11:06:00 AM    		 12 man on the field penalty was bigger than the Welker drop. That was in essence a turn over which led to a Giants TD. Welker probably makes that catch 9 out of 10 times though...just wasn't meant to be? Dunno if Brady was concussed, I don't believe so, but he did hurt his left shoulder. I thought he played well through the pain the rest of the game though. That was the most I've seen Brady hit the turf all year. A couple of times I thought they could of thrown a flag for roughing the passer.
     
    By: Chris Liss
    On: 2/7/2012 11:57:00 AM    		 12 men on the field didn't prevent a turnover. The 12th man might have caused it. It's a non-event. It did give the Giants an automatic first down, though.
     
    By: Zenguerrilla
    On: 2/7/2012 3:40:00 PM    		 That penalty was a turnover that led to a td, the Giants didn't have to punt....one of the biggest plays of the game imho!
     
    By: Chris Liss
    On: 2/7/2012 3:42:00 PM    		 The Giants were at the 10 yard line. They would have kicked a FG.
     
    By: nayfel
    On: 2/7/2012 7:45:00 PM    		 How can you guys not mention the drops by New England's WRs? Granted Brady didn't play unbelievable but when he had time, he made plays. And there were 4 drops on the last two drives, including the Welker play, which shouldn't be called a drop. I saw somewhere recently that a cop is considered when it's unequivocally the fault of the WR so regardless of ur feelings on the play, there's no doubt that it wasn't 100% Welker's fault.
     
    By: Chris Liss
    On: 2/7/2012 7:59:00 PM    		 Two of the drops were on the final drive, which was still a low-percentage situation. Another of them was on a ball thrown behind Deion Branch.
     
    By: nayfel
    On: 2/8/2012 5:26:00 AM    		 Still, I think a lot changes if there's excellent hands on the last two drives. Not saying they should have cought everything or if it would have resulted in a TD if just last drive's were caught, but the Welker and Branch play were difficult but could have been caught. So, it isn't an indictment of their ability but it shows that he wash't really helped by them.
     
    By: nayfel
    On: 2/8/2012 5:31:00 AM    		 I think, under the radar, football's got some issues to deal with. Whenever a team doesn't want to score a TD with a minute left, you got a problem. The main point of the game is to score TDs so if that's the case, it just feels like something isn't right.
    Also, obviously, the extra men on the field. Why in the world wouldn't a defense but 15 men on the field at the end a few plays in a row if the opposing defense needs a TD? It only results in 5 yards a play but the time is lost. You do it 2-5 times so the clock runs out and there's only one final play to defense. Anytime a defense is making an illegal play and the offense is angry about it and the defense wants to do it again, at the end of a game, then we got problems. Easy way to fix, in my opinion, is to roll back the clock to the start of the play for any defensive penalty under 1 minute. I don't think you can penalize by taking away more yardage as a team can legitimately get caught with an extra man during the hurry up offense. But, keep the 5 yards but no time goes off the clock, seems to fix the problem IMO. Maybe I am missing something?
     
    By: Chris Liss
    On: 2/8/2012 11:34:00 AM    		 The ref actually has the discretion to roll back the clock if he thinks the delay was intentional. But keep in mind, it's a free play if the Pats do make it.
     
    By: nayfel
    On: 2/9/2012 6:10:00 AM    		 Really? If he thinks its purposely, than it gets rolled back? How have I not heard that? Also, why not make it automatic, why keep anything at that juncture of the game subjective? It is a free play but it also ruins the time situation for the drive and most times, the defense would happily trade 5 yards and a free play for a reduction in time while playing extra defenders.
     

    Leave a comment

    Commenting is restricted to registered users only. Please register or login now to submit a comment.

    Tell Someone

    • Digg it
    • submit to reddit reddit
    • Add to Mixx!

    Recent Favorites

    How BABIP Affects the Value of Strikeouts and Walks
    The league-average batting-average-on-balls-in-play (BABIP) has been on a downward trajectory for the last half decade, something that has implications for the values of different at-bat outcomes. BABIP is down precipitously this season (.289), though it's hard to tell to what extent that's due to all the shifting defenses (better data on where balls are hit have enabled this), or is simply just an April cold-weather/small sample anomaly.
    NHL Playoff Observations -- Monday
    Just a few things that caught my eye ...
    • Alexander Semin was on the wrong side of the grocery stick most of the night. You know, that spot between the back-up goalie and the rest of the team ... the one where the dead wood goes so it doesn't get in the way of on-the-fly changes.
    • Honey badger don't care. Honey badger doesn't give a $%!&.  T.J. Oshie gave up four inches and 50 pounds to Dustin Penner, but he didn't care. Then again, honey badger didn't care when he hit Rick Nash a few years ago, either. I wonder if the NHL would let me get a Blues #74 jersey with Honey Badger on the back.
    Buy Lowest
    Every year, we hear advice about how it's time to "buy low" on struggling stars like Albert Pujols, Giancarlo Stanton and Robinson Cano. "Get them now for cheap before they heat up!" Except that the market for superstars - at least in competitive leagues - usually doesn't move much after one bad month. (Whether it should in these cases is another question). It's more likely that the Pujols and Stanton owners are doubling down, figuring that only a hot streak from a player of that caliber can undo the damage that's already been done.

    That doesn't mean you can't take advantage of the market's early overreaction, but you'll have to aim a little lower and take on quite a bit more risk. The players listed below are those who should be available at an actual discount.

    Fantasy Rookies
    Now that the 2012 NFL Draft is complete and rosters look about the way they will when training camps open in late July, it’s time to start the speculation train full steam ahead to fantasy draft days. Many players taken in this class will have a fantasy impact, some immediate, some in small spurts as rookies and some not for years to come.
    Cowboys Draft: First Blush Thoughts
    My initial reactions to the 2012 Dallas draft crop.

    RSS Feeds