When you choke, you see the Rings
So the Patriots are champions again after a monumental choke for the ages. There is a lot to unpack about what is already an instant classic.
First off, save the Tom Brady goat chat for Thursday, a comic about that (which should please you desperate loonies who somehow need me to agree with your opinion to validate it) will come then, so don’t bring that up till it’s relevant. Keep your comments about the game itself for this one, since there is plenty of material there.
So much stuff to talk about here so I’m gonna run down topics and tackle them 1 by 1.
-Is this the greatest Super Bowl of all time?
I don’t think so. Top 5 probably, but not best ever. It had everything you want in terms of drama and story, and it’s going to be remembered for decades for all sorts of reasons, but from a competitive standpoint I actually thought it kind of sucked. We basically watched 2 Broncos/Seahawks style blowouts in one game. The Falcons dominated the first half and the Patriots sucked. The Patriots dominated the second half and the Falcons sucked. It never felt like an even clash of titans, it felt like one side had everything until a switch flipped and the other side had everything. While everything ended up close, the game felt bizarrely non-competitive on the whole. Real weird. The competitiveness of a game is really important (to me at least) and this one was lacking. Pats/Hawks and Cards/Steelers were better actual competitive games with endings just as exciting. The novelty of the first overtime ever was dampened by the fact that it ended after one easy drive by the Pats.
-Is this the greatest comeback of all time?
I say yes. Bills/Oilers might have involved more points, but this was the Super Bowl. The biggest stage makes this what it is. Also, 19 points in the 4th quarter is a playoff record, I think. Certainly a Super Bowl record.
-Is this the biggest choke of all time?
Also yes, for the same reason. Incredible choke, legendary choke. One of the things you need for a comeback that spectacular is a choke equally as spectacular. Make no mistake, this isn’t just a great Patriots comeback, this was a Falcons collapse. The Patriots had to play basically perfect 4th quarter to win this game, and they did so. But the Falcons also had to choke perfectly, and they did so. If the Falcons are slightly better or the Patriots slightly worse, this game ends with a Falcons win. That’s partly why it’s so remarkable.
-Who deserves most of the credit for the win/loss?
I’m going to go against the general consensus of Brady hero worship and say the Patriots defense won this game. Not Brady. Brady’s horrendous first half was most of the reason they needed a comeback win in the first place. The defense is the unsung hero here. The Falcons mighty vaunted offense scored a whole 21 points. They looked good at times, but failed when it mattered a lot. They seemed to get stopped on every 3rd down they actually experienced. The Patriots seemed to play best on 3rd down and never let the Falcons control the clock. After their final scoring drive, the Falcons special offense had 28 minutes to score a single point to ice this game. They failed each chance they had. Once in spectacular fashion, in a series of events that can mostly be blamed on Kyle Shanahan being a dumb who thought that passing the ball in the world’s most PLAY CONSERVATIVE situation ever was a good idea. The Falcons called 5 running plays after they earned the 28-3 lead. 5 rushing plays. 5. A 25 point lead midway through the 3rd means the opponent isn’t the problem, the clock is. That kind of playcalling is inexcuseable. They snapped the ball with 20 seconds left on the playclock multiple times. Inexcuseable. Kyle Shanahan wanted to leave his mark on this game and he did just that, in the worst way. But the Patriots still had to stop that passing attack, and they did. As far as I’m concerned, the key play of this game was the strip sack of Ryan that gave the Pats a short field to make it a two score game. That’s when the tide truly turned. After the fumble the end result felt inevitable and I had little faith in the Falcons after that, and zero faith after the field goal range fiasco. I never once felt the Patriots would lose after that stupid series.
In a way, this defensive performance reminded me of the Bills/Giants bowl with Belichick’s famous gameplan of “Let them run, stop the pass”. Why do teams never seem to figure out how to do beat this against Bill? Is Bill Belichick the greatest coach of all time because he’s the only coach in the NFL who isn’t massively stubborn? The Falcons were running pretty well on the Pats, and they kept throwing it, and it bit them in the ass.
-Is the Edelman catch the best Super Bowl catch of all time?
Nah. Top 5 but not the best. Kearse’s catch two years ago was more crazy luck, and Tyree’s catch and Santonio’s catches were both more athletically impressive and ultimately slightly more important (one was a desperation late game miracle play after a non sack and the other was a final minute game winner). Edelman got lucky that a tipped pass then ended up landing on the one guy’s arm instead of the ground. I think Julio Jones’ toe tap on the sideline on the failure drive was the best catch of the game and deserves the moniker far more than Edelman’s does.
-Was that the best halftime show ever?
Nah, Prince still owns that crown.
-Who deserves props?
-I do not blame the Falcons defense for this collapse. The Defense came to play and during that first half did what they could. They even got a pick-6 of Mr Special himself. The Defense was clearly gassed by the 4th quarter thanks to the offense’s complete failure to control the clock in any way. Only an elite defense could possibly hope to stay competitive at that point with no offensive help, and the Falcons defense might be okay but they weren’t the 2015 Broncos or 2007 Giants.
-James White was the real MVP
-Pats defense, for reasons mentioned above. Can’t wait to see Matt Patricia get hired away by some crap team and fail in a year or two
-Julio Jones is a god amongst men
-Taylor Gabriel deserves a mention, he had a good game too
-Budweiser, for running a good commercial that stupid morons got offended by
-Belichick is and always will be the coach of the year and the best coach ever. Fuck giving that award to Jason Garrett. Garrett is a mediocre coach who lucked into two studs in the draft and rode them to the playoffs.
-Both Bennetts have rings now, that’s pretty cool.
-Matt Ryan. He still had a great game despite the sacks and late failures. The Falcons offensive failures are not on him.
-Brady, for pulling himself out of whatever funk he spent the first half in to pull off the comeback
-Me, for correctly calling that Goodell was going to be professional and that the whole trophy presentation went off without a hitch
-maybe I’m just a huge nerd but It looked like Lady Gaga’s bakground dancers had glowstick Klingon Bat’leths
-Eli Manning, for still being the only dork to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Every Patriots success grows Eli’s legend
-The officials. This game was basically called perfectly and fairly and makes you wonder why the hell we can’t get reffing this good in any other game.
-Who deserves scorn?
-Kyle Shanahan, for reasons explained above. It’s the kind of game that makes you wonder if his head was all there since he was named the 49ers head coach 24 hours later.
-Whatever weirdo who was wearing Tom Brady’s jersey in the first half
-Stephen Gostkowski, for the most shameful doink in Super Bowl history when his team needed every point they could get
-Joe Buck and Troy Aikman because they sucked
-zombie George Bush for not so much flipping the coin as dropping it
-Mr Clean for being sexy in a commercial, what the hell was that
-Martellus Bennett with a horrible, horrible hold that killed a Pats drive
-The Cowboys and Eagles, just because
-Josh McDaniels for calling a pass from the 1 yard line with game on the line and almost had it picked by Vic Beasley, did he learn nothing from two years ago?
-Roger Goodell, for giving the Patriots the ammo to somehow let an unstoppable juggernaut convince themselves they are still underdogs and setting the stage for this mediocre result for a mediocre season of football. This ending felt kind of inevitable the instant Brady’s suspension was enacted, and even with a classic game, it’s depressing to sit here at the end of a fairly bland season watching something we’ve basically already seen happen 4 times already instead of seeing a long suffering franchise finally feel joy.
I don’t know if I’ve felt worse for a fanbase then I felt for Falcons fans last night. Many teams may be perpetually awful, but what we saw last night was a special, legendary level of gut punch heartbreak. I want to tell Falcons fans that it’ll be okay, the team is still good, but I honestly can’t. The only team that’s reliable anymore is the Pats. Hopefully Kyle Shanahan leaving doesn’t hurt the team too much next year. That game will hurt those fans forever, but it might make an eventual SB win a little sweeter in the end.
warriors blew a 3-1 lead
Indians blew a 3-1 lead
I think these two teams could be back next year, depending on if the Steelers want to show up in the AFC Championship game
Don’t forget if the Raiders improve their defense. Other than that in the AFC, you have the never improving Chiefs, a Broncos team with no offense and a new d coordinator, and then everyone else.
I mean now that the Colts have someone other than Grigson at GM, they could make a push in a ridiculously soft AFCS. Bengals and Ravens are both poised for bouncebacks. Granted that’s about it, but there’s more in the AFC than the pats, steelers, and everyone in the AFCW not named chargers.
Raiders also got burned by losing Carr just before the playoffs.
Starting a 3rd stringer against one of the best defenses in the league will not go well.
The Patriots? Probably. The Falcons? The NFC is stacked, won’t be easy
The choke was disappointing, but yeah, despite all of that it is impressive how Atlanta’s defense managed to hold through until Shanahan, the QB coach, whoever the hell apparently doesn’t lett Matt Ryan audible (which I guess is because of the whole 15-20 seconds left of time during the snap in the 2nd half) Matt Ryan for that snapping time, and WHOEVER ABANDONED THE RUN THAT WORKED SO WELL! Like I understand at first if they think the Pats might go all run-stuff, but with only 5 run plays called, Ryan still only had 23 pass attempts. When it was closer they could’ve at least tried to extend the drives instead of going crazy all or nothing mode, even if that’s what worked all year, they needed to adapt for the situation, which the Patriots just did better. If anything, it’s a miracle the Patriots didn’t win in a blowout. Props to the Falcons D there, shame they won’t get much credit especially with some of their best guys being rookies.
Also Mr. Clean sucked. It was not funny. Very glad you agree on that one. Same with the “safe word” thing T-Mobile went for. Shock humor works for some people to a good extent, but weird BDSM or cleaning obsessions do not make sex appealing or funny.
I agree that this wasn’t the greatest, or even that great(and I’m a Pat’s fan). It was one sided the entire time, with the only drama being that side that was doing everything changed at halftime(Tom Brady loves him some Gaga)
Other than the Pats/Eagles, the other Patriots superbowls were closer through the entire game, and therefore in my opinion, more entertaining.
However, The best halftime show was U2. This was a very good one though..
Best catch is still Mushin Muhammad’s 87 yarder. That one still impresses me.
It Hurts so bad Ricardo Allen described it perfectly after the game “I feel Broken, I feel Numb”… I laid in bed after the game just replaying the game in my head. I agree after the fumble it felt like everything that could go wrong did. Not once but twice we were in field goal range just to have a penalty and sack back us up. I posted months ago talking about the most falcon things that have ever happened like Vick dogfighting, Eugene Robinson hookering, and Petrino running away without even talking to the team. But this game epitomizes everything that is the Falcons. With that being said we had a great year nobody expected us to make it as far as we did and I am proud of my Falcons Coach Quinn has instilled a fight into this very young team and I am able to walk away from this game optimistic for the future. #Riseup
I rooted for the Falcons to win and didn’t tune in until after the halftime show.
The only dolphins game I watch in full (not redzone) was the wild-card game.
I’m a curse
Atlanta’s officially on Cleveland-Detroit level. It was a little iffy before but this puts them there for sure
At this point it goes Atlanta-Twin Cities-Detroit. We had a pretty damn good sports year, and even the Browns were only a disappointment to people who thought they were planning to be competitive this season. An argument could be made for San Diego being ahead of Detroit.
But the Patriots didn’t play perfect 4th quarter. The Falcons had multiple chances to win but screwed up. Brady wasn’t even all that. He had like 3 throws that were turnover-worthy that were dropped or misplayed. The throw before the winning score? Silly play on the ball. Brady deserves a lot of credit for the comeback, but he’s getting way too much of it. Not nearly as much attention to how badly the Falcons shot themselves in the foot, or how they failed to put the game away on numerous New England mistakes.
Also, being a NYG fan makes the Tyree catch more special than it really was. You have to admit, it was so much luck. Julio’s 2 toe tap catches were more impressive. The situation made Tyree’s catch special, not the skill involved in a jump ball that requires no coordination below the helmet.
This super bowl sucked for the most part. Boring 1st quarter, Exciting 2nd quarter, preseason quality 3rd quarter, and a shocking 4th quarter followed by a totally expected overtime.
I completely agree with this. Belichick deserves the lion’s share of the credit seeing as how the halftime adjustments that he made almost completely shut down the Falcon’s offense and turned a horrible Brady performance into a great one.
The halftime adjustments on defense helped chip away at the cracks the Falcons’ mistakes created, but the real strategic victory was in not making halftime adjustments on offense and just keeping the pace up until the Falcons’ defense gassed out. The Patriots won that game despite not being the better team on the field that day, the same way Clemson beat Alabama a month ago.
I dont think the Tyree catch was that much luck though. What was lucky about it (the catch itself, ignore the non-sack)? He went up for a contested jump ball and pinned it against his helmet to secure it. It didnt take a lucky bounce, that catch was all Tyree’s will to hold on, with Harrison draped all over him. I don’t consider that luck. When I think luck I think of things like balls somehow not hitting the ground thanks to it hitting a limb first like in Edelman’s catch or Kearse’s circus grab.
I do ultimately agree this game is more of a Falcons loss than a Patriots win. The Falcons failure was slightly higher than the Patriots comeback.
Think you’re selling Edelman’s catch a little short. Sure it’s luck that after the tip he was even in a position to make a play on the ball, but he wasn’t in the best position out of the 4 guys in the vicinity, and the replay shows him making an immediate adjustment to get where he needed to be.
I’m not saying it sucked or anything, it was a great catch and deserves it’s place in history, but it was a combination of excellent awareness by Edelman and luck that it fell right on the Falcon dude’s arm.
I don’t agree with the collapse being greater than the comeback. You need a collapse somewhere for a comeback. Colts did the same when the came back from a 21pt deficit to beat the Pats and eventually go on to win the SB. Defense still needs to execute, so does the offense.
I don’t think this was the greatest SB though. It had everything you wanted on paper, and it made history, as a Pats fan I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I don’t think it was the greatest. I feel like the talk about it was more interesting than the game. Steelers v Cardinals, Seahawks v Pats were better (competitively). This one was my favorite, but not the greatest IMO.
Edelman and July had amazing catches though… shit.
Maybe Shanahan was testing out what will be his typical 49ers game plan. They will surely be throwing the ball a lot late in games.
You weren’t offended by ghost Spuds McKenzie and his Muppet arms?
I had no idea who Spuds McKenzie was to be honest. I’m too young to have watched those live, I grew up on the Bud Frogs.
I grew up on the Bud frogs as well (and the Bud Bowl, and the Bud Ice penguin), but Spuds McKenzie was still a fairly common sight when I was a kid, on posters and neon signs left up at the restaurants my family frequented. Cultural osmosis, I think they call it.
Anyways, I didn’t care for those Muppet arms on Spuds.
As a Niners fan, well played
How dare you snub Michael Jackson like that! Also, I thought the same thing about the Klingons so you’re not alone.
“Josh McDaniels for calling a pass from the 1 yard line with game on the line and almost had it picked by Vic Beasley, did he learn nothing from two years ago”
MMMMMMM Do you know how hard I screamed “it’s gonna happen again!!!”
I’m not going to be the guy who says “I knew it the whole time!”, but I just wasn’t surprised that everything went right for New England after the half.
I had it in my mind thinking “these are long games, things have happened before, remember Week 1 with the Chargers and Chiefs.”
I had a feeling it was going to be one of those old school blowouts, but I didn’t know who would blow out whom. If it’s the Falcons getting blown out, it would be “The Patriots are so good omg look at them”
If it’s the other way around, football fans get the pleasure of seeing Brady pout and yell at his teammates.
But like you said, I guess we had two blowouts.
honestly it was 3 quarters of pats not growing their ass from a hole in the ground, any benefit of the doubt toward the pats in the 3rd quarter vanished with the doink of the ages
which, truthfully, makes the whole thing even worse: the pats won 100% of the game by showing up for 25% of it
the falcons have shown this behavior to a certain extent all season–blow the doors off their hinges in the first half and hang on for dear life in the second. that’s kinda the pattern with any team that’s had an ungodly offense and an ok defense–blah blah blah games won by offense, blah blah blah championships won by defense
the upside is the falcons are young, unlike the ’98 team led by chris “cracked glass” chandler and jamal “i’m too sexy for my mcl” anderson. it’s very difficult to imagine they won’t be playoff caliber for the next few years at least, and now that they have this experience under their belts (which honestly was the pats’ biggest advantage going in) might be more poised in the future
but jesus tap dancing christ, that utter failure of a falcons drive. who the fuck calls a pass when you’re in field goal range and literally need greater than 0 points to win the game. holy goddamn shit batman
Even more than the backup dancers, I saw Lady Gaga’s first outfit and immediately thought of Sting in Dune.
We’re on to 2017. #Strivefor6
Also Tom should get his rings somehow combined into an Infinity (Super Bowl) Gauntlet
I though of this, Brady is the Thanos of the NFL…
Watching that game, the entire time I was dreading a Patriots comeback. Even down 25, I was screaming at the Falcons not to let up on the gas, because this is Brady and Belichick, the greatest coach-QB combo of all time.
On a related note, Blount fumbling might have done more harm then good to the Falcons. Blount was doing exactly zilch, and his fumble meant his snaps went to White, and look what he did.
Without the Blount fumble the Patriots probably score first and the 28-3 lead never happens though
I’m disappointed you didn’t mention Lady Gaga’s Satanic Ritual. 😀
A few other thoughts:
-Devonta Freeman is really, really good at his job. If the Falcons had given him the ball more in the 2nd half they would’ve won.
-LeGarrette Blount has sucked for the last 2 months and will likely continue to suck. I don’t understand why he got the ball so often in the first half.
-Matt Ryan still kind of sucks against the blitz.
-Julio Jones was created in a lab.
-Trey Flowers, Malcolm Mitchell and Eric Rowe are going to be special players for the Patriots.
-Grady Jarrett, Robert Alford and Deion Jones are going to be special players for the Falcons.
-Julian Edelman is now 3rd all-time in postseason receptions and will probably finish no worse than 2nd. That should give every non-Patriots fan a headache.
-Tom Brady is probably a vampire. I mean, look at the guy – without even mentioning his play on the field – he just doesn’t age! He also doesn’t eat anything resembling human food and gets stronger late at night. The evidence just keeps mounting.
-James Garoppolo will be a really good starting QB next year for some team and I sincerely hope the Pats take that team to the cleaner in exchange.
“Matt Ryan still kinda sucks against the blitz.”
According to the Pro Football Focus stats (link is included), Matt Ryan still had a 118.8 Passer rating, an 83.3 completion percentage, and only two sacks (compared to three when not blitzed).
Tom Brady, however, only had a 99.7 rating when blitzed, and Ryan was not far behind Brady’s 80 completion percentage.
Link to the PFF post: https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-super-bowl-li-grades/
How many sacks did he take? That’s the big thing.
He took two, and one was due to Devonta Freeman missing a crucial block (that was the strip sack).
I disagree about Eric Rowe being a special player. He makes a lot of mistakes. But that’s just my opinion.
If 19 points in the 4th quarter is a playoff/superbowl record, then it wasn’t the Patriots last Sunday who set it. In Super Bowl XXXVIII the Panthers scored 19 points (against the Patriots as a matter of fact) in the fourth quarter. The game was 10-14 going into the 4th and 29-32 at the end.
19 point comeback, not 19 points in general
I’m dumb. I didn’t even see the category of comment it was under.
But they didn’t win
I was off work yesterday, and I’m on a late shift today. I’ve never been so glad to not bump into work’s resident New England fan, because he’d have been FUCKING INSUFFERABLE. More so than usual anyway idiot Manager was bad enough.
I can’t wait for the next realignment of divisions with future expansion. Gonna petition for Miami to shift to the AFC South so London can go in the AFC East.
You can run from the Patriots, but you can’t hide. 🙂 Putting an expansion team in the AFC East will only make it easier for the Pats to win the division. It seems like they’re building up to be able to put a team in London and Mexico City at the same time, but I’m hoping San Diego gets a team again one day. All that aside, at least your Dolphins made playoffs. They’re on the rise, a little at a time. Don’t give up, ya’ll have the best shot at taking the division after Brady retires (assuming Belichick retires as well, because let’s face it. The dude made Matt Cassell look like a rock star. The Pats could grab a guy from stocking shelves at Costco and turn him into a franchise QB).
“grab a guy from stocking shelves at Costco and turn him into a franchise QB”
Didn’t that guy just get into the Hall of Fame?
No, that was the grocery bagger. lol! Costco guy is the next come-upper.
How about a middle-school teacher? Could Billicheck turn that into Brady 2?
I think he meant coming back from 19 down (28-9) in the 4th quarter was a record, not scoring 19 in the quarter.
The super bowl record for points in the 4th quarter is 21 by Dallas against Buffalo in Super Bowl XXVII.
Dallas won 52-17, so those points were pretty meaningless.
Why were they piling it on? Not old enough to remember that SB
If anything, this just spells disaster for the 49ers if the ‘throw multiple pass and no run in fg range’ man is gonna be their new head coach.
I like coaches to play aggressive. He’ll learn from his mistakes. And if he can make our next QB an MVP or lead us to the SB I’m fine with that
I did not think the ending was inevitable after the strip sack, but what I did think was that if the Falcons did win, it would be due to stopping one of the two-point conversions. When the Pats won the OT toss, it was over.
ICYMI: Steve Sarkisian is leaving ‘Bama to become Quinn’s new OC in Atlanta.
I wonder if Falcons fans will ever yell out “Go home Sark, you’re drunk!” the moment a shit play call happens in a crucial game. Yes, that was a reference to his alcohol-soaked sacking at USC.
Ref’s did a good job?!? That the only statement in you monologue that is 100% wrong. The refs made horrible calls including several international grounding calls that were never made.
I didn’t see any super-obvious Illuminati/Satanic stuff in Gaga’s performance. (Unlike Katy Perry’s, that shit was BLATANT.) The triangular crystal mirror shard she sang into has some eye-in-pyramid resonances.
The dogwhistle secret-cabal stuff was before the game. After the natl anthem, when they wheeled out the senior Bushes and cut to Pence in the stands, I thought; ah yes, this is House Bush signalling on the biggest national stage that they’re gonna play ball with the New Boss. Previously, there was some thought that House Bush could be recruited into, or even be the nucleus of, some kind of establishment resistance (or even reluctance) to the New Boss. This was a very clear signal that the Establishment is gonna ride their hand on this one. Some Monarchial signalling there.
Someone call the authorities, this guy needs medication.
nah, massaschusetts legalised it, so i’m good. i was VERY good during the game.
i don’t really buy it, but fringe weirdos (infowars types) have been freaking out about secret cabal illuminati signals during the super bowl for a long time. it’s become a something of a tradition with me n my footbaw friends to point out what they’re gonna freak over during the game. it’s the only reason to look forward to the halftime show each year. i may start doing prop bets on stuff like whether or not there’s gonna be eye-in-pyramid imagery or a subtle invocation of Ishtar and so forth….
Oy, post Superbowl news and coverage is the worst. Everyone wants to dissect the one game everyone in the world watched. No thanks, wake me when free agency starts.
Also, Gaga was great. I still say Beyonce was the best.
Wait are you really mad that post Super Bowl coverage is about the Super Bowl
like what the hell else can we talk about? Also, post game analysis articles are good because perceptions of games change over the years and it’s nice having the instant game analysis for our records.
Also, this is relevant:
http://www.thedrawplay.com/comic/atlanta-almost-burnt-again/
You know, because these are the two teams that most recently choked against the Pats in the Superbowl. Great foresight, Dave!
*withdraws into shadows cackling madly*
“Zombie George Bush for dropping the coin rather than tossing it”
the man just got out of the hospital, show some respect.
-Belichick is and always will be the coach of the year and the best coach ever. Fuck giving that award to Jason Garrett. Garrett is a mediocre coach who lucked into two studs in the draft and rode them to the playoffs.
Bill has only won it twice. I get not giving it to him every year, but come on 3-1 without the GOAT? Fuck Garrett. Rename the Coach of the Year trophy after Belicheck. Name something after Brady. Follow the trend of the NHL and name your awards after someone. Just don’t pull the trigger too early and Gordie Howe trophy it.
3-1 without the GOAT this year he totally deserved it*
Julio’s catch > Edelman’s on skill alone.
I strongly dislike Tom Brady.
But you are saying that a) Brady is not the hero, that the hero was the defense, since it stopped a juggernaut offense.
Then, you go on to conclude that b) Eli is a legend, because he beat the Pats twice.
Isn’t it obvious that you are speaking of almost mirroring situations, but somehow coming to opposite conclusions?
Eli had solid games both times, and had good (lucky?) throws, but it is obvious to the naked eye that it was the Giants D who made the heavy lifting. Your argument doesn’t compute.
You must be new here, Eli Manning is our lord and savior and your rational arguments mean nothing
You have to take Dave’s post game analysis with a grain of salt buddy, he’s as insufferable a homer as all the Pat’s fans that he loves to deride.
Darth Hoodie has the largest private library of football books, some of them more than a hundred years old. Darth Hoodie has McDaniels, which put together a team that carried Tim Tebow deep into the playoffs under his successor, and then to victory once Elway realized his mistake and fired Josh’s replacement when he couldn’t win one with Peyton goddamn Manning Himself under center. Darth Hoodie expects his team to make mistakes, and will adjust their scheme on the fly so they don’t become systemic.
Darth Hoodie expects excellent play until the game ends, and does not give up on sound, fundamental football strategy until the final whistle blows. He never panics. He always has a plan.
The plan here was to let Atlanta go all NYG on Brady for as long as they could. Hit him, chase him, make him hurry and panic with the four man rush. Brady and his O-Line sucks in those situations. He sucked a lot for three quarters. Change things up? Panic and bring in the wide-outs to block? Keep the TE’s close to home?
No. Let Brady get hit. Manage the clock so he keeps getting hit for 40 minutes of the game. These aren’t the ’07 Giants. These are young guys who have been coached to run as fast as they can and hit as hard as they can all season, not realizing what that meant in the 4th quarter against an indefatigable offense.
All of a sudden, they couldn’t get to Brady anymore. They couldn’t muscle past his O-Line like they did earlier in the game. They were *spent* – the Pats D had a *lot* left in them, tho, rested and alert and well coached, and eager to make plays.
At this moment, it was a jump ball. Play calling and grit and well developed and finely coached talent would win the day. Bill and Josh brought out plays we haven’t seen since Kevin Faulk was in the backfield – direct snap to White! They made two straight two point conversions. Who the hell does that against anyone, nevermind a Superbowl contender?
Everyone knew, especially the Falcons, once the coin tipped New England’s way, what was going to happen. And they let it happen. Brady marches his team down the field when everything is on the line: precise, poised, unflappable and unstoppable.
I kind of like the red-hot heat of Patriot Hate. It means this run of the Patriots will long be remembered by sports fans everywhere, unlike the equally excellent dynasty of the Spurs under G-Pop and the very nice and utterly dominant Tim Duncan. They’re already forgotten, which ticks me off no end.
I’ll take your hate for My Team being remembered for their achievements long after I’m gone.
My question is what the hell happened to Grady Jarrett in the second half? He was playing like a potential MVP, then vanished from the face of the earth.
Like the rest of them he was probably gassed. One of the NE beat writers reported overhearing a NE OLman in the locker room after the game telling a teammate how the Atlanta DLmen’s “eyes were glazed over”.
I am so glad I’m not the only one who thought those were glowing bat’leths.
A wheelchair-bound WWII vet and former President with Parkinsons deserves scorn. Cool story, bro.