Fourth and Long: The Forgotten Team
Back in 2007 and 2008, I wrote a weekly online pro football column dubbed “Fourth and Long” for the late Football for Breakfast website. One hopes the gentle reader will enjoy this blast from 10/31/07…
In the past week as sports media has focused rather myopically on the crowning achievements of the greater Boston area, another story has surprisingly flown below the radar.
National headlines have been filled with the Red Sox sweeping through the World Series, Boston College positioning itself to play in the BCS National Championship Game, and Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the undefeated New England Patriots continuing their inexorable march towards the greatest season in NFL history.
But this Sunday, those soon-to-be-crowned-four-time-world-champion Patriots will be playing another team that you may not have heard of.
The Indianapolis Colts.
The undefeated Indianapolis Colts. The defending champion Indianapolis Colts. And the underdog Indianapolis Colts.
Lost in the New England lovefest is that the Colts are sporting a 12-game winning streak dating back to last season when they won something we like to call the Super Bowl.
Also lost is that the Colts defeated the Patriots in the playoffs last season, coming back from an 18-point deficit to win the AFC championship. In fact, the Colts have beaten the Patriots three straight, two of those times in Foxborough. And it is almost universally acknowledged that this year’s version of the Colts are better than the team that won the Super Bowl a scant nine months ago.
But these Indianapolis Colts are four to five point underdogs at home. Undefeated and defending world champions playing at home as underdogs.
This is unprecedented.
And yet, the New England Patriots deserve to be the favorites. They are playing the best football I have ever seen. Better than the 49ers in the late 1980s with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. Better than the Greatest Show on Turf. And better than the Indianapolis Colts who boast starts of 13-0, 9-0 and 7-0 over the past three seasons.
So who will win? Well, the Patriots, right now, want this game more than the Colts. Their hunger is palpable.
While Peyton Manning parlayed his Super Bowl MVP into even more commercials during the offseason, while Tony Dungy published his memoirs and went on a book tour, the New England Patriots reengineered their team with one specific goal in mind: beat the Colts.
And beat the Colts they will.
Not by 45. Probably not even by 17.
But the Patriots will win without the need of a last-minute game-winning drive or a heart-stopping goal-line stand.
I have a hunch, however, that the story won’t end there.
On January 20, 2008 in Foxborough, the 17-0 New England Patriots will face off against the 14-3 Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game. And in an epic struggle that will be talked about for decades to come, Peyton Manning will lead the Colts past the once-perfect Patriots with a last-second assist from Adam Vinatieri.
Why? Because the Patriots will have become complacent. After 19 consecutive weeks of media adulation, they will have bought into their own hype. And no humble pie, no matter how masterfully served up by Bill Belichick, will suffice.
And in what makes sports greater than any reality series on television, the New England Patriots will go from the ‘Greatest Team in NFL History” to second-rate schoolyard bullies in the blink of an eye.
‘Larry King’ Ramblings
If you’re anything like me, you rolled your eyes as ESPN and Monday Night Football fawned endlessly over Brett Favre Monday night. It’s getting a little old, I thought, this slavish infatuation over an aging quarterback. I endured it for years from John Madden and now Tony Kornheiser was joining in. But as I watched the game against the Broncos in Mile High Stadium, I found myself enthralled by Favre’s performance. At age 38, he completed 21 of 27 passes for 331 yards and two touchdowns. But not just any touchdowns. A 79-yarder against perennial Pro Bowler Champ Bailey and an 82-yarder to win the game in overtime. Suddenly all that adoration seemed woefully inadequate.
As overhyped as the New York Giants-Miami Dolphin game in London was on this side of the Atlantic, it was oddly underhyped on the other side of the pond. The British newspapers barely took notice of the game and when they did, the coverage centered on players we largely ignore. The kickers. The game itself was rather poorly played, not surprising considering the jet lag and poor field conditions. The Brits, it seems, are not used to 300-pound behemoths tearing up their thin and wet field for an afternoon.
But I was pleasantly surprised by the very entertaining interview with commissioner Roger Goodell during the third quarter. It’s the first time I’ve seen the commissioner smile, laugh and joke around, especially after Tony Siragusa joined the conversation. After all the fines and mandates imposed around the league, it was refreshing to see that Roger Goodell could joke around like everyone else. It made him somewhat more human, a characteristic he desperately needs to exhibit.
Congratulations to the San Diego Chargers who have climbed back into the playoff picture with a 4-3 record after trouncing the Houston Texans 35-10. WR Chris Chambers may just have been the addition the Bolts’ offense needed to get back on track. With the Vikings next, the Chargers should be 5-3 going into a pivotal three-game stretch against the Colts, Jaguars and Ravens which will, undoubtedly, determine their season.
How can any team lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars when they don’t even have a starting quarterback? Sometimes I wonder if teams in the NFL grasp that all they need to do is win the game they are playing that week. There was no way the Jaguars could beat the Buccaneers Sunday. Only the Bucs could beat themselves. And beat themselves they did by throwing three interceptions with one returned for a touchdown in a 24-23 loss.
‘Heidi’ Chronicles
One week after a fall from a roof tragically took Max McGee’s life and on the same day as Packer legends eulogized McGee at his funeral, I was shocked to hear the words coming out of Keith Olbermann’s mouth as he narrated the Raiders-Titans highlights on Football Night in America. Having Tivo’ed the show to see if my recent criticisms of the NBC telecast had been off the mark, I replayed the highlight eight times to make sure that I heard what I thought I heard.
I did.
In describing how easily LenDale White gained yardage in the second half against the Raiders, Olbermann nonchalantly uttered the phrase, “It’s like falling off a roof.”
Now I’ve watched and enjoyed Keith Olbermann since his legendary days at ESPN with Dan Patrick. This is a guy who prides himself on being a sports historian. And more importantly, this is a guy who prides himself on his wordsmithing. So it was with much shock that I listened to his utterly tactless choice of words.
Do I think he selected those words on purpose? No. Olbermann was the one to elegantly eulogize McGee the previous week on Football Night in America.
But it speaks to how out of place his smug, snarky stylings have become in the blue-collar world of pro football. Perhaps it is time for him to return to his solo political commentating career on MSNBC and Countdown with Keith Olbermann and leave the football hosting to Bob Costas.
Playoffs?!? Don’t Talk About Playoffs?!?
With apologies to Jim Mora, it’s never too early to talk playoffs…
AFC Playoff Seeds
1) Indianapolis Colts (7-0): Will the Colts keep the top spot…
2) New England Patriots (8-0): …or will the Patriots finally dethrone the defending champions?
3) Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2): Steelers rebound nicely after that ugly loss in Denver.
4) Kansas City Chiefs (4-3): Week 4 win over the Chargers gives the Chiefs the AFC West.
5) Tennessee Titans (5-2): Ugly win over the Raiders, but you can’t argue with 5-2.
6) Jacksonville Jaguars (5-2): Surprising win over the Bucs. Can the Jags hold on until David Garrard returns?
NFC Playoff Seeds
1) Dallas Cowboys (6-1): Mark your calendars. The Packers come to town on November 29.
2) Green Bay Packers (6-1): The Packers did what the Steelers couldn’t. Beat the Broncos in Denver.
3) Carolina Panthers (4-3): No shame in losing to the Colts, but believe or not, the Saints are only one game back in the NFC South.
4) Seattle Seahawks (4-3): Can the Seahawks turn things around after the bye week?
5) New York Giants (6-2): After six straight wins and a trip to London, the Giants get a well-deserved bye week.
6) Detroit Lions (5-2): Best start in the Millen era. Kitna is looking smarter and smarter by the week.
‘John Madden’ Wayback Machine
Super Bowl XLI 1/2, as the Patriots-Colts is being dubbed, is not the first ‘Game of the Century’ to be played during the regular season.
In 1985, for instance, the defending AFC champion Miami Dolphins hosted the undefeated and ‘unstoppable’ Chicago Bears on Monday night. In an epic matchup, Don Shula devised a rolling pocket to give Dan Marino just enough time to deal the 12-0 Bears their first loss of the season, 38-24.
But to me, Sunday’s battle for home-field advantage in the playoff is more reminiscent of the Giants-49ers clash in 1990. The two-time defending champion San Francisco 49ers with Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott faced off against the No. 1 contender New York Giants with Phil Simms, Mark Bavaro and Lawrence Taylor.
Both teams started 10-0 and both teams suffered their first loss of the season the week before the ballyhooed Monday Night matchup. The Giants 31-13 to Buddy Ryan and his Philadelphia Eagles; the 49ers 28-17 to an undermanned Los Angeles Rams club helped by six 49ers’ turnovers.
The game itself was a titanic defensive struggle with the 49ers eking out a 7-3 win. And the rematch in the NFC Championship game was one for the ages as the Giants pulled out an improbable 15-13 victory after Leonard Marshall’s crushing sack of Joe Montana that would sideline the Hall-of-Fame quarterback for nearly two years.
But perhaps the most impressive were the coaches that day. Bill Parcells, of course, was head coach of the Giants, but his staff included Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and Al Groh. For the 49ers, George Seifert had replaced Bill Walsh and featured a staff that included Mike Holmgren, Ray Rhodes (at the hospital after an emergency appendectomy) and Jon Gruden.
One can only hope that Sunday’s Patriots-Colts game will be a worthy successor.
Battle for Brian Brohm (or Matt Ryan or Whoever the #1 Pick Will Be)
Nearly halfway through the season and fight for imperfection is gaining steam.
#1 – Miami Dolphins (0-8): Another city. Another loss. I’ll have to check, but I don’t think you can lose a game during bye week.
#2 – St. Louis Rams (0-8): Rams held a 14-point lead early with the return of Steven Jackson. Unfortunately, the loss of the same Steven Jackson led to a 7-point loss.
#3 – New York Jets (1-7): The Pennington era is over in New York.
#4 – Atlanta Falcons (1-6): With the 2-5 49ers in town, someone has to win.
#5 – San Francisco 49ers (2-5): After a 2-0 start, the Niners are in free fall.
#6 – Oakland Raiders (2-5): How much longer before the JaMarcus Russell era?
#7 – Minnesota Vikings (2-5): With two QBs injured and Adrian Peterson in the backfield, Jeff George lobbies for a chance. No joke.
#8 – Cincinnati Bengals (2-5): So much for turning around the season.
