The End Is Nigh Upon Us
The season is nearing its end. For the colleges the lights were turned out more than a month ago for most. The dark times loom. This year we do have the solace of a real hockey season to keep our thirst for plastic armor clad gentlemen engaged in battle. With just the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl remaining, major football has but 120 minutes left.
NFC Championship
Seattle beat the Panthers and their own game. They ran the ball well and played lights-out defense. Remember how I said Seattle was a weak number one? Nevermind. It just goes to show you that TALB doesn’t know a damn thing about football. Forcing the three interceptions from the normally efficient Jake Delhomme was key to the victory. And time of posession, holy crap. Seattle held the ball for nearly 42 minutes to the Panthers’ paltry 18. Seattle simply dominated the contest in all phases. But I think Seattle will still be tested by the Steelers.
I didn’t get a chance to watch the game, so had to go by the gamebook and the recap for most of this.
AFC Championship
Pittsburgh, eh? Sixth seed, eh? No flash, eh? Well guess what, they’re in anyway. And who is going to bet against them winning one more game? Remember how I said the AFC had the best top seeds in a long time? Well, nevermind. And the part about Denver laying low? Yeah, too low it would seem. The Steelers just have it all working right now. Even their special teams are on tilt (those near back-to-back pinnings are a couple of examples).
Jake Plummer was back to his old self Sunday. Tossing horrible picks and essentially handing the game to Pittsburgh. Denver was never in the game. Even late when they rallied, they weren’t really in it. It was so bad that at half time those of us at the Buc Junkies after-season party thought the NFL should just call the game and get on with the NFC collision.
Super Bowl XL
The match-up has an interesting side note, to me at least, the two participants changed conferences during their history. Pittsburgh was an original member of the NFL and moved to the AFC (former AFL) after the merger. While the Seahawks moved from the AFC to the NFC a few years back with the new divisional alignments. And the ‘Hawks actually started in the NFC West (and Tampa in the AFC West) in 1976. For whatever that’s all worth I guess.
Anyway, I think the Steelers will win this one too. They have played tough for seven weeks now in order to reach the playoffs and then the Super Bowl. Seattle still has problems on special teams. Regardless of how well they might have played for one game, they could get burned again.
TALB figures the over/under on “Extra Large” or just plain “XL” references during the Super Bowl telecast to be around a dozen. If you were to include the pre and post game festivities that number could go as high as twenty. And with John Madden and Al Michaels doing their last gig together this should be interesting.
A few weeks ago I sent an email to TMQ with my Super Bowl final score prediction. If you’re not a regular TMQ reader, he has an unhealthy obsession with final score predictions. So, here’s what I cam up with after extensive analysis of previous Super Bowl final scores:
NFC/NFL 26 - AFC/AFL 21 (by average, rounded)
Winner 33 - Loser 17 (by median)
AFC 16 - NFC 7 (most common score)
NFC 28 - AFC 22 (median)
Also of note: the NFC has a high score of 55 and has scored at least 30 points fourteen times, while the AFC has only topped 30 eight times with a high of 38.
But, on to my dual super generic Super Bowl final score predictions:
Winner 31 - Loser 15 (by average, rounded)
Winner 27 - Loser 10 (most common scores for winning and losing teams)
And since I’m picking the Steelers to win; Steelers 31 or 27 - Seahawks 15 or 10.
Which isn’t to say that TALB wants the Steelers to win. That’s just what I think will happen. Back in the day I was a huge Steelers fan. They were my second favorite team after the Bucs. But in recent years my fandom of the Steelers has waned. I think it has to do with all of the trash talk that the Steelers did back in ‘01 and ‘02 that kind of killed it for me. Now, if the Panthers had beaten the Seahawks instead…
Custody
A little college football humor to get you through the long cold off-season.
That Was Fast
With the conference championship games complete, nearly all of the head coaching vacancies in the NFL have been filled. Just Oakland remains. Below is a list of the new coaches and where they came from.
Minnesota - Brad Childress (OC, Philladelphia)
New Orleans - Sean Payton (Asst. HC/QB, Dallas)
Detroit - Rod Marinelli (DL, Tampa Bay)
Green Bay - Mike McCarthy (OC, San Francisco)
New York Jets - Eric Mangini (DC, New England)
St. Louis - Scott Linehan (OC, Miami)
Kansas City - Herm Edwards (HC, NY Jets)
Buffalo - Dick Jauron (DC/Interim HC , Detroit)
Houston - Gary Kubiak (OC , Denver)
Oakland - ?
Only one hire was of a guy who was a head coach for this season just completed, and that was the Herm Edwards “thing”. What does that mean? I don’t have a clue.
The Great Indoors
As the NFL season winds down, the Arena season is just getting started. Our hometown Tampa Bay Storm will take the field to start their 19th season this Sunday (1/29) in Philadelphia as they take on Jon Bon Jovi’s club (3 PM, NBC). The first round of the Green Bay-Chicago, Ohio State-Michigan, Florida-Florida State of the AFL will be on Sunday February 9th as the hated Preds come down I-4 to meet the Storm. The return trip will be on Saturday April 22. And the season officially gets underway Friday when the Las Vegas Gladiators head to Austin. While the champs, the Colorado Crush, will open up at home on Sunday the 29th against Chicago.
This is the 20th season of Arena Football. Which means that this is also the 20th season for the Storm; who remain the only original franchise in the league (they started in 1987 as the Pittsburgh Gladiators).
Running Items
Breath Of A Salesman
The Burger King commercials featuring “The King” are getting stranger by the minute.
King Of Football
As always, feel free to submit your entry for TALB’s King Of Football 2006. It will appear during the off week between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl (January 31).
Next Week: King Of Football 2006
