Sports Then and Now

Peyton Manning led the Colts past Jacksonville, but they have to win their final two games to reach the playoffs.

With just two weeks remaining in the NFL regular season, there are still 20 teams which could conceivably end up winning the Super Bowl. Although this obviously shows just how competitive the NFL is, and more importantly how exciting the NFL can be, the fact remains that certain teams are still in a much better situation than others as they seek to reach the playoffs.

Super bowl betting pundits note that the Indianapolis Colts, despite enjoying a stellar season last year, are struggling to make the play-offs this time around after enduring a mixed season that has seen them hold an 8-6 record. As a result of this, the Colts know that their hopes of making at least the playoffs this season rest almost entirely on their star quarterback Peyton Manning displaying a run of top level performances for the rest of the regular season.

Contrast this to the predicament facing the Jets, had enjoyed a brilliant start to the season only to see their hopes of grabbing the AFC East crown dashed after they failed to maintain their form when it came to the crunch, leaving them destined for a wild card spot.

However, the most exciting division according to those looking at the Super Bowl betting odds regularly (despite the poor level of football that has been on show this season) has clearly been the NFC West, which could end the season with the division champion experiencing a season that falls below the .500 mark which is normally the minimum requirement for reaching the playoffs.

Whoever ends up making the playoffs this season, the one thing that is for certain is that it is going to take a massive change in form for either the New England Patriots or the Atlanta Falcons not to end the season contesting the Super Bowl.

DeSean Jackson completed the latest Philadelphia Eagles comeback win over the New York Giants with a 65-yard punt return.

The game may not have been played at the original Meadowlands, but the shocking late rally on Sunday afternoon by the visiting Philadelphia Eagles over the New York Giants proves that the new Meadowlands still is a place where the Eagles can perform miracles.

After taking a 24-3 halftime edge and scoring a touchdown to take a 31-10 lead with 8:43 remaining in the game, it looked like the Giants would make their first game against the Eagles in the new stadium a statement victory.

However, anyone who ever saw Eagles-Giants games at the old Meadowlands knows that when the Eagles come to visit strange things can happen.

Michael Vick tossed two touchdown passes and ran for another in just over six minutes of game time to tie the contest at 31-31 with 1:24 remaining.

The Giants had one final chance, but were unable to move the ball and punted to the Eagles with 14 seconds remaining.

It looked like overtime was inevitable, especially when punt returner DeSean Jackson mishandled the line-drive punt from rookie Matt Dodge. However, Jackson instead became the latest Eagle to break the hearts of Giants fans with an electrifying 65-yard return to complete the comeback and give Philadelphia the inside edge to winning the NFC East.

It is the most recent in a series of Philadelphia miracles that began with the original “Miracle at the Meadowlands” on November 19, 1978. In that game, the Giants led 17-6 entering the fourth quarter and had the ball and a 17-12 lead in the final minute.

Needing simply to take a knee and run out the clock, quarterback Joe Pisarcik instead tried to hand the ball off to Larry Csonka. The ball fell to the turf and bounced nicely into the hands of Herm Edwards, who took it 26 yards for the game winning score. Read the rest of this entry →

The Vikings will be playing their first outdoor game since the days of Metropolitan Stadium.

The final home game of the 50th season for the Minnesota Vikings will be a cold “blast from the past” as the recent deflation of the roof at the Metrodome means the Vikings and Chicago Bears will be clashing Monday night outdoors at the University of Minnesota’s TCF Stadium.

From their creation in 1961 through the 1981 season the Vikings played all their home games outdoors at Metropolitan Stadium.  During that time, there were a plethora of frozen memories as the Vikings enjoyed significant success playing on their frozen tundra.

Overall, the Vikings were 91-56-4 at Metropolitan Stadium during the regular season and 7-3 on the frozen turf during the post season.

When the Vikings played their first game at Metropolitan Stadium on September 21, 1961 they showed signs of what was to come as they surprised the veteran Chicago Bears 37-13 behind the four-touchdown passes thrown by rookie quarterback Fran Tarkenton.

The Vikings were 15-26-1 during their first six seasons playing at Metropolitan Stadium under head coach Norm Van Brocklin and overall posted just one winning season. However, once Bud Grant arrived in 1967, the team soon started to develop into one of the elite teams in the league and Metropolitan Stadium was an important component of that success.

In 1969 the Vikings were a perfect 7-0 at home during the regular season and then won consecutive cold weather playoff games over the Los Angeles Rams (23-20; 10 degrees, -1 wind chill) and Cleveland Browns (27-7; 8 degrees, -6 wind chill) to reach the Super Bowl for the first time. Read the rest of this entry →

Neither Chan Gailey or Ryan Fitzpatrick was the first choice of Buffalo fans, but they could end up being the right fits.

Here in Buffalo, Monday morning quarterbacking has become the dominant sport, since what happens on the gridiron and on the ice isn’t close to what it used to be in this town. The big fear, especially where the Bills are concerned, is that it won’t be like that again.

I define “Monday morning quarterbacking” broadly for purposes of this discussion, to include prescribing and second guessing personnel decisions as well as game day decisions. Once the woebegone era of Dick Jauron finally ended, there was a flurry of wishful speculation about somehow acquiring a marquis coach and a marquis quarterback. When the dust all settled and we had Chan Gailey as our coach and nobody new as our quarterback, the “nabobs of negativism,” to quote Spiro Agnew, were burning up the airwaves and the blogosphere.

How quickly things change. Today I saw a tweet that said, “Remember when we wanted Mike Shanahan as a coach and Donovan McNabb as our quarterback?”

And there you have it. When a crisis comes, we humans are always inclined to fight the last war, whether it is literal war, or the symbolic kind waged in arenas. Truth is, if we were to analyze the success rate of big name coaches or players reborn or recycled in new venues, especially when the new assignment is a losing franchise, it is more bust than boom. Even the big Tuna, Bill Parcells couldn’t match his New England success in Dallas and couldn’t match his lesser Dallas success in Miami.

The problem—or opportunity, depending on how you see it—is, that most of the best coaches in the NFL come up through the coordinator ranks. More often than not they have been the understudy to a great coach, but not always. Read the rest of this entry →

Many Jets fans will tell you that they are the unluckiest franchise in the National Football League because the Jets always find a way to lose in the most important games.

Another chapter to the Jets’ star-crossed history was added in their 2004 AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers when kicker Doug Brien missed not one but two field goals in the final two minutes of regulation that could have won the game for New York, but ended up losing the game in overtime.

In 2004, the Jets finished with a 10-6 record to earn a wild card berth, the team’s third playoff appearance in four years under head coach Herm Edwards.

In the Wild Card Round, the Jets pulled out a 20-17 overtime victory over the San Diego Chargers when Brien made a 28-yard field goal with five seconds left in the first overtime period to give New York an upset victory and sent them to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers in the AFC Divisional Playoffs.

The Steelers had the best record in the NFL during the 2004 season, a 15-1 record thanks to the league’s best defense and best rushing game lead by Jerome Bettis.

The biggest surprise of this season was the fact that the Steelers were able to go 15-1 with a rookie quarterback.

The Steelers used their pick in the first round to select quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was designated to be their quarterback of the future and sit on the bench for the 2004 season.

But when incumbent starting quarterback Tommy Maddox was knocked out of the second game of the season with an elbow injury in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Roethlisberger was forced to step in and take the reins as the starting quarterback.

Roethlisberger started 13 games and won all 13 of them, which included a 34-20 win against the New England Patriots that ended their 21-game winning streak, and a 17-6 win against the Jets. Read the rest of this entry →

After 297 consecutive NFL starts, Brett Favre watched from the sidelines Monday night.

Brett Favre’s streak of 297 straight NFL starts ended Monday night in Detroit, but ironically, the end of the streak could actually do more to enhance the quarterback’s legacy than if he would have played against the Giants.

Once one of the most admired and beloved players in the NFL, the last three years have not been kind to the veteran signal caller.

The worst thing a player can be labeled in professional sports is selfish or self-centered. With his annual “will he or won’t he” saga, Favre’s indecision has turned many former admirers into critics.

Favre has always been seen as a tough and hard-nosed player who left everything on the field. However, over the last several years many have believed that Favre was more concerned about playing to preserve and grow his own legacy than to actually help his team win.

After three straight off-seasons of wondering if Favre would return, the Green Bay Packers finally gave up and moved on with Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback.

During his single season with the New York Jets, Favre started out strong, but injuries late in the season reduced his effectiveness and cost the Jets a playoff spot. Favre’s eventual admission that he probably shouldn’t have been playing was seen by many as just another example of how the quarterback put his own records over the success of his team.

Favre engineered his exit from New York and after waiting until the end of training camp joined the Minnesota Vikings for the 2009 season.

While the mainstream media did everything they could to hype the 40-year-old Favre’s amazing season, he and the Vikings were met by a mix of indifference and ridicule by many fans who were conflicted as to whether to root for or against Favre. Read the rest of this entry →