By Tony George
What a Sunday, as BOTH Championship games surprised me in numerous ways. A thriller in the Pacific Northwest and a Blowout in New England. The line has opened for the Super Bowl at Seattle -1 and the Total at 48.5. That was a surprise to me considering the public reacts to what they just saw and Vegas oddsmakers know this, and I thought you would see New England by 3, the total I figured 48 so that sits about right considering the firepower on offense New England has.
In the Seattle and Green Bay game I was speechless, like most watching it unfold the last 4 minutes and into overtime. While every year of handicapping games for the past 23 years no matter what sport, I always see a game or two and say “well I have seen it all now”. Once more I have to say while it surely was the most unreal scenario and I caught myself saying that, we all again will see a game in the future in some sport that makes this one a distant memory and an afterthought, but WOW!
Seattle had 4 turnovers, Russell Wilson had a ZERO QB Rating at halftime, less than a 10 QB rating entering the 4th quarter, Seattle was dead in the water. All that said they missed the cover by 1 or 2 points depending on where you had them, and that is just dumbfounding considering where they were sitting mid fourth quarter. Goes to show you what special teams can do, along with a never say die attitude. A fake field goal, an on sides recovery and quite frankly that prayer of a 2 point conversion won this game, along with about 3 or 4 big pass plays. Richard Sherman playing with an injury and one arm basically the second half, you had Aaron Rodgers limping and hopping around as the best players in the game were not 100%. Green Bay had the game so well in hand the vaunted and intimidating Seattle 12th man was leaving the stadium early. This game was one for the ages, and now Seattle returns to the Super Bowl for a back to back chance, ironically against a team who last did that very same feat. One has to commend Aaron Rodgers on another gutty performance, the guy is all world. His head coach is another story. The golden rule is never go conservative in a big game, you cannot sit on a lead on the road against a team like Seattle.
New England was given a game for about 2 quarters from the Colts, and then it was the Tom Brady and New England Patriots offensive fireworks show. The bottom line is the Pats just have the Colts number for some reason, and the dink and dunk offense of New England proved too much for Indy, and Andrew Luck will have to wait his turn to play in the Super Bowl, and trust me, he will play in more than one. Coming off a near perfect game against Denver, I really thought Indy had a punchers chance in this game and thought their defense would tackle well like last week. Bill Belichick again put together a masterful gameplan in becoming the winningest post season coach ever in the NFL, and his players executed.
One has to ask the burning question, can Seattle stop New England and trade punches on the scoreboard in this year's Super Bowl? That is the main storyline for the Super Bowl, and there will be many, but at days end, does defense win championships, just like last year, or does a high octane offense ran by a future first ballot hall of famer Tom Brady and a legendary head coach put up too many points for Seattle’s hit and miss offense to counter?
Sounds like the main storyline from last year’s Super Bowl, with high flying Denver lead by another hall of famer Peyton Manning. Let’s put it this way, I have yet to handicap and play this game out versus the Las Vegas line, but the theme seems similar to last year and last year I took Denver and lost while I ended up winning the totals play. Can Seattle repeat what they did against Peyton Manning and the Bronco’s offense in last year’s Super Bowl, against a legendary QB in this year’s game that has a much better post season history than Manning, and a better head coach? This will be debated for the next 2 weeks, and I for one will be listening intently.
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