Well, February is here, and you know what that means… it’s almost Super Bowl time. I remember this wasn’t always the case. When the 2nd month of the year rolled around, the NFL season was already over. The Super Bowl was always in the month of January. My original Super Bowl parties were actually my brother’s birthday parties; January 22nd was right in that Super Bowl game range. Now, we’re talking February 12th?!?! I don’t think it could be pushed that much farther, but we’ll always have the 2 week gap between Championship Sunday and the Super Bowl; everyone needs time to rehearse the script of course. But let’s forget for a minute that this is the biggest rigged game of the year…
It should be a very competitive game; lots of angles to look at. My initial lean was Chiefs; I don’t think I’m going to change my mind, but let’s talk about it. I want to talk about strength of schedule. The Eagles played in the NFC East; at one point, this was the best division in football, but how good were they really? The Eagles were the class of the NFC East, and for that matter, other than the 49ers, the class of the NFC. The Cowboys had a good team, no doubt, and the Giants made the playoffs, but… were they really Super Bowl contenders, or just pretenders? The Commanders… I liked their squad, their coach, but don’t think they can be put in that good team category. On the other side of the NFL were the Chiefs, playing in the AFC West. Before the season started, when you looked at that division, you really thought the Chiefs would be challenged. The Raiders seemed primed for a big year. The Chargers were locked and loaded. Even the Broncos, with their defense and their new QB were ready to make some noise. None of that panned out. The Raiders crumbled, Russell Wilson sucked, and the Chargers choked against the Jaguars in the playoffs. Who played in the tougher division?
OK how about the playoff path. The Chiefs got the Jaguars right out of the gate, which was a gimme right? The Jags weren’t ready for that matchup. The Bengals though? They were knocking on that door, that door they ran through last year, to try to beat the Chiefs and get back to the Super Bowl. That was the most competitive game of the playoffs thus far, yes? It could have been either of these teams representing the AFC in the Bowl, but… the Chiefs pulled it out. The Eagles had the easier path, no doubt. The Giants were an absolute push over; were the Eagles really that good, or the G-men just overrated? The 49ers were going to be the biggest challenge for the birds, but their undefeated 3rd string QB goes down early; respect to the Niners for doing so well with that 3rd stringer, but a 4th stringer??? There are those who thought Purdy would implode in this game anyways, but… we’ll never really know. Once the Eagles figured out how bad this guy really was, it was a snowball effect. The guys pinned their ears back, packed the box, and played loose and free, while the Niners D tried to overcompensate for the lack of any type of offense, and eventually crumbled. Or maybe the Eagles were that good???
Today is just the first look at the big game; I have a lot more thoughts. Lucky for me, there is plenty of time to talk about this game. More to come…
Leave a Reply