Last
Week: Vs. Spread: (1-1); Straight Up: (0-2)
Season:
Vs.
Spread: (135-125-6); Straight Up: (175-90-1)
Championship
Round Review: Yeah. It’s hard to be a fan of the Home
Teams. But one day…one day it’s going to be our time.
Puzzling performance by
the Patriots in the other game. I expected the game to be very competitive, as
the Ravens always play New England tough. In the end, you could almost say that
I was wrong: it wasn’t that competitive. Baltimore won fairly convincingly. Or
maybe I should say New England just sucked.
It wasn’t a surprise
that the Pats had trouble shutting down Baltimore’s offense. But I was
surprised to see Baltimore’s defense shutdown the NE offense. Clearly Gronk’s
absence hurt but the Pats also just got outplayed. Brady was very un-Brady. He
had a total mental breakdown late in the first half. He was indecisive as to
whether to take off or throw the ball, eventually going into that bizarre
slide/defensive kick, and then not calling a timeout and letting too much time
run off the clock, leading to NE having to settle for a FG try. He seemed a bit
jittery in this game.
New England can usually
count on picking up yards and 1st downs with relative ease, but it
seemed like Baltimore’s defense made the Patriots work hard for every yard and
every conversion. And two recurring themes were again a part of the story: yet
another extremely ill-timed Wes Welker drop in a big game; yet another huge hit
on a Patriots player by Bernard Pollard. Also, again, the recurring theme of New
England suffering a key injury in January.
Anyway, it was my least
favorite Championship Sunday of all-time. I didn’t pick either of the games
correctly straight up and I was just 1-1 ATS (couldn’t believe the Birds didn’t
even end up beating the spread). It
couldn’t have gone much worse for me last Sunday. My team lost; my pet team
lost; I didn’t pick the games well; and our loss was made even worse knowing
that it not only cost us a spot in the Super Bowl but almost certainly cost us
a world championship because we would have killed the Ravens. Fuck.
Super
Bowl Preview: I can’t say I’m all that excited for the
final game of the year either. Actually, I can’t remember the last time I was
this disinterested in the Super Bowl. I guess I’d have to go with 2002 (Tampa
vs. Oakland). But seriously, I don’t think I’ve thought about the matchup for
longer than 45 seconds at any point during this week. I’m not remotely
interested in the “Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh” aspect of this game. Can’t believe we
dodged that bullet last year only for it to come back and bite us just a year
later.
I don’t really want
either side to win. I wouldn’t mind seeing Ray Lewis win another Super Bowl in
his final game, but that’s pretty much the only positive thought I have about
that team. Other than that I hate Baltimore. I really don’t want to see this SF
team win in their first playoff run with Kaepernick. It just seems like it
shouldn’t be that easy. No matter what happens I‘m not going to be happy.
There are a few
interesting aspects of the matchup but I’m just having a really hard time being
anything other than a Negative Nelson about everything right now. Obviously you
have the head coach thing and the Ray Lewis thing and the Kaepernick-Smith
thing.
There’s also this
Baltimore team trying to win a 2nd title. And if Baltimore wins this
year you just have to chalk it up to “well, it was just their turn.” Think
about the injuries that they’ve dealt with this season involving Lewis, Terrell
Suggs, Ed Reed, and Lardarius Webb. They had that awful slump late in the year,
fired their OC, and there was a lot of pressure on Joe Flacco heading into the
playoffs. They’ve already had a memorable playoffs, pulling the miracle at
Denver and then avenging last year’s AFC Championship Game loss last Sunday in
New England.
For San Francisco,
there aren’t as many story lines outside of the QB thing, the coach thing, and
I guess the defense trying to cement their place in history with a championship.
Well, there is Randy Moss looking for that championship that eluded him in
Minnesota and New England. And it’s also the San Francisco 49ers franchise,
which was down for a full decade, and has reclaimed their place at the top of
the NFL. They are 5-0 all-time in the Super Bowl and a win on Sunday would tie
them with Pittsburgh for most SB titles. Plus, they’d be 6-0 compared with
Pittsburgh’s 6-2.
I have a feeling this
year won’t end on a happy note no for me no matter what. I guess the only thing
I can hope for is to pick the game correctly, both straight up and ATS. I don’t
feel that confident.
Super
Bowl XLVII
Baltimore (+3.5) vs.
San Francisco (New Orleans)
Pick: Niners cover
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