THANKS A LOT, COLTS...
By mark rogers
February 7, 2010
You'd think in a world where the Giants can beat the undefeated Patriots, where a 41-point underdog Stanford team can beat USC, where the USA hockey team can beat the Soviets, where Buster Douglas can knock out Mike Tyson and where Villanova can beat Georgetown, that I'd be a little more careful with making a "can't-miss", "sure thing" prediction.
Yeah, you'd think that.
But I'll proudly stand up and say (just like Colts' head coach Jim Caldwell said after the game) that my head is bloody but unbowed.
Indianapolis was well on its way to making me look pretty smart. Not a genius because the Colts were the favorite and were expected to win, but at least smarter than the dummy I look like now.
The score was 10-0 after the first quarter. Pass me another brownie.
It was 10-6 at half and the Colts had just stopped New Orleans on 4th and Goal from the 2. Hand that guacamole dip over here. I'm feeling pretty good.
Then the nuclear explosion happened. The event that was ignited and made possible by the inspirational story line of a community and its football team rising up from the Hurricane Katrina "ashes" and taking a stand on top of the NFL which I so blatantly dismissed as no big deal.
The event that was the personification of millions of people rooting on the underdog Saints.
The millions of well-wishers and supporters of a team that had never even played in a Super Bowl willed the football into the hands of Jonathan Casillas at the end of that pivotal event...
...the onside kick.
What a call.
Sean Payton. The new Riverboat Gambler. A stud among studs. The only onside kick ever successfully executed before the fourth quarter in a Super Bowl. Quite possibly the most gutsy coaching call in Super Bowl history.
An onside kick to OPEN the second half?! Are you kidding me??! Wow...
I said in my prediction post that coaching or play-calling wouldn't be the difference. But it surely was tonight.
The Saints rode the wave of that momentum changing play all the way to the championship. If that play doesn't happen, the Colts could very well have taken that possession and scored a TD which would have made it 17-6, kept the wave of momentum from the goal line stand on the Colts' sideline and sent the Saints home to New Orleans quietly and as expected...as losers.
But those do-gooding, well-wishing onlookers made that ball end up with the Saints and made me look like a complete idiot...again.
Thanks a lot well-wishing, do-gooders. I shan't forget this.
And how's this for frustrating - the Cowboys have beaten two of the last three Super Bowl champions during the regular season...on the road.
We beat the Giants in 2007...twice. And we beat the Saints this year in New Orleans.
Oh well...at least we won a playoff game. But I still look like an idiot.
I should make a prediction on a can't-miss hockey game just for my confidence.
But games like tonight are the reason I'm in love with sports and competition. Because you just never know...no matter how much you think you know.
Previous Entry:
« SUPER BOWL PREDICTION
Next Entry:
RECRUITING RULE CHANGE IMPACTS LONGHORNS »
Comments
This site does not necessarily agree with comments posted below.