NFL Football (5): Week 9 – Recap

The game of the millennium, “Super Bowl 41.5”, lived up to all the hype. The New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts played a game that was a classic. It had everything a fan would hope and then some.

The thing that was surprising about this game was that the Colts pretty much dominated it until the last eight minutes. I truly believe that if you say down and asked Colts’ coach, Tony Dungy, what his team had to do to win this game, he would have told you just about what hey did – limit the turnovers, stop New England on third down, shutdown the big plays, and run the ball effectively. They did all of that. Well, until the last eight minutes that is.

Then Brady took control and drove the Patriots down the field for two touchdowns. Suddenly what was a 20-10 Colts’ lead with about eight minutes left was now a 24-20 Patriots’ lead. And now Peyton Manning and the Colts had to put together a drive with just under three minutes left.

It wasn’t meant to be. On a third and long, Peyton Manning was hit in the elbow and the ball squirted out and was intercepted by the Patriots. That was the ball game.

One interesting thing. Belichick has always claimed that he isn’t running up the score when he keeps running the ball with under two minutes left and his team ahead by three scores. He says he’s simply continuing to play. Funny that he didn’t “continue to play” on Sunday against the Colts. Sure, it would have been stupid because a fumble would have given the Colts another chance. But using Belichick’s words from previous games, he should have kept running. So, by not running, this proves Belichick hasn’t been truthful with the media, which everyone already knew anyway.

So many media types were using this game to say the Pats will go undefeated now. They say things like, “The Pats didn’t even play their best game and they still won.” Well, that’s true. But I think Sunday’s game proved the Pats aren’t perfect and they can be scored on and they can be stopped. Sure, more teams in the league can’t do it, but it is possible. But 9-0 is very impressive, and the ’72 Dolphins (the only team to go undefeated) have to be more than a little nervous.