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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Don't Blame Brett!

Brett Favre isn't going to the Super Bowl. He made a big mistake at a big time and never touched the football again. As a result, the New Orleans Saints are going to the Super Bowl. A too many men in the huddle (does that sound familiar) took the Vikings out of range on what could have been a potential game winning field goal and then Brett makes a mistake that 20 year vets aren't supposed to make. Favre makes the rookie mistake of throwing against his body and having the pass intercepted. It was his last play of the year and like many thought two years ago when he threw a pick on his last play as a Packer in the 2007 NFC championship, it might be his last pass ever.
While Brett will take some heat for his mistake, the truth is the Vikings should be heading to Miami and not New Orleans. The better team did not win the NFC championship. Minnesota controlled this game and would have won walking away had it not been for the fact that they could not hang onto the football. One fumble inside their 10 and one fumble inside the New Orleans 10 is the reason why New Orleans is heading to Miami where they will face the Indianapolis Colts. In fact I'm not sure, but before the game the Vikings had that guy from American Idol that sang "Pants on the Ground' come in to sing the song to them. Adrian Peterson must have thought the guy was singing "Ball on the Ground".
Meanwhile, the Colts had some problems with the New York Jets, but their overall talent just wore down the Cinderella Jets. Peyton Manning showed you can take away his best receivers, but he will just find someone else as Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie did what Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark could not do. Indy is favoured by 3 1/2 to win the Vince in two weeks time. I would take the Colts and the points. Manning will outduel Brees in what should be an aerial circus.
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The questions will start about Favre's future now. Is he going to pull off the same stunt with the Vikings that he pulled off with the Packers for so many years or will he come clean. Personally, I think he comes back without hesitation even though he looks beat up and tired after last nite's loss. He has to see how good a year he had and how much young talent the Vikings have to give it one more run. I don't know if the Vikings can be as good this year as they were last, but he can't go out the way he did knowing that if his offensive teammates had hands that he would have a chance to win his 2nd title.
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I don't have to tell you about the weather. If you had a snowblower, great. If you didn't, it was a day of shovelling and shovelling and shovelling. Yes, put me in the latter category. My street like many others is now extremely snow clogged and its a good job that some of our neighbours had snowblowers to help unplug the street. Of course, that didn't do me any good when I tried to get out only to get stuck. Once again, the neighbours come through. It was so bad out there that people were getting stuck in the Wal-Mart parking lot where I was at. I haven't seen it this bad in quite a while. Mayor Fiacco says the graders are out, but residential streets will have to wait for later in the week. I'm guessing that will have many citizens happy. Like I said earlier, I'll just be happy to see some road equipment go down my street as they haven't the last two winters much to the chagrin of myself and some others on the block. If you didn't have to be out yesterday, I'm guessing you just stayed in. With the two football games on, I wonder how much places like the Press Box and the 4 Seasons struggled. I wonder how many people thought about ordering in only to realize the delivery driver might just get stuck. I'm thinking many potential gatherings were cancelled.
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The Pats-Kootenay game was cancelled. Kootenay couldn't get out of Saskatoon because of the bad highways. It means the two teams must find another date. Kootenay is here on February 6, and with the Super Bowl the next day, they could play a Sunday afternoon game. However, Regina plays Saskatoon on the 5th so you can't really move up the Saturday game. I'm thinking the Ice may have to make a long trip to Regina for just one game. Move the game to a neutral sight and play it in Swift Current I say...(I"M JOKING!!)
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I received an e-mail Sunday night saying a post on riderfans. com had started in which it was said former Rider and current TSN football analyst Glen Suitor was a candidate for the Rider GM job, but he turned it down to stay with the network. Nothing against Suits, I would love to see him have a role in this organization somewhere down the road, but having a guy with no experience coming in to serve as GM might not have been the best thing. I think he probably knew that as well. Would Suitor make a great assistant coach...I think he would. Would he make a good GM.....not right now! Hell if Suitor came back, he'd want to make Henry Burris the starting quarterback again in Riderville.(I"M JOKING!!)
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Speaking of the Riders, I had someone ask me on Saturday if the team should ask Gene Makowsky to retire and take over as offensive line coach in the wake of the Bob Wylie departure. NO! is my answer. Geno still has some good years in that body. Would he make a good o-line coach? Yes! Should he do it now? NO!
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One more thing. I am so tired of phantom "roughing the passer" calls. I'm also against NFL overtime as well and think both need to be fine-tuned. There is no use whining about it though because its not going to happen.
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As you start your Monday, think about this....

“Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough"

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Vikings fumbled twice inside the Saints 10 yard line, not once. If they don't put the ball on the ground 3 times they win going away.
By the way, how was that not a roughing penalty on the play Favre got hurt on...it was clearly a shot below the knees. I guess they brought that Tom Brady below the knee rule in for shytes and giggles. If it's called, the INT is whiped out and the Vikings are sitting on the Saints 20 with a new set of downs. Brutal.

Anonymous said...

Your post about "the better team did not win" is completely ridiculous.

Turnovers are a HUGE part of football, and the Saints created them. It is part of the game, and saying "if the Vikings hadn't turned the ball over they would have won." is like saying "If the Saints had stopped Farve from throwing the ball they would have won."

Mike from Vita, MB said...

I'm NOT a favre supporter. IF the Viks are to return to the NFC championship, Favre MUST lead them back. There is NO way Tavaris or Rosenfeld can do the job...just like in Arizona...Warner NOT Leinart.

Anonymous said...

The Vikings were the better team. They stifled that high powered Saints offence but they kept handing the ball over because of stupid fumbles. That drives a coach nuts! Fumbling is a lack of focus and concentration. I'm not a Favre fan, I'm not a Vikings fan, but the wrong team won that game and anyone thinking that isn't the case is misguided.

Kevin

Anonymous said...

Blaming Brett is the American thing to do. He cost the Packers in 2007 with a dumb throw and now he cost the Vikings. I'm guessing Wisconsin is smiling today.

Anonymous said...

If Fiacco was doing the right thing, he would have declared Monday a "snow day" so that everyone could stay home and work on their streets and stay off of them to let the city do their thing. I guess doing that though would have the business sector bitching. What's a guy to do?

Anonymous said...

I might take someone seriously about the "better team winning" if they could spell Favre correctly.

Anonymous said...

At 9 AM, your old employers website has this on its sports side.
Jr Curlers in playoffs
Pats beat Broncos Friday
Miller-Taman announcement.

Lets see. Both Sask rinks were done on Saturday, the Pats beat the Broncos Saturday night in a game where there was a power outage and then hd their game cancelled Sunday
Graham DeLaet is still sitting in good shape (you missed that one Mitch) along with the Clayton Gerein death.

They call themselves an information station and ask people to go to their website. I guess sports doesn't subscribe to that though. BRUTAL!

Rod Carlson

Anonymous said...

I'm a Riders fan, I'm a Vikings fan, I dug my driveway for 2 hours yesterday before the AFC championship and dug out again for 2 hours last night and another 45 minutes this morning before trudging into work on a Monday. Am I suicidal?? I can't imagine why! Why can't my football teams count at very important times in a game. WHYYYYYYYY!!!!

Anonymous said...

How could the Vikings have been the better team if they kept turning over the ball? That's like saying a hockey team outplayed the opposition, except for all those shots that missed the net...

Anonymous said...

Favre tried being the hero again and again he failed. He could have run for 5-8 yards before stepping out of bounds, he could have run a running play with Taylor or Peterson or throw a screen to get those 5 yards and maybe some more back. No, he has to force one thus costing his team the game. The other plays are irrelevant because that's the one that led to the FG not being attempted. Blame it on Brett!

Glenn

Mitchell Blair said...

Rod:
Thanks, but its not my problem anymore. Some things change in a year, other things don't. They do what they do and if they don't change, they don't.

Anonymous said...

You must have missed Dilfer on Cowherd this a.m. Like he says the best team is the one with poise, who doesn't make the big mistakes when it matters most. Saints, throughout the year and yesterday, were the better team.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Rod's statement. For an information station, their website is definitely lacking. Its a lack of unprofessionalism if you ask me. For a station that says they will keep you up to date, they certainly lack that component when it comes to their online presence.

David

PS: I agree with Mr. Weaver's statements about the better team.

Anonymous said...

Why are all these people commenting when they should be clearing out from all the snow?

Anonymous said...

Suitor as a GM! No thank you!