Super Bowl Football Discussion

Now that the story on Freeney's ankle injury is appearing to be overblown I'm back at cautiously optimistic. If Freeney can get effective in passing situations the Saints will have a lot of trouble getting deep as like like to. The Colts D is all about keeping plays short, 2 deep safeties, MLB guarding the seam between them, speed rushers off the edge, DBs who understand tackling is part of their job. They gave up the least passes over 20 yards in the league.

I'm not overly concerned about the pass pressure since Favre/Minny's OL gave up 34 sacks in the regular season while Peyton was sacked just 10 times. He's a hard guy to get to, and if a free rusher comes faster than he can find a dumpoff he hits the turf to avoid the big hit.

 

Surely, you must be kidding. Having a Super Bowl team to rally behind would be great for that city's morale after everything it's been through (and yet to recover from). Even an astronaut ninja lawyer like yourself can appreciate that.

There's an interesting read here for any stat geeks on this board that discusses expected point values based on starting field position. The relevant portion begins midway through the article.

 

I'm long Colts, but would like the Saints to win because it would be good for the city, and New Orleans is so much fucking fun. I'm still hungover from my friend's bachelor party we had there in October.

The Colts are going to put up a ton of points because the Saints defense isn't that impressive, and I don't think the Saints offense can keep up. I'll say Colts 34, Saints 24.

 

I'm hoping the Colts win, but I really don't know how to call it. It seems every second article I read makes a good case for why either team should beat the other.
I am expecting Freeney to play but only in passing situations. If I were the Saints, i'd minimize any effect he can have by starting with a heavy dose of the run.... once he's off the field and the Colts are playing 3 linebackers, i'd go no huddle to keep them from subbing Freeney and the nickel backs on, and take advantages of the mismatches created with a short passing game. If the colts have their passing package on the field, I'd go with screen passes and draw plays to take advantage of their aggressive rush and back them off.

 

They reference FO in the article and this is a good page from them on this and similar kinds of stuff.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/drivestats

Looking at yards per drive it's not hard to see how a little field position could make a big difference in how effective a team is. The page also shows a bit of the contrasting styles of offense, where the Colts are more possession type and gain more yards per drive (2nd vs 4th in the league), while the Saints lean more on the quick strike and have more points per drive (also 2nd vs 4th).

/statgeek

 

I'm not partial to either team; I just hope it's a nail-biter. My favorite recent Super Bowl was in 2004, when the Panthers ALLLLMOST did it, goddamn it. And that was overshadowed by that whole titty situation.

 

I'm hoping the Colts win, only because the Saints beat the Vikings and I'm still bitter. Favre better come back for one more year. Honestly, after the Vikings/Saints game I didn't think I was going to watch the game, but now I decided to have a party. Hopefully it's a good, close game. Nothing worse than having everyone over and a blowout on TV.

I will be curious how much of the pregame talk is about the Saint's defense and how many times they mention Favre on the telecast. I've loved Favre since I started watching football and I couldn't even believe the amount of air time his name got Monday after the Vikings game.

 

Seconded. After that damn game last Sunday, I hope the Saints burn in hell. However, even if I didn't hate the Saints with a passion after that game, I would still say the Colts are going to walk all over them. Simply because we turned the ball over five times. Five. And it STILL went to overtime. No team that cannot win in regulation by an obnoxious amount when the opposing team turns the ball over five times stands a fucking chance against this year's Colts. Yes, it may be a testament to our defense that it went to overtime, but five turnovers and you can't win in regulation? You will not beat the Colts.

In addition to that, I don't think Sharper will be able to read Manning very well. He's even acknowledged in interviews that Manning is enough of a veteran to make it very difficult to read his eyes (I'm obviously paraphrasing here). Given that Sharper's effectiveness in the Saints' scheme has been key to their success, the inability to read Manning is going to be huge.

 

I'm from Indianapolis, so you can probably guess who I'm rooting for and who I expect will win.

Everyone keeps bringing up how the Saints destroyed Warner and Favre- and wow, Gregg Williams seems like a real asshole- but the one thing that separates Manning from any other quarterback is his ability to read the defense. If he's sees a blitz coming, he'll audible and go for a quick pass. One reason he gets sacked so infrequently is that he's always fully aware of how much time he has to get rid of the ball. I can't imagine the Saints will throw anything at him that he hasn't seen a dozen times before.

I figure the game will be a shootout. Manning will throw a couple TD passes to Dallas Clark and Austin Collie, and Brees will reciprocate. Neither punter will see much action. My final score: Colts 38, Saints 31.

 

Dude, almost ten years of great superbowls and THAT'S the one you pick? That was a great game, but assuming you're an impartial observer I can't fathom how you'd go with Panthers-Patriots in 04 as your favorite recent superbowl. What when you have that jaw-dropping 6-yard catch last year, Tyree's catch-with-the-head heroics in '08, Viniteri's game-winning field goal against a vastly superior St. Louis team in 02, or the just-one-more-yard cliffhanger ending in 2000 between the Rams and the Titans? Man, there were some shitty games I'll grant you, but overall it's been a bang-up decade of superbowls.

My favorite though has to be Giants-Patriots in 2008. I still think about that game, and that season, where the star-studded Patriots come in scoring at least 30 points a game and favored in every possible way, to play a Giants team that everyone considered lucky just to be there, and they lose after only allowing 17 points. Eli winning the MVP in that game was a travesty, when you only have to score 17 points to beat the PATRIOTS in their greatest year ever, that is an anomaly.

 

The only reason I don't want the Saints to win is because I, as a fan of the Buccaneers, want them to be the only team in the NFC South to go to a Super Bowl and WIN. The Taints are the only team left to complete the trifecta of failure that the Falcons and Panthers have already joined.

The only reason I would like to see the Saints win is so I can go around for the next 6 months bragging that, even though my team went 3-13, we beat the Super Bowl champs. Suck on that Sean and Drew.

Since I am biased, I'd have to say that Super Bowl 37 was amazing. It's not often that a defense scores more points than the opposing offense, especially in a Super Bowl. The Bucs totally dominated that game, and I still watch it every now and then, just to relive the awesomeness of it all.

 

I'll skip it. I see enough of Manning in TV commercials.

 

Really now, does it even matter who wins?

 

Im really hoping that the Colts win this super bowl. I hate New Orleans with every thread of my body.

Does it smell like shit? yes.
Did it take it's heritage from the French? Yes.
Is it built below sea level? Yes.
Did they rebuild so all the idiots that didn't die could move back? Yes.
Did it steal it's most famous street from Kentucky? Yes.

I don't post in that gay ass dream thread because I'm not a hippy. But I will post this here. I often dream of the city of New Orleans being destroyed by fire, hurricane, and earth quake all at once. This is of course because the residents ar so fucking retarded. There is a hurricane coming and we dont get out of the way? Help us! Now rebuld our shit with your money bankrupting all kinds of people because I'm too fucking dumb to not live in the flood plain.

With all that said, New Orleans lost to Tampa Bay. They almost lost to Washington.

The Colts will mop the floor with them. Then they can return to their fucking retarded city and mope because it is a human shit hole and half of their friends died because they are too dumb to get out of the way of a hurricane.

 

Where do you live that makes you so much smarter than our "fucking retarded" city?

 

Last I saw, the Colts are being favored in Vegas (and offshore) by 3.5. I'm thinking the Colts win by 10. I just don't see Peyton losing this game. He's too clutch, and has too much experience in big games.

 

1. Does it smell like shit? No.
2. Does it get its heritage from the French? Yes.
3. Is it built below sea level? Yes. So are Boston, New York, Charleston, and Miami. Your point is.....?
4. Did they rebuild so all the idiots that didn't die could move back? Yes.
5. Did it steal its most famous street from Kentucky? No. See #2. Ditto for Kentucky Bourbon, too.

To be honest, I don't believe the Saints are going to win this. As much as I adore certain members of the Saints (Reggie Bush and Scott Fujita, I'm looking at y'all) and long for the day that I can move my ass to NOLA, I think Peyton is going to dominate.

But we all know that's because he was born in New Orleans.

 

It's hard to root against the Saints. Unless you're a fan of one of their division rivals (Panthers) and most of your extended family lives in Baton Rouge. I don't want to deal with however many months of shit talking if the Aints win the Super Bowl. I've donned the Peyton Manning jersey I bought for Halloween 2007 and I'm cheering wholeheartedly for the Colts.

This is how I'm justifying it: I'm partial to QBs, and Peyton Manning is one of my favorites. He may not have THAT many years left and winning the Super Bowl ain't easy. I'd like to see him cement his legacy while he has a chance.

I'm pumped for this game though. It's not often we get to see the two best teams from the regular season clash in the Super Bowl. There's always some upstart like the 2001 Patriots or 2003 Panthers or 2005 Steelers or 2008 Cardinals (this is off the top of my head, apologies if I left someone out).

Mere weeks ago we were talking about the possibility of both these teams going undefeated; neither did, but seeing them play for a championship is a nice consolation prize.

 

O.K., so it smells like piss and not shit. And if you deny that you're either olfactorally challenged or lying.

And they have these things called topographic maps, readily available online. Show me which parts of New York are below sea level. I'll wager that few, if any, parts of Miami or Charleston are below sea level. Use the reality check - NO is surrounded by levees, dikes, and pumps. There is a reason for this. The other three are not.

If you like NO, come up with other reasons than denying the obvious.


Oh yeah - I wouldn't mind seeing the Saints win, if only because it would be their first, but I don't have a strong rooting interest either way.