The Sports Journal

As the semester comes to a close, so will this project. I’ve learned a lot, but now it’s time to wrap things up, and I’ll do so by giving some quick final thoughts on each of the categories that I’ve been covering with this Web site, starting with the NFL.

• The New England Patriots: They’re insanely good. They clinched their division if Week 12, before even playing their game. Tom Brady is already a lock for MVP, and he and Randy Moss are both going to break the single-season record for touchdowns at their respective positions. Obviously, the Pats are the favorite to win it all, and they should be: they might just be the greatest football team ever. Yet I’m not quite willing to anoint them the champs yet. The Eagles, who were 24-point underdogs, showed Sunday that New England has some vulnerabilities after all. If the Steelers get hot, or Indianapolis gets healthy, then either team could exploit those weaknesses even better than Philly did. My prediction? New England goes undefeated in the regular season, but loses to the Colts in the AFC Championship Game.
• Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers: Favre, the ageless wonder, has turned the Packers into one of the favorites to come out of the NFC and to the Super Bowl. The team’s defense has drastically improved over the past two years, and the emergence of Ryan Grant gives green bay a credible running threat to complement the skilled wide receiving corps. But the real story here remains Favre. The quarterback almost retired last year, but came back for one more tour of duty, and he’s been brilliant. Now he’s already saying he wants to come back next year too, and he might as well the way he’s been playing. He’s broken some career passing records this season, and has a couple more on his radar. I think he’s now only behind John Elway and maybe Dan Marino for greatest QB ever. My prediction? He leads the Packers to the Super Bowl this year for the third time in his career.
• The Denver Broncos: The Broncos are my favorite team, so I’m including them even though they don’t really fit in with these other two titans. It’s been an up and down year for Denver, who won some close games early, then got blown out in a few and looked dead in the water, only to get on a roll and find themselves back in the race for the AFC West division title. Last week, they blew a big lead late in the game and lost in OT to Chicago, a game that really, really should have been a victory. Meanwhile, the Chargers won a took a 1-game lead in the division. Wide receiver Javon Walker is almost healthy again, and would be a nice gain for an ever-improving passing game with young quarterback Jay Cutler at the helm. Still, Denver looks like they’re a couple pieces away from being a serious contender, even if they do find a way into the playoffs this year. My prediction? The Broncos miss the postseason this year, but make it to the playoffs next year and are a Super Bowl contender the year after that.

This Sunday, the New England Patriots will travel to Indianapolis to take on the Colts in a highly-anticipated match of the last two undefeated teams in the National Football League.

Both of these teams are amazing, and I think they’re each heads and shoulders above the next best team in the NFL, whoever that even is (the Cowboys? Giants? Packers? Steelers? Chargers? Tough call).  Whoever loses this game, it may be their only loss of the year. Whoever wins might have a legitimate shot at doing the nearly impossible: going through an entire season undefeated.

The Colts have home-field advantage, and they do love playing at home.  The quick turf in that dome allows the Colts to take full advantage of their natural speed.  In previous match-ups between these two teams, the Colts were considered the offensive juggernaut, while the Patriots were considered the more well-rounded team with a good offense but an even better defense.

Now, however, they’re both much closer on both sides of the ball.  The Patriots’ defense, while still quite good, isn’t quite the impenetrable force it was just a couple of years ago.  Meanwhile, the Colts’ defense, the laughing stock of the league just a short time ago, has improved drastically, led by the very talented safety Bob Sanders.

Perhaps more significant is how close the teams are offensively.  It’s hard to imagine, but New England actually looks like it has a better offense than Indy right now.  Tom Brady is on pace to break Peyton Manning’s single-season record for touchdown passes, and Randy Moss and Wes Welker are looking like every bit the receiving duo that Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne have been for the Colts the past few years.  The rushing offense is a bit more suspectfor the Patriots, as injuries have slowed down Lawrence Maroney and taken out Sammy Morris, but that issue hasn’t hurt them yet.

The Colts are still a great offense, and are more balanced.  Joseph Addai is easily one of the best running backs in the game and a great complement to Peyton Manning’s arm.  The only problem here is an injury to Marvin Harrison that has considerably slowed the great receiver.  So far, Wayne has been able to pick up the slack, and Manning continues to make the most of his other options.

Overall, both teams are great and pretty even.  To me, New England looks a little more impressive, so I’ll pick them to win by about 7.  Should be a really great, fun game.

Last night, the Green Bay Packers visited the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.

Denver’s my favorite NFL team, so I was excited about the game. It’s been a fairly rough season for the Broncos so far, but they’ve pulled off a couple close victories, including a close victory over a good Pittsburgh team last week, and had a .500 record coming into the game. If they could actually beat a good Packers team, maybe it was a sign that they were on the right track.

However, they ran into a slight problem: Brett Favre. Favre has already secured his legacy as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL and is marching his way through the record books. Monday night, he added another notch to his belt against my Broncos.

After Denver tied the game as time expired on a Jason Elam field goal (all three of the Broncos’ wins had come on Elam field goals as time ran out), Green Bay won the toss and got the ball first. Then, on the very first play of OT , Favre connected with Greg Jennings for an 82-yard touchdown pass. Game over, just like that.

Three thoughts about the heartbreaker:

• The game never should have gone to overtime. With no time outs and a 3&1 from the Packers 5, Denver’s Jay Cutler ran a quarterback draw and couldn’t even pick up a yard. There’s no guarantee they would have scored a game-winning touchdown by passing, but Cutler’s not a running QB, so I think the chances would have at least been better.
• I still don’t like the NFL’s “sudden death” overtime rules, and I’m not just saying that because my team was the one that lost without getting to touch the ball. I just think college football has it down much better. The NFL should adapt a similar method with each team getting the ball at least once, but just move the starting position back from the 25 to the 40 or so.
• When it comes right down to it, since the Broncos were in that situation, what else could they have really done? They went up against a living legend, and he beat them as he’s beaten so many before them. As a friend of mine and fellow Bronco fan said, “We got Favred.”