Super Smorgasbord

February 16, 2022

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If you’ve been following my recent posts, you weren’t surprised that the winning team in Sunday’s NFL season finale football game won by only three points.

In the final seven football games of the NFL season, six were won by three points and Kansas City won by six points on an overtime touchdown scored against Buffalo.  I would think that this series of “fantastic finishes” was some sort of NFL record.

The statistical improbability of having seven consecutive razor-close finishes makes me and a few of my friends raise an eyebrow as to whether this flurry of extremely close games may have resulted from some strong suggestions coming from the league’s top brass.

Coincidence or not, mark it down.  You will never see another series of NFL playoff games with any closer outcomes than this season provided.  You just witnessed history.

The Los Angeles Rams 23-20 win over Cincinnati on Sunday night allowed the Rams (who were located in St. Louis in 1999 when they won their other Super Bowl trophy) to grab their first Super win after returning to Los Angeles.  Interestingly, the first of the Rams Super Bowl wins occurred before Tom Brady first played in the NFL and the second happened a few weeks after Tom Terrific announced his retired from the league after the Rams beat Tampa Bay.

Yes, America.  These are your “Brady Bookend” Rams!

I had several thoughts about Sunday’s big game.  In fact, there are ten which follow, so “On with the countdown!”

 

  1. Happiest for Andrew Whitworth! The 40-year old Whitworth (who is old enough to have played for Nick Saban – when he was coaching LSU to the 2003 national championship – is a 6’7” athletic marvel of an offensive tackle.  After spending the majority of his pro career languishing in Cincinnati when the team struggled to even reach .500 in most seasons, the big man still protects his quarterback well.  Note to fellow LSU alum Joe Burrow – see if “Whit” might be willing to come block for you in Cincy next season!

 

  1. Happy for Rams’ QB Mathew Stafford. Like his big blocking tackle Whitworth, Stafford languished at the bottom of the NFC Central with several lousy Lion teams in Detroit during the first dozen years of his NFL career.  In twelve years, Mathew Stafford’s Lions played in just three playoff games (losing each time).  This season, Stafford went 4-0 in his first season in Los Angeles and captured his first NFL championship.  Dreams do come true!

 

  1. Happy for Rams’ WR Van Jefferson. Though Jefferson’s wife attempted to watch the game, she went into labor during the middle of Sunday’s Super Bowl.  Just hours later, she gave birth to a baby boy to go along with the couple’s five-year old daughter.  What a Super day it was for the Jefferson family!

 

  1. Happy for Rams’ WR Odell Beckham. The talented but controversial wide receiver from LSU didn’t win a national championship with the Tigers like his Rams’ teammate Andrew Whitworth did in 2003 or Cincinnati’s LSU dynamic duo of Joe Burrow and J’marr Chase in LSU’s unbeaten 2019 season.  However, Beckham now has an NFL championship ring!  After grabbing the opening touchdown scored by the Rams, OBJ injured his knee during the second quarter Sunday and will have surgery later this week to repair his ACL.  Beckham’s addition to the Rams during mid-season (from Cleveland) was probably the most important acquisition during the team’s late-season championship run.

 

  1. Happy for Ram’s Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp. For a guy who didn’t have a single college scholarship offer after playing his final high school football game, Kupp has been proving everyone wrong ever since.  He played four years of college football at Eastern Washington and set NCAA records for career receiving yards and receptions.  His precision pass routes in the NFL should be studied by all wide receivers.  He was voted the Super Bowl MVP after catching the game winning touchdown in the final two minutes of play.  Nothing is impossible for Super Cooper Kupp!

 

  1. Happy for Rams’ defensive end Aaron Donald. Like Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald wasn’t a highly touted recruit coming out of high school.  Considered a “3-star” high school football player, Donald played college football at his hometown University of Pittsburgh.  By graduation, he was an All-American defensive end and became a first round draft choice of the Rams.  In addition to being a perennial NFL All-Pro, Aaron Donald has now become a Super Bowl champion.  After the game Sunday, there were whispers hinting that Aaron Donald may retire at the age of 30.  During the team’s victory parade in Los Angeles today, Donald said, “We built a super team. We’re gonna bring a super team back! Why not run it back? We can be world champions again.”

 

  1. Speaking of retiring, I’m wondering about Rams’ head coach Sean McVay. Just 36 years of age, the young coach has already guided the Rams into two Super Bowls (going 1-1).  Like his talented defensive end Aaron Donald, the coach has strongly hinted recently that he is giving thoughts to walking away from the game.  He is engaged to be married soon and was quoted recently about how much he wanted to raise a family.  Since most successful NFL and college coaches work incredibly long hours under relentless pressure, McVay could walk away from the coaching game for a year or two and literally start all over again.  One source stated that ESPN and Amazon are willing to offer McVay up to $10 million per year as a network television analyst.  This rumor may have some legs.  Time will tell.

 

  1. Happy for the Cincinnati Bengals as they have become relevant once again. In the AFC, I fully admit that I have been a Pittsburgh Steelers fan since Terry Bradshaw was drafted in 1970.  However, the Bengals are a lot like my other favorite team in the NFC, the New Orleans Saints.  The AFC Bengals play in one of the league’s smaller markets and have to be prudent (cheap) with their spending.   The team’s young coach, Zac Taylor, was just given a contract extension, and now the team must spend its dollars wisely to build upon this year’s success.  Coach Zac Taylor and quarterback Joe Burrow remind me a lot of New Orleans’ long-time duo of head coach Sean Payton and QB Drew Brees.  Note to Bengals – if you have any questions on which players to re-sign or draft, talk to Joe first!

 

  1. I am still scratching my head about the NFL referees performance during the final two drives of Sunday’s big game. The NBC announce team told viewers that the Rams and Bengals had been the two least penalized teams in the NFL.  For most of the game, there were very few penalties called.  Well, at least until the Rams final touchdown drive which covered 15 plays, 79 yards, and took nearly five minutes off the clock.  All of a sudden, the referees’ flags started to come out on nearly every play as the officials apparently decided to start enforcing pass interference penalties against Cincinnati.  As the refs’ yellow flags stayed airborne against Cincinnati, the entire crew blindly missed an obvious (and quite important) five yard penalty against the Rams for illegal motion during that same drive.  In all sports, officials should strive to call the game fairly and consistently.  For a game which had been pleasantly bereft of penalty flags, the final Rams drive was a real head-scratcher.

 

  1. Extremely disappointed about NBC’s expedited rush to wrap-up the game and send viewers off to the “Nobody Cares About This Winter Olympics” coverage. While the NBC announce crew of 77-year old Al Michaels and former Bengals’ wide receiver Cris Collinsworth took a few seconds to thank their departing sideline reporter Michele “Glad I’m outta here” Tafoya, they strongly hinted that Sunday’s football game might be their last working in the booth together at NBC, too.  Though these self-congratulatory comments are awkward, the network suddenly “forgot” about the 100 million football fans who had been watching the game itself.  NBC failed to discuss the questionable play-calling decisions by Cincinnati during the decisive final minute of play which ended the game and the Bengals season.  Down by only three points with about one minute to go, Cincinnati had the ball at midfield facing third down and two yards to go.  For some reason, the Bengals then ran the ball up the middle on third down (for about a half-yard gain) and were forced to waste their second timeout.  On fourth and one, the Bengals attempted a pass play (instead of trying a higher percentage running play) but the Rams defensive rush quickly squashed quarterback Joe Burrow again to end the game.  NBC’s post-game show trio of Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, and Drew Brees weren’t given even a full minute of airtime to discuss it, either.  After hours and hours of pregame blather by the network, NBC fumbled after the final whistle and rushed its postgame comments in hopes of bumping up the ratings for their flagging Winter Olympics coverage.

Overall, it was a good football game with an unfortunate ending for both Cincinnati and NBC.  I’ll give it a “B”.