Willie Mays Played With Unbridled Joy While Displaying Mastery of Baseball Fundamentals

Willie Mays, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 93, left an indelible imprint on sports history and American culture. Two primary themes connect most of the numerous tributes to Mays: he radiated joy because of how much he loved playing baseball, and he mastered all of the fundamentals of the game. 

Mays' joy was twofold: he enjoyed himself while playing baseball, and he enjoyed entertaining the fans who watched him playing baseball. Some sports stars are aloof in their interactions with the customers who make them famous and pay their salaries, but there are many stories of Mays' positive interactions with fans both at MLB ballparks and also away from the playing field, such as the accounts of him playing stickball in the street with New York kids.

Mays' mastery of baseball fundamentals enabled him to become perhaps the greatest baseball player of all-time. ESPN's SportsCentury list of the top 100 North American athletes of the 20th century is not definitive, but Mays' eighth place ranking indicates the impact that he had not just on baseball but on sports overall. Mays was the second highest ranked baseball player on that list, trailing only Babe Ruth, and that is the consensus of baseball historians: Ruth is the greatest baseball player of all-time, while Mays is a close second--but a reasonable case can be made for ranking Mays ahead of Ruth: Ruth was a great hitter and a great pitcher but not much of a defensive player or threat on the basepaths, while Mays was a five-tool baseball player who had no skill set weaknesses.

A five-tool baseball player hits for power, hits for a high batting average, has superior fielding ability, has superior throwing ability, and has superior running speed. Mays easily checked off all five boxes:

1) Power: Mays demonstrated his power by leading the National League in home runs four times (1955, 1962, 1964-65). He belted more than 50 home runs in a season twice (1955, 1965) en route to posting a career total of 660 home runs, which officially ranks sixth in MLB history but ranks fourth among players who did not artificially and illegally boost their strength with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)--and performance-enhancing drugs do, as the name suggests, enhance performance, even though some economists illogically argue otherwise.

2) High batting average: Mays posted a career .301 batting average, including a career-high .345 in 1954 when he won his only NL batting title. He hit at least .300 in 10 of his 22 MLB seasons.

3) Superior fielding: Mays won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves (1957-68), tied with Roberto Clemente for first all-time among outfielders, and tied for sixth all-time overall regardless of position. 

4) Superior throwing ability: Mays led NL center fielders in assists three times (1955-56, 1960), and he ranks seventh on the career MLB list with 188 assists as a center fielder.

5) Superior running speed: Mays led the NL in stolen bases for four straight seasons (1956-59), including a pair of 30 HR/30 SB seasons (1956-57). He ranked in the NL top ten in stolen bases for nine straight seasons (1954-62). Mays' career-high 40 stolen bases in 1956 may not look impressive at first glance, but that was the highest NL single season stolen bases total since 1944.

Mays' complete skill set enabled him to win two NL regular season MVP awards (1954, 1965) while earning 24 NL All-Star selections. Mays was as durable as he was productive: Mays played in at least 151 games in every season from 1954-1966.

Mays began his professional career in 1948 at age 17 in the Negro Leagues, and then he played in the minor leagues before joining the New York Giants in 1951. He won the 1951 NL Rookie of the Year award, and the Giants reached the World Series for the first time since 1937. Mays hit .182 in the 1951 World Series, and the New York Yankees won in six games. Mays missed most of the 1952 season and the entire 1953 season because of military service, but Mays returned to action in style in 1954, winning the batting title while also leading the NL in triples (13) and slugging percentage (.667). Mays earned the NL regular season MVP award, and then he led the Giants back to the World Series.

Greatness is defined not just by numbers, but also by iconic moments and plays--and, in game one of the 1954 World Series, Mays authored one of the most iconic moments in sports history: his spectacular over the shoulder catch of Vic Wertz' deep fly ball--forever immortalized as "The Catch"--followed by a strong throw to second base prevented a run from scoring in the top of the eighth inning of a 2-2 game with runners on first base and second base. The Giants did not allow a run in that inning, won the game in extra innings, and swept the series. 

The Giants moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958. Despite Mays' superb play, the Giants only reached the postseason twice between 1955 and 1971: in 1962 they lost 4-3 to the Yankees in the World Series, and in 1971 they lost 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Championship Series.

Early in the 1972 season, the Giants traded Mays to the New York Mets. Mays retired after the Mets lost 4-3 to the Oakland Athletics in the 1973 World Series. That series was not a highlight moment in Mays' career, but a legendary artist like Mays is defined by his entire body of work, not by his final brushstroke.

More than 50 years after he played in his last MLB game, Mays still is still MLB's career leader for games played in center field (2842), outfield putouts (7095), and extra-inning home runs (22). Mays' high career rankings are even more remarkable considering that (1) he played many of his home games in the cavernous Polo Grounds, (2) he did not have the advantages conferred by modern performance training methods, (3) he played in an era during which the rules favored pitchers, and (4) he did not gain an unfair advantage by using PEDs the way that Barry Bonds, Ryan Braun, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, and so many other cheaters did. 

Henry Aaron remains baseball's authentic home run king regardless of what MLB's official record book says, and his contemporary Willie Mays will likewise always be in baseball's pantheon. Mays brought joy to millions of people while setting the standard for all-around baseball excellence.

The Best Thing About Sports: The Ever Changing, Unpredictable Narratives

We thought that we knew the story. Mike Tyson was an unstoppable force, a knockout machine so fearsome that he seemed to win many of his fights before they even began as his terrified opponents stared at him through saucer-sized, fearful eyes. Then Buster Douglas came along and Tyson looked less like an all-time great and more like the neighborhood bully who finally met someone who was not afraid of him.

We thought that we knew the story. John Elway and the Denver Broncos could never win the big one. Elway had a rocket arm and nimble feet but he was destined to come up short in the Super Bowl. Then Terrell Davis arrived, Coach Mike Shanahan tinkered with the offense and Elway won back to back Super Bowls as a stirring coda to a Hall of Fame career. 

We thought that we knew the story. The 2007 New England Patriots seemed to be the ultimate team of destiny, a squad that had recently won three Super Bowls in four years, had just completed the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history and was now poised to finish 19-0 by winning a fourth Super Bowl. Then Eli Manning and the New York Giants pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in Super Bowl history.

We thought that we knew the story. Tiger Woods was destined to shatter Jack Nicklaus' record for major championships, while Phil Mickelson was a talented but flawed player whose reckless approach would inevitably lead to thrilling moments followed by baffling choke jobs. The same thing was true of Woods that used to be said of Nicklaus: He knew that he was the best, his opponents knew that he was the best and he knew that his opponents knew. Woods never came from behind to win a major championship but he never needed to come from behind because he usually had lapped the field by Sunday. Chess Grandmasters once spoke of "Fischer Fear," referring to the way that Bobby Fischer intimidated other great players to such an extent that those players performed far below their normal standard against him; for many years it seemed like golf's best players suffered from "Woods Fear," collapsing down the stretch of tournaments at the mere sight of Woods prowling the back nine. Then Woods' personal life crashed--literally and figuratively--and he struggled to regain his former dominance; Woods may still believe that he is the best (or he may doubt that at some level, which could be part of his problem) but it is clear that his competitors no longer suffer from "Woods Fear."

Meanwhile, Mickelson--whose personal life seems to be the steady and grounded opposite of his free-swinging playing style--has figured out how to seize the big moments on Sunday at major championships as opposed to shrinking from those moments. Mickelson has won more majors since 2004 (five) than any golfer except for Woods (six) and he seems to be getting better with age, while Woods' game does not seem to be aging well; Woods used to be the ultimate finisher but in his past several majors he has started strongly only to falter down the stretch and it is unclear if the problem is physical, mental or some combination of both factors. It is a tribute to Woods' former greatness that despite his recent drought he still has won more majors in the past nine years than anyone else (and more than Mickelson has won in his entire career) but unless Woods undergoes some kind of revival the narrative of his career--and of his rivalry with Mickelson--will be much different than anyone could have imagined as recently as that fateful Thanksgiving weekend in 2009 when Woods' private life became a source of public mockery and derision.

The great thing about sports is that competition is the ultimate unscripted drama. We may think that we know the characters and we may think that we know the stories but people can change their lives and write new, previously unimaginable tales.

Competitive Greatness: Why Tom Coughlin Should Always be More Respected Than Tony Dungy

The NFL Network series "A Football Life" is a wonderful tribute to Steve Sabol's visionary genius. The Tom Coughlin episode includes a great story about the final game of the 2007 season. Coughlin's New York Giants could not improve their playoff position but instead of resting his starters Coughlin played the game straight up. The New England Patriots defeated the Giants 38-35 to clinch the only 16-0 record in NFL history but Coughlin's approach earned him a powerful phone message from Hall of Fame Coach John Madden: "Yeah, Tom, this is John Madden calling on Sunday morning just to congratulate you and your team for a great effort last night--not good, but great. I think it is one of the best things that has happened to the NFL in the last 10 years and I don't know if they all know it but they should be very grateful to you and your team. We were getting too much of that 'Well, they're going to rest their players because they don't need it.' That's not sports and that's not competition. Anyway, I'm a little emotional about it but I was so damn proud of what you guys did. It is something that we all ought to thank you for because, believe me, the NFL needed that. Congratulations." Coughlin saved that phone message and played it for his entire team; Coughlin explained to the NFL Films interviewer, "When John Madden calls you, that brings it right to mind again that that's really what football is: it's sport--and what is sport all about? We're trying to win. That's what this league is about, competitive greatness and always putting your best foot forward." The Giants eventually beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, Tony Dungy's well-rested Indianapolis Colts watched New England defeat San Diego in that season's AFC Championship Game; instead of truly competing in the final week of the 2007 regular season, Dungy made sure that Reggie Wayne won the receiving yardage title and then Dungy shut his whole team down. Every time Dungy pulled this stunt his team lost in the playoffs; despite their great regular season records under Dungy, the only time his Colts won the Super Bowl was the one season that the situation forced Dungy to actually act like every game really matters. Sports is not about trying your best some of the time or acting like some games matter while other games don't matter; Tony Dungy may be a wonderful human being but he should never, ever be ranked alongside Tom Coughlin--or New England's Bill Belichick--as a head coach.

Eli Manning Takes His Place Among NFL Immortals

Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Tom Brady: until yesterday, that was the complete list of quarterbacks who had won at least two Super Bowl MVPs--three Pro Football Hall of Famers and one mortal lock to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after he retires. You can now add Eli Manning to that list and you can rest assured that, like Brady, Manning is a lock to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Manning played with surgical precision--30-40, 296 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a blistering 103.8 passer rating--and he was again a cold blooded fourth quarter killer as he led the New York Giants to a come from behind 21-17 victory over Brady's New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. Manning has defined himself as one of the great clutch players in NFL history: he set an NFL record this season with 15 fourth quarter TD passes, he has now won a record seven playoff games at road or neutral sites and in both of his Super Bowl victories he has delivered late fourth quarter touchdown drives when his team trailed.

It's not Brady like played poorly, either; a few late incompletions on the last, desperate drive lowered Brady's completion percentage and passer rating but Brady still finished with very good numbers: 27-41, 276 yards, two touchdowns, one interception and a 91.1 passer rating. During the process of lifting the Patriots from a 9-0 deficit to a 17-9 lead, Brady broke Joe Montana's record by completing 16 straight passes (Montana's 1990 record was 13 passes). The one area where Brady did not excel in this game was the deep pass: he was 0-5 on passes that traveled at least 20 yards in the air, five whiffs that included a crucial fourth quarter drop by Wes Welker that could have all but clinched a New England victory, his sole interception and his first pass of the game, a long bomb over the middle that was ruled to be an intentional grounding safety (a somewhat questionable call that a few commentators disputed after the game). In contrast, shortly after Welker's drop led to a New England punt, Manning made the play of the game by delivering a perfect strike to Mario Manningham for a 38 yard fourth quarter completion that dramatically shifted field position and set the stage for New York's game-winning drive. As ESPN's Trent Dilfer--a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in his own right--often says, there is no defense for a perfect throw; Manningham made a nice catch and did a good job of getting both feet down inbounds but Manning's pinpoint accuracy made that play possible.

Victories are often won and legacies defined by the ability to execute--or the failure to execute--the most basic fundamentals in the most pressure packed moments. Bill Parcells often talks about the importance of not being "that guy"--the guy who makes the play that potentially costs his team the game. The reality is that games are rarely truly decided by the last, most obvious gaffe--it would be just as accurate to say that the Patriots lost because of that first play safety--but the drop by the sure-handed Welker definitely gave the Giants an opportunity that they otherwise likely would not have gotten; if Welker holds on to the ball then the Patriots probably would have, at the very least, drained most of the time off of the clock before kicking a short field goal to obtain a 20-15 lead. Instead, the Giants got the ball back and Manning had the chance to once again display his steely nerves and cool execution under fourth quarter duress.

New York's win neither ended a Patriots' dynasty nor did it create a Giants' dynasty; New England's dynasty lasted from 2001-04 when the Patriots won three Super Bowls in four seasons, then the uptempo Patriots went 16-0 in 2007 before falling to the Giants in the Super Bowl and now the Patriots used a two tight end offense to once again reach the Super Bowl: Coach Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have been the constants but the Patriots have essentially experienced three different eras since 2001. Two Super Bowl wins sandwiched around a three year span in which the Giants twice failed to even qualify for the playoffs hardly establishes the Giants as a dynasty at this point, though a third title within the next couple years would perhaps be cause to reevaluate that assessment. New York's win also did not diminish the legacy that Belichick and Brady built in 2001-04 but it did accentuate the point that the Patriots have had some difficulties finishing their playoff runs from 2005-11 and it did distinguish Coach Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning as exceptional clutch performers; Coughlin does an excellent job preparing his team and Manning does an excellent job not only executing Coughlin's game plan but also at times creating something out of nothing when a play breaks down.

Super Bowl XLVI Analysis and Prediction

As he usually does, ESPN's Steve Young provided excellent and concise analysis when he gave his take on the upcoming Super Bowl XLVI showdown between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Young said that he is surprised that the Patriots are favored because if you break down the individual matchups objectively the Giants have the edge on paper--but Young added that the Patriots do enjoy two important advantages: Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Young meant no disrespect to Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning, who both played important roles when the Giants upset the Patriots four years ago in the Super Bowl to ruin New England's attempt to complete an unprecedented 19-0 season, but Young stated that he believed that somehow the Patriots will find a way to beat the Giants this time.

I agree with Young on both counts: the Giants look better on paper but Belichick and Brady will find a way to get it done. Coughlin is an excellent coach and Manning may very well be a future Hall of Famer but Belichick and Brady will be remembered as the avatars of early 21st century NFL football much like Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw owned the 1970s by winning four Super Bowls in a six year period. The key matchups tomorrow will involve Brady versus New York's pass rush and New York's wide receivers versus New England's suspect secondary. I think that Belichick's offensive adjustment will involve using a heavy dose of no huddle and/or hurry up offense to prevent New York from making situational substitutions and to wear New York's defense down mentally and physically. Look for Wes Welker to have a big game in the slot--10 or more receptions--and while most of his plays will likely be for less than 15 yards he may have one long play that could prove to be the gamebreaker in a close contest. Defensively, the Patriots will have to rely on formation shifts, gimmicks and stout run stopping at the point of attack to keep New York off balance. Turnover differential is always an important statistic and it will be critical in the Super Bowl; Brady has been unusually interception prone in his last few playoff games and he must be "clean" on Sunday if the Patriots are going to win.

I predict that the Patriots will survive a tough battle that is not decided until the final possession, emerging with a 27-24 victory.

Raymond Berry Invented the Modern Wide Receiver Position

Long before Larry Fitzgerald began catching passes at their "high point" and long before Jerry Rice ran up and down his famous hill, a slow, relatively unathletic perfectionist named Raymond Berry invented the modern wide receiver position, as Mark Bowden explains in an excerpt from his 2008 book "The Best Game Ever." Berry's meticulous devotion to honing his craft brings to mind the modern studies about how achieving greatness is predicated on putting in at least 10,000 hours of "effortful study". Bowden concludes, "Like those of any pioneer, Raymond's obsessions redefined his field. It just happened that his had goalposts at either end."

Berry did his thousands of hours of lonely work without ever knowing how--or even if--it would pay off. Berry's labors of love enabled a player who had been drafted in the 20th round (!) to catch 12 passes for an NFL Championship Game record 178 yards in Baltimore's 23-17 overtime victory versus the New York Giants in 1958. That game put the NFL on the road to becoming the multibillion dollar business that it has become and is one of the highlights of a career in which Berry caught 631 regular season passes, the NFL's career record in that category until rules changes altered the game and ushered many players past that mark.

NFL Divisional Playoff Predictions

This year's Wild Card Weekend was a bit odd, as the road teams were favored in all four contests. After looking carefully at each matchup, I decided that there were good reasons that the home teams were underdogs but when the dust cleared two of those home teams won, so I only correctly picked the outcome of two of the four Wild Card Weekend games. However, the only result that really surprised me was San Diego beating Indianapolis; even though the Chargers have played the Colts very tough in recent years, the Chargers were a banged up 8-8 team while the Colts were the hottest team in the NFL down the stretch and featured the league MVP, Peyton Manning. I had Atlanta squeaking by Arizona 27-24 but acknowledged that the Cardinals had a "puncher's chance if Warner puts a lot of points on the board and avoids committing costly turnovers" and that was exactly what happened in a 30-24 Cardinals win. I knew that Baltimore and Philadelphia would prove to be superior to Miami and Minnesota respectively.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the four Divisional Playoff games is that they are all rematches of 2008 regular season contests. Here are my predictions:

Saturday's games:

The 12-5 Wild Card Baltimore Ravens visit the 13-3 AFC South Champion Tennessee Titans.

On paper, Tennessee and Baltimore are about as evenly matched as possible. The Titans posted the best regular season record in the NFL this season but these teams tied for the best point differential (8.8 ppg). The Titans won the regular season matchup 13-10 at Baltimore but the Ravens have won four of their previous seven games versus Tennessee. Both teams have bruising running attacks and fierce defenses.

The Titans are a bit banged up on both the offensive and defensive lines; Kyle Vanden Bosch and Albert Haynesworth are expected to play but center Kevin Mawae's status is less certain and that could obviously have a major impact on Tennessee in both the running game and the passing game.

The Ravens are coming off of a convincing win against a hot Dolphins team but they have to play on the road against a well rested division champion. The key factor will be that Tennessee quarterback Kerry Collins must avoid throwing costly interceptions (hint: be aware of where Ed Reed is and do not throw the football anywhere near him).

Tennessee will win, 24-13.

The 10-7 NFC West Champion Arizona Cardinals visit the 12-4 NFC South Champion Carolina Panthers.

Arizona looked terrible in the last few weeks of the regular season but surprised a lot of people by beating Atlanta in the Wild Card game. Still, the Cardinals had a negative point differential during the season, went 0-5 in the Eastern time zone and have lost five of their last seven games to Carolina, including a 27-23 road loss this season. Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner threw for 381 yards and two touchdowns in that game but the Panthers did not lose at home this season and are not likely to do so versus Arizona.

Carolina will win, 31-17.

Sunday's games:

The 10-6-1 Wild Card Philadelphia Eagles visit the 12-4 NFC East Champion New York Giants.

These division rivals split their 2008 games, with the Giants winning 36-31 at Philadelphia before losing 20-14 at home. The Eagles have won 10 of the previous 17 meetings overall and the Giants have not been quite the same since losing the services of troubled wide receiver Plaxico Burress. Despite New York's superior record, the two teams had virtually identical point differentials. The winner will be the team that is more physical, does a better job of establishing a running game and is able to avoid costly mistakes. New York is the defending Super Bowl champion, a team that made their title run by putting together a record setting road winning streak. They are well rested and I don't think that they will lose to a talented but inconsistent Philadelphia squad.

New York will win, 24-10

The 9-8 Wild Card San Diego Chargers visit the 12-4 AFC North Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

Pittsburgh beat San Diego 11-10 this season but that score is very deceptive; the referees erroneously nullified a late Pittsburgh TD, the Steelers outgained San Diego 410 yards to 213 and Ben Roethlisberger completely outplayed Philip Rivers, posting a 96.4 passer rating compared to a season-low 44.4 rating for Rivers. The fact that San Diego has beaten Pittsburgh in both of their playoff matchups is meaningless trivia, because those games took place in 1982 and 1994. The only negative for Pittsburgh going into this game is that Roethlisberger suffered a concussion in the season finale versus Cleveland. Assuming that he is not bothered by any aftereffects from that injury, Pittsburgh should dominate this game.

Pittsburgh will win, 27-7

2008 NFL Year in Review/Playoff Preview

In 2007, I correctly picked six of the eight NFL division champions but whiffed on all four Wild Cards; in my 2008 NFL Preview, I also correctly picked six of the 12 playoff teams but in a much different fashion: I only correctly picked two of the eight NFL division champions (Pittsburgh and San Diego) but two teams that I picked as Wild Cards made the playoffs as division champions (Tennessee and the New York Giants), while my other two Wild Card choices (Indianapolis and Philadelphia) were correct. I certainly would like to have been right about at least 75% of my choices but--as I have repeatedly said in this space--more teams go from worst to first (and vice versa) in the NFL than in just about any other league for three reasons: (1) one key injury can wreck a team's season, (2) one loss in a 16 game NFL seasons carries the proportional weight of five NBA losses or 10 MLB losses and (3) many NFL games are not decided until the last couple minutes, so a small number of plays can make the difference between being 10-6 and 6-10.

Some of my picks were just flat out wrong but teams like New England--at 11-5, the Patriots posted a better record than three division champions--and Dallas could very easily have made the playoffs, as I'm sure that most people expected that they would. As for the rise of the Miami Dolphins, I did not see that coming, though I did say that I would not be surprised if Chad Pennington outperformed Brett Favre, which clearly happened throughout the season and in the last game, which was in effect a playoff game for both the Dolphins and Favre's New York Jets. I correctly did not buy the playoff hype about my beloved Cleveland Browns, but I did not foresee that they would finish in last place.

I was right that the Super Bowl champion Giants would return to the postseason--which is not a given considering that 12 Super Bowl winners missed the playoffs the next year, including the Giants after their 1986 and 1990 championships--but I did not expect them to be so dominant with both Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan missing from the pass rush that was so vital to their title run. My projected AFC Championship (New England-San Diego), NFC Championship (Dallas-Tampa Bay) and Super Bowl (New England-Dallas) matchups are all out the window.

For comparison purposes, here are how the preseason picks from five major publications panned out:

Sports Illustrated: 3/8 division champions, 7/12 playoff qualifiers.

Lindy's: 3/8 division champions, 4/12 playoff qualifiers.

Sporting News: 2/8 division champions, 4/12 playoff qualifiers.

Athlon Sports: 2/8 division champions, 3/12 playoff qualifiers.

Pro Football Weekly: 1/8 division champions, 4/12 playoff qualifiers.

My record does not look so bad compared to the records compiled by full-time NFL writers who have credentialed access to the league; I correctly picked more playoff qualifiers than everyone on this list except for Sports Illustrated. Everyone other than PFW correctly picked Pittsburgh and San Diego as division champions; SI and Lindy's were also right about the Minnesota Vikings winning the NFC North.

Here are my picks for this weekend's playoff games and my (updated) selections for the AFC Championship, NFC Championship and the Super Bowl. Last year, I went 3-1 on Wild Card Weekend, 2-2 in the Divisional Round, 1-1 in the Championship Games and 0-1 in the Super Bowl (6-5 overall*).

Saturday's games:

The 12-4 Wild Card Indianapolis Colts visit the 8-8 AFC West Champion San Diego Chargers.

The Chargers were expected by some people to be Super Bowl contenders but only made it to the playoffs because of Denver's unprecedented collapse: the Broncos were in first place every week of the season except for the week that counts the most, when they got drilled 52-21 by San Diego. The Colts got off to a slow start as Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison recovered from knee surgeries, but they are the hottest team in the league now, owners of a nine game winning streak. The Colts beat the Chargers 23-20 in San Diego on November 23; this time around, Indianapolis will win 31-21.

The 11-5 Wild Card Atlanta Falcons visit the 9-7 NFC West Champion Arizona Cardinals.

The Cardinals clinched a weak division and then clocked out for the last month or so, going 2-3 in their last five games. The Falcons, the surprise team of the year other than the Dolphins, won their final three games and four of their last five. Arizona is a good home team with a powerful offense led by Kurt Warner--the 1999 and 2001 NFL MVP who also won the Super Bowl XXXIV MVP--so the Cardinals have a puncher's chance if Warner puts a lot of points on the board and avoids committing costly turnovers but the Falcons just look like the better team overall. Atlanta will win, 27-24.

Sunday's games:

The 11-5 Wild Card Baltimore Ravens visit the 11-5 AFC East Champion Miami Dolphins.

Both teams enter the playoffs playing well, with the Dolphins riding a five game winning streak and the Ravens winning four of their last five, including their final two games. Although they have identical records, the Ravens were a much more dominant team in terms of point differential (9.1 ppg compared to 1.6 ppg). That fact, coupled with Baltimore's 27-13 victory at Miami on October 19, suggests that Baltimore will win, 21-14.

The 9-6-1 Wild Card Philadelphia Eagles visit the 10-6 NFC North Champion Minnesota Vikings.

The Vikings won four of their last five games to edge out the Chicago Bears, while the Eagles also won four of their last five, including their stunning 44-6 rout of division rival Dallas in the last game of the season with the final playoff spot on the line for both teams. Although Minnesota has the slightly better record, the Eagles have a significantly better point differential (8 ppg compared to 2.7 ppg). Donovan McNabb can be an up and down player at times but I trust him in a playoff game more than anyone the Vikings can put on the field at the quarterback position. These teams did not play this season, but the Eagles have won the four previous meetings, three of them by at least 11 points. Philadelphia will win, 34-17.

I expect the Tennessee Titans to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game and the New York Giants to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship Game. My Super Bowl pick is Tennessee over New York.

*1/8/09 correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that I was 0-2 in the Divisional round and 4-5 overall.

Monday Night Football Quick Hits: Eagles Fly Over Inept Browns

The Philadelphia Eagles thrashed the Cleveland Browns 30-10 and the beating was truly worse than even that lopsided score suggests; if the Eagles had any kind of red zone offense they could have easily dropped 50 points on the hapless, helpless, hopeless Browns, who are still mired in the longest stretch of time without an offensive touchdown in franchise history. Donovan McNabb completed 26 of 35 passes for 290 yards, two touchdowns and one interception en route to a 105.7 passer rating, his third highest single-game rating this season. He sat out most of the fourth quarter or he could have easily notched a 300 or even 400 yard game. "This is like seven on seven (practice drills with no linemen)...Donovan is getting no pressure on him," ESPN's Ron Jaworski said early in the third quarter.

You could not conceive of a bigger contrast than the one between the Eagles' offense--at least until they reached the red zone, when things got a little dicey--and the Browns' offense, "led" by third string quarterback Ken Dorsey, who completed 11 of 28 passes for 156 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions, accumulating a 28.3 passer rating on the heels of his 49.6 passer rating last week in his first start of the season, a 28-9 loss to Tennessee. Dorsey has a peashooter for an arm and absolutely no mobility; his strength is supposed to be his ability to read coverages but that was hardly evident during this game. He totally misread a coverage and threw a pass that Asante Samuel intercepted and ran back for a touchdown late in the second quarter, extending Philadelphia's lead to 17-3. Dorsey's second pick also looked like it was the result of a terrible read and he could easily have had two more interceptions if Eagles' defenders had held on to the ball.

Here's a bizarre stat for the Browns: they have started six different quarterbacks in their last six Monday Night Football appearances, each of whom faced some kind of adversity either in that game or soon afterwards, beginning with Bernie Kosar in 1993 (waived by the Browns later that season) and then continuing with Eric Zeier in 1995 (started just one more game for the Browns), Kelly Holcomb (2003, benched during that game and did not play for the rest of the season), Derek Anderson (2008, benched three weeks later and then suffered a season-ending injury) and Brady Quinn (2008, broke his finger and is now out for the season). It is safe to assume that Dorsey does not have too many starts left in his future, either.

The Eagles effortlessly marched 64 yards on their opening drive to take a 7-0 lead. The Browns answered with their only productive drive of the game, going 63 yards before stalling at the Eagles' nine yard line and settling for a field goal. The Browns' offense did not reach Eagles' territory again until the second half.

Even when the Browns made a big defensive play they found a way not to score. After McNabb and the Eagles used horrible time management during a two minute drill near the end of the first half, McNabb threw a pass into the end zone that Brandon McDonald intercepted. Often, such picks are run back for TDs because the offensive players are so spread out. McDonald took off down the sideline but Brian Westbrook and Hank Baskett did not give up on the play, combining to run McDonald down as time expired. McDonald's 98 yard return is the longest interception return in regular season NFL history that did not result in a touchdown. Either McDonald is slow, Westbrook is really fast or the Browns are just cursed.

McDonald must have been destined to score in this game, though, because after McNabb went to the bench in the fourth quarter McDonald picked off Eagles' backup Kevin Kolb and raced 24 yards, somersaulting into the endzone to avoid a tackle attempt. That ended the Browns' touchdown-less streak--which had extended to 15 quarters--but the Browns' offense has not reached the endzone since Cleveland's 29-27 Monday Night Football win over Buffalo on November 17. Oddly, the Browns went 2-1 on Monday Night Football this year, beating the Super Bowl champion New York Giants and a Bills team that looked pretty good in mid-November. McDonald had at least one interception in each of Cleveland's three MNF games this year, an MNF first.

Braylon Edwards has been terrible for most of the season--leading the league in dropped passes after making the Pro Bowl last year--but even with the weak-armed Dorsey at the helm he caught five passes for 102 yards, thereby exceeding the 100 yard plateau in each of Cleveland's MNF games; only Jerry Rice and Torry Holt have had three 100 yard games in three MNF appearances in the same season.

Although a few individual players shined, this game was a microcosm of Cleveland's disastrous season. "It's really an embarrassment for Cleveland," Tony Kornheiser said after McNabb stood in the pocket unmolested for seemingly an eternity before throwing the TD pass that put the Eagles up 30-3. "It's everything that they've spent the whole year being: collapsing on offense, collapsing on defense, making no effort."

In many ways, the Browns resemble an expansion team now and, although injuries to the top two quarterbacks have played a part in that recently, the team did not look great for the most part even when Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn played. The Browns returned to the NFL in 1999 after the skunk Art Modell moved the original Browns to Baltimore and it must be said that virtually everything that has happened with the Browns since 1995--the team's final season in Cleveland--stinks. It started with Modell's underhanded moves that resulted in one Super Bowl title for his Baltimore Ravens and three Super Bowl wins for the New England Patriots, who smartly hired Bill Belichick a few years after Modell unceremoniously dumped the last Browns coach to win a playoff game. A lot of people seem to have forgotten that when Modell signed the deal to move the team Al Lerner--who later became the owner of the "new" Browns--was literally right by his side. If you believe in conspiracies, you could say that things worked out perfectly for the two good friends: Modell got to move his team, received a pile of money and even managed to get his long coveted Super Bowl championship, while Lerner got the opportunity to be the majority owner of the Browns, something that otherwise would never have happened because Modell was determined to keep control of the team in his family (ironically, he again got into financial trouble in Baltimore and had to sell controlling interest in the team). The only people who got screwed are the loyal Browns fans. Al Lerner has since passed away and his son Randy now owns the team but he seems more interested in the fate of his soccer team. I think that it is fair to say that Randy Lerner owes it to the Browns fans to put a much better and more professional product on the field. He has largely gotten a pass from the media and fans but the actions--and lack thereof--of he and his family have a lot to do with the sorry history of the Browns since 1995.

Here are some notes/comments about Sunday's action:

*Everyone has offered his or her two cents' worth about the drama in Dallas but I only heard two objective voices who made sense: Steve Young and John Madden. It is unfortunate that Young has such a limited role in ESPN's coverage because he is by far their best NFL analyst. Prior to Dallas' 20-8 win over the New York Giants, Young offered his prescription for the Cowboys to move forward: as the quarterback, Tony Romo should publicly take the blame for misreads/poorly thrown balls but in private Romo should assert himself when necessary and make sure that the lines of communication are open between he and all of the other offensive players. Young said that is the best way to defuse any potential controversies; considering that Young played with Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens and other receivers who wanted to have a lot of passes thrown in their direction, he definitely has a lot of credibility to explain how a quarterback should nourish his relationships with his teammates.

Madden made two interesting technical observations:

1) He watched the game film of the Dallas-Pittsburgh game and determined that Owens was indeed open but did not receive the ball, which has been Owens' contention (and which many other Dallas players also believe, despite the media's attempts to portray Owens to be a troublemaker).

2) During the New York game, Madden noted that a screen pass to Owens' side of the field is very effective because Owens attracts so much extra defensive coverage.

The bottom line is that Owens is a playmaker and he is a competitor who wants to be involved in the offense. The Cowboys should want to get the ball in his hands as much as possible; I've never heard it suggested of any other future Hall of Famer that he should not want the ball or that his team should not try to get him the ball. That is just ignorant. People can say that Owens destroys teams but the 49ers were a playoff team during five of his eight seasons in San Francisco and have not once been a .500 team since he departed after the 2002 season. The Eagles were a Super Bowl team with Owens and have barely been above .500 overall since they got rid of Owens. The Cowboys missed the playoffs two years in a row before Owens arrived but made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons with the team and are on the verge of qualifying for the playoffs again this year.

As Madden indicated, Owens not only makes plays but he attracts so much coverage that he enables less talented teammates to have opportunities to make plays. I just laugh when I hear people talk about how the Eagles need a game-breaking wide receiver to make their offense complete. They had one in Terrell Owens and Owens helped them to reach the Super Bowl but because McNabb is sensitive and the owner was too cheap or stubborn to pay Owens what he was worth--after Owens risked his career to come back from a devastating injury to have an MVP-level performance in the Super Bowl--the Eagles can derive temporary joy from beating the Browns before they are eliminated from postseason contention next week or in the final game of the season.

Most commentators took the easy route and bashed Terrell Owens in a variety of ways. I have said it before and it must be said again: the last person on Earth who should say anything about Owens is Keyshawn "Just Give Me the Damn Ball" Johnson, a player who was let go by a Super Bowl champion due to his insubordination and who--as Owens has rightly noted--is a commentator now at the age of 36 (just one year older than Owens) because Owens took his spot in Dallas. Talk about combining hypocrisy and conflict of interest in one sound bite! When Johnson talks about how a wide receiver should properly deal with his quarterback I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Johnson criticizes Owens' route running skills but Owens ranks second in NFL history in touchdowns, sixth in receiving yards and seventh in receptions, so this reminds me of the late, great Ralph Wiley's response to critics who said that baseball great Rickey Henderson did not always play hard: if a guy can put up those kind of numbers without playing hard (or, in this case, despite supposedly being a bad route runner) how great must he really be?

The problem here is that most people apparently cannot distinguish between athletes whose bad attitudes bring down their teams--like Chad Johnson--and athletes who are intense and passionate about winning and get frustrated when things aren't being done properly. I remember when then-Bengals running back Corey Dillon sat down on the bench in disgust and would not go back in the game because Coach Bruce Coslet's team was so undisciplined and unprepared. The media killed him but I always said to Bengals' fans that I hoped that the Browns would get Dillon because he was a great back on a sorry team. Bill Belichick saw through all the media nonsense and signed Dillon, who became a key contributor on a Super Bowl champion. In the NBA, Dennis Rodman may have seemed to be eccentric or worse but he had an extremely high basketball IQ. When he had high IQ basketball coaches like Chuck Daly and Phil Jackson he helped his teams win championships but he did not have patience for teammates and/or coaches who were soft or unprepared. One time, he was in the locker room when a coach was diagramming a defensive scheme and Rodman just went off, saying that the whole thing was BS, that Jackson's Bulls never played that kind of defense and it just won't work. Certain players just cannot be in situations that are not structured properly. Since coming to New England, Randy Moss has proven that even though he blatantly dogged it at times on previous teams he can be a winning player with the right structure around him.

Another aspect of the whole Owens situation that is strange is the "thrown to" numbers that have suddenly proliferated out of thin air. That is not an official NFL stat and I don't know how "thrown to" statistics are compiled; the numbers that have been bandied about in the past few days that purport to show that Owens has been "thrown to" more than Jason Witten this year seem bogus to me, unless "thrown to" includes balls that are thrown away and are uncatchable; the number of catchable balls thrown in Owens' direction this season has not been nearly as high as it should be (yes, Owens has dropped some catchable balls, too, but he has a track record of making big plays when he gets enough opportunities to do so).

By my count, here is the breakdown for Owens and Witten in the New York game:

Owens:

1) Dropped deep pass on 3rd and 10.
2) 25 yard reception on 2nd and 13.
3) Six yard reception on 1st and 10.
4) Overthrown ball on 1st and 10; illegal contact called on Giants, resulting in a five yard penalty and an automatic first down. If Owens had not been held, he likely would have had a huge gain on the play.
5) Seven yard reception on 2nd and eight.
6) Overthrown deep pass on 2nd and 13.

Owens finished with three receptions for 38 yards and drew one penalty that resulted in five yards and an automatic first down. He dropped one catchable pass and two of the balls thrown in his direction were not catchable.

Witten:

1) Off target, incomplete pass on 2nd and 10.
2) Dropped short pass on 3rd and 13.
3) Three yard reception on 1st and 10.
4) Five yard reception on 2nd and six.
5) Overthrown pass on 3rd and 11.
6) Underthrown pass on 1st and 10.
7) 12 yard reception on 1st and 10.
8) 13 yard reception on 2nd and nine.
9) 11 yard reception on 3rd and nine.

Witten also committed a false start penalty. Apparently, the second ball thrown to him was not "officially" recorded as a drop but the ball hit him on the hands and then hit the turf before he could control it. If that is not a drop then I am not sure what is.

After the game, Witten and Owens both told NBC's Andrea Kremer that their supposed feud had been blown completely out of proportion. "It was a lack of professionalism on (ESPN reporter) Ed Werder's behalf," Owens insisted to Kremer. In his postgame press conference, Owens added, "I don't know where he (Werder) got his information but it was a lie. It's unfair. I had to deal with this all week. I don't know where he's getting his sources from but whatever his source was, they told him a blatant lie." ESPN anchor John Buccigross said that the network stands by its story.

*"Bretty and the Jets" were bailed out by Buffalo's boneheaded playcalling but that does not change the fact that neither Brett Favre nor his team are performing well down the stretch. Favre had passer ratings over 100 in three straight wins to help the Jets improve to 8-3 but since that time they have limped to 9-5 as Favre threw four interceptions and just one touchdown pass while compiling ratings of 60.9, 60.8 and 61.4. At least he is consistent. Yes, Favre's old Green Bay team has crashed and burned this season but that has little to do with the performance of Favre's replacement, Aaron Rodgers, who has nearly duplicated Favre's 2007 stats and is having a better season this year than Favre is: Rodgers ranks eighth in the league in passer rating (91.8) and has thrown 23 TD passes while averaging 7.4 yards per attempt and only tossing 12 interceptions. In contrast, Favre ranks 15th in the NFL with a passer rating of 86.5 and he has 21 TDs, 17 interceptions--the most in the NFL--and is only averaging 6.8 yards per attempt, tied for 20th out of the 32 quarterbacks who have thrown enough passes to qualify for the league rankings. Last year, Favre had a 95.7 rating, 28 TDs, 15 interceptions and a 7.8 yards per attempt average.

New York's 31-27 win over Buffalo was a gift--the Bills had the lead and the ball with barely two minutes remaining before J.P. Losman inexplicably rolled out to pass and fumbled the ball, enabling the Jets to score the game-winning touchdown. The Jets have won three other games this year in which Favre had passer ratings of 76.0 or worse. Even though the Jets control their own destiny due to a favorable tiebreak situation, don't be a bit surprised if they end up right where I've said all along that they will be: sitting at home when the playoffs begin. Meanwhile, as I predicted in my season preview, ex-Jet Chad Pennington has gone to Miami and had a better season than Favre (though I was not bold enough to also predict that the Dolphins would improve their record as much as they have): Pennington ranks fourth in the NFL with a 95.1 passer rating and he has 14 TDs compared to just six interceptions. He is averaging a robust 7.8 yards per attempt (the same that Favre averaged in 2007 when he was considered an MVP candidate and one yard per attempt better than Favre this year) and he has 35 completions of at least 20 yards, two more than Favre in 32 fewer attempts. The knock on Pennington was that he does not have a strong arm but this season he has had more success throwing downfield than Favre has. Isn't it strange that Miami has the same 9-5 record as New York and that Pennington has had a better year than Favre while playing for a team that had been much worse (although the Jets were 4-12 in 2007 they were a playoff team in 2006, while the Dolphins were 1-15 in 2007 and 6-10 in 2006) but Favre has received much more media attention and praise than Pennington? If you go strictly by the numbers--not just passer rating but also completion percentage, yards per attempt and other key stats--then Philip Rivers, Pennington and Peyton Manning should be the AFC Pro Bowl quarterbacks this year. It will be interesting to see if Favre gets the nod instead due to how much the media pumps him up.

Monday Night Football Quick Hits: Steel Curtain Edition

The Pittsburgh Steelers spotted the Washington Redskins a 6-0 lead and then their defense bludgeoned Washington into submission in a 23-6 victory. The Steelers improved to 6-2 and they now not only own first place in the AFC North but they also have the second best record in the entire AFC, trailing only the 8-0 Tennessee Titans. The Steelers have the second best defense in the AFC, allowing only 116 points, 13 more than the Titans have given up. Pittsburgh's starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger completed just 5 of 17 passes for 50 yards and one interception but he scored a touchdown on a one yard quarterback sneak to put Pittsburgh up 10-6 just before halftime. Roethlisberger reinjured his already balky right shoulder on that play and did not return to action in the second half but the Steelers did not miss a beat as backup quarterback Byron Leftwich went 7-10 for 129 yards and a touchdown, including a big 50 yard completion to Nate Washington that set up a Willie Parker touchdown run on the opening drive of the third quarter. The Steelers held NFL rushing leader Clinton Portis to 51 yards on 13 carries; he had rushed for at least 120 yards while averaging at least five yards per attempt in each of his previous five games, a feat matched by only Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson. Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell has had four games this season with a passer rating of over 100 but Pittsburgh harassed him into his worst game of the season by far, intercepting two of his passes, sacking him seven times and limiting him to a pitiful 4.8 yards per attempt average.

The team stats don't really tell the complete story of this game: Washington gained 221 yards of total offense--just three fewer than the Steelers did--but nearly a fourth of that total came on a meaningless drive in the final minutes that ended in a Campbell interception. A better indicator of Pittsburgh's dominance is Washington's 3-15 third down conversion ratio. It is also worth noting that both of Washington's scores--two early field goals--came after "drives" in which the Redskins did not make a single first down; Washington recovered an onside kick on the first play of the game but could not advance the ball and then a bit later the Redskins intercepted Roethlisberger but again could not gain any ground.

Portis summed things up best: "We were hoping to go out and play our football, play smash-mouth football. Instead, we got smashed."

Here are some notes/comments about Sunday's action:

*Dallas, widely considered to be the most talented team in the NFL before the season began, fell to 5-4 after losing 35-14 to the New York Giants. Brad Johnson, starting at quarterback for the Cowboys in place of the injured Tony Romo, was benched after he completed just 5 of 11 passes for 71 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. His first interception almost certainly would have been a touchdown if he had thrown an accurate pass to Terrell Owens on a slant pattern; instead, Corey Webster picked off Johnson's errant throw and returned it 57 yards. The Giants scored a touchdown on the resulting drive to go up 14-0. Johnson was the starting quarterback for Tampa Bay's Super Bowl championship team in 2002; he had 22 touchdowns and just six interceptions that year, leading the league by having just 1.3 % of his pass attempts picked off, but now he is a 40 year old veteran who has already been intercepted five times in just three games as Romo's substitute. The blame here lies not so much with Johnson but rather with whoever in the Cowboys' organization failed to sign an adequate backup quarterback; few starting quarterbacks play all 16 games, so it is imperative to have a backup who can at least be reasonably effective in spot duty. Clearly, Johnson is not capable of filling that job at this stage of his career.

After the game, members of the media tried to goad Owens into making inflammatory comments but he simply replied, "My opinion doesn't matter. I can say it all day. I can give you my opinion right now but all y'all are going to do is bash me on my opinion." Fox Sports' Terry Bradshaw said, "I've got to applaud Terrell Owens. He's done an excellent job of being very, very judicious with his words." Jimmy Johnson added, "I do feel bad for him because they (the media) try to bait him into saying something that's controversial."Even Tom Jackson--a frequent critic of Owens--begrudgingly conceded during Monday Night Countdown that Owens has displayed a lot of maturity with his comments to the media this season.

*The Cleveland Browns squandered a 27-13 second half lead at home versus the Baltimore Ravens and suffered a 37-27 loss that probably ended their playoff hopes. Quarterback Derek Anderson hardly distinguished himself (17-33, 219 yards, two touchdowns, one interception) but he was also victimized by a dropped Braylon Edwards pass on a perfect throw that should have resulted in a long touchdown. The signature memory from this game will no doubt be Anderson's errant screen pass that Terrell Suggs intecepted and ran back for a game-clinching touchdown with 2:43 remaining.

The Browns have already announced that second year man Brady Quinn will start get his first regular season start at quarterback on Thursday night versus Denver. Quinn has looked good in limited preseason action the past couple years but who knows how well that will translate into regular season play; I fear that the Browns may be rushing him into the fray too soon and without a good enough supporting cast around him, two conditions that doomed 1999 number one overall first pick Tim Couch, who possibly could have been a good NFL player in a different circumstance. ESPN's Trent Dilfer, who won a Super Bowl ring as a starting quarterback for Baltimore and briefly played in Cleveland, declared that the Browns' decision reflects the "many layers of dysfunction" in the team's organization, starting at the very top with owner Randy Lerner. Dilfer said, "Number one, it is known that you do not bench a quarterback when you are on a bad football team. You bench a quarterback when it is a good football team and the quarterback is holding you back. This is a bad football team. More importantly, I played in Cleveland for a year and I was shell shocked how this organization at the very highest level is so influenced by public opinion. They listen to the talk radio. The owner for the Cleveland Browns makes knee jerk decisions to fill seats and you cannot be successful in the National Football League now or long term if you are basing your decisions about what the public wants."

The Browns made an exciting run in the latter part of last season but I fear that my initial concerns about Romeo Crennel's coaching and Phil Savage's decision making in the front office were in fact quite well founded; after the Browns lost their home opener 34-7 versus Pittsburgh last season, I wrote, "Savage and Crennel need to put a better product on the field quickly or owner Randy Lerner needs to send their Keystone Kops routine packing and bring in a real football administration that will generate wins instead of excuses." The Browns seemed to show some signs of progress but now it looks like that was just a mirage that masked the reality that the Browns are a disorganized, dysfunctional, losing organization.

Monday Night Football Quick Hits: Giant-Killing Browns Save Season Edition

Never has the cliched phrase "On any given Sunday" seemed more apropos than in the wake of Cleveland's 35-14 victory over the previously undefeated New York Giants. The defending Super Bowl champions were not only 4-0 this season prior to facing the Browns but they were riding an 11 game road winning streak that was tied for the second longest in NFL history--and that number did not even include their epic Super Bowl victory over the 17-0 New England Patriots, because the Super Bowl is considered to be a neutral site game. The Browns' sole victory prior to Monday night was a 20-12 decision against the still winless Cincinnati Bengals.

The Giants ran the ball well--outgaining the Browns 181-144 on the ground--but they never got their passing game in gear. Eli Manning threw three interceptions, one more than he had tossed in his previous eight games (regular season and postseason) combined. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Giants had an opportunity to score a touchdown to cut the Browns' lead to 27-21 but Eric Wright picked off Manning and raced 94 yards for a touchdown, the fourth longest interception return in Browns' history. Manning completed 18 of 28 passes but he only gained 196 yards and he had just one touchdown; that adds up to a 57.1 passer rating, his worst of the season.

The Browns were so dominant offensively that they neither punted nor committed a turnover; ESPN play by play announcer Mike Tirico noted that this is the first time a Giants' opponent has achieved both of those things in the same game since 1936, when the NFL began tracking turnovers.

Several key Browns' offensive players had superb performances. Statistically, Derek Anderson was the worst starting quarterback in the league during the season's first month but against the Giants he had one of the best games of his career, completing 18 of 29 passes for 310 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions en route to compiling a gaudy 121.3 passer rating. Wide receiver Braylon Edwards had a career night, catching five passes for 154 yards and one touchdown; he also caught a pass from Anderson for a two point conversion. Running back Jamal Lewis had his best game of the season with 21 rushes for 88 yards and one touchdown.

Anderson and Edwards both made the Pro Bowl last season, when the Browns went 10-6--the same record that the Giants posted before getting hot and romping through the playoffs--and narrowly missed qualifying for postseason play. Before this season, many people had high expectations for the Browns, who will appear on national telecasts more often than the Giants this season. Anderson and Edwards both suffered injuries during the preseason; in the early weeks of the regular season they struggled not only to regain form individually but also to reproduce the chemistry that enable them to hook up for 16 touchdowns last year, a record for a Browns' receiver. Many Browns' fans have been clamoring for Anderson to be replaced by Brady Quinn, a first round draft pick from last year.

A couple days before the game, ESPN's Ron Jaworski described to The Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi why Anderson struggled early in the season: "I think he's lost his confidence. He's a little tight-elbowed. He's not just dropping back and feeling good about what he's doing." Jaworski also noted that a lack of continuity on the offensive line has led to more pass rush pressure on Anderson and Anderson has compounded that problem by not reading the pressure very well: "It's got him playing a little bit skittish in the pocket. He's been struggling mechanically a little bit. In the past, I'd see him make a lot of the throws that he's missing this year. The pressure begins to cloud your decision-making, so you're forcing some throws, not reading the blitzes, getting the ball out of your hand. There will always be bodies around you and you have to learn to throw from different platforms. He did make some plays at the end of the Bengals game, so that should be a confidence-builder."

None of those problems were evident on Monday. The most important thing to understand about all this is that even a very good quarterback can have a bad game--just look at how Manning played in this game. However, there are very few quarterbacks who can make the reads that Anderson did against the Giants and deliver the ball with such accuracy and velocity. Watching this game made it crystal clear why the Browns have been so reluctant to bench Anderson. It is important to keep in mind than Anderson is still a young player. Remember all the bad things that people said about Eli Manning before he won the Super Bowl? It takes quarterbacks time to develop and it does not help matters to yank them out of the lineup at the first sign of trouble; sometimes that is necessary but it should be avoided if possible.

Interestingly, the one ESPN commentator who picked the Browns to beat the Giants is Steve Young, who I think provides some of the deepest and most thought provoking football analysis available on any of the NFL pregame or postgame shows. I didn't expect that the Browns would win this game but when I saw that Young picked them I thought that maybe they have a chance after all. Young said that the Anderson we saw on Monday is the one that we will probably see the rest of the year, adding that Anderson's performance was "top five quarterback material. That's how good I thought he was but I think he has to be consistently that way. He's capable of being that good of a quarterback. I'm excited for the potential of Derek Anderson's career and I'm also excited for Brady Quinn whenever he gets a chance."

I was in Chicago over the weekend, so before I headed home I stopped by the ESPN Zone to watch Monday Night Countdown and the game, figuring that there would literally be wall to wall coverage there since ESPN promotes and cross promotes itself incessantly. Ironically, although ESPN Zone showed Monday Night Countdown on several TVs, they did so without audio until the conclusion of game four of the National League Championship series; one of the employees told me that they have a policy of not giving precedence to pregame shows--even their own--over live events. So, ironically, I went to ESPN Zone to watch Monday Night Countdown but missed most of the show! Fortunately, the NLCS game ended in time to catch the final third of Monday Night Countdown and all of the game.

Here are some notes/comments about Sunday's action:

The biggest story in the NFL this weekend prior to Cleveland's shocking win was that Dallas quarterback Tony Romo broke the pinkie finger on his passing hand during Arizona's 30-24 overtime victory over the Cowboys; in an instance of truly adding injury to insult, not only did Dallas lose Romo but punter Mat McBriar suffered a broken foot on the punt block that the Cardinals returned for the game winning touchdown. Romo is expected to be out of action for a month, which means that he will likely miss three games (the Cowboys have a bye during that period). Brad Johnson, who quarterbacked Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl title five years ago but is 40 years old and has not started a game since 2006, will take over for Romo. Johnson is less mobile than Romo and his arm is not as strong as Romo's but Johnson is also much less apt to commit the careless turnovers that Romo does; in 2002 and 2005 Johnson had the lowest interception percentage of any passer in the league and he ranks 19th all-time on the career list in that category. Romo does not have a terrible interception percentage but his percentage is worse than Johnson's and Romo also leads the NFL in fumbles this season with six.

Shifting gears from a playoff contender to a perennial pretender, a big reason that the Cincinnati Bengals' season is over before it began is that the team's two Pro Bowl receivers selfishly put their personal issues and contact gripes ahead of team priorities. Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune recently wrote:

An example of how business can affect football is evident in Cincinnati.

In the off-season Bengals wide receiver Chad Ocho Cinco said he wanted to be traded and to emphasize his point, he did not show up for workouts. His teammate T.J. Houshmandzadeh also did not show up for workouts because he was entering the final year of his contract and apparently wanted to make a statement about what the Bengals were or were not offering him.

"Neither guy came to camp in shape to play football," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "They have admitted to that. They did not participate in the off-season [workouts] and it showed. They both got injured in camp. They had very little time with the quarterback. Until we got to the third game of the year, they were not up to speed.

"If you don't participate in the off-season and you come to camp and you're standing on the sideline all the time, what good are you to me? You can't have a football team that way, or at least I don't know how to."

In the regular season both Pro Bowlers subsequently got off to slow starts. Ocho Cinco, who ranked third in the league in receiving yards in 2007, ranks 80th after five weeks.

And their team is 0-5.

Lewis said both receivers have worked into the flow now. He said Ocho Cinco has worked extremely hard to rehab his shoulder injury.

But the damage has been done.

"Those guys have forgotten a little bit how they got to be the players they were," Lewis said.

The Bengals fell to 0-6 after losing 26-14 to the New York Jets. The Jets overcame a subpar performance by Brett Favre, who had a season-high completion percentage (25-33, .758) but averaged fewer than six yards per attempt and threw two interceptions but only one touchdown. Despite the off game, Favre has tossed 13 touchdowns so far as a Jet, tying an NFL record for most TD passes by a veteran QB in his first five starts with a new team; is it just me or some rather arcane records being tracked now? Don't get me wrong--I love those kind of stats nuggets.

Running back Thomas Jones scored three short touchdowns for the Jets, two on the ground and one via the air. Loco Cinco actually had his best game of the year but when your season-highs are five receptions for 57 yards you are not having much of a season. Houshmandzadeh contributed seven receptions for 49 yards. Neither receiver reached the end zone.

Cleveland's Monday night upset capped off a very wild NFL weekend in which five games were decided by scores in the final two minutes of regulation or in overtime: Minnesota 12, Detroit 10; Atlanta 22, Chicago 20; St. Louis 19, Washington 17; Houston 29, Miami 28; Arizona 30, Dallas 24 (OT). The Bears' loss was particularly galling, not only because of the sudden turn of events but also because it it was their third defeat by three points or less; they are eight points away from being 6-0 but they also could very well miss the playoffs. Kyle Orton's touchdown pass to Rashied Davis with 11 seconds left seemed to be the winning score but then the Bears made the questionable decision to use a squib kick on the ensuing kickoff. The Falcons took advantage of their good field position by completing a 26 yard pass with one second left to get into range for Jason Elam's game winning 48 yard field goal.

Monday Night Football Quick Hits: Brett Favre is Not the Messiah Edition

Just to make things a little more interesting, the San Diego Chargers spotted the New York Jets seven points on Monday night--and then the Chargers cruised to a 48-29 victory that was even more of a rout than that score suggests; the Chargers led 38-14 after three quarters before the Jets tacked on some meaningless points against a prevent defense in the final stanza. The Jets' only points in the first 36 minutes came on David Barrett's 25 yard interception return for a touchdown to end San Diego's first possession of the game and Laveranues Coles' three yard touchdown reception after a 94 yard Leon Washington kickoff return. In other words, the Jets' offense failed to generate even one sustained scoring drive until the fourth quarter.

Although his bad pass gave the Jets an early lead after Barrett's interception return, Philip Rivers had a masterful overall performance (19-25, 250 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, 130.0 passer rating). He spread the ball around to eight different targets, none of whom caught more than four passes. LaDainian Tomlinson scored his first two touchdowns of the season but only rushed for 67 yards on 26 carries (2.6 yards per attempt average), so Rivers really did shoulder the primary offensive burden. Brett Favre may have been the headline story coming into this game but Rivers was easily the best quarterback on the field.

Favre's numbers may have come out OK in the end (30-42, 271 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions, 92.5 passer rating) but, to borrow an old Mike Holmgren line from early in Favre's career, when the outcome was in doubt Favre was "all over the joint" with the football; he not only had the two interceptions but he threw two other sure interceptions that were dropped and he had several other wildly inaccurate passes. In the first three quarters, Favre had one touchdown, two interceptions and a 64.3 passer rating. As I've said all along, Favre will throw the ball up for grabs and it will not always end as happily for the Jets as it did in week one, particularly against the league's better teams. Favre is gutsy and durable and he still has the big arm but--like any other quarterback--he looks better when he has more talent around him. People seem to be forgetting how much other talent there was (and is) in Green Bay; the Packers' success last year was not just all about Favre, even though he did have a great season (his first one since 2004, something else that many people seem to have forgotten). The Jets were 4-12 last year and although they upgraded their talent on paper this offseason I still do not understand why the late signing of Favre convinced so many people that the Jets are really going places this year. The reality is that if everything breaks right for New York maybe they could go 9-7 and grab the last Wild Card berth but everything rarely goes right in the course of a 16 game season and I just don't believe that this is a playoff bound team.

It is either arrogant or incredibly naive to think that Favre can spend the summer throwing a few passes on a high school football field and then come in and run an NFL offense that he has never seen before. Actually, that is also an insult to NFL players and coaches who worked throughout the entire offseason in order to properly prepare for the 2008 campaign.

Before the season began, ESPN's Tom Jackson said repeatedly that quarterbacks travel to Hawaii and prepare for the Pro Bowl in just a few days so it will not take Favre very long to learn the Jets' system. To borrow one of Jackson's pet lines, "Really?" In the Pro Bowl, the defenders basically have to count "steamboats" before they rush the passer, exotic defenses are forbidden by rule and everyone is just trying to look good and not get hurt; there is absolutely no sensible, logical comparison between learning a simplified, Pro Bowl offense and learning a full offensive playbook that a team uses over the course of a 16 game season.

Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has a much more accurate and nuanced take. He correctly predicted that the Chargers would blow out the Jets--I love how he is one of the few ESPN commentators who never buys the hype or tries to falsely build up a matchup--and he said that it will be a 10 week process for Favre to really learn the Jets' offense. Emmitt Smith then quite logically asked if the Jets brought in the wrong guy. Young replied, "I think they got the right guy; they just got him a month too late. The thing dragged on and I think they wanted to get him in early August or late July so that they could have that time before the real bullets flew."

Stuart Scott asked Young about all the plays in which Favre threw passes to areas of the field where there were only Charger defenders. How much of that was Favre's fault and how much of that was the receivers' fault? Young literally winced at the phrasing of the question before answering, "It's not a 'fault.' Football is glorified choreography. At the end of the day, it's dance steps and the more you do it, the better you are going to be at it. When you can do it for five, six, seven years like the Chargers have with this group of people then you are going to see that kind of play. When you have been doing it for four or five weeks, it shows up. It's not about fault; it's about time together to get the dance steps down."

The problem for the Jets and Favre is that by the time he really knows the Jets' system the team will be 5-5 at best and need to make a strong closing run just to make the playoffs. So there is some logic to Smith's question, because if the Jets are not going anywhere this year--and they're not--was it worth it to bring Favre in for a season or two as opposed to sticking with Chad Pennington or finding out what their younger QBs can do? Essentially, the Packers faced the same question--albeit with an overall roster that is much better than New York's--and they decided that the train had left the station without Favre. The Packers are 2-1 and I seriously doubt that they have any regrets. Imagine for a moment that the Packers are 1-2 and the Jets are 2-1; do you think that the media would make half as many allowances for Aaron Rodgers that they are for Favre? I'm not referring to Young, because he is quite accurately saying that Favre is not playing great and explaining why this is the case; I'm referring to everyone who blasted the Packers for getting rid of Favre and going with Aaron Rodgers: where are all the critics now? It has been nice to hear Cris Carter and Tom Jackson acknowledge how well Rodgers has played so far, because those guys were so certain not even a month ago that Rodgers faced more pressure than any quarterback ever and that Favre was just going to tear up the league starting in week one. Nevertheless, Jackson and Carter are still guilty of overstating what Favre can do; they kept insisting all week that the Jets should not have run the ball three straight times in the red zone last week versus New England and that Favre should have been given the opportunity to throw the ball. The Jets' offense was much more wide open this week but this did not lead to more scoring until garbage time--unless you count the points off of turnovers that Favre provided for the Chargers. We are seeing that maybe New York Coach Eric Mangini had good reasons to not have Favre chucking the ball all over the place inside the five yard line; if you can't run the ball into the endzone in that situation then your team is not going very far, anyway.

It would just be refreshing to see analysts--in all sports--simply report what their eyes are actually seeing instead of saying what their hearts hope to be true. Right now, too many sports analysts base their commentary on who they personally like and dislike as opposed to objectively talking about who is productive and not productive.

The reality is that Packers' management knew what it was doing, while the Jets' management decided to make a deal that created a lot of hype but will ultimately result in no playoff wins before the next quarterback takes over for Favre. Every "expert" who blasted the Packers and praised Favre should now be just as loudly praising Rodgers, apologizing to the Packers and correctly noting that Favre has hardly turned the Jets around. Tony Kornheiser spent all offseason drooling all over Favre but as everything fell apart around Favre on Monday night all Kornheiser could manage was a muted acknowledgment that Favre did not play well. Again, as Jackson would say, "Really?"

Here are some notes/comments about Sunday's action:

Obviously, the headline grabber from this weekend was Miami's 38-13 win over New England, reviving the storylines about how good the Patriots can be without Tom Brady and whether the remainder of this season is some kind of referendum on how good of a coach Bill Belichick is. Taking the latter point first, that is one of the stupidest discussion topics ever thought up by the mainstream sports media--and that's really saying something. As CBS' Phil Simms correctly and succinctly noted during last week's New England-New York Jets game, we found out a long time ago that Belichick is a great coach. As for the Brady question, it is certainly legitimate to wonder what the future holds for the Patriots with Matt Cassel at the helm but it is still way to soon to answer that question. Keep in mind that this loss ended an NFL record 21 game regular season winning streak by the Patriots and that their previous regular season defeat was a 21-0 decision to the Dolphins on December 10, 2006 during which Brady was 12-25 for 78 yards. For several years, the Patriots have struggled versus Miami and until Cassel plays a few more games we won't know for sure if this loss was just part of that trend or an indicator of something else. By the way, that 2006 New England team finished with a 12-4 record and made it to the AFC Championship Game. My prediction is that after this upcoming bye week the Patriots will go on an extended run--six wins in the next eight games or something on that order--that will lift them back into first place in the AFC East.

"My message today was...it ended up being really the power of the will," New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said after his team defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26-23 in overtime. Some would say that the Bengals should derive hope from playing such a close game against the reigning Super Bowl champions or that this performance gives the Bengals a leg up going into next week's game against in-state, in-division rival Cleveland--but I disagree. Maybe if the Bengals were a young, rising team then they could bask in moral victories but this is a franchise that has made one playoff appearance during the Marvin Lewis era and has been rapidly staggering backwards ever since. The talent is there--certainly on the offensive side of the ball--but the discipline and focus is not. In other words, we know that this team is talented enough to challenge even the Giants and we also know that the Bengals are just as capable of looking sloppy and disinterested next week. More than likely, they will respond to this loss the typical way that losers respond: the closeness of the score will make them overconfident; a champion would respond by analyzing the mental errors and physical shortcomings that led to the defeat.

Dallas improved to 3-0 with a 27-16 win over Green Bay at Lambeau Field, the Cowboys' first victory at one of the sport's most revered venues. Marion Barber banged out 142 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries, while little-used Miles Austin was the surprise receiving star with two catches for 115 yards, including a 52 yard touchdown. Terrell Owens finished with just two receptions for 17 yards but he made two plays that showed off his speed: first, after Tony Romo (17-30, 260 yards, one touchdown, one interception) threw an interception in the endzone and Owens was blocked to the ground inside the 10 yard line, Owens got up and incredibly ran down Nick Collins and tackled him at the Dallas 43 yard line; later, when rookie speedster running back Felix Jones raced for a 60 yard touchdown, Owens caught up to him and matched him stride for stride as a blocking escort, preventing would-be tacklers who had the angle from cutting Jones off before he reached pay dirt.

After the game, Austin said of Owens, "Him having two catches, 17 yards doesn't explain what he did. He's attracting double coverage, triple coverage all the time. So for him to do that, it's almost bigger than him making the play." Just like in the second half of last week's game versus the Eagles, when Philadelphia shifted its coverage to Owens and opened up opportunities for Barber and Jason Witten, Owens had a major impact just by being on the field. He certainly can make catches even against double teams and in some games this year it may be necessary for him to do that but for now Romo is making the smart, high percentage play by attacking opposing defenses in their soft spots and giving other players chances to prove that they can make plays.

Although the Packers fell to 2-1, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was very solid: 22-39, 290 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions.

Question of the Week: "I always think that when I eat cottage cheese: How did the first guy who made this know when to quit?"--John Madden (during Dallas' 27-16 Sunday Night Football win over Green Bay).

Super Bowl XLII: The Aftermath

The New York Giants' 17-14 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII will be talked about for decades to come. Here are a few thoughts that come to mind in the immediate aftermath of this incredible upset:

1) The New York Giants deserve a lot of credit for coming up with good game plans on both sides of the ball and then executing them under pressure against an undefeated team. Some people said before the Super Bowl that all the pressure was on New England because of the perfect season and because New York was a heavy underdog but I never bought that; when you are playing for a world championship there is a lot of pressure. The Giants faced a lot more pressure in this game than they did in the regular season finale versus New England, when the Patriots had much more at stake.

2) Neither Tom Brady nor the New England Patriots will ever mention this or make any excuses but anyone who watched Brady guide New England's record setting offense this season can plainly see that he was not the same player after he injured his ankle in the AFC Championship Game versus San Diego. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald both reported that he suffered the dreaded high ankle sprain in that contest; more than a week before the Super Bowl, MSNBC.com said that after reviewing game film ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski concluded that Brady was initially injured in the first quarter and then reinjured the ankle in the third quarter, probably after a Luis Castillo sack with 13:15 remaining. Brady threw two of his season-high three interceptions after that hit, including one on the very next play. He did not complete a pass of longer than 19 yards the rest of that game or in the Super Bowl; down the stretch versus San Diego, the Patriots uncharacteristically relied on their running game after being a pass first team for the vast majority of the season. In the MSNBC article, Dr. Steven Weinfeld explained what kind of impact the injury could potentially have on the Super Bowl: "But if it’s really a high ankle sprain, those things take up to three or four months to resolve. Two weeks is better than one week, but I think there’s a chance that he might not be at the top of his game come Feb. 3."

Watching Brady play in the Super Bowl, two things stood out: (1) he is normally accurate on deep throws but in this game he consistently failed to complete passes that he had made throughout the season; (2) like Dan Marino used to do, Brady is a master of making subtle moves in confined quarters to buy an extra split second to complete passes but against the Giants Brady's footwork seemed awkward and sluggish. These shortcomings are what one would expect from someone who has a gimpy ankle. The Giants deserve credit for their relentless pass rush but Brady faced blitzes all season long and had a phenomenal passer rating and completion percentage in those situations. I'd say that he was operating at about 75% versus the Giants, a level that would probably still be good enough to beat most teams but did not quite get it done against a very determined opponent.

Injuries are a part of the game and no matter what condition Brady was in the Giants still had to make plays and they should be commended for doing so. All I am saying is that I don't believe that physically this was the same Brady who torched the NFL record book during a 16-0 regular season.

3) We will probably never know the true extent of Brady's injury unless it turns out that he has to have surgery. However, the same is not true of Ellis Hobbs, the cornerback who Plaxico Burress beat to score the game winning touchdown. FoxSports.com reports that Hobbs played most of the season with a sports hernia/groin injury that is going to require surgery and that he aggravated that injury in the first quarter of the Super Bowl. Of course, Burress also played hurt for most of the season, so he may have been just as physically limited on that fateful play as Hobbs was.

4) Bill Belichick's decision to go for it on fourth down with a 7-3 third quarter lead instead of kicking a field goal has already been heavily criticized, in no small part because of the rather obvious fact that the Patriots ultimately lost by three points. However, there are some other, less obvious facts that must be considered when evaluating this decision. The first thing is that it is hardly a sure thing that Stephen Gostkowski would have made the kick; I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that Belichick has a better idea of his kicker's range than random outsiders do. Also, Belichick has always been a firm believer in going for it on fourth down. You could say that is part of his basic strategy, just like blackjack players have a basic strategy--and any good blackjack player knows that basic strategy only works if it is applied consistently. Statistical research has shown that if a team goes for it all the time on fourth down--even deep in its own territory--in the long run the extra possessions will lead to more scores than the opposing team will get as a result of making stops on fourth down. Even Belichick is not going to go for it on fourth down deep in his own territory but he is pretty consistent about going for it on the other side of the 50 unless time, score and field position strongly dictate kicking a field goal. Just because this was the biggest game of the season is no reason to vary from his basic strategy. Finally, if the Patriots had indeed made a field goal then both teams would have played differently on offense and defense the rest of the game, so it is hardly certain that the score would have ended up 17-17 at the end of regulation. People who want to second guess this one decision should keep in mind that this and other aspects of Belichick's basic strategy have resulted in three Super Bowl victories and two winning streaks of at least 18 games. Are you really sure that you could do a better job strategically from the comfort of your living room couch?

5) The line between immortality and complete failure is razor thin. The Patriots just missed completing several plays that could have all but assured victory. Of course, the play that will be talked about forever is David Tyree's incredible "helmet-catch" that set up the winning touchdown but what about the potential interception that sailed through Asante Samuel's hands earlier on that drive? Or, for that matter, what about Eli Manning writhing free of tacklers perhaps a nanosecond before being sacked and then firing a laser to Tyree? It is truly staggering to consider how history would be completely different if not for a couple inches here or there.

Some athletes and teams reach a point in their careers where nothing other than a championship is good enough. In the late 1980s, the Detroit Pistons just missed winning the title a few times before trading Adrian Dantley for Mark Aguirre in the middle of the 1988-89 season. Detroit went on to win the championship that summer--and nothing less than that would have been good enough, as Aguirre told me almost 20 years later: "We had to win the title. There is no question. Before I came, I let them know that if we don’t win the title this is a bust." The Patriots have won three Super Bowls, so for this coach and this group of players nothing less than a championship will ever be acceptable. The Patriots' 2007 season will always be considered, in Aguirre's words, "a bust," but it is too soon to say how this will affect the Patriots' overall place in history. When John Elway was a three-time Super Bowl loser he had one place in history but two titles at the end of his career completely rewrote that story, even though he still had a losing career record in the big game. Bill Belichick's Patriots are 3-1 in Super Bowls, including back to back championships, two winning streaks of at least 18 games and the only 16-0 regular season in NFL history. That already is a most impressive resume and if the Patriots add one or two more Super Bowl victories--and I'll go on record now saying that the Belichick-Brady duo will wind up with five Super Bowl rings before it is all said and done--then this Super Bowl loss will be one setback in the midst of a tremendous run. Even if this turns out to be Belichick and Brady's last Super Bowl the Patriots will still go down as the team of the decade--unless the Giants win two more Super Bowls--and their three titles in four years will be enough to keep them in the discussion with the Lombardi Packers, Noll Steelers, Walsh 49ers and the 90s Cowboys. As devastating as this Super Bowl loss is, the most that it can do is "taint" the 16-0 regular season; no rational person can say that it detracts from the previous Super Bowl wins.

6) It is really remarkable how this Super Bowl brought the Patriots full circle; their championship run began with them being heavy underdogs against a high scoring Rams team and producing an upset victory. This time around, the Patriots were the huge favorites and they had an offense that was even more productive than St. Louis' "Greatest Show on Turf." It will be very interesting to see if the Giants can use this triumph as a springboard to win more championships or if they will fade away like the Ravens, Buccaneers and other one year Super Bowl wonders. There is little doubt that the Patriots will still be formidable Super Bowl contenders next season, as they have been during most of Belichick's tenure.

7) There is a certain mystique about champions who always win the big game. Michael Jordan not only won six titles but he never lost an NBA Finals series. Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana each went 4-0 in the Super Bowl. Bill Russell did lose one NBA Finals but after that he won eight in a row and he finished with 11 championships overall, so his one "failure" can be "forgiven." The one thing that Belichick, Brady and the Patriots can never recapture is the aura of having never lost on the biggest stage. Even if they surpass the Noll-Bradshaw duo and win five Super Bowls, in many people's minds that 5-1 record will not be better than 4-0. This is not entirely rational, because playoff losses in earlier rounds seemingly don't figure in this equation--Brady's career playoff record of 14-3 tops both Bradshaw's 14-5 and Montana's 16-7--but the fact is that wins and losses in the final playoff round in any sport are weighed more heavily in the minds of not just fans but also historians.

Giant Upset: Eli Manning Calmly Cancels the Patriots' Pursuit of Perfection

Super Bowl XLII will forever be remembered as the game that ended the New England Patriots' pursuit of perfection--and wrote the first chapter in the legend of Eli Manning. The New York Giants' stunning 17-14 victory is, as ESPN's Steve Young put it, "contextually" the greatest upset in NFL history. Manning earned Super Bowl MVP honors by completing 19 of 34 passes for 255 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception--but the numbers only begin to tell the story of how cool Manning was in the clutch. He led the Giants to two fourth quarter touchdowns, including the winning score--a 13 yard pass to Plaxico Burress--with just :35 remaining. That capped off a dramatic final stanza that featured a Super Bowl record three lead changes.

The template for a Giants victory included shortening the game by winning the time of possession battle and putting constant pressure on Tom Brady when the Patriots had the ball. New York opened the game with a 16 play, 63 yard drive that consumed 9:59 and resulted in a field goal. The Giants set Super Bowl records for most plays on an opening drive and most third down conversions (four) on an opening drive. New England used the remaining time in the first quarter to drive to the New York one yard line. The two total first quarter possessions set a new Super Bowl low. The Patriots scored a touchdown on a Laurence Maroney run on the first play of the second quarter to take a 7-3 lead.

Amazingly, even though the Patriots set the all-time single season scoring record, the margin remained 7-3 entering the fourth quarter. This Super Bowl will have a special place in history because of its shocking outcome but the fact is that most of the game was not particularly exciting. Of course, an air of drama constantly hovered over the proceedings because of what was at stake: the 18-0 Patriots were playing for immortality. Manning opened the fourth quarter with a 45 yard pass to Kevin Boss. That turned out to be the longest play from scrimmage in the game; the Giants not only held the Patriots to 14 points but New England did not have a play from scrimmage longer than 19 yards, which is truly stunning considering how unstoppable that offense looked for most of the season. Boss' reception set up Manning's five yard touchdown pass to David Tyree. New England and New York traded punts after that but then Tom Brady--who went 29-48 for 266 yards and one touchdown--led the Patriots on a 12 play, 80 yard touchdown drive that put New England up 14-10 with 2:42 left; Brady completed 8 of 11 passes for 71 yards on that drive. It briefly seemed like order had been restored and that the Patriots would make another great escape along the lines of the ones that they made in several late season games.

After the ensuing kickoff, the Giants needed to go 83 yards to win the game. Manning seemed to channel the spirit of John Elway playing the Cleveland Browns as he and the Giants repeatedly avoided disaster by the slimmest of margins as they marched downfield; he narrowly escaped sack attempts, the Patriots missed a couple chances to make interceptions and his receivers made some spectacular catches. The Giants had one fourth down conversion and two third down conversions on the drive. Burress did not have a huge game statistically (two receptions for 27 yards) but his game-winning touchdown will have a permanent place in not only Giants' lore but also NFL history as the play that ended the Patriots' dream of going 19-0.

The Giants relentlessly pressured Brady all game long and that trend continued during New England's last desperate possession, which included three incomplete passes and a sack. New England has won three Super Bowl titles and just put together the only 16-0 regular season in NFL history--setting numerous individual and team records along the way--but the Patriots are now the only 18-1 team to not win the Super Bowl, a bizarre distinction that will surely never be matched. The Patriots may very well go on to win more Super Bowls but this season will always have a strange, twisted place in history: a fabulous achievement that will ultimately be remembered as a failure.

Eli Manning, Coach Tom Coughlin and the New York Giants have received a lot of criticism in recent seasons but all of that will be forgotten now because they have pulled off one of the most memorable victories in Super Bowl history. Whether this turns out to be the start of something big for Manning and the Giants or simply a once in a lifetime championship like the one that Joe Namath and the New York Jets famously won, no one can ever take this moment away from them.