Monday, February 03, 2014

80s Flashback

Apparently Radio Shack had a commercial on during the Super Bowl that made fun of the 1980s. Turns out that the football game was an 80s flashback, too, with the Broncos getting drilled by a superior NFC team, in this case the Seattle Seahawks. A few thoughts:

  • Peyton Manning will get a lot of heat for his performance, or lack thereof, yesterday, but I don't think it's fair. The guy was running for his life most of the time. His offensive line failed him from the opening play (a bizarre safety) through the end. Manning had a great year and what happened yesterday didn't change that.
  • Having said that, I'd personally like to see Manning retire. He's still got his health and I have to wonder how many more beatings like that he can take. I'm sure he wouldn't want his career to end this way, but he really doesn't have anything left to prove. 
  • John Schneider, the Seattle GM, grew up not far from Lambeau Field and also has ties to the Twin Cities as a graduate of St. Thomas. He was a star player at one of Xavier's old rivals, De Pere (Wis) Abbot Pennings High School, which no longer exists. There are some who wonder if he'll come back to Green Bay someday to replace Ted Thompson. If he did, I'd hope he'd bring some of the defenders with him.
  • I'm happy for Russell Wilson, who is a pretty good dude. I suspect that winning a Super Bowl is only one of the things that Wilson will accomplish in his life and that it won't be the most important thing he does.
  • Still don't like Pete Carroll. 

2 comments:

First Ringer said...

Nice connection to the Radio Shack ad (which was both funny and surprisingly self-aware since many people probably haven't set foot in a Radio Shack since the 80s).

As for the game - I have to disagree a bit on your Manning analysis.

Yes, his "offensive line failed him from the opening play" and he had defenders surrounding him constantly, but is the hallmark of a legendary quarterback when they can do when no one is in their face? I don't think so. Manning doesn't deserve singular blame for yesterday, but his postseason record is under 500. and once again, an amazing regular season performance vanishes in crunch time.

The most prolific offense in NFL history scored 8 points in borderline garbage time. Surely, that's credit to Seattle for the most part. But Manning still made some head-scratching decisions and poor plays for a guy who threw 55 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions all season long.

Mr. D said...

Manning doesn't deserve singular blame for yesterday, but his postseason record is under 500. and once again, an amazing regular season performance vanishes in crunch time.

A fair point, FR. Having said that, I don't think anyone saw this coming. And you are correct that Manning made some head-scratching decisions. I would say that, especially when he played in Indianapolis, he rarely had the better team behind him and while an elite quarterback can make a difference against a marginal opponent, I'm hard pressed to think of any quarterback in NFL history who was regularly able to transcend weaknesses around him to win championships. The most successful quarterbacks in history (Starr, Montana, Bradshaw, Brady) all had tremendous talent at their disposal.