By Hot Rod! The Rowdy One
We’re drinking my friend
To the end, of a brief episode
So make it one for my baby
And one more for the road
So we’ve finally reached our destination. We’re at the last meaningful game of the 2009-10 NFL season. What a ride it’s been. We saw the New York Jets play the role of Cinderella in the playoffs. We saw the Cincinnati Bengals rally around a coach who lost his wife and a fallen teammate and emerge as one of the surprise teams of the season. We watched Tennessee Titans running back, Chris Johnson run up and down the field like a man possessed and the rebirth of Vince Young’s career, just to name a few things. We witnessed so much this season, here’s a look back at some of the plays that kept us captivated during the 2009-10 NFL Season:
On Super Bowl Sunday, you sometimes think of Super Bowls of the past. That’s why I always felt that it was great that the NFL would announce their inductees for the Pro-Football Hall of Fame during the weekend of the Super Bowl. This year had two no-brainers and a few surprises. While we’ll debate on who was snubbed, let’s congratulate John Randle, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Floyd Little, Dick LeBeau, Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice for being selected for induction into the 2010 Pro-Football Hall of Fame.
Smith and Rice were locks for the Hall of Fame and when it came to the Super Bowl, these two men performed at the highest level any athlete would and could. Here’s a look at one of the highlights in the Hall of Fame careers.
Congratulation to this year’s Pro-Football Hall of Fame induction class.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s look at the last game of the 2009-10 NFL Season.
Sunday, 2/07/10, 6:25pm, CBS
15-3 @ 
16-2
Sun Life Stadium, Miami, FL
As my main man, The American Dream Dusty Rhodes would say, “It’s going down tanite, daddy!!!” This is for all the marbles. This is the NFL’s version of the “grand daddy of them all”. We’ve arrived at Super Bowl XLIV. This year’s contest features the “Who Dats?” versus the Hoosiers; the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts.
Now they say that offense win fans, defense win championships. Well this year, you can throw that ideology out the window. The Saints’ defense was ranked 25th this season. The Colts’ defense was ranked 18th. So the road to Miami wasn’t paved with a lot of sacks or interceptions for these two teams. However, the Colts had the 9th best offense while the Saints boasted the #1 offense during the regular season. And during the playoffs, the Colts offense was ranked 4th while the Saints’ offense was ranked 5th. So I’m not looking for a lot of defense in this game and when it’s all said and done; the combined score at the end of this game maybe the highest total in the history of the Super Bowl.
Someone has to win in the end, so what does each team have to do to walk away as the 44th Super Bowl Champ?
Well, to begin with, both team’s defenses have to show up. If they don’t, this will be a shoot-out. And as much as the NFL would love to see an offensive game, those of us who are traditionalist would like to see a little defense being played in this game. If one team’s defense had to show up more than the others, that would have to be the Saint’s defense.
I’m not one for knocking a player out of a game. But…if the Saints just so happen to lay Peyton Manning out, you could start parading down Bourbon Street tonight. The sad thing about that statement, that’ll be hard task for the Saint’s defense. This Super Bowl has been more about individual players than it has been about the teams. So to keep with that motif, this game will be won or lose on the shoulders of the league’s MVP, Peyton Manning.
People have different ways of describing Manning. When I think of Manning, I think of a line from the movie Training Day. Alonzo Harris is holding a shotgun when Jake Hoyt enters his apartment to arrest Harris. Harris looks at Hoyt, with shotgun in his hand, and says to him, “You know I’m surgical with this b*tch, Jake”. The shotgun is Manning’s arm and he’s surgical at the line of scrimmage.
We know that Peyton is going to audible damn there every play when he reads the defense. If the Saints can work through those audibles, get to Manning, and force the Colts to run the ball. The Saints will win this game. And if the Saints decide to blitz, they better get to Manning quick because he’s probably the only quarterback in the world who can turn chicken sh*t into chicken salad when he gets blitzed.
The Saint’s are going to throw every offensive play they can at the Colts mediocre defense. And since the Saints, like the Colts, love to throw the ball, look for the Saints to take to air more instead of running the ball to test the Colts secondary. If the Saints wide receivers get open for some big plays, down the field, it’ll be a long day for the Colts’ defense.
So who will win? I have to go with the Colts. The Colts lost their last two games of the season by choice. They rested their players for this day. Had they not benched their starters, they would be 16-0. The Saints were on all cylinders at the start of the season and tired out towards the end. Although the Saints got through the playoffs, their last playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings took a lot out of them and I don’t think two weeks was enough time to rest up. The Colts may not have ran the ball like Colts teams of the pass, but the defense is a few notches better than previous years and when you have #18 running your offense, you’re pretty much playing against two coaches; the one on the sideline and the one on the field. It’s rather hard to beat a team with two head coaches, last I checked.
Also, to have an opportunity to possibly see another black head coach, win a Super Bowl title, two years in a row, during Black History Month, speaks volumes.
Overall, the Colts just looked to be the better team over all and instead of the Saints marching out of Miami with a Super Title; it’ll be a Colts stampede with the Lombardi Trophy.
My Pick:
So there it is, my pick for the title. Hope you all enjoy the game. Of course we couldn’t stop with just the write-up here on Planet Ill, so we decided to share the day with all of you. How are we gonna do that? With a chat room right here on the site. So join us here in the chat box below and let’s talk football or follow us on Twitter. Just click the “Contact” box and hit us up on Twitter.
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