Hey guys, glad you liked it
Let me throw out a few more things that i didn’t mention in the analysis
I’ll start with the NO/PHI game
A lot of people are calling New Orleans America’s team because of what happened there last year with the Katrina situation, as unfortunate as that may have been, and even though it would make for a fairy tale story line, i just can’t see it, this doesn’t improve the quality of your football product, everybody goes through hardships, so i try to not get caught up in any of that wishful thinking stuff, or the possibility of a fixed game to inspire people with hope.
As for the actual team itself, being a good handicapper i have a good feel of what games are important to key on over the course of the season, as far as evaluating a team’s true potential.
One game in particular was New Orleans at home vs Baltimore in week 8, at the time New Orleans was undefeated at home(3-0)and coming off of a bye week(2 week rest), and they could not have been in a more favourable situation.
What happened was that Baltimore absolutely embarrassed New Orleans, the score was 35-7 for Baltimore in the 4th quarter, that game told me a lot.
Another thing i looked at, which i think is somewhere on my site in the Football Tips section, is the bye week factor, the top 4 teams last year had won their game following a bye week, so did every other remaining team this year, as well as every decent team through history as far as i can tell.
I put a little emphasis on this angle, for a lot of reasons, the most important being that if you are an above average team you should be able to beat anyone given 2 weeks to rest up and prepare.
Aside from that, Philly is just playing as good as anyone right now, they’ve won their last 6 games(all vs NFC opposition, including Carolina who beat New Orleans twice), and many people, myself included, are seeing similarities between this team and the other team from Pennsylvania that won the Super Bowl last year.
Watching some media coverage of the other games i picked up some stuff…
SD coach Schottenheimer thinks his key to victory lies in being able to create 1 on 1 situations for Tomlinson vs the Patriots defensive players, that is a very unrealistic probability, the one thing NE has always had on defense is good chemistry and speed, they are fast and move well as a unit, as you should all well know if you’ve been watching football the past 5 years, many teams have attempted to create such a situation against them and failed miserably, New England has not allowed anyone to rush for 100+ yards against them in the playoffs with this current dynasty, not even 80+ yards, the highest total posted was 78 yards by Edgerrin James back in 2003.
Another thing that caught my eye was the look on the faces of the Baltimore players, they are not hiding the fact that they can hardly wait to go out and put a beating on someone, Indy know exactly what is waiting for them, but i’m afraid there is not much they will be able to do about it, i get the feeling most people will remember why Ray Lewis was once considered the greatest linebacker of all time
Quote of the week courtesy of NFL Total Access, regarding Indy coming back to Baltimore after packing up and leaving a few years ago, yeah you remember the Baltimore Colts
“It’s like having your ex-girlfiend come back home with another man”
No doubt the city of Baltimore is harbouring some bad blood towards Indy, they want the horsehoe back, they want the uniform that Johnny Unitas wore back, these guys took their history and split town, and now they are forced to return and face the consequences, i am really looking forward to this game, i’m always up for watching a good beating.
Good luck
P.S.
Try to enjoy the game, i’ll look for you in attendance, i’m sure you’ll be the guy wearing the t-shirt that says “Never Split 10’s”, it would probably confuse the hell out of you if Philly do win, considering i am the same guy who was telling you to split 10’s, now telling you Philly will win.