The Sports Truth

The Sportstruth’s senior editor, Lucas Dwyer, provides his observations and thoughts from the weekend that was.

The weekend started and ended with Sunday’s Championship games. Maybe it was just because I live in Boston, but the lead-up to the day felt like a Super Bowl Sunday, but even better. Everyone adjusted their schedules to be able to catch the games and most people gathered at their favorite football-watching spot to enjoy the games. The best was that while everything felt like a Super Bowl Sunday and a Super Bowl party, we were treated two games, not one game and an absurd amount of pre-game analysis and build-up. The games turned out to be competitive and exciting as well, which can’t be said for many super bowls.

We’ve covered time and again that I’m a Patriots fan, but I was LIVID at Norv Turner for punting on 4th and 10 at the Patriots 36 yard line with nine minutes and change left in the game down by two scores. The punt was fair caught at the 11 yard line for a tremendous 25 yard punt. What did Norv think was going to happen? The Chargers would stop the Patriots, forcing them to go 3 and out (the Patriots had the fewest 3 and outs in the league this year) get the ball back and score twice in under eight minutes? Or that giving the Patriots the ball on the 36 yard line mattered at all? The Patriots were as likely to run out the clock from either 36 as the 11 over scoring a touchdown and if the Patriots ended up with a 4th down and time still left on the clock, a field goal still meant it was two-score game. Even if converting 4th and 10 is unlikely, try the 53 yard field goal! Why not? Nate Keading is a good kicker! Turner should have been fired before the game was over.

If Luke owned the Chargers, he would have made an announcement on the Gillette Stadium PA system letting the public know that Norv Turner had been fired immediately after his decision to punt.

Chalk it up to “that’s why the play the games,” but who would have imagined that the reason the Giants won and the Packers lost was Eli Manning and Brett Favre, respectively? Manning didn’t look bothered by the cold at all, electing to go with just a helmet to cover his head, while Favre was holding hand-warmers to his face repeatedly during the game. There was little noticeable effect on Manning, but Favre’s throws obvious lacked any zip, along with accuracy.

I said last week that the Patriots giving the Chargers 14.5 points was too many and the early spread is the same for the Super Bowl. Once again, that’s just too many points for how teams are playing the Patriots recently. Teams have made a concerted effort to eliminate Randy Moss from the game and it has clearly impacted the Patriots scoring (taking away 23 touchdowns will do that). By saying the spread is too high, I don’t think the Patriots are any more or less likely to win the game, but they’re running the ball with Maroney far more (obviously) and it reduces how many points the Patriots can score. The Patriots haven’t covered a spread since week 14 against Pittsburgh. That trend will not end on February 3rd.

I was rooting for the Packers on Sunday, though I’m not really sure why. I guess I just hate Eli Manning and the Manning’s in general. I think the Giants do not pose as much of a threat to New England as the Packers would have, but I just couldn’t root for Manning. One phenomenal side effect of the Giants winning is the incessant trash talking that will occur between the large contingent of Patriots and Giants fans that I know. Another great effect that Sportstruth.com founder Levi Matthews pointed out was that Boston gets to beat New York. Again.

Meanwhile, #1 North Caronlina and #4 UCLA were knocked off this weekend by Maryland and USC, respectively. This is not all that newsworthy because top ranked teams lose all the time in college basketball, but it does get one of the best college teams I’ve ever seen, Memphis, into the #1 spot. Again, who cares? Well, I do. They deserve to be #1 and will end the season as the NCAA Champion. I’d like to say they won’t give up the #1 ranking, but that means they go undefeated and I just don’t see that happening.

Posted in Brett Favre, College Basketball, Eli Manning, NFL, New England Patriots, Norv Turner