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.

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

Apparently my assertion that the Colts were not going away was wrong.

If I were a Colts fan, this would be sour grapes, but the Chargers got amazingly lucky (edittor’s note: Luke is a Patriots fan). The Colts easily could have and should have put up 35 or 42 points and yet San Diego won without Ladanian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers (you could argue they get better with Billy Volek, but we won’t do that here). Nevertheless, as the aforementioned Patriots fan, I’d much rather play San Diego than Indianapolis.

Can San Diego beat New England in the AFC Championship game if they play without Rivers and LT?

However, while we’re here, how is the early line for the Patriots and Chargers game -14.5? Sports Truth founder, Levi Matthews, believes that the spread technically should be lower than the Jax game, but believes that the Jaguars are a better team than San Diego. Maybe the spread is so high because we don’t know LT or Rivers status yet, and that makes sense, but you’d have to think that if they both play, the spread should be lower than the -13 the Jaguars were getting from the Patriots.

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

On Saturday, one of the greatest days of television programing ever was aired. Starting at noon, ESPN2 ran the following college basketball games back to back to back (to back to back to back): Wisconsin vs. Texas, San Diego University vs. Kentucky, Tennessee vs. Gonzaga, Oklahoma vs. West Virginia, Pittsburgh vs. Dayton, and capped off the night with Memphis vs. Arizona. Wow. If anyone caught all six games, we need to hear about it.

Unranked Wisconsin shocked No. 9 Texas 67-66 on Saturday off of Michael Flowers’ game-winning three at the buzzer

Speaking of those games, here are a few thoughts from what I caught during the day:

- Kentucky is a mess and we now know why Tubby Smith abruptly left to go coach Minnesota. First-year coach Billy Gillespie said before the game that he felt San Diego did not have anyone who could take his defenders off the dribble. Gillespie’s team is worse than he thought - Brandon Johnson attacked the basket whenever he pleased.

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As a Patriot fan, I have been accused of many things and called many names since 2001. The most common theme is that us Patriot fans do not have any perspective when it comes to evaluating the ability of our favorite team. Critics say that we blindly drink the Bill Belichick kool-aid without being objective. Excuse us, but the man does have three Super Bowl titles and the most wins of any franchise since 2001 (with 85. Indy is second with 83).

Nevertheless, the irony of such accusations is that these same people can’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to the Indianapolis Colts. Stories of the Colts demise is 1) funny and 2) obviously unobservant of the conditions with which they lost their last two games.

The first loss is to one of the best teams in history (there’s my unobjectiveness coming out). Whether you think the Patriots could go 19-0 or are just a bunch of bullies waiting to get punched in the mouth, there’s little you can extrapolate about a team losing to them by just four points. The Colts played the Patriots tougher than anyone else all season, by a wide margin. That’s saying something.

Certainly very few people were condemning the Colts after losing to the Patriots. All the talk was about how the AFC Championship will simply be in Foxboro as a result of the game. The Colts then had the nerve to lose to San Diego, in San Diego. The same team who went 14-2 last year and brought every major piece of their team back (except for their head coach. That’s a whole other article). Oh yea, this game was in the pouring rain. And they were missing Harrison, Clark, and a number of other starters. Six interceptions later, the Steelers are hosting the divisional playoff game and beating the mighty Colts.

Darren Sproles jukes Indianapolis kicker Adam Vinateri en route to a 1st quarter touchdown return. A fitting beginning to a tough day for Vinateri.

Easy now. Remember that part about perspective? Patriots fans know about playing short handed. Missing more than a handful of starters. Playing with a D-1AA receiving core. It sucks, but it’s not representative of your team. Patriots fans know that the team we played in Week 9 and the team that lost to the Chargers is not the same team that’s going to show up in January.

Maybe I see too many roses when I watch the Patriots. But, I also know that the rain clouds around the Colts were only in San Diego.