Just a Play Here or a Play There...............

CSU-Pueblo Head Coach John Wristen always stresses to me or anybody else who will listen that winning big football games comes down to executing on a half dozen or so plays that ultimately will make the difference in the outcome of the game. This was never more clear than in Super Bowl XLVI between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. Many times these plays in question dont seem that pivotal at the moment they are happening but when you look back and reflect on a game you realize just how important they were. We all know how it did end up but take a look back with me and try and imagine just how different the outcome might have been if these plays had gone a different way.
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4-19-NE42 (9:10) S.Weatherford punts 36 yards to NE 6, Center-Z.DeOssie, downed by NYG-Z.DeOssie.
A punter in a low scoring game can have a dramatic effect on it's outcome especially early on if he come up with a big play tilting field position.
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1-10-NE6 (9:00) (Run formation) T.Brady pass incomplete deep middle [J.Tuck]. PENALTY on NE-T.Brady, Intentional Grounding, 6 yards, enforced in End Zone, SAFETY.
Obviously this play shaped this game early on. I have no problem with it being called but I must admit I was astonished that it was called. So many times we have seen quarterbacks throw away a ball deep most times toward the sideline. But the key here was Tom Brady was under imminent pressure and the referee had a clear view of it.
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3-3-NE11
(4:23) E.Manning pass short right to V.Cruz to NE 7 for 4 yards (S.Moore). FUMBLES (S.Moore), RECOVERED by NE-B.Spikes at NE 9. B.Spikes to NE 9 for no gain (H.Nicks). PENALTY on NE, Defensive 12 On-field, 5 yards, enforced at NE 11 - No Play.
It is highly ironic the only fumble New England recovered during the game was nullified by a no brainer too many men on the field call.
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3-1-NE46
(4:40) (Run formation) B.Jacobs left guard to NE 36 for 10 yards (B.Spikes). PENALTY on NYG-K.Boothe, Offensive Holding, 9 yards, enforced at NE 46 - No Play.
My knee jerk reaction to any holding penalty called on short yardage plays is usually filled with flowery language aimed at the men in stripes. But the replay of this play clearly showed the infraction and paved the way for what would have been a big run. I had the feeling the Giants were on the verge of going up 16-3 in mere moments.
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4-10-NYG45 (4:11) S.Weatherford punts 51 yards to NE 4, Center-Z.DeOssie, out of bounds.
I can hear all of you now....a punt again Brooks? Really? Well this play was huge because it would set up one of the greatest drives in Super Bowl history. Brady was magnificent in leading the Patriots to the go ahead touchdown.
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3-8-NE19 (6:12) (Shotgun) T.Brady sacked at NE 15 for -4 yards (J.Tuck).
Brady was never quite the same after this sack. He has been battling a left shoulder injury pretty much all season long and it was obvious by his flexing and the training staff's attention paid to it that is was bothering him. Plus no matter how great you are the thought of a little pain has to take a little off your accuracy.
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1-10-NE43 (14:31) (No Huddle, Shotgun) T.Brady pass deep left intended for R.Gronkowski INTERCEPTED by C.Blackburn [J.Pierre-Paul] at NYG 8. C.Blackburn to NYG 8 for no gain (R.Gronkowski).
Two things stood out to me on this play. Once again Brady was starting to feel the heat of the Giants pass rush. He did make a great move to avoid the sack but didn't get as much on the deep ball as he wanted. The other was Gronkowski's inability to get position on a free agent linebacker to at very least break up the pass. If you didn't know it already this confirmed just how bad his health was during this game.
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2-10-NYG8 (14:12) (Run formation) A.Bradshaw right end to NYG 13 for 5 yards (B.Spikes). FUMBLES (B.Spikes), recovered by NYG-C.Snee at NYG 11. C.Snee to NYG 11 for no gain (V.Wilfork).
At this point I was wondering if I was watching Minnesota-Duluth instead of the Giants. The bounces were definitely going Gotham's way. How ironic it was Head Coach Tom Coughlin's son Chris Snee recovering the fumble at the Giants 11 to avoid disaster.
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3-7-NYG11
(13:23) (Shotgun) E.Manning pass incomplete short left to V.Cruz. PENALTY on NE-R.Ninkovich, Defensive Offside, 5 yards, enforced at NYG 11 - No Play.
Even though this penalty didn't lead to points it allowed the Giants to flip the field position in their favor. New England was bottled up in it's own end to start every possession it seemed. I could hear the voice of Dan Reeves ringing in my ears "go out and get some field position boys!"
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2-11-NYG44 (4:06) (Shotgun) T.Brady pass incomplete deep left to W.Welker.
Everyone it seems wants to lay the blame for this play and the eventual outcome on Wes Welker for not making this catch. Sure it is one he probably should have made but an argument can be made Brady threw this ball high and behind making it a much tougher catch than it had to be. Brady did get a mulligan on the next play and misfired again to Branch.
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1-10-NYG12 (3:46) (Shotgun) E.Manning pass deep left to M.Manningham pushed ob at 50 for 38 yards (P.Chung). New England challenged the pass completion ruling, and the play was Upheld. (Timeout #1.)
Of course this is the play of the game and will go down as one of the top 10 Super Bowl catches of all time. However Manningham should have never been in position to make the catch if the cornerback doesn't whiff on the jam attempt on the line of scrimmage. Manning did make an absolute perfect throw and it was a circus catch. One of the key things about the play is the "Hoody" had to challenge the play and thus lose a timeout that became very crucial in the final minutes.
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1-10-NE20 (:57) (Shotgun) T.Brady pass incomplete deep middle to D.Branch (K.Phillips).
This one is perhaps a reach but if Brady had been able to thread the needle this play was destined to gain at least 50 yards if not a touchdown down the left sideline. Again it was pressure by the Giants line that forced Brady to pull the trigger on this one just before he wanted to.
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There you have it. The plays that I look back on being the difference makers in the game. In the finaly analysis New York made or benefited from the outcome on a majority of these pivotal plays.
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----------MESSAGE HEARD-----The New York Giants are the kings of football this year but the true message sent the past couple of seasons is the Lombardi Trophy is there for the taking by any number of teams at the start of next season and beyond for that matter. One must remember the Giants were reportedly on the verge of firing Coughlin after losing to the Redskins of all people. Speaking of the Redskins they had New England on the ropes late in the season and probably should have won the game if not for an offensive pass interference penalty. This is one huge advantage the NFL has on all other major sports. I can make a logical argument at least 20 teams having a chance to win it all. In the other majors we all can name the handful that have a legitimate chance of winning it all.
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----------PART OF THE FAMILY-----When the crawl went across the bottom of the screen announcing the death of KOAA Sports Director Lee Douglass my heart sank as if a family member had passed. My history with "Boog" goes back to the early 80s when he was just starting weekends with Mike Daniels and Lisa Lyden up on Big Hill. I was doing my internship for my mass communications degree at then USC. I spent every weekend for a semester learning the ropes of television. More importantly it was a chance for some good "guy time" watching and talking about the games being played that weekend. All we have heard is just how nice and accommodating the big man was. He had a booming laugh and always made everybody feel at ease. Now I will admit I did see him get angry one time at the Pueblo Country Club while on a golf outing with your's truly, Mike Salardino and Gary Woodside. Somebody brought up the subject of a recent appearance by "The Boss" Bruce Springsteen on Saturday Night Live. I chimed in immediately how bad I thought it was. I recall Mike saying something like uh oh here we go and on cue Lee rose to his defense saying he was the greatest rocker of all time. I didn't argue that point but stood by my opinion. I learned right then you dont mess with Lee's heroes of rock! I always admired his ability to still sqeeze in some coverage of Pueblo sports after Channel Five "abandoned" the Pueblo market for the greener pastures of Colorado Springs. I as well as all of Pueblo will miss him. R.I.P. my friend.
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----------CLOSE CALL-----A huge sigh of relief was felt when news came down it was the DeRose Family jet that crashed on takeoff at Pueblo Memorial Airport last Thursday evening. One can only imagine what the consequences would have been should the plane had reached top speed a bit futher down the runway before skidding off. They say when you fall off a horse you gotta get right back on and that's exactly what they did taking off the next morning on a different Leer Jet for their 15th annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to watch the Super Bowl. You have to admire that!
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----------SEASON ENDING INJURIES-----Earlier this season CSU-Pueblo's mens team lost leading scorer Arden Dennis to a season ending knee injury. As if not to be outdone the Pack women had the same hand dealt them as leading scorer Jennelle Branting was lost for the season against New Mexico Highlands when she ruptured an achilles tendon. Unlike Dennis who has a year of eligibility left, Branting's career ended with the injury. The senior winger was having by far her best season for coach Kip Drown. Over the past three weeks or so she had been battling it before it finally ruptured on one of her patented drives to the hoop. Drown has nothing but admiration for her since she toiled in relative obscurity her first three seasons in Belmont before breaking out this year.
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----------STRETCH DRIVE-----Only six regular season games remain for CSU-Pueblo basketball this season with the women and men on different tracks and agendas going into this final stretch. The women suddenly find themselves tied for second place with Metro State just a game behind front running Fort Lewis College who just happen to be the opponent Friday night at Massari Arena. The Skyhawks blew out the Pack in the earlier meeting this season in Durango. Should the Thunderwolves win it will still be an uphill battle to win the league outright having already played and lost to Metro State. Win Friday night then we will start running the scenarios. As for the men they find themselves on the outside looking in at a playoff berth right now. The top eight in the RMAC make the tournament and currently the Pack sit at 7-9 in 11th place. The good news is they are even in the loss column with four teams just ahead of them and control their own destiny. My gut feeling tells me they will have to win four of six with one of those wins coming over Chadron State who they play a week from Saturday. Stay tuned.
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----------HONORABLE MENTION-----Erica Hicks pouring in 27 points vs UCCS including six three pointers......Bryse Velasquez scoring 19 including a perfect 8 for 8 from the line in the Pack's huge win over UCCS. Bryse will also welcome a son into the world anytime now.......Kip Drown has joined the 4oo win club with the victory over Western New Mexico. Make it 401 after beating UCCS.....
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----------DISHONORABLE MENTION-----Pueblo City Schools for jamming in the the three trophy games into the first three weeks of the schedule. Here's to playing the Bell Game with sun right in the eyes of Hornets, Bulldogs and Eagles fans as they take in the big game at Dutch Clark........Colorado Rockies for using phrases like innings eater and solid pitcher to describe aquisitions that haven't sniffed a .500 record. Only in big league baseball can an 8-15 record get you a raise to eight million a year for former Oriole Jeremy Guthrie......Nuggets 14-5 start a distant memory as recent string of five losses in six games has brought them back to the pack. Add to that four fifths of your starting lineup now injured. Next two weeks will be painful in more ways than one.

Its On to the Good Stuff

In late September and early October football fans in the state of Colorado as well as distant outposts where Broncos fans reside were resigned to another year of missing the biggest prize there is for a pro football fan. Playoffs? Are we talkin' about playoffs? Are you kiddin' me? Playoffs? Well with Kyle Orton at the helm of the team, playoffs were a pipe dream. Of course waiting in the wings was a guy who everybody knew couldn't hit the broad side of a ball with a complete fully stocked barn! Work with me on that one! But when Tim Tebow entered the game against San Diego something magical began to happen at Mile High. The fans came back. Sure Denver would go on to lose that game but at least everybody for the most part felt good. And for 55 minutes against Miami the following week it seemed the Tebow experiment may end before it even got started. But again something magical happened. Of course Detroit again crushed the collective psyche of some fans but among the true believers it didn't seem to matter. Six games later Tebowmania was here to stay. But like a golfer on the verge of winning a big tournament on the back nine at the Masters the Broncos choked that big lead away like Greg Norman did to Nick Faldo. But in football and especially the whacky AFC West the other golfer i.e. team made triple bogey of their own. When the Raiders lost to the Chargers it seemed the 100 pound anvil was lifted off Tebow and his flock of overachieving Broncos. Sure it helped that the mighty Steelers were a wounded animal with their leader barely able to walk let alone guide a football team. And of course it helped that Hall of Fame Defensive Coordinator Dick Lebeau left his cornerbacks on an island allowing Tebow and his minions to carve up the Steelers proud defense. Could it be that Bill Belichick would make the same mistakes. Hopes were high when that cold forecast and winds were forecast making Tom Brady's pass happy defense vulnerable. High hopes indeed. But then the turning point occured. The Broncos deferred on the coin flip! Are you kidding me? As if to taunt Broncos fans, Brady would toss an interception to allow Denver some hope. But hope is fleeting when Sir Hoody and Giselle's hubby are at the helm. Toss in a physically imposing receiving corps that made the Broncos defenders look as large as a good high school team you had the recipe for what transpired. Now normally such a defeat that was handed the Broncos would make their fans curl up and wimper. But this didnt happen. People are inspired and truly looking forward to next season. Will John Elway and John Fox do the unthinkable and actually draft, trade for or sign a free agent quarterback? Those questions seemed to have been answered by the Duke when he stated today that Tebow has earned the right to be Denver's starter next season and that is the direction the organization would follow. Tebow will always have his detractors it seems. But make no mistake about it. No one on this planet will outwork him. Elway knows something about leadership and what it takes to take lackluster talent and carry them to great things. He also knows that to win championships you need a tremendous supporting cast much like Mike Shanahan surrounded himself with to win those Super Bowls in the late 90s. John Fox himself knows that Super Bowl appearances are possible with less than stellar signal callers. I, for one, look forward to the Tebow experiment to continue. Lets see what a complete offseason schedule of workouts and minicamps bring. Lets see what a full training camp can produce. Lets see what a couple of new young running backs with fresh legs provide an already powerful running game. And just maybe another wide receiver who can get open because we have all seen that the mighty Tim needs just a litte bit bigger window. One that is perhaps as big as the door on that barn.
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----------NOT SO CHARITABLE-----Free throws have been a big story the first half of all levels of basketball on the local scene as well as nationally in the NBA. Just last week Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard a.k.a. Superman went to the stripe a record 39 times to shatter Wilt Chamberlains previous mark of 34 set in 1962. Many have focused on this staggering amount of attempts. The real story in my mind is the big fella missed 18 of them! Critics have been quick to jump all over rookie head coach Mark Jackson and his strategy. What they should be lampooning is Howard and his inept ability to convert from the stripe. Howard's lack of touch from the line where last time I checked nobody is guarding you is but one example of terrible free throw shooting at all levels of basketball. I will focus on the local angle in pointing this out. Just last night the Denver Nuggets missed 13 free throws in their loss to Utah. And when you factor in that Danilo Gallinari was 12 for 12 it overshadowed just how pathetic the rest of the team was Nene in particular. Most of the misses coming when the game was truly in the balance. Against San Antonio a week ago a paltry 17-26 effort truly cost them in a four point loss. On the local level Colorado State University-Pueblo's womens team was very fortunate not to lose last week on the road at Western State when misses down the stretch turned a comfortable win into a battle for survival in overtime. Then against 5th ranked Metro State the Pack went 10-21 in a six point loss. In high school girls action Pueblo South pulled out a spirited one point win at Pueblo West last week. But to me the big story was South's ineptitude at the stripe going just 12-26. If they shoot a mediocre 65 percent then overtime wouldn't have been needed. Truly great teams produce valuable points from the line in crunch time when the game is on the line. When you dont hit the freebies you leave yourself wide open for upset and come from behind wins by inferior opponents. And I have heard all my life from coaches and players how hard they work at shooting free throws during the season. To me that illustrates the problem. You dont "work" on it during the season. If anything you fine tune it. The work has to be put in on a daily basis to truly be a great free throw shooter. Where is a dose of Brad Ranson when you need it.
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----------MORE NUGGETS-----It is very difficult to get a true gauge on the Nuggets or any NBA team's status at this point in the season due to the condensed schedule and the toll it is taking on teams health. Already this season Nene and Ty Lawson have missed time due to nagging injuries when playing back to back games is out of the question. Now Rudy Fernandez is suffering from a strained achilles tendon. It is only going to get worse for Denver and the rest of the Association. We are seeing many teams hold out there stars from time to time when playing five games in seven nights is totally out of the question. Getting back to Denver I think they have a nice team but now they head out on the road for five straight. We will know a lot more about them at the end of this stretch.
----------PLODDING PACK-MEN-----The Thunderwolves men's team photo is right next to the basketball definition of an "up and down" team. I have told many people that I truly believe that on any given night they can beat anybody in the RMAC or at same time lose to them. And it doesn't matter if it's home or away. Right now they are on the outside looking in at the halfway point of the conference season in the chase for the top eight and a playoff spot. Now there is the spector of losing leading scorer Arden Dennis for an extended period for what is being described now as a knee sprain. As of late the junior sharpshooter has been really coming into his own on both ends of the court. Going into this season head coach Ralph Turner was unsure of where he was going to get truly consistent scoring but as this season has rolled on Dennis was becoming the true leader. If he misses significant time the Pack will be hard pressed to finish where they want to.
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---------LITTLE SETBACK-----Coming into this season CSU-Pueblo's women's hoop team needed a lesson in being mean and nasty at certain time during games. Last year it was painfully obvious Kip Drown had a nice club. But that was the problem. They were too nice. They seemed downright neighborly allowing opponents an open door to rebounds and easy put backs under the hoop. Drown knew this had to change and brought in junior college transfer Laurel Kearsly and freshman newcomer Katie Nehf to provide a little edge to the club. Alex Evans and Jenelle Brantley have elevated their games as well to go along with the always feisty Kendall Babler to provide the Thunderwolves a noticeably tougher team this season. That is until Metro State paid a visit to Massari last Friday night. The pack reverted to some of last years niceties in dropping a 55-49 decision. Drown would like nothing more than to add a regular season RMAC crown to his trophy case to go along with all the tournament titles he has led CSU-P to in recent years. Now of course every battle in the RMAC especially on the road is fraught with danger. With that said the Pack should roll into their next real gut check against Fort Lewis at Massari Arena February 10th. It will be a true test to see if the ladies have truly captured the ability to be mean inhospitable hosts.