XXXIX

So My Man Donovan didn't play too well.

Hard to say whether it's lack of ability or lack of ability to rise to the occasion. That was the rap on Steve Young for years. He'd kick ass during the season, but get too excited to play to the same level in the Big Games. One of the announcers mentioned this as a probability early on, and it makes sense. I mean, it -is- what seems to define a lot of players. "Great career, but never got the ring."

Also, the Eagles lack of a solid running game came back to haunt them. Westbrook is fine as one of those all-purpose run-it-and-catch-it backs, but there's no one else back there. Where's the bruiser fullback who can block and guarantee a few yards just by falling forward? Without that, McNabb's forced to rely on running himself and on his WR's acrobatics to make up the difference in crunch time. This quickly turns into West Coast Offense of the worst sort.

The comparison was evident in the late quarters as Dillon was able to run and wear down the Eagles defense. Meanwhile, the Pats D could just sit back and wait for McNabb to throw one up for grabs. Donovan's got some pretty acrobatic receivers. They've probably bailed him out a lot during the season making impossible catches, but eventually that catches up to you.

The half-assing around as the game rolled up to the final gun shocked me too. But it shouldn't be surprising. From the games I saw over the season, clock management is a lost art among coaches. Maybe it comes from all those hours they insist they have to work. They just forget what the damn thing's up there for. Herman Edwards might be the worst among top team coaches, but he ain't alone. I mean, the whole -point- of football is to score within a set time frame, right? So why is watching the clock so hard? The mind boggles.

Starting out, it looked like the Pats were the nervous nellies. How many penalties before the half? And Dillon wasn't doing squat. But after he picked it up the whole team turned around, because then the Eagles were ripe for the play action. BTW, the last few SB's seem to start off slow, then pick up. I wonder if it's nerves, conservative game planning, or a little of both.

Talk about conservative, Paul McCartney's medley of song most people younger than me haven't heard and the dullest ads in years. The best one, to me, was MC Hammer spoofing his money problems. And he's clearly up for hire. That ad confused me at first. What's insurance got to do with Lay's potato chips, I thought? Then I realized ol' MC's just pimping himself good this game. Can we all agree, at least, that's it's a blessing that those "parachute" pants never caught on?

The broadcast itself had some shaky moments. The announcers didn't bother to realize that a lot of people tune in to the Super Bowl with little real idea how the game is played. Yet, they played in like any ol' Sunday morning scrimmage. They never tried to let anyone know how the replay challenge rule is used, for example. There was precious little graphic analysis, it seems, of the plays. A million useless angle shots, (can the Crotch Camera be far behind?) but football is best enjoyed when you see the misdirections, the favorable matchups and how other players open up to let the scoring play go down. Nuthin.' A chance to educate millions of potential new ongoing viewers lost.

Still, the Eagles beat the over-under in a pretty entertaining game overall. Yeah, lots of penalties and key turnovers but the turnovers make it interesting. Nothing like a team driving for a TD when "Oh, no!", a fumble/int on the two yard line! The Conventional Wisdom had the Pats in a walkover, despite the one touchdown betting line, so give the Eagles some credit for fighting the good fight before inevitably settling for the consolation prize.

Oh well, Philly gets to moan some more. Be interesting to see how the Philly press treats this. Did McNabb blow it, or did the Eagles just get beat by a better team? And what is it about Northeast pro sports anyway, from Boston through New York to Philly? Is life really that hard there that they have nothing else to hold on to?