From the cheap seats

I promised it and here it is.

The New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers game was without a doubt the best NFL Playoff game I’ve seen for 59 minutes and 54 seconds. The last six seconds of the game were absolutely dreadful.

The Giants blew a halftime lead but somehow stayed in the game and with six seconds had a chance to win the game with a field goal.

The long snapper snaps the ball too low and the play is botched. The
holder ran with the ball looking for a receiver. He throws a lob pass to a player looking for a miracle. The player is pushed before he can catch the ball.

The refs throw flags and two separate penalties are called. An ineligible receiver was called against the Giants and pass interference was called against the 49ers.

The penalties offset and no yardage is affected. But since a game can’t end on a penalty, the Giants got another shot. The Giants long snapper got it right this time and the Giants won 41-39.

The city of San Francisco was irate. Their argument was that since the
receiver was ineligible, there was no pass interference on a receiver who couldn’t have legally caught the ball anyway. The NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said his hands are tied.

Okay now for what really happened.

The refs called the game after the penalties and the celebration was on in San Francisco.

New Yorkers were more than a little upset. They were so upset that the state of New Jersey (where the Giants play) is suing for an upcoming Super Bowl. Tagliabue said that his hands were tied.

The refs, sent a memo to team and league officials, admitting that they were wrong.

This was a huge mistake. The refs or umpires or any officials in recreation ball, high school, college and especially the pros should never admit that they’re wrong.

What’s next? A ref who throws a flag and then comes over the announce system and says “My bad?”

Now that I got that out of my system, let’s get onto my Super Bowl, preview and prediction.

Tampa Bay has a tenacious defense. They will not relent, relinquish, or give in to the Oakland Raiders. They have made any quarterback, at any given time, look like a rookie including Brett Farve and Michael Vick.

The Raiders come in with the NFL’s MVP Rich (good name) Gannon. He has been able to find receivers at opportune times. That comes as no surprise when the heart of your receiving core is Jerry Rice and Tim Brown.

Something to watch in the Raiders’ offense is how many dropped passes they will have. This year they led the league in that category.

The Bucs maintain one of the most feared and revered defenses in the nation and thus far their offense has been able to back them up.

Brad Johnson, who is very Gannon-like, leads their offense. They are
both pocket passers with average scrambling ability. But I believe their offense will struggle with the less ballyhooed but equally effective Raider defense.

One factor that hasn’t been mentioned is that the Super Bowl is in San Diego. That’s pretty close to home field advantage for the Raiders.

All that being said, my prediction and final score: Raiders win 31-24.

(Warning: Any money lost due to bets on my prediction is not the responsibility of me or The Colonnade.)

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 24 2003. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry