The Side Line
This Sunday should be one of the wildest NFL league championship Sundays ever. The four teams fighting for the two Super Bowl spots have such different stories this season, and four very compelling reasons they deserve to win the championship. I am ranking the teams based on what I think are their chances to win, starting with the least likely.
New York Jets: The underdog, wild-card winning Jets are led by their fiery head coach, Rex Ryan, a true players’ coach, and at the helm is an ever-improving rookie quarterback, Mark “The Sanchize” Sanchez. A powerful running attack takes the pressure off Sanchez, allowing him to be extremely efficient and pick his spots to make plays. If the Jets can get past the Colts, I see no reason why they can’t take either the Saints or Vikings in the big game.
Indianapolis Colts: The most familiar team to success in the past few seasons, Peyton Manning’s Colts are once again loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. They had an extremely good chance to be only the third team to go 16-0 in the regular season, but erred on the side of caution, sitting Peyton and several starters in their final two games to finish 14-2. As usual, this is Peyton’s team; he makes everyone around him better and the Colts go as he goes. A Super Bowl win would give Peyton his second ring, and likely put him solidly in the top five best quarterbacks ever.
New Orleans Saints: The city of New Orleans is quite literally hinging on the fortunes of this football team. With all the hardship the city has seen lately, the Saints are the lone sports bright spot, and what a bright spot they are. Despite a disappointing loss to Dallas which dropped them to 13-1 and put them on the same track as the Colts to sit their starters and finish 13-3, the Saints have been arguably the best team in the NFL this season. A prolific offense led by quarterback Drew Brees strikes fear into any defense, and the Saints can overcome subpar defensive performances and simply outscore anyone, similar to the St. Louis Rams of the late 1990s. What a triumph it would be if the Saints could bring a Super Bowl win to a city that needs something, anything to celebrate.
Minnesota Vikings: Brett Favre. Need I say more? He has defied age, logic, and his doubters (including myself) to reenergize this team and lead it to a 12-4 regular season and an absolutely dominating performance in a 34-3 pounding of the Cowboys last week. However, this team does not need to rely on Favre to put up yards and points in bunches; its backfield is led by Adrian Peterson, the best pure running back in football. His freakish combination of size, speed, and power means that any simple handoff can turn into a highlight-reel touchdown run, and makes the Vikings the toughest offense to gameplan against. A very fast, talented defense means the Vikings can win the close, grinding games as well.
So there it is. I like the Vikings to hoist the Lombardi trophy Feb. 7 in Miami. But what do you think?
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Posted by Preston Sellers
on Jan 22 2010. Filed under Sports.
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