Indy Colts vs N.E. Pats; AFC Championship Preliminary

November 4th, 2007; a date being built-up to go down into infamy as the quintessential battle for all football fans to revere it as the game of all games, the mid-season Superbowl or the notorious Good (Indy) vs. Evil (Pats). NFL has given us a game to anticipate, rival over and begging for more.

This game is built-up by the two most predominant programs in the NFL today, with both being undefeated facing off in a mid-season battle as to gain an advantage or claim mid-season superiority, well at least the FANS will claim. Not to mention the Home-Field advantage for the Play-offs or the lessons learned by either for the Superbowl run. This game will be a classic for years to come, never mind the winner or loser it will be the bar set for others to match-up to or surpass.

“Evil” has been identified with Bill Belichick and his P.A.T.S. (Permanently Acknowledged as Tyrant Scoundrels) for the season prelude of video scandals and cheating with those advantages. Not to mention the abundance of arrogance resonating from the team attitudes and the coach foremost with running up scores and scoffing at the notion that it’s poor sportsmanship or a classless act by a professional team. On the other side of this you have “Good”, the Colts; faith driven coach, a QB with humility and a team of spot check players that only have made a name for themselves by being with the Colts. This is why I make the comparison to Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader…you have Tony Dungy (Faith Driven-religious, stay within his means) in white (Luke Skywalker) and then you have Bill Belichick (Cheating, Scoundrel, win at any cost, Hoodie wearing Tyrant) in black with his hood. It’s a perfect parallel thus Good vs. Evil, I can’t wait to watch.

All aside, the battle will be pretty close to even. If you take a look at the stats of the seven teams that played the Colts before now, they all have better statistical value and on paper and should have beaten the Colts. To no avail, here they sit undefeated. This is in despite of their leading receiver Harrison being injured and with only two receiving TD’s on the season, an all time low for him dating back to his rookie season in 96’. However, somehow Peyton finds the open guy and R. Wayne is picking up that slack for Harrison. Wayne is on pace with Moss of the PATS but not in the TD area, of course if Dungy were to play like Belichick and run up the score maybe things would be different. The average margin of victory for the Colts has been some 17.4 points per opponent and the Pats 25.5 a difference of 8.1 in favor of the Pats. So, I have to say if the Colts stay within 8 points of the Pats then they can win. Checking out the other stats here how they match-up:

N.E. Indy
Offense: Pts: 41.4 32.0
Yds: 439.5 399.0
Pass: 303.8 258.7
Rush: 135.8 140.3

Defense: Pts: 15.9 14.6
Yds: 268.5 272.9
Pass: 181.5 165.4
Rush: 87.0 107.4

What will they do? That is the question we anticipate and even though, on paper N.E. has the advantage…the game still has to be played on the field. I am sure the Pats are reveling at the notion of taking down Mr. Commercial QB in Peyton Manning but what are the Colts waiting to do, take down Poster Boy Tom Brady. The tough and rugged Colts seem to always find a way to win and the Pats always find a way to impress.

If you can only watch one game this weekend then this is it!

Yahoo (2007). Stats. Accessed October 30, 2007 from

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/stats/byteam

Favre does it again!

Brett Favre , the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, goes on the road to visit the Denver Broncos at Invesco Field with Jay Cutler at the helm in a Monday Night showdown. This was Favre’s 33rd Monday Night game.

The game started out as if it were going to be a shootout. The Broncos first scoring drive lasted 5 minutes and 24 seconds and consisted of 10 plays that went 60 yards ended with a 5 yard Touchdown pass to T. Scheffler. With the score in the Broncos favor T. Sauberman kicks off and the Packers begin their drive from their own 21 yard line. Favre calls the play in the huddle, gets the team up to the line, calls the signals and has the ball snapped to him. One play and 23 seconds later, Favre finds rookie wide receiver J. Jones down the right sideline with Champ Bailey trying to catch up and hits him with a 79 yard pass for a Touchdown. Denver would return the favor by driving all the way back down to the Packers 1 yard line before and offensive lineman knocks the ball out of Cutler’s hand resulting in a fumble recovery by the Packers. The question you have to ask yourself is where was the defense?

At the end of the first half, the score was 13-7, Packers. The score could have been 17-7 if the Packers weren’t plagued with false starts by the offensive line on their third drive. This would also prove to be the last time the Packers would get into scoring range. The second half would only allow for two Bronco field goals which would tie the game at the end of regulation.

Green Bay wins the coin toss and elects to receive for to begin overtime. Once again on the first play after the kickoff, Brett found Jennings this time and on the left sideline beating Dre Bly with an 82 yard Touchdown pass for the win.

The Packers win 19-13!

McNabb's Bold Statement

The usually subtle Donovan McNabb states, "I think one thing that people tend to forget is - the NFC East championship comes through Philadelphia." This is a bold statement that the Eagles have yet to back up unless he was talking about the route to get to the Meadowlands where the Giants are riding their defense to victory as of late.

After making his statement the Eagles faced off with the Bears in Philadelphia. The Eagles were in the Red Zone four times walking away with one touchdown and three field goals. But a Bears drive that started on their 3 with 1 minute, 57 seconds left in the game concluded with a touchdown pass from Griese to Muhammad from the 15 yard line on second down for the winning score.

Now the Eagles are 2-4 and are getting ready to square off with the Minnesota Vikings this weekend before they play the division leading Dallas Cowboys who will be coming off a bye week on November 4th at 8:15 pm on NBC.