Super Bowl Thoughts

Congratulations New England Patriots! 2014 NFL Champs. Their fourth title.

Great game! 28-24. The Patriots were down 10 entering the fourth quarter. Down 3 approaching the two minute warning. Those are the makings of a great ending. It was.

It was the first time a winning Super Bowl team came back from 10 down in the fourth.

Tom Brady was terrific. MVP of the game. He completed 37 of 50 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns. He threw two interceptions. One was a terrible decision when he had his team in the red zone. The other was just a good play by Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner. Brady peppered the defense with short passes all game. Then took a few shots downfield when he had matchups that he liked. Particularly with tight end Rob Gronkowski.

A fluke play nearly kept a Patriot win from even happening. Jermaine Kearse caught a bobbled deflection while reclining on the turf. It was eerily similar to David Tyree's helmet catch from seven years ago. Not in style but certainly in effectiveness. It set the Seahawks up nicely on the Patriots 6-yard line with just over a minute to play. A Marshawn Lynch run got the ball to the doorstep of the goal line. On second down, Patriots backup corner Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson's pass to Ricardo Lockette. Patriots win.

A lot of talking heads are ripping the play call of the game-sealing Wilson pass that ended up in the Patriots hands. They are honking about running Lynch instead of passing the ball. It's easy to say that now. The pass didn't work. It's always fun to play that questioning game. The Seahawks had the timeouts and two more downs to run Lynch. Everyone was expecting a Lynch run. Why not try something that isn't expected. Or as expected. If it had succeeded, the play call would have been bold. The Seahawks clearly had the trust in Wilson to keep the ball away from the Patriots. Butler just made the play. The Seahawks called a play. The Patriots made a play. That's why they play the game.

The Patriots dominated the first half. It felt like the Seahawks defense was on their heels. Outside of a deep heave by Wilson to breakout receiver Chris Matthews and a frantic 30 second drive to end the half, the Seahawks really did very little on offense. It was remarkable that the game was tied at 14 at the half. That tie score didn't bode well for a Patriots team that controlled the first 30 minutes.

The Seahawks came out of the long halftime like a team that was going to wrap up a repeat Super Bowl title early. The Seahawks defense shut down the Patriots offense in the third quarter. The Seahawks offense put up 10 points to take a 24-14 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Patriots had no answer for Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett. He sometimes beat the ball back to Brady. Power rush, speed rush, stunts. He did a lot of everything and the Patriots offensive linemen were often helpless. If there was a player that matched Brady's play it was Bennett.

Seahawks receiver Chris Matthews came off of the practice squad in December. He caught the onside kick against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship that helped put his team in the Super Bowl. He was a star yesterday. Four catches for 109 yards. He broke his team out of their first half offensive slumber with a long reception that set up their first touchdown. He scored the touchdown at the end of the first half that tied the score. The Patriots could have had a two touchdown lead at the half. Matthews kept that from happening.

The one shitty thing about this terrific football game was the brawl at the end of it. The Seahawks clearly don't like to lose. No one does but there's really no reason to react to losing like that. Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin was ejected from the game. No player had ever been ejected from a Super Bowl. Pathetic.

NFL Network had 8.5 hours of Super Bowl pregame programming. There was a time when the big game pregame coverage consisted of the NFL Films highlights of each Super Bowl and a couple hours, if that, of talk. This was in the 1970s so there weren't too many Super Bowls to highlight. It could be done in about 3-4 hours. Now it takes a day to cover 48 Super Bowls. The growth of the game in the last 40 years has been astonishing.

That growth can be seen in these prices.
A look at the Super Bowl concessions menu:
Big AZ Dog-11 bucks
Kosher Dog-9 bucks
Jumbo Dog-6 bucks
Nachos-8 bucks
Kettle Corn-8 bucks
Souvenir Popcorn-15 bucks
Side of Cheese-2 bucks
Pretzel-7 bucks
Peanuts-6 bucks
Dreyer's Dibs-7 bucks
Drumstick-6 bucks
M&M's-5 bucks
Red Vines-5 bucks
Draft beer-12 bucks
Souvenir Soda-9 bucks
Regular Soda-7 bucks
Bottled Water-6 bucks
Gatorade-7 bucks

Side of cheese? 6 bucks for H2O? 15 bucks for a Souvenir Popcorn? That souvenir had better be a game ball.

RIP Ann Mara. An NFL presence since 1954. The early generations of the founding football families are sadly becoming few in number.

The 2015 NFL season begins now.