Well then.
I am pretty shocked right now. The New York Giants just majorly upset the New England Patriots in my lovely semi-home state of Arizona. I don’t know what to think. The Patriots didn’t lose a single game in the regular season, the first team to do so since the 1972 Dolphins, who went undefeated before the NFL changed to a 16-game season. Ironically, the Patriots got their 16-0 record at the expense of the Giants in the last game of the season, when the Giants nearly beat them. But the Giants, who were huge underdogs in their final two playoff contests against Dallas (13-3), and Green Bay (13-3), the top seeds in the NFC, had the last laugh. I honestly cannot believe it. In some ways this was a much better ending than a Patriot win, because it was so unexpected and incredible. But at the same time, to see a team go 18-0 and lose the only game that really matters - that is painful. Oh well, I suppose the Patriots have won enough Super Bowls for this decade anyway, though they could easily be back again next year.
My own team, the Kansas City Chiefs, was pretty terrible this year, going 4-12 and ending the season with a streak of nine losses. I was able to see most of the games thanks to a service from DirecTV that lets NFL SuperFan subscribers watch them online. It launched this season and luckily my parents already had the SuperFan package, being crazy football fans themselves. Unfortunately most of the games were too painful to watch. The defense had improved a bit, but the offensive line remained porous. Star running back Larry Johnson was out of shape after missing training camp and got injured in week 9, and Damon Huard, the aging quarterback who played incredibly well after Trent Green was injured early in the season, couldn’t find his groove while being constantly roughed up or sacked. Around mid-season, the team was 4-3 and nearly beat the Indianapolis Colts during that team’s mid-season slump. From there things got progressively worse, culminating in a painful loss to the Jets, another terrible team, in the last game of the season.
The team does have some talent. Brodie Croyle, the young quarterback who coach Herm Edwards hopes is the future of the team, has shown some signs of greatness, though it is hard to evaluate him when he has to play behind such a terrible offensive line. Larry Johnson, who rushed for 1,749 yards in the nine games that he started in 2005 and 1,789 yards in 16 games as a starter in 2006, still has the potential to be one of the league’s best running backs. Dwayne Bowe, the rookie wide receiver who showed his skill in an upset of the playoff-bound San Diego Chargers, could be incredible with a solid quarterback passing to him. And tight-end Tony Gonzalez, easily the Chiefs’ best player, had a record-setting season last year and probably still has two or three more seasons of play left in him. On defense, the Chiefs are doing pretty well, with defensive end Jared Allen recording 15.5 sacks. The team has potential, but the run defense needs to improve and the offensive lines absolutely must be reworked. Before Edwards became coach ahead of the 2006 season, the Chiefs had been an offensive powerhouse, setting the record for rushing touchdowns in a season in 2003, their best season since 1997. However, the Chiefs’ defense was terrible. Now the defense is decent but the offense is malfunctioning. If Edwards can somehow recover from this bottom and get the offense and defense to improve in sync, the Chiefs could be in the playoffs next year. Otherwise, next season could make 4-12 look like a fairly good year.
In other news, I spent the afternoon importing entries from my old blog into WordPress. I’m not quite finished yet, but they’re all in and they seem to be uncorrupted. There may be quite a few broken links though.
Tags: chiefs, football, giants, incredible, patriots, super-bowl