The Morning After

So I’m still not exactly sure how I feel today. The weird thing is that there are still a lot of games to play but it feels like there shouldn’t be. I was pondering where this loss ranked among the tough losses we’ve had through the years, and the answer is, I have no idea. Obviously, if we miss out of the #1 seed by a game, it’ll hurt more, but I honestly thought that it wouldn’t matter before the game, so I’m not really even depressed today. I see New England going 15-1 and Indy going about 14-2 or 13-3. The two seed seems fairly secure, and hopefully the team can come off the mat with a tough win next week in San Diego.

These are my thoughts of day:

1. There are a lot of pissed off people in New England today. A lot of people lost a lot of money on that game because they bet the Pats. That makes me smile.

2. The Patriots seem rather surly even though they won. Their aura of invincibility was irrevocably shattered yesterday, and I don’t think they like it.

3. What’s with Belichick being an ass to Dungy? I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I sort of am. Is this really over the comments Dungy said after the cheating? If you read those comments, they really weren’t much. He seemed to be saying it was a shame that people will taint their accomplishments the way people look at Barry Bonds. BB is a psycho. He must be a very unhappy man.

4. The coverage seems to go in two veins: some people say NE is going 19-0 because Indy can’t possibly win there. Others seem to realize that this was about more than a win and a loss, because that won’t matter much in the end. This was about NE getting exposed by a team that was down 5 starters. Indy is perfectly capable of winning in Foxborough, as they’ve shown the last two years. I actually think the bad weather will hurt NE more than Indy, but I’ve made that point for weeks and even I’m sick of saying it.

5. There were a couple, not many, of weird comments about Manning. Um, he played pretty great folks. His receivers dropped two TD passes or this game isn’t close. His left tackle was a disaster, and he was throwing balls to Aaron Moorehead. This one isn’t on him. He out played Brady, who had all his weapons, but other than Moss bailing his high throws out all day, didn’t really look that good. He did have a nice scramble for a big first down and threw a nice ball to Stallworth and two good tosses to Welker at the end, but this game was about people other than Manning and Brady. Both had good throws and bad throws.

6. I’m glad the D is pissed. Honestly, I’m ok with their ‘collapse’ because they still held the Pats to 24, but they clearly felt they should have held them to 10 or so. That’s the right attitude. Bring that fire Sunday night, will you?

7. I’m pretty much right in line with Kravitz’s take which sounds like things we said here yesterday. Honestly, the red zone failures yesterday had as much to do with personnel losses as anything. No Harrison and no AG meant that Clark could be blanketed all day. The FO Comments mention that as well.

8. Randy Moss is the unquestioned MVP of the NFL. I can’t honestly understand how there is even a debate about this. Can someone explain to me how an argument can be made for anyone else. As far as the Tim Jennings thing goes, don’t ask me. It’s utterly inexplicable. He must be fast, because he’s not good at much else. He did almost have a pick on a nice jump of a route against Moss yesterday, but that was the only play I saw him make. There isn’t anything else to say about him that hasn’t already be screamed.

9. Thanks to all of you for reading! I had a good time with the live game blog and we passed 1000 hits in a day for the first time, so that was cool. Win or lose, 18to88.com will be here for you to comiserate with. I’m actually not surprised by the lack of blowback from the Pats fans. I think we all know that game could have gone either way, and there isn’t any point in blowing crap until January when all hell will break loose.

10. I’m not going to post a lot of links today or tomorrow unless they are really strong. I’m exhausted by the past week, and sort of tired of the talk. We will be doing 18 Plays tonight, so look for that tomorrow.

11. About the noise glitch on CBS. . . seriously people, get over this story. Some idiots actually think that the technical glitch they saw on TV was what things sounded like in the dome. I hope the league does a full investigation so the morons can stop their yapping. NOT EVERYONE CHEATS PATS FANS! Just because your coach is a freak doesn’t mean the whole world is. Give it up.

Like I said, I’m not really depressed at all; I’m irritated and a little pissed off. I imagine the Colts feel the same way.