The 17th game and the bad football in Championship games and Super Bowl

[BADOLBILZ]

First of all........I was a proponent of the extra game and I do believe eventually that expanded rosters, 18 games and 2 byes will happen.

 

But in the first season with both the extra game as well as the 2020-instituted extra playoff team.............I think the mental and physical fatigue really showed at the end.

 

The NFL got close games..........but for real football fans it was a sloppy finish in both the championship games and SB.   OL and QB play was particularly weak.

 

A couple observations:

 

1) This season both #1 seeds came from divisions without another playoff team.   That has happened in shorter seasons too but this time neither was seen as a dominant favorite to reach the SB,  which seemed very unusual.

 

2) The best teams........I would argue Buff/KC and Tampa/LAR all had 4 game paths to winning the SB and met in the divisional round.    Only the Rams survived..........and barely.

 

 

[Coach Tuesday]

Last night’s product was terrible.  Anodyne watered-down 90s revival crap, from the commercials to the announcers (Al Michaels sounded like he had died three years ago) - and I actually even liked the halftime show for once.  It was so boring that at one point they literally did a history of people named Joe in the Super Bowl.  Just a bland, joyless affair and I’m sure tired players played a role in that.  Unfortunately the Super Bowl isn’t really for “real football fans”, I’m not the target audience.

[dave mcbride]

6 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Last night’s product was terrible.  Anodyne watered-down 90s revival crap, from the commercials to the announcers (Al Michaels sounded like he had died three years ago) - and I actually even liked the halftime show for once.  It was so boring that at one point they literally did a history of people named Joe in the Super Bowl.  Just a bland, joyless affair and I’m sure tired players played a role in that.  Unfortunately the Super Bowl isn’t really for “real football fans”, I’m not the target audience.

I thought it was a pretty good game. In my opinion it's the best SB since the Atlanta/NE game. The Philly/NE game had zero defense, and the SF/KC game was more "blah" than this one. Last year's SB and the NE/Rams one were bad. The stars all showed up last night and played well, and in my view a 23-20 score is pretty much the perfect number--it indicates that both offenses and defenses made plays. I worry less about a SB team being not as dominant as one might like; the game should be judged on its own terms. At the end of the day, it was a see-saw, hard fought battle with a lot of important individual plays. The fact that the teams are flawed is meaningless to me.  The Bills are flawed too. 

Edited February 14, 2022 by dave mcbride

[Coach Tuesday]

1 minute ago, dave mcbride said:

I thought it was a pretty good game. In my opinion it's the best SB since the Atlanta/NE game. The Philly/NE game had zero defense, and the SF/KC game was more "blah" than this one. Last year's SB and the NE/Rams games were bad. The stars all showed up last night and played well, and in my view a 23-20 score is pretty much the perfect number--it indicates that both offenses and defenses made plays. I worry less about a SB team being not as dominant as one might like; the game should be judged on its own terms. At the end of the day, it was a see-saw, hard fought battle with a lot of important individual plays. The fact that the teams are flawed is meaningless to me.  The Bills are flawed too. 

It would’ve been a good game for a week 6 Sunday night football or a week 16 flex - but as Super Bowls go it was pretty weak, neither team was very good compared to the teams that were sitting at home - Bucs, Cowboys, Bills, Chiefs, even the Titans and Ravens are probably better than either team that played last night.

[No_Matter_What]

I have honestly no idea what you are trying to say but whatever it is you lack sample size to draw any conclusions.

[Coach Tuesday]

Just now, No_Matter_What said:

I have honestly no idea what you are trying to say but whatever it is you lack sample size to draw any conclusions.

But he makes up for it in sample girth!

[Success]

It was a great Super Bowl. I'm not sure what people are talking about when they say it was sub-par. It was a really hard-fought game that came down to the last minute.

 

[Brennan Huff]

11 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Last night’s product was terrible.  Anodyne watered-down 90s revival crap, from the commercials to the announcers (Al Michaels sounded like he had died three years ago) - and I actually even liked the halftime show for once.  It was so boring that at one point they literally did a history of people named Joe in the Super Bowl.  Just a bland, joyless affair and I’m sure tired players played a role in that.  Unfortunately the Super Bowl isn’t really for “real football fans”, I’m not the target audience.

“Real football fans” are watching regardless. The target audience is literally the rest of the planet

[Coach Tuesday]

Just now, Brennan Huff said:

“Real football fans” are watching regardless. The target audience is literally the rest of the planet

Exactly.

[GunnerBill]

25 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

First of all........I was a proponent of the extra game and I do believe eventually that expanded rosters, 18 games and 2 byes will happen.

 

But in the first season with both the extra game as well as the 2020-instituted extra playoff team.............I think the mental and physical fatigue really showed at the end.

 

The NFL got close games..........but for real football fans it was a sloppy finish in both the championship games and SB.   OL and QB play was particularly weak.

 

A couple observations:

 

1) This season both #1 seeds came from divisions without another playoff team.   That has happened in shorter seasons too but this time neither was seen as a dominant favorite to reach the SB,  which seemed very unusual.

 

2) The best teams........I would argue Buff/KC and Tampa/LAR all had 4 game paths to winning the SB and met in the divisional round.    Only the Rams survived..........and barely.

 

 

As someone who was on the other side of the 17 game argument, but agree with you 18 and 2 byes is inevitable at the next CBA, I completely agree. Divisional weekend was the high watermark. The Championship games and the Superbowl looked like tired football. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

26 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

First of all........I was a proponent of the extra game and I do believe eventually that expanded rosters, 18 games and 2 byes will happen.

 

But in the first season with both the extra game as well as the 2020-instituted extra playoff team.............I think the mental and physical fatigue really showed at the end.

 

The NFL got close games..........but for real football fans it was a sloppy finish in both the championship games and SB.   OL and QB play was particularly weak.

 

A couple observations:

 

1) This season both #1 seeds came from divisions without another playoff team.   That has happened in shorter seasons too but this time neither was seen as a dominant favorite to reach the SB,  which seemed very unusual.

 

2) The best teams........I would argue Buff/KC and Tampa/LAR all had 4 game paths to winning the SB and met in the divisional round.    Only the Rams survived..........and barely.

 

Agree completely that mental and physical fatigue/wear and tear showed at the end.

 

I realize this will never happen, but I'm a proponent of shortening, not lengthening, the season.   Remember when the season was 14 games long?  I know you do.

 

Two reasons: 

1) I think it's a "bait and switch" for teams and ticketholders of teams with open air stadia to keep extending the season into the depths of seasonal winter

2) I think the wear-and-tear of a longer season degrades the quality of the playoff games and superbowl

 

Also not a fan of the extra playoff team and only 1 bye.  I think the initial round of playoffs was low-quality.

 

Like I said, I understand it will never happen because $$$$, but if we're throwing down what we'd like to see happen, that's where I am

 

 

[Southern Bills Fan]

It was a close game but not really a good game. 

[JoPoy88]

They absolutely need to expand rosters if they are going to continue adding games. Granted those spots will be mostly taken up by replacement-level fringe talent and probably not go very far in improving the quality of football week over week, but it will at least help with the fatigue issue the OP is talking about. 

[Mr. WEO]

disagree.  This playoff season had some of the closest wildest games as a whole in memory.  

 

 

speaking of memory--it was only a year ago (16 game season) where the playoffs featured a GB blowout of the Rams, Bills beatdown of the Ravens, Bucs spanking the Saints, a decent NFCC game and a KC beatdown of the Bills in the AFCC and a blowout in the SB (Chiefs too tired?).

 

This playoff season was riveting.  17 games no negative impact.

 

[BADOLBILZ]

10 minutes ago, Success said:

It was a great Super Bowl. I'm not sure what people are talking about when they say it was sub-par. It was a really hard-fought game that came down to the last minute.

 

 

 

Here is a question for you........did you find the Bills 2017 regular season highly entertaining?

 

All those nail biting finishes brought to you by 60 minutes of Jauron Ball.

 

Bad football with a close ending is different than a great football game.

 

This SB was sloppy.   The OL's were gassed,   the QB play was shabby(Stafford even tore OBJ's ACL for him with a bad pass),  some inactive Bengals dude ran on the field in his jammies and might have killed a drive,  a guy who hadn't dropped a pass all season drops a bunny to help the Rams get the ball back........the list of 's was long.......... and then the refs let both sides get away with everything until the game was on the line and started raining flags........otherwise a second half of futility where neither side looked like they wanted to win the game ends in a much uglier 4-and-out for the Rams.

 

[dave mcbride]

29 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

It would’ve been a good game for a week 6 Sunday night football or a week 16 flex - but as Super Bowls go it was pretty weak, neither team was very good compared to the teams that were sitting at home - Bucs, Cowboys, Bills, Chiefs, even the Titans and Ravens are probably better than either team that played last night.

There have been a LOT of bad SBs. They've been better in recent decades (partly because the Pats seemed constitutionally incapable of blowing anyone out or getting blown out in their 9 appearances with Brady), but for a very long time they were generally blowouts. And there have been blowouts in recent years too. Seattle/Denver, anyone?? KC/TB? http://www.espn.com/nfl/superbowl/history/winners

6 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Here is a question for you........did you find the Bills 2017 regular season highly entertaining?

 

All those nail biting finishes brought to you by 60 minutes of Jauron Ball.

 

Bad football with a close ending is different than a great football game.

 

This SB was sloppy.   The OL's were gassed,   the QB play was shabby(Stafford even tore OBJ's ACL for him with a bad pass),  some inactive Bengals dude ran on the field in his jammies and might have killed a drive,  a guy who hadn't dropped a pass all season drops a bunny to help the Rams get the ball back........the list of 's was long.......... and then the refs let both sides get away with everything until the game was on the line and started raining flags........otherwise a second half of futility where neither side looked like they wanted to win the game ends in a much uglier 4-and-out for the Rams.

 

Every SB has its share of mistakes and bad plays. And the Bengals line wasn't gassed; they just suck. They are who we thought they were. I've seen a LOT worse. This is the best game since the Feb 2017 game (Atl/NE), in my opinion.

Edited February 14, 2022 by dave mcbride

[Success]

1 minute ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Here is a question for you........did you find the Bills 2017 regular season highly entertaining?

 

All those nail biting finishes brought to you by 60 minutes of Jauron Ball.

 

Bad football with a close ending is different than a great football game.

 

This SB was sloppy.   The OL's were gassed,   the QB play was shabby(Stafford even tore OBJ's ACL for him with a bad pass),  some inactive Bengals dude ran on the field in his jammies and might have killed a drive,  a guy who hadn't dropped a pass all season drops a bunny to help the Rams get the ball back........the list of 's was long.......... and then the refs let both sides get away with everything until the game was on the line and started raining flags........otherwise a second half of futility where neither side looked like they wanted to win the game ends in a much uglier 4-and-out for the Rams.

 

 

When have we seen perfect Super Bowls?  

 

In the SB, more often than not, defense tends to shine. That makes for a more "sloppy" looking game. Think about what happened to the greatest show on turf in '01, or to Brady's Pats in '07.

 

It's a pretty psychological game, so it can often be disjointed and have no real pace.  The refs were fine - they missed one PI, and called a hold that was kind of phantom, but those completely evened out.

 

I grew up during the blowouts. Yesterday's game was great - a nail biter & down to the final series.

 

[GunnerBill]

3 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

This SB was sloppy.   The OL's were gassed,   the QB play was shabby(Stafford even tore OBJ's ACL for him with a bad pass),  some inactive Bengals dude ran on the field in his jammies and might have killed a drive,  a guy who hadn't dropped a pass all season drops a bunny to help the Rams get the ball back........the list of 's was long.......... and then the refs let both sides get away with everything until the game was on the line and started raining flags........otherwise a second half of futility where neither side looked like they wanted to win the game ends in a much uglier 4-and-out for the Rams.

 

 

I said when Vernon Hargreaves was drafted in the first that it was amazing to me. His NFL career will now forever be defined by a jammie shuffle in the Superbowl. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

There have been plenty of bad SB's played during 16 game schedules too.  Can argue the game was good or bad, but have no way of arguing that it was due to the 17th game.

 

As far as being gassed, never heard the actual results but was predicted to be the hottest SB ever.

 

I'm no statistician, but would think the temp would have more effect on players being gassed than the 17th game!

 

The Bills and KC defenses both looked gas by the end, that was 3 games less played.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

[RoyBatty is alive]

39 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Last night’s product was terrible.  Anodyne watered-down 90s revival crap, from the commercials to the announcers (Al Michaels sounded like he had died three years ago) - and I actually even liked the halftime show for once.  It was so boring that at one point they literally did a history of people named Joe in the Super Bowl.  Just a bland, joyless affair and I’m sure tired players played a role in that.  Unfortunately the Super Bowl isn’t really for “real football fans”, I’m not the target audience.

Agree with it all except the half time show which I didn't bother to watch.  Matt Stafford play was terrible yet somehow won.