WEEKLY WHINE

Super this

It's the aftermath of the Super Bowl, which of course means that you have all those empty bags of chips to clean up. Anyway, while you're doing that, it's also a good time to reflect on that football game. With the win, the Broncos ended a thirteen-year title domination by the NFC. That was making people start calling for weird things like playoff seeding where it doesn't matter which conference you're from when you go to the playoffs. That could be weird, so it's a good thing that somebody finally ended that streak.

As we all know, the Broncos were big time underdogs, but they sure didn't play like it. Going into the game, the situation I saw was two powerful teams, each with a strong running game, a good aerial attack, and in-yer-face defense. It wasn't looking anything like the past few Super Bowls, where one team was a heavy favorite because it was so much better. Here, it was an even balance, actually in Denver's favor in many categories, so why didn't the odds reflect that? For one thing, history. Green Bay was the defending champion, Denver had never won it, and the AFC hadn't won it since Marcus Allen was still young. I think that's about it.

This game had everything you could ask for: Broncos took an early lead but got a scare when Terrell Davis didn't play the second quarter. Fortunately, he did indeed come back. Anyway, in the second half, the Broncos kept pulling ahead, but the Packers kept tying it again. Eventually, with about four minutes left, John Elway had the ball. But it was Davis who saved the day on first-n-goal from the 18; he ran 17 down to the one. That meant three more tries just inside the two minute warning, leading to the game's big controversy.

Because of the 17-yard run, Mike Holmgren thought it was a first down and that the Broncos would have three tries before fourth down. What's so big about that? Late in the third quarter, Brett Favre expended a timeout, so the Packers were down to two. If it was first and goal, they'd call a timeout after that play and after the next one, so the clock would be running after third down. So he did what the rest of us would call unthinkable: He let them score. However, make no mistake; the team was behind him. That meant maximum time for Favre to engineer a tying drive and force the first overtime in Super Bowl history. So Terrell Davis cruised into the end zone, Favre said, "My turn!", and the Packers started the drive.

We know that it didn't work out, meaning that it's easy to second guess that call. But let's be realistic. If they had come back to tie it, would we be going after him? Maybe, but we'd probably see what a good call it is. As it was, things didn't work right and the Packers fell to the more betterer team. As you see, it's definitely the most bestest Super Bowl since XXIII, when Joe Montana led the 49ers back to score the winning touchdown over the Bengals with only 00:38 left. Legend says that when Montana started the drive, he went to the huddle and, all of a sudden, pointed into the crowd and said, "Hey look, it's John Candy!"