How much does it cost for a team to blow a game
I really want to know how much the NFL paid the Broncos to lose their game with the Buffalo Bills yesterday?
I say that for a couple of reasons:
1. Jay Cutler threw so many interceptions at so many opportune moments in the game and yet he was impecably accurate the rest of the game.
2. And, while I know that Champ Bailey has been on the sidelines for a long time... but he hasn't forgotten how to play the game, has he? I watched him, late in the 4th quarter, when the defense really needed a stop, run beside the Buffalo running back for 15 yards instead of tackling him. He was swatting ineptly at the football instead of tackling him. Champ is one of the most sure tackling corners in the league... and to see that was an aweful display of the worst kind of football imagineable.
3. I think that the NFL(or CBS) wants the excitement of the match-up on next Sunday. I think they were going to lose their advertising dollars if the game was meaningless... so they paid the Broncos to throw the game so that the game in SanDiego would mean something. This is a script so transparent that it could only be written in Hollywood.
Obviously this is my un-scientific, un-certain opinion... but, WOW... what a mess. Congratulations San Diego on your AFC West Winning Season. No one out of the AFC West was going to get past the first round this year anyway, so... See you next year Mike Shanahan... try and keep a running back healthy next year, and maybe we will have a chance to be good again.
By the way, I will gladly come back next week and happily eat crow if the Broncos beat San Diego and make it to the play offs. We can start our Wake of the 2008 Denver Broncos a week later.
~Ickarus Maximus
I say that for a couple of reasons:
1. Jay Cutler threw so many interceptions at so many opportune moments in the game and yet he was impecably accurate the rest of the game.
2. And, while I know that Champ Bailey has been on the sidelines for a long time... but he hasn't forgotten how to play the game, has he? I watched him, late in the 4th quarter, when the defense really needed a stop, run beside the Buffalo running back for 15 yards instead of tackling him. He was swatting ineptly at the football instead of tackling him. Champ is one of the most sure tackling corners in the league... and to see that was an aweful display of the worst kind of football imagineable.
3. I think that the NFL(or CBS) wants the excitement of the match-up on next Sunday. I think they were going to lose their advertising dollars if the game was meaningless... so they paid the Broncos to throw the game so that the game in SanDiego would mean something. This is a script so transparent that it could only be written in Hollywood.
Obviously this is my un-scientific, un-certain opinion... but, WOW... what a mess. Congratulations San Diego on your AFC West Winning Season. No one out of the AFC West was going to get past the first round this year anyway, so... See you next year Mike Shanahan... try and keep a running back healthy next year, and maybe we will have a chance to be good again.
By the way, I will gladly come back next week and happily eat crow if the Broncos beat San Diego and make it to the play offs. We can start our Wake of the 2008 Denver Broncos a week later.
~Ickarus Maximus
So, the season is over for the Broncos, and I have to say that I am a little relieved. When Denver went on their skid after their last win of 2008 against the KC Chiefs (24-17), I knew that this debacle was in the works. As if I needed any more confirmation than that, a co-worker called it perfectly. She said that they would lose the rest of their games, and that San Diego would win the rest of their games and thus the AFC West. I didn't want to believe it, but in the back of my head, I was already thinking it.
ReplyDeleteIf you needed proof, you needed to look no further than the next week when the Broncos were man-handled by the Carolina Panthers, 30-10. They were out played in all aspects of the game by a team that is good, but not among the NFC elite (at least not in my opinion). {San Diego, eeks out a win over Kansas City in the fading moments of the game and gains a game on Denver}
They then come home to play a very beatable Buffalo Bills team (the theme of my original rant - I think they played the worst football I have ever seed from a Denver Broncos Team. Epitomized by Champ Bailey running along side the Buffalo running back smacking at the football, but not attempting to tackle the runner. {Again, San Diego wins... this time more impressively against the Tampa Bay Bucs}
Finally the showdown. You just had to know how this was going to end. I watched the game with mild amusement... knowing that Terri and I were going to be proved right. Obviously I wanted it to be different... but either way... like I said last week... the team from the AFC West will be done next week anyway... so it is almost better to leave this way.
Well, maybe the loss to San Diego wasn't a fluke. Maybe the Chargers are for real. I thought for sure they would be handled by the Colts, but no sir, not so fast.
ReplyDeleteSan Diego won a tight contest that ended in overtime with a Chargers narrow escape. I don't like their chances against Pittsburgh, but that just means that if you are a betting sort, you should put all of your money on the Chargers to win.