The Philadelphia Eagles are your Super Bowl champions after a 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots. One of the key plays for the Eagles was a trick play that resulted in quarterback Nick Foles catching a touchdown. It was a really well-designed call – and what made it even more impressive was that the Patriots tried a very similar play on an earlier possession. In an ultimate troll move, the Eagles saw the Patriots and raised them one score. WELL DONE.
With NFL preseason games getting underway, it's time for athletes to take a break from whatever they were doing over the summer and get back to football. In the case of Philadelphia Eagles tight end Brent Celek, that meant retiring from his job at Wawa, a chain of convenience store/gas stations.
Okay, maybe Celek didn't actually work at a Wawa this summer, but he did film some scenes with customers as he mulled around in a prank video from Whistle Sports. And very few people recognize him, despite a number of references to the fact that he plays professional football, some more obvious than others.
To be fair to the citizens of Philadelphia, Celek kind of just looks like a nondescript in-shape man. I hope he makes more of these, though, because his wit and improv skills are pretty solid.
Holy smokes, what an entertaining postseason it's been. We've now got our two Super Bowl champs: The Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. I correctly picked the Broncos to make the Super Bowl at the start of the year, but I was wrong on the winged team that would represent the NFC. Embarrassingly wrong. Oops. In any case, let's get to the action.
-Our Worst Team of the Week at least played in probably the most exciting game of the playoffs. You'd think scoring 44 points would preclude you from being the worst team, but the Kansas City Chiefs still managed to pull it off, thanks to Andrew "The Giant" Luck's late-game heroics and some pedestrian at best playcalling. And once again, T.Y. Hilton explodes for a huge game when it doesn't count for fantasy purpose. The T.Y. must stand for Totally Yucky, because that's how I felt anytime I started him this year. But I digress...
-The Most Boring Game of the playoffs was easily the Chargers/Bengals, unless you think counting how many mistakes Andy Dalton makes is entertaining. I don't, but he made seven, by my count. The Niners win over the Panthers was pretty boring, too, but at least it had a couple of ridiculous plays, like Ted Ginn in the penultimate snap of the game running through about eight Niners defenders and being faster than anyone ever.
-Speaking of faster than anyone ever, the Stupidest Play of the Week was just Richard Sherman's quickly deteriorating postgame interview. Moreso because it was stupid entertaining, and I'm sure Erin Andrews feared for her life whilst "conducting" it. But I still laughed heartily. And you should too.
-By the way, if you somehow didn't see that Seahawks/Niners game, GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW. Find out some website that will stream it or some channel that's re-airing it, because it's absolutely worth watching. Those defenses are probably the two best in the league. Also, the Seahawks' jerseys look like what I'd design if I made a created team on one of the Madden games.
-I'm glad the Patriots decided to show up for today's game against the Broncos. The most entertaining part of that game was probably when Thunder, the Broncos' mascot, was trying to bang a drum during a play and some random officer stopped him. He looked so distraught, it was fantastic.
-This is the first time I can remember the two teams I was hoping would lose actually lost. Who knew it was possible?!
-Many thank yous to those of you who have read this over the season. It's been a ton of fun to write, and we'll be back again next year (and realistically, probably for the Super Bowl, too). Looking forward to the big game--it'll be rad!
-The Lions/Eagles game was quite entertaining to watch. Partially because the Lions' Jeremy Ross had a punt and kickoff return for touchdowns, partially because LeSean McCoy ran for 217 yards and two scores, but mostly because the game was played in insane blizzard conditions. The Lions fumbled six times (good luck seeing a fumble in this play), and after an 8-0 first half, the teams combined to score 46 points in the second half.
-Speaking of teams scoring a lot in the second half, the Vikings and Ravens each scored three touchdowns in the final quarter after playing what was going to be our Most Boring Game of the Week. But luckily, games are four quarters instead of three, and the Ravens eked out a win after seemingly blowing the game, then seemingly winning it, then seemingly blowing it again before finally actually winning it. Seriously, there were 28 points scored after the two minute warning. Absolutely incredible.
-Speaking of teams blowing games, the Browns did just that. With nothing to play for, they dominated New England all day and were leading 26-14 with just over a minute left before Tom Brady connected with Julian Edelman for a really nice touchdown throw, then, after Edelman drew a defenseless receiver penalty on that very play, the Pats recovered an onside kick and marched 40 yards to another touchdown, this time to Danny Amendola. Even after all that madness, the Browns came down the field and gave Billy Cundiff a shot at a 58-yard field goal, which was woefully short. It was an awesome comeback, though the Pats likely lost stud TE Rob Gronkowski to a torn ACL. Oh, and Josh Gordon now has 776 yards in the last four games. THAT'S INSANE.
-Speaking of insane, the Steelers almost had two insane returns, one at the end of the first half and one at the end of the game. Troy Polamalu returned a missed field goal about 30 yards before tossing a lateral to a teammate, and after a few more laterals the Steelers finally got taken down at the Dolphins 40 yard line. The end of the game was even more chaotic, as Emmanuel Sanders caught a pass with no time left, then the Steelers lateraled five times, the final one being a pitch from Ben Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown, who ran down the sideline and scored! Well, he would have, but he stepped out of bounds on the way, negating what would have been the craziest win of the day, and possibly the decade.
-Speaking of silly things, the Panthers' Greg Hardy was wearing shades and said his name was "Kraken" from "Hogwarts" on Sunday Night Football. Fantastic. Also, the Saints have a player named Cameron Jordan, while the Browns have a Jordan Cameron. How wiley!
-Speaking of wiley gone wrong, our Stupid Play of the Week comes courtesy of me, in my fantasy league. I had picked up Caleb Sturgis but dropped him in lieu of Jay Feely because he was kicking in more favorable (i.e. less snowy) conditions. Sturgis had 10 points and Feely had four, plus a missed field goal. That's not the stupidest part, though. One hour before kickoff I had the Fins' Charles Clay in my tight end spot. But I decided to go for upside over reliability, and started San Diego's Ladarius Green instead. Clay finished with 25.5 points; Green had zero. ROMOOOOOOOO!
-Speaking of things that make you yell in frustration, our Most Boring Game of the Week would have been Cardinals/Rams, but it was quite entertaining seeing Kellen Clemens get absolutely obliterated by the Cardinals underrated defense. So instead we'll say the most boring game is the one that also featured our Worst Team of the Week, the Chargers versus the New York Giants. I don't understand how this franchise has won two Super Bowls, because they have looked absolutely miserable all year. What was most embarrassing was that they still technically could have snuck into the playoffs as the day began, but that was quickly (and mercifully) quashed. They're a joke.
-Speaking of jokes, we have Mike Glennon throwing for only 90 yards and the Bucs winning by 21; the Raiders defense giving up 37 points to a Jets team that had only scored 20 total points the previous three games; the efforts of the Washington Redskins special teams; and the idea of the Broncos scoring fewer than 30 points in a game ever again.
