"any given Sunday" the statement goes... meaning that just because something has happened all the previous Sundays doesn't mean that it is going to happen in the next one. Teams that dominate an entire season can have a day where simply nothing works for them and an inferior on paper team just has the game of a lifetime to become a giant-killer.
That's all fine and dandy but it more of an excuse used when things go wrong than it is an actual fact. When we are looking at an entire season there are some factors that are pretty steadfast such as if your quarterback is amazing, if your secondary defense has fast enough guys, or if your offensive line can read blitzes well enough to keep the guy with the ball safe long enough to make a play happen. There is a reason why these guys make millions upon millions of dollars a year, because nobody does it better.
Well, except for the case of the Denver Broncos, they are most likely screwed.
It was the 2nd to last play of the game vs. the Buffalo Bills and Denver QB Bo Nix took a bad spill and broke his ankle. This is bad news for Denver who was the number 1 seed in the AFC and even though New England was still a slight favorite to defeat the Broncos in the semi-final, that number changed a lot now that we have the starting QB for Denver is going to be a guy that hasn't played a single down of NFL football in nearly 2 years.
The odds in vegas are pointing to a nearly guaranteed New England victory with some of the odds going as far as -750 in favor of the Patriots.
On the other side of the brackets we have the Seattle Seahawks, who in a game vs a team that started the season as a Superbowl hopeful in the San Francisco 48ers, well, The Seahawks just kind of made them look like amateurs.
Winning by more than 30 points in an NFL game isn't really all that rare: It depends on if the team that is winning really wants to run up the score. Beyond a certain point it isn't necessary, the other team is not going to catch up because there isn't enough time. San Francisco has been a scoring powerhouse the entire season but was only able to muster 2 field goals in the entire game, losing 41-6. There is plenty of reason to believe that had they wanted to, Seattle could have won by a bit more than they did but let up on the gas in the 2nd half once it was obvious that victory was ensured.
The only team left standing in the way of Seattle going to the Super Bowl is the LA Rams.
The Rams are no slouch team and many had them picked to win the entire championship a few months back. But in that time they lost to the Carolina Panthers, then barely defeated the same team in the wild card round. In their last game against the Chicago Bears they once again barely won the game 20-17 despite the fact that the Bears were playing so bad that it was starting to look like they wanted to lose. With 3 interceptions thrown, one on the first Bear possession of the game followed by several bizarre choices to go for it on 4th down and having a turnover on downs. The Bears and Rams suddenly found themselves in overtime. It was a sloppy as hell game that honestly, LA should be capable of dominating if they got their crap together.
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bad pic I know, but look at this man... who is this pass actually intended for?
The Bears have really good defense and I guess that was the limiting factor. I dunno. To me when I was watching it, it looked like a slop-fest on both sides.
When the Rams play against Seattle, they will not be able to get away with this though, not if Seattle plays like they did against San Francisco.
The bookies are being quite kind to LA at the moment, which is something they normally do early on to entice bets. The line right now is LA at +2.5 points meaning that Vegas expects the Rams to just barely lose.
I suspect they will lose badly, but who knows? Maybe Seattle just had a majestic game against San Fran.
I'm calling a Seattle vs. New England Super Bowl, with Seattle winning the entire thing. But there is one thing to remember about "dominant" teams. In 2015 my team, the Carolina Panthers went undefeated the entire season. 15-0. Most of these games they won in a fashion that suggested that nobody could touch them and the bookies had them for heavy favorites in the Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos. The Panthers lost that game, quite badly actually with a final score of 24-10.
Could this be Seattle's fate over the next month? We'll have to wait and see. But if they put up a performance like they did against SanFran over the weekend I don't think anyone can touch them.