SUPER BOWL LI 2017 RECAP

Its been a long day, so I'll keep this relatively brief.

The New England cover was fortunate, the loss on the UNDER was ridiculous.  Prop bets are a crap shoot, many things happen that are strictly random.  Thats why I advocate just putting pocket change on them.  The one prop that I'm pissed that I didn't play was the missed XP prop.  This was the season of missed XPs, why wouldn't we have one in the Super Bowl??  Defensive TD scores again, and the OT prop was nice. Enough about wagers, what about the game?

You hear so often about experience, and after 40 minutes experience didn't seem like it would matter. Atlanta was in complete control, and after a Patriots TD and missed XP they had a very comfortable 19 point lead with just over a quarter left to play. 

The game changed on the Matt Ryan sack/fumble. With 9 minutes left, Atlanta was facing a 3rd and 1 inside their own 40. They are up 16 points.  At this point, its more about game and clock management and less about doing what you always do. Atlanta loves to throw the ball. There is an old saying, when you attempt a pass 3 things can happen and 2 of then are bad. The good is a completion, the bad is either an incomplete pass/sack or a turnover. Well, Atlanta opted to throw and they got both bad things to happen in the same play. 

There is only one play call you can make.  You run the ball. Period.  If you get a first down, you keep possession, chew up another 2-3 minutes and essentially ice the game.  If you get stuffed, you punt and make them go 80 yards which uses clock. 

New England goes 30 yards in 2 minutes and change and you can just feel all of the momentum with the Patriots. No worries though as Atlanta drives into FG range, which would again ice the game. So what does Kyle Shanahan do from the 23 yd line on 2nd and 11?  He throws again. You would think he would learn his lesson after the previous sack/fumble. Nope. We get a sack, followed by a holding, followed by an incomplete pass and a punt.  They went from a game clinching 40 yd FG to a punt. New England drives down the field, converting a huge 3rd and 10 backed up inside their 10 yd line, and tie the game. From there was there any mystery that the Patriots would win the game?  

You have to give Brady and company credit, they made the plays and also converted TWO 2 pt conversions.  This loss will stick with Atlanta for a long time, and I guarantee you they will have a hangover to start the year. 

I'm not a big fan of today's music and artists, but I thought Lady Gaga was fantastic.  A great talent, that woman can sing and dance, plays the piano and looks great.  A welcome relief from the likes of the overrated Beyonce, who lip syncs and is all hype. 

What looked like a game without any suspense turned into one of the great games ever. I hope you all had a great day and enjoyed the game.  I'll be back tomorrow with the basketball. We've had a couple nice winning weeks and tomorrow starts another.