A Steeler FG made it a double push IT’S A DOUBLE PUSH!!
The Sax Man and I were watching the final game of a great weekend of NFL football. A strange ending to a weekend full of twist and turns.
Early Sunday evening the Doofus household had descended on the Lakeside Command. The place was packed because the Doofus Favorite Daughter (self proclaimed) was in town visiting.
Now, while the others were caching up on the mundane details of the latest going ons in their lives, the Sax Man and I were intensely watching the final minutes of the Denver Pittsburgh game.
The over/under was 39.0 (I had taken the under) and Denver was favored by 7.0 (It was the Steelers and the points for me). I was telling the Sax Man that I was going to get one or the other of the bets. The Steelers were driving late, down 10 points with less than a minute to go. If they got the TD it blew the under and if they didn’t score it blew the cover.
Then the strangest thing happened. With 24 seconds left, Pittsburgh got to the Bronco 29 and went for a FG. Whaaaaaat? The Sax Man pegged it. Pittsburgh figured their best chance was to go for a FG now, try to get score on a Hail Mary.
The Steelers get the FG and now trail by 7 with the score 23-16, exactly at 39. A double push! Pushes are pretty rare but they do happen. I’ve never seen one that had a push on the score and the over/under.
Denver went on to recover the onside kick and the double push was the final. We were laughing pretty hard at that one.
The Sax Man and I were watching the final game of a great weekend of NFL football. A strange ending to a weekend full of twist and turns.
Early Sunday evening the Doofus household had descended on the Lakeside Command. The place was packed because the Doofus Favorite Daughter (self proclaimed) was in town visiting.
Now, while the others were caching up on the mundane details of the latest going ons in their lives, the Sax Man and I were intensely watching the final minutes of the Denver Pittsburgh game.
The over/under was 39.0 (I had taken the under) and Denver was favored by 7.0 (It was the Steelers and the points for me). I was telling the Sax Man that I was going to get one or the other of the bets. The Steelers were driving late, down 10 points with less than a minute to go. If they got the TD it blew the under and if they didn’t score it blew the cover.
Then the strangest thing happened. With 24 seconds left, Pittsburgh got to the Bronco 29 and went for a FG. Whaaaaaat? The Sax Man pegged it. Pittsburgh figured their best chance was to go for a FG now, try to get score on a Hail Mary.
The Steelers get the FG and now trail by 7 with the score 23-16, exactly at 39. A double push! Pushes are pretty rare but they do happen. I’ve never seen one that had a push on the score and the over/under.
Denver went on to recover the onside kick and the double push was the final. We were laughing pretty hard at that one.
Two Hail Marys in the same season - Amazing! And yet, it wasn’t the strangest ending for a game over the weekend. That would belong to the Green Bay Arizona game the night before.
Green Bay +7.0 @ Arizona - I don’t know what prayers Aaron Rodgers says in church but he sure does get more than his fair share of miracles. The Pack was down 20-13 with 55 seconds left, 4th and 20 from his own end zone. Hardly anyone converts on 4th and 20 In fact, only ten teams tried for it on 4 th and 20 or more in 2015. Noine converted. Yet Rodgers did, in a playoff game no less. .
It set up an even more ridiculous play. Rodgers leads the Pack to the Arizona 41, 4 seconds left. Time for the Hail Mary. Only one Hail Mary was made all year. Yup, it was rodgers to beat the Lions back in December. Roders escapes the blitz, rolls out, just heaves it to the end zone and.....TD!!
Twice in one season? What is going on? First he gets one to win against Detroit and now this? It was the first time a Hail Mary won or tied the game on the last play ever in the playoffs....ever!
Yet, maybe Rodgers had finally used up all his luck. Because, now the weirdness really kicks in. As the visitor, Rodgers gets to call the coin flip. He apparently likes to call the opposite of whatever the ref is showing. The ref shows heads so Rodgers call tails. The ref flips the coin except that he didn’t. The coin never flipped. I’m not sure most people would catch that but old eagle eye did.
He cries out – It never flipped!! The ref agrees, picks up the coin and flips it again. It flips this time and lands heads. Arizona will get the ball.
Now Rodgers is pissed. He never got the chance to look at the coin to see if he wanted to chance his call. The ref just picked it up, assumed that tails was still the call and flipped it.
I’m thinking to myself “I wonder WTH the rule is on coin flips? The NFL has rules all the way down to what color socks players can wear and whether toilet rolls should unfurl from the inside or outside in the visitors locker room. Surely they have a rule on what happens if the coin doesn’t flip.
Nope. Turns out there are plenty of rules regarding the flip but nothing about what happens if it doesn’t (or even needs to) flip. The ref just went playground, figured a coin flip should actually flip, and tried again.
I can see why there’s an oversight though. Try it. Try and toss a coin into the air over your head and not have it flip or bounce on the ground. It’s tough. Coins just want to flip.
This one didn’t and Rodgers luck ran out.
Two good things came from the overtime. One is that the ending had one of those “Sometimes the good guys do win” moments. Larry Fitzgerald, a perennial All Pro but never going far in the playoffs. A guy who has stayed with his team through thick or thin through his entire 11 year career. He finally got a ime to shine.
Fitzgerald catches the ball at his 35 and sprints through the Packer secondary for 75 yards. Gassed, he was finally tackled at the Packer 5. Two plays later he catches a shovel pass over the middle for a TD to win the game. Nice.
More importantly, since I was getting 7 I was going to get the cover no matter who won. The NFL doesn’t have extra points in OT so if Arizona got a TD, that’s it, ball game. They win by 6 and I get my cover.
Green Bay +7.0 @ Arizona - I don’t know what prayers Aaron Rodgers says in church but he sure does get more than his fair share of miracles. The Pack was down 20-13 with 55 seconds left, 4th and 20 from his own end zone. Hardly anyone converts on 4th and 20 In fact, only ten teams tried for it on 4 th and 20 or more in 2015. Noine converted. Yet Rodgers did, in a playoff game no less. .
It set up an even more ridiculous play. Rodgers leads the Pack to the Arizona 41, 4 seconds left. Time for the Hail Mary. Only one Hail Mary was made all year. Yup, it was rodgers to beat the Lions back in December. Roders escapes the blitz, rolls out, just heaves it to the end zone and.....TD!!
Twice in one season? What is going on? First he gets one to win against Detroit and now this? It was the first time a Hail Mary won or tied the game on the last play ever in the playoffs....ever!
Yet, maybe Rodgers had finally used up all his luck. Because, now the weirdness really kicks in. As the visitor, Rodgers gets to call the coin flip. He apparently likes to call the opposite of whatever the ref is showing. The ref shows heads so Rodgers call tails. The ref flips the coin except that he didn’t. The coin never flipped. I’m not sure most people would catch that but old eagle eye did.
He cries out – It never flipped!! The ref agrees, picks up the coin and flips it again. It flips this time and lands heads. Arizona will get the ball.
Now Rodgers is pissed. He never got the chance to look at the coin to see if he wanted to chance his call. The ref just picked it up, assumed that tails was still the call and flipped it.
I’m thinking to myself “I wonder WTH the rule is on coin flips? The NFL has rules all the way down to what color socks players can wear and whether toilet rolls should unfurl from the inside or outside in the visitors locker room. Surely they have a rule on what happens if the coin doesn’t flip.
Nope. Turns out there are plenty of rules regarding the flip but nothing about what happens if it doesn’t (or even needs to) flip. The ref just went playground, figured a coin flip should actually flip, and tried again.
I can see why there’s an oversight though. Try it. Try and toss a coin into the air over your head and not have it flip or bounce on the ground. It’s tough. Coins just want to flip.
This one didn’t and Rodgers luck ran out.
Two good things came from the overtime. One is that the ending had one of those “Sometimes the good guys do win” moments. Larry Fitzgerald, a perennial All Pro but never going far in the playoffs. A guy who has stayed with his team through thick or thin through his entire 11 year career. He finally got a ime to shine.
Fitzgerald catches the ball at his 35 and sprints through the Packer secondary for 75 yards. Gassed, he was finally tackled at the Packer 5. Two plays later he catches a shovel pass over the middle for a TD to win the game. Nice.
More importantly, since I was getting 7 I was going to get the cover no matter who won. The NFL doesn’t have extra points in OT so if Arizona got a TD, that’s it, ball game. They win by 6 and I get my cover.
As for the other two games. How about Carolina getting up 31-0 at the half and almost blowing it.
Carolina -1.5 vs Seattle - Cam Newton got it right when he said "The playoffs bring out, more than any other time, the impact of 'Big Mo,'" He had it in the first half and Seattle got it back in the second.
It's tough to stay motivated coming out of the locker room with a five score lead and the Panthers just sort of went through motions. And once you give the other tema the Big Mo its even toughr to get it back. Seattle went TD, punt TD, TD, FG before time finally ran out.
Carolina held on to win 31-24 giving me a Mega Bet win.
Carolina -1.5 vs Seattle - Cam Newton got it right when he said "The playoffs bring out, more than any other time, the impact of 'Big Mo,'" He had it in the first half and Seattle got it back in the second.
It's tough to stay motivated coming out of the locker room with a five score lead and the Panthers just sort of went through motions. And once you give the other tema the Big Mo its even toughr to get it back. Seattle went TD, punt TD, TD, FG before time finally ran out.
Carolina held on to win 31-24 giving me a Mega Bet win.
New England -5.0 vs Kansas City - It may not have been as dramatic as the Carolina Seattle comeback, but new England also held on to beat the Chiefes. down 27-13 with a minute to go Kansas City scored a TD to cut the lead to a TD. The onside kick failed and New england got the win and the cover 27-20 WIN
With the wins by New NEgland and Denver its sets up another Brady Manning classic
New England -3.0 @ Denver - It’ll be the 17th time and likely last time that Brady and Manning face off against each other. Fitting that it will be to advance to the Super Bowl.
Brady has had the upper hand in the playoffs against Peyton. He leads the series 11-5. And Peyton is a shell of his former self. He truly cannot get the ball downfield anymore.
Denver is winning because of their number 1 defense. To beat Brady, you need to pressure him without blitzing. Denver can do that.
It’s two steps forward, one step back for the Pats. They got Edelman back last week and he had a great game catching 10 passes for 100 yards. And he freed up the Gronk. He caught 7 passes for 83 yards and 2 TDs.
But they lost LB Jerod Mayo. With Peyton unable to throw the ball, they will rely heavily on the running game. Mayo’s absence will be felt.
This game is a tough one to call. The spread is right where it should be. So I’m going to rely on one key stat.
Denver beat New England 30-24 back on Nov 30th. Belichick is 12-4 ATS when facing a team that beat him earlier in the year. He finds a way to stop your best guy and win. I'll take the Pats for a Mega Bet to cover the FG spread.
Carolina -3.0 vs Seattle - From two teams that are always vying for a Super Bowl to two teams who have never won a Super Bowl.
And it's the first meeting ever for these two Heisman winning QBs.
So which team are you Carolina? The one that sprinted to a 31-0 halftime lead or the one that almost blew it giving up 24 points in the second half.
Good passing teams can hurt the Panthers. They gave up 35 to the Giants, 38 to the Saints, 29 to the Packers and 26 to the Colts.
The reason is that beside Josh Norman, the secondary is a weak spot.
Carson Palner and Larry Fitzgerald should be able to exploit this weakness.
But I like carolina's offense just a wee but more. RB Jonathon Stewart returned to the line up after missing 3 games only to rush for 106 yards and 3 TDs. Cam's rushing ability will keep the Cardinal secondary honest and he will be able to find TE Greg Olsen.
The spread reflects that the two teams about even. They are. I'll take carolina for a Mega Bet to cover the FG.
With the wins by New NEgland and Denver its sets up another Brady Manning classic
New England -3.0 @ Denver - It’ll be the 17th time and likely last time that Brady and Manning face off against each other. Fitting that it will be to advance to the Super Bowl.
Brady has had the upper hand in the playoffs against Peyton. He leads the series 11-5. And Peyton is a shell of his former self. He truly cannot get the ball downfield anymore.
Denver is winning because of their number 1 defense. To beat Brady, you need to pressure him without blitzing. Denver can do that.
It’s two steps forward, one step back for the Pats. They got Edelman back last week and he had a great game catching 10 passes for 100 yards. And he freed up the Gronk. He caught 7 passes for 83 yards and 2 TDs.
But they lost LB Jerod Mayo. With Peyton unable to throw the ball, they will rely heavily on the running game. Mayo’s absence will be felt.
This game is a tough one to call. The spread is right where it should be. So I’m going to rely on one key stat.
Denver beat New England 30-24 back on Nov 30th. Belichick is 12-4 ATS when facing a team that beat him earlier in the year. He finds a way to stop your best guy and win. I'll take the Pats for a Mega Bet to cover the FG spread.
Carolina -3.0 vs Seattle - From two teams that are always vying for a Super Bowl to two teams who have never won a Super Bowl.
And it's the first meeting ever for these two Heisman winning QBs.
So which team are you Carolina? The one that sprinted to a 31-0 halftime lead or the one that almost blew it giving up 24 points in the second half.
Good passing teams can hurt the Panthers. They gave up 35 to the Giants, 38 to the Saints, 29 to the Packers and 26 to the Colts.
The reason is that beside Josh Norman, the secondary is a weak spot.
Carson Palner and Larry Fitzgerald should be able to exploit this weakness.
But I like carolina's offense just a wee but more. RB Jonathon Stewart returned to the line up after missing 3 games only to rush for 106 yards and 3 TDs. Cam's rushing ability will keep the Cardinal secondary honest and he will be able to find TE Greg Olsen.
The spread reflects that the two teams about even. They are. I'll take carolina for a Mega Bet to cover the FG.
