The Sports Rumors

Perfect Pats, Red Hot Redskins, and Slumping Cowboys

What many believed could never happen in a 16 game season…happened. The New England Patriots went undefeated by holding off the pesky Giants in a 38-35 win, giving them their 19^th straight victory (one of their many NFL records) dating back to last season. Tom Brady broke Peyton Manning’s single season touchdown record with a touchdown pass to Randy Moss, who also broke an NFL record held by Jerry Rice for most touchdown catches in a season. The Patriots also broke the NFL record for most points scored in a season.

All the stats and records aside, it’s time for everyone to stop and recognize what the Patriots accomplished. For the next week at the very least, we shouldn’t talk about the “formula” for beating the Patriots. I heard week after week, people talking about how you can beat the Patriots and what works against them and so forth. Yes, Einstein, we know that if you sack Tom Brady and make him throw interceptions, you’re going to win the game. Yes, we understand that if you shut down Randy Moss, run and pass on the Pats effectively, and play well on special teams, you are going to win the game. It’s not a matter of “how” you can beat the Patriots. It’s a matter of IF. The Patriots have had the red bulls eye on their back since game one and nobody has brought them down. Give them their props. Stop with your scheming (unless you’re a playoff team). If you are a Baltimore fan, stop talking about how you almost beat the Pats. Almost doesn’t matter. If you are an Eagles fan, yes you had a great effort but great efforts don’t always translate to victories. Final scores do. So congratulations to New England and their fans. You accomplished a great feat and should be commended for it. I still hate you though and will continue to pray for your demise. Happy New Year.

I don’t want to brag… who am I kidding. I love to brag. Ask anyone that knows me. Back on a wintry December 18^th, I wrote an article. The article was titled “Overrated Vikings and NFC Playoff Predictions”. This was the week before the Redskins had to travel into Minnesota and play the red hot Vikings, who EVERYONE was penciling in for the sixth and final seed in the playoffs. “You definitely do not want to play Minnesota if you’re Seattle or Tampa Bay because this team is playing great right now and Tavaris Jackson is getting it done” said Mike Golic, repeating the sentiments of many others. I scoffed at the notion of Tavaris Jackson being anything better than a third string quarterback. He sucks, is basically what I believed.

Why is everyone suddenly hopping on Minnesota’s bandwagon? Because they’ve won 5 straight games, 4 of which are against teams with losing records? Tavaris Jackson is playing good? Really? 5 touchdown and 5 interceptions is good? Wow. I guess NFL quarterbacks really are that bad if Tavaris Jackson is suddenly considered “good”.

I’m sure there were many people who felt I was just being a Redskins fan and putting down the other team. I wasn’t. Tavaris Jackson really does suck. I also said the Vikings and Saints were overrated, overhyped, and on their way to missing the playoffs. I said the Skins would make it and even my closest friends laughed at my foolish predictions. In case you forgot, here’s what I said:

Here’s what’s going to happen. Minnesota is going to get beat at home by Washington, then go on the road and lose to Denver, putting them at 8-8. The Giants will go into Buffalo and win, then lose to New England, putting them at 10-6 and secure 5^th place in the playoffs. New Orleans is going to lose to Philadelphia, and then win at Chicago, putting them at 8-8. Washington will beat Minnesota and then beat Dallas in Washington, putting them at 9-7 and the final spot of the playoffs.

Okay so I thought New Orleans would beat Chicago. I was wrong on one of my seven predictions. Needless to say, I told you so. I went on to talk about how I thought the Skins would lose to the Seahawks in round one of the playoffs. Well, I definitely don’t feel that way anymore and will go into more detail about that later this week. I’ll leave you with one stat that you need to know. Seattle has beaten only one team all season with a record above .500. One team. And that was in week 1. We’ll talk Washington-Seattle, as well as the other matchups later this week though.

Dallas is in trouble. I’m telling you right now, Dallas is in trouble. You cannot go into the playoffs playing as badly as they are playing. They were supposed to play their starters a quarter against the Skins, with the hope that they’d score a touchdown and maybe a field goal, feel good about themselves and rest up for the playoffs. Well guess what. They got spanked. Their starters played well into the third quarter and got SPANKED. They came away with 1 rushing yard…for the entire game. They converted zero third downs. They had 27 points scored on them. Tony Romo had his third bad game in a row.

“Okay take it easy Shaun. You’re overplaying the Dallas Cowboys struggles a bit. They won 13 games for a reason. They’ll be fine in the playoffs.”

That might be so, but you can’t be feeling very confident if you have lost 2 out of your last 3 games after losing only one out of the first thirteen. You can’t be feeling very good if you’ve averaged 8 points a game for the past three weeks. You can’t be feeling very good if your superstar quarterback has thrown one touchdown and five interceptions in his last three outings. I’m not saying that the Cowboys are toast; I’m just saying that if the Redskins beat Seattle and come into Dallas riding a 5 game winning streak and the most confidence of anyone in the NFC, watch out. Watch out.