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Superbowl LII

S

SAMOAN

Guest
The finale to the NFL season sees the New England Patriots face off against Philadelphia. The Eagles do seem to match up well against NE, but the Patriots have the experience. I am thinking that the Eagles will come out and try to establish their running game early and if they can control the time of possession, then they can definitely win.

NE have a plethora of running backs and all have their own unique style. They will undoubtedly play a part in the game, but the Eagles defenders have fallen foul to plenty of " double moves " ( basically trying to draw the defender up, come to a quick stop, thus making the defender stop and then take off again and hopefully run by him ) Patriot Wide Receiver Brandon Cooks also has plenty of pace and may simply be able to beat the defence for speed, but I will be shocked if the Pats don't try at least one double move.

Bets as usual are purely for fun and with the MVP award following my usual pattern of Kicker's ( if it is tight and touchdown's are at a premium, then any kicker making 4 or 5 field goals, especially if they are from distance or if they decide the game with seconds remaining ) will be in the running. Back up Quarterbacks ( potential Cinderella story if they come in the game early and lead their team to victory ) and defenders ( low scoring battle with sacks and turnovers gives the defences an edge )

FIRST TD SCORER

LeGARRETTE BLOUNT ( Philly ) at 12's
TOM BRADY ( NE ) at 50's
WENDELL SMALLWOOD ( Philly ) at 50's

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER AWARD -

COREY CLEMENT ( Philly ) at 50's
NIGEL BRADHAM ( Philly ) at 150's
STEPHON GILMORE ( NE ) at 150's
STEPHEN GOSTOWSKI ( NE ) at 200's
JAKE ELLIOTT ( Philly ) at 300's
BRIAN HOYER ( NE ) at 400's
 
Good luck Samoan, I'd like to chip in but know naff all about it.

Howson's booked tomorrow off work to watch this because he's good at watching paint dry, he has an accy riding on New England Patriots so for his sake I hope they do well.
 
Yeah good luck Howson:thumb. I can't be bothered with the bollocks to be honest.
 
No Spoilers in case anyone wasn't watching live, but have to say a real thriller.
 
I watched it until half time before going to bed, I've never watched it properly before and it was pretty good, would have been better though I reckon if I knew the rules.
 
Best not to watch the second half then Slick as 2 of the Eagle touchdowns were reviewed and whilst I felt both were correct calls, there was plenty of debate. The definition of a catch should be easy, but a few years back ( funnily enough starting with a Raiders game in San Diego ) the league changed the rules and put the focus on full control and " surviving the ground " i.e the ball cannot bobble / move when the player is hitting the ground. This of course has led to a lot of confusion and basically no-one knows what a catch is anymore.

Overall I did enjoy the game and for me the result was a fair one. This is the Eagles first Superbowl and the fans back in Philly certainly celebrated quite wildly.
 
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yeah, I saw the celebrations this morning on the news.
The Eagles were on top before I went to bed but the Patriots were just clawing their way back into it.
Like I said If I ever watch it again I'll read the rules first because it was pretty frustrating not understanding the data on the bottom right had side of the screen '10 & 2' , that sort of stuff.
 
Bottom right is the " down and distance. " 1st and 10 simply means that the attacking team is on their first attempt of 4 to gain 10 yards. If in those 4 cumulative attempts they gain those 10 yards or more, then they get a new set of downs to gain another 10 yards. If they don't get their 10 yards, they have an opportunity to kick downfield for territory, or if close enough try a field goal ( equivalent of a penalty goal in Rugby ) If on their 4th attempt ( down ) they chose not to take either choice of kick and decide to either run or pass, then failure to gain their 10 yards leads to the ball being given to the other team ( Just like a team getting caught in possession on the 5th tackle in Rugby League )

Easy example here would be if a team had gained 8 yards in their first 3 plays, they would be faced with 4th and 2. If they were bold and went for it ( think it happened twice in the first half ) and gained only 1 yard then they would have used up their 4 attempts at making 10 yards, but would have only made 9, thus handing the ball over to the opposition.

Hope this helps, but equally could have confused you more. Certainly a highly technical game, but one I feel can still be enjoyed, with just a basic grasp of the rules.
 
What a brilliant Game

I didn't stay up to watch it (not enough of a fan) but watched in bits and pieces on iplayer during the day

And just how good was that Foles TD

I don't know much about the game - but I know enough to know what an amazing TD that was

The audacity - The brilliance - The nerve - The cheek - The fantastic execuition

Quite possibly the most amazing thing on a sports field I have ever seen
 
SAMOAN said:
Bottom right is the " down and distance. " 1st and 10 simply means that the attacking team is on their first attempt of 4 to gain 10 yards. If in those 4 cumulative attempts they gain those 10 yards or more, then they get a new set of downs to gain another 10 yards. If they don't get their 10 yards, they have an opportunity to kick downfield for territory, or if close enough try a field goal ( equivalent of a penalty goal in Rugby ) If on their 4th attempt ( down ) they chose not to take either choice of kick and decide to either run or pass, then failure to gain their 10 yards leads to the ball being given to the other team ( Just like a team getting caught in possession on the 5th tackle in Rugby League )

Easy example here would be if a team had gained 8 yards in their first 3 plays, they would be faced with 4th and 2. If they were bold and went for it ( think it happened twice in the first half ) and gained only 1 yard then they would have used up their 4 attempts at making 10 yards, but would have only made 9, thus handing the ball over to the opposition.

Hope this helps, but equally could have confused you more. Certainly a highly technical game, but one I feel can still be enjoyed, with just a basic grasp of the rules.
Click to expand...

Nah that's fine mate, makes perfect sense:thumb
 
Colbro said:
What a brilliant Game

I didn't stay up to watch it (not enough of a fan) but watched in bits and pieces on iplayer during the day

And just how good was that Foles TD

I don't know much about the game - but I know enough to know what an amazing TD that was

The audacity - The brilliance - The nerve - The cheek - The fantastic execuition

Quite possibly the most amazing thing on a sports field I have ever seen
Click to expand...

Felt the need to go and look it up on YouTube after reading the above.

Are you referring to this one?

 
rcgills said:
Felt the need to go and look it up on YouTube after reading the above.

Are you referring to this one?

Click to expand...

lol, I did exactly the same thing.

Found this with all his plays too....
 
I'll freely admit I've got absolutely no interest in or understanding of American football whatsoever, but I'm struggling to see what there was in that touchdown to make it the most amazing thing Colbro's ever seen on a sports field. I had a quick watch of about 5 minutes of Slick's video there, and that Foles touchdown wouldn't even make my top 3 best moments of that highlights video :unsure

Maybe it's something you have to be a fan of American football to really appreciate?
 
To my uninitiated eye, it just looks like the no. 53 has no idea where he's supposed to be, gets caught in no-man's land, nearly runs into a team mate, moves to close down someone who's already being marked, and then realises too late that Foles is in acres of space.
 
I thought that too RC, but after watching it a few times I think because Foles the fella that usually throws the ball , the other side were expecting him to receive it but instead he strolled to a blindside then ran into space on a pre-planned play that came off.

I think that's what it is because like you I was a bit disappointed he didn't leap 30 ft into the air and land with a double pike with tuck for a touchdown.
 
slick said:
I thought that too RC, but after watching it a few times I think because Foles the fella that usually throws the ball , the other side were expecting him to receive it but instead he strolled to a blindside then ran into space on a pre-planned play that came off.
Click to expand...

Or what in football would be referred to as a move straight off the training ground. Nicely executed, OK, but most amazing thing ever seen on a sports field? Each to their own, I guess, but from that video you posted last night, I was far more impressed for example by the touchdowns at 1:18 and 4:30. The pass at 4:30 is absolutely perfect, to avoid the 3 defenders nearby and pick out his team mate.
 
Aye some of the passing was unbelievable as was the catching on the other end, I was also impressed by the physicality of it because I used to regard the players as being a 'bit soft' having all that protection on but I can understand why now, that tackle where the player had to go off with concussion due to a clash of heads could have been so much worse without protection.


 
Hits are indeed vicious and in the above case legal. Had Cooks been in the act of catching the ball however, then the hit would have drawn a 15 yard penalty. A quarterback could not be hit like this either, unless he is on the run and has moved far enough downfield. Plenty of nuances in the game as you can see Slick and definitely a difficult game to understand, unless of course you have grown up with it.

One major difference to rugby and one I have always failed to understand is the Fumble out of bounds rule. Of course in both rugby codes losing the ball over the sideline would lead to the attacking side losing the feed to the scrum or throw in to the line out. In American Football though if the ball is fumbled out of bounds ( across the sideline ) then the fumbling team keeps possession ( from the spot of the fumble, not where it goes out of bounds ) Never really grasped the idea of not being punished for losing the ball, but it has always been that way. The only time an " offence " is punished is when they fumble the ball and it rolls into the end zone and goes out of play ( sideline or dead ball line ) in this instance the opposition gets the ball on their 25 yard line.
 
With reference to the Foles touchdown I think a lot of it has to do with the guts / audacity of the call. They had a near certain 3 points if they opted for a Field Goal and if they failed to get in the End Zone, then the Patriots would have taken over the ball as it was on 4th down. Tough to make a call in a big game where potentially you are " leaving 3 points out there " and certainly a huge risk / reward play.

Looking at the play itself it definitely belongs in the " trick play " category and it would be fair to say it was the last thing that any defence would be expecting. These sort of plays do happen a bit, but often the eventual thrower will keep running in an arc and head for the end zone himself. For this guy to stop and actually throw the ball, would be a 5 times an entire season kind of thing.

Being so close to the goal line, I would imagine the defence would be in manned coverage and everybody would be looking at their guy, but nobody would be accounting for the Quarterback, hence he was allowed to make his way to end zone uncovered. Add this to the fact that Nick Foles is not noted for his scrambling ability, then the " D " would be fairly certain that he was going to be passing the ball himself or just handing it off to his running back.

One more thing that helped it work was the Eagles personnel that was on the field. Had Darren Sproles ( suffered a season ending injury early in the year ) been on the field then the Patriots might have suspected something, as he is a shifty back, who is ideal when calling a " gadget play ". With the 11 guys they had out there, I would say it was something that was damn near possible to predict.
 
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