Pigskin Roller Coaster

The pigskin roller coaster. For some the ride is already over. Perhaps they’re the lucky ones. Peyton and Rodgers, RG III and Russell Wilson. Thanks for playing. The stakes and the existential angst rise with each round of the playoffs. Playing for the conference championship is far, far better than going 7-9-0. We know this. It is the pigskin truth. And yet it’s going to suck wicked bad for half the NFL’s core audience this coming Sunday. Somebody’s going to emergency, somebody’s going to jail. And somebody is losing a football game.

 

Having watched Baltimore dispatch #1 seed Denver I would hardly be surprised if it was willed and ordained by God they come into Foxborough and knock off New England. There’s no denying that God is a significant edge. Non-stop motor, outstanding first step, freakish skill set. Seems to be just everywhere on the field. Hard to beat a guy whose middle name is Almighty.

Still, beyond the supernatural, I was having a hard time squaring this circle.

I read a fair number of posts after the Ravens-Broncos game that seemed to be making the point that it wasn’t Peyton Manning who should be blamed for losing the game. It never would’ve gone to overtime if only Denver’s defense – specifically safety Rahim Moore – hadn’t allowed the Ravens’ Jacoby Jones to get over on them from 70 yards out and under a minute to play. Hard to argue that play should never happen. If that pass is defended properly the game is over, Denver wins, Peyton Manning is not a choke artist who rips the still beating heart from the chest of his collective fan base and shows it to them before he crushes it slowly in his surgically weakened right hand. The argument here is that there are more parallel universes in which the Broncos win and Peyton Manning is a hero, we just happen to be living in one where they lose and Manning is a hurt and lonely child who can’t find his pony.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading posts that lead me to believe the Baltimore Ravens – with Seattle out of the picture – are the new Team Nobody Wants to Face. Joe Flacco can throw a football very, very far and Jacoby Jones and Torrey Smith can run as fast as Flacco can throw. Ray Rice is unstoppable. Ray Lewis has Jesus perched on his left shoulder. The Ravens are big and bad (and blessed). I’ve heard Patriots’ fans actually say they wish the Broncos had won that game because they felt more confident the Patriots would beat the Broncos in Denver than the Ravens in Foxborough.

Wait a minute.

Really?

In the posts where Peyton Manning didn’t really choke because he was first betrayed by a momentary lapse of defense it follows that really the Ravens lucked into the AFC Championship.

In the posts where Peyton Manning has a sociopathic fear of success the Ravens lucked into the AFC Championship because Manning choked.

The Baltimore Ravens are a very good football team but either way it is an upset that they’re coming to Foxborough, right?

One more time…