4th and Long 11.01.07: Preparing For The Game of the Year

Posted by Matt McEwen on 11.01.2007

Getting excited for Sunday's "Game of the Year," will an embarrassed defender try to injure Tom Brady, and an MVP candidate you probably wouldn't even think of in this weeks edition

Most Anticipated Regular Season Game in Years...

If you consider yourself a football fan and are not already getting excited about Sunday afternoons showdown between the defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and the juggernaut that is the 2007 New England Patriots, well then I think you might need to check your pulse.

If there's been a bigger regular season game in recent years (or even decades), then I don't remember it. Just look at all the different subplots we have going on here:

- The two best teams in football going head to head to see who can be the last undefeated team of the year and have chance to match the '72 Dolphins,

- The novelty of an undefeated defending Super Bowl champion an underdog, at home no less,

- All apologies to the Yankees and the Red Sox, but this is hands down the biggest rivalry in professional sports right now. Nothing else compares,

- Pretty much the entire NFL will be cheering for the Colts to not only beat the Patriots, but to BEAT the Patriots. The Pats aren't winning many admirers with their take no prisoners even in the fourth quarter approach this year, and if the Colts can't make them stop it, who can?

Beyond the storylines and the intrigue, this has all the makings of being an absolutely great game. On the heels of last year's fantastic AFC Championship game, both of these teams have improved to the point where it is not outlandish to talk about them as among the best teams ever to step on the gridiron.

Two scary offenses, two strong defenses, two of the best quarterbacks of all time, two of the most respected (one loved, one despised) coaches of all time....I'm looking forward to just sitting back Sunday afternoon and being a football fan.

As for how I think it will go, I think the Pats offense that came 4 points short of the Super Bowl last year is exponentially better this year (I know, I'm really out on a limb with that comment) while a Colts defense that gave up 34 points to that offense hasn't improved as much. Of course, the same can be said the other way around as well. If I was putting money down though, take the over and a Pats victory, 42-38.

The Sins of the Coach to be Visited on the QB?

The juicy new rumor making the rounds - thanks to Bill Cowher on a CBS conference call earlier this week - is that the Patriots "all out, all the time" approach this season could come back to haunt them in the form of a disgruntled opponent taking a cheap shot at Tom Brady or one of the other stars on offense.

If it came from almost anyone other than Cowher, I would dismiss it. Coming from someone like Cowher though, I'm actually fairly disgusted. If there is a player out there who is so upset/embarrassed/angry that he can't stop the Patriots from scoring on him that he feels the need to "teach them a lesson" should probably rechannel that energy into practicing harder. Then maybe the Pats wouldn't be treating fourth quarter drives like full contact practices themselves.

That being said, I think Belicheck has been playing with fire the last few weeks by leaving Brady in as long as has. The one exception would be against the Dolphins, when he put Brady back in the game in the fourth quarter up by 21 points. He did so after Jason Taylor had returned a Matt Cassell pass for a TD, which happened to make him the all time leader for TD's by a defensive end.

I was there for that game, and that TD actually put some life back into both a dead Dolphins Stadium crowd and Dolphins team. One more mistake or a good return by the Dolphins and it would have been a 14 point game with plenty of time left. Nothing wrong with going for it there.

On fourth down from the 5 yard line when you're up 35 points is a bit of a different story. Go for it if you want, but why have Brady back there on such a short field with the game so far out of reach?

If some degenerate defender does decide to take out his frustration on Brady, Belicheck will have to share some of the blame just for having him in there.

The Best QB Nobody Talks About

I talked a bit about QB's last week, and the common theme of "Brady, Manning, then?" gets floated around a lot, but there is one guy who has been putting up amazing numbers this year who hasn't been getting as much credit as he should be.

Derek Anderson has led the Browns - yes, those Browns - to a 4-3 record and is on pace to put up 39 TD passes this year. He's second only to Brady with 17 so far this year, has a sterling QB rating of 95.5 (sixth in the league), and 1744 yards (ninth in the league). While both his completion percentage and interceptions have him in the bottom half of the league, those are certainly not numbers to sniff at when you consider he wasn't even the starter in week 1.

All in all, Anderson is starting to make a bit of noise in regards to the MVP race, and if it wasn't for Brady having an All-Universe kind of year, he might be making a lot more.