Monday, 23 March 2015

Heartbreak City: The Story of the 2014-15 NFC Playoffs


Let's take it alllllll the way back to the starting weekend of the NFL Playoffs. Christmas and New Years have just passed, you're finally starting to recover from your hangover, and best of all, your relatives have left. Joy to the world. Every year the NFL's opening playoff weekend brings hope. Hope for the 12 teams that still remain in the hunt for the ever elusive Vince Lombardi Trophy that this will be their year. Anything can happen in football, and this year was no different.

January 4th, 2015

Our tale of heartbreak and misfortune fittingly starts in Detroit, a once thriving city, now stripped of all its parts and left to die. On this cold day in Detroit, the beloved Lions hosted the Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card Playoffs. This was a huge game for both teams and both their quarterbacks, Tony Romo for Dallas & Matthew Stafford for Detroit. After battling back and forth for over 3 quarters, the pivotal play of the game came with 8:25 left in the 4th quarter, with Detroit ahead 20-17 and driving with the ball. On 3rd and 1, QB Matthew Stafford dropped back and attempted to find tight end Brandon Pettigrew. Dallas linebacker Anthony Hitchens broke up the pass, but was initially flagged for defensive pass interference. After showing the replay, it seemed to almost everyone watching that the referees got the call right and that Detroit should keep the ball. Then...they just...picked up...the flag? No penalty? None? What???? I've never seen that in an NFL game, let alone a Playoff game, in the 4th quarter, with the teams only separated by 3 points and on a 3rd down to boot... Okay so after all that fuckery happened, Tony Romo didn't choke for once and led the Cowboys down the field, where they scored a touchdown with 2 minutes remaining to take a 24-20 lead. The Lions never recovered, and the game ended 24-20 for the Cowboys.

HEARTBROKEN TEAMS: LIONS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW4Ikqg0bW8 (Full game highlights)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md1kkyULb1o (Non-Call video)


The controversial "non-call"

January 11th, 2015

Our saga follows the Cowboys from their victory in Detroit to the harsh frozen tundra of Green Bay. The Packers had been dominant at home at Lambeau Field all season, so few thought the Cowboys posed much of a threat. Green Bay's MVP winning QB Aaron Rodgers had injured his left calf a few weeks prior to the game, so he wouldn't be as mobile as he usually is, but he was expected to pick the Cowboys defence apart with his passes. As the game progressed, however, it became clear that this would be a much closer game than many people had anticipated. Back and forth they went, until there was another game deciding play. This becomes quite the theme in the NFC Playoffs this year as you'll notice. With Green Bay ahead 26-21 & 4:41 left in the 4th quarter, the Cowboys decided to gamble on 4th down from Green Bay's 32 yard line. QB Tony Romo attempted to find star receiver Dez Bryant right by the endzone, and for a second it seemed as though they connected on the pass, however when Bryant came down with the ball and stretched for the goal line the ball popped out of Bryant's hands, thereby making it an incomplete catch as he hadn't maintained possession of the ball throughout the entire process of the catch. Wow that was a lot of words. Anyway, my point is the Cowboys never got the ball back after that failed 4th down attempt, and the Packers went on to win the game 26-21.

HEARTBROKEN TEAMS: LIONS, COWBOYS



Bryant lunging for the goal line

January 18th, 2015

The third instalment of our story of heartache brings us to Seattle. The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks hosted the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers at Century Link Field, home of the 12th Man. This stadium had been virtually impossible to win in for opposing teams over the past 2 years, and many people thought this would help Seattle in their quest to repeat as world champions. What many people did not expect, would be that Russell Wilson would throw 4 interceptions, the Seahawks would fake a field goal for a touchdown - sorry I have to make a side note here. The Seahawks were down 16-0 in the 3rd quarter when they attempted it, and my question is, if you're Green Bay, how do you not see that coming??? Or at least send out a defence where you're basically saying, go ahead, take your three points and give us the ball back. Instead, they left themselves susceptible to a fake field goal, the first of many screw ups by Green Bay late in this game. Okay back to the story. So after a Green Bay field goal it's19-7 Green Bay, and then Wilson throws ANOTHER interception, giving him 5 on the afternoon. Looks like the fake field goal TD won't haunt the Packers. But then they got conservative, and attempted to run the clock. The Seahawks stopped them, got the ball back, and promptly scored. 19-14 ballgame. Time for the onside kick. Now, this might be the defining play of the game for Green Bay, but I would disagree. There wasn't one play that lost the Packers this game. Rather, it was a series of bad plays and some very poor coaching towards the end of the game that ended up costing the Packers this game. Oh, sorry. Should I have said spoiler alert first? Anyway, so the Seahawks attempt an onside kick, and did you guess that the ball would bounce off the face-mask of a Packers player and land in the hands of Seahawks receiver Chris Matthews?? Well that's exactly what happened. Now Seattle has the ball, and Marshawn Lynch does his thing and leads them into the endzone in the blink of an eye. Then, the Seahawks go for 2 points and Russell Wilson somehow manages to throw a 2 yard Hail Mary after scrambling backwards like Mike Vick in Madden 2002 and lobbing a prayer in which Packers cornerback Ha-ha Clinton Dix completely misplays and allows the Seahawks to convert their 2 point try. 22-19 Seahawks. Aaron Rodgers wouldn't go away quietly though, and led the Packers down the field and tied the game with a field goal. 22-22, and headed to overtime. On Seattle's first drive of overtime, and from Green Bay's 35 yard line, Wilson threw a perfectly placed ball to receiver Jermaine Kearse, which he caught for a touchdown. 28-22 Seattle, game over. The Seahawks were headed back to the Super Bowl, and the Packers were headed home. The Packers had no one to blame but themselves for this loss, and it ranks as an all time blown game, given the circumstances.     

HEARTBROKEN TEAMS: LIONS, COWBOYS, PACKERS


The pivotal onside kick
February 1st, 2015

Our story concludes on the grandest stage of American Sports; the Super Bowl. Super Bowl 49 from Arizona featured the defending champion Seahawks, against Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. This game featured each #1 seed from the AFC & NFC, and many thought it would be a close game. That's exactly how the game turned out, with Tom Brady leading the Patriots back from 10 points down in the 4th quarter, and throwing the go-ahead touchdown to Julian Edelman with 2:02 left in the 4th quarter. As a Patriots fan, this was the moment I had been dreading. Winning late in the Super Bowl, and having to rely on the Pats defence to win them the Super Bowl. It seemed awfully familiar to the past 2 Super Bowls, and I knew if anyone could pull off some Eli Manning late game bullshit, it's Russell Wilson. And then...my worst fears became reality. 1:15 left, ball on the Patriots 38 yard line. Wilson lobs a prayer to Jermaine Kearse which Malcolm Butler breaks up beautifully. But...the ball never touched the ground. As Kearse was falling, the ball fell and hit both of his legs, bounced up and he caught it before the ball touched the turf. A clean catch. I was heartbroken. No, scratch that. I was empty. For about 45 seconds after that play, I didn't feel anything. I wasn't sad, I wasn't furious, I wasn't even shocked. I was empty, I literally felt nothing. I couldn't believe this was happening again (IN THE SAME STADIUM AS THE DAVID TYREE CATCH) but at the same time it seemed almost fitting. I was getting used to seeing my beloved Patriots get so close to that 4th championship, only to have it taken away in the final minutes, or in this case, seconds. So after the miracle catch, the Seahawks had first and goal at the Patriots 5 yard line with just over a minute left. The first play they ran from the 5 yard line was a run by Marshawn Lynch to the Patriots 1 yard line. 1 yard separated the Seahawks from repeating as Super Bowl champs. As the Seahawks began to prepare for their next play, they noticed the Patriots hadn't called time out, and were letting the clock run down. This prompted the Seahawks to attempt a pass from the 1 yard line, so in the case of an incompletion the clock would stop with roughly 20 seconds left. But what happened next will go down as the greatest play I will ever witness in my entire life. Wilson snapped the ball, dropped back and attempted to find Richardo Lockette over the middle of the field for a touchdown, but....MALCOLM BUTLER!! HE PICKED THE BALL OFF!!! AT THE 1!!! WITH 20 SECONDS LEFT!! TO WIN THE SUPER BOWL!!! Elation. Pure elation. From dead, to more alive than ever. From broken, to fixed. Just like that. One play. One fucking play, that I will never forget. Now, the Seahawks coaches and players were heavily criticized for passing the ball from the 1 yard line, instead of simply handing the ball to Pro Bowl running back Marshawn Lynch. I'm not gonna go into that. What I will leave you with, though, is the reminder of how much we truly do love this game. And when there's that amount of love, there's bound to be some heartbreak along the way.

HEARTBROKEN TEAMS: LIONS, COWBOYS, PACKERS, SEAHAWKS


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smwmgZViC0g (Fan reactions to Malcolm Butler's interception)

Kearse's miracle catch

Malcolm Butler's Super Bowl winning interception
- Cameron
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