The Plays behind the Game
Well, game 1 has been decided on this Conference Championship day weekend; and to claim that any singular play, call, or circumstance would be the deciding factor would do the game injustice. Sunday’s AFC Championship match up between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos was everything a football fan could ask for.
A game covering two dynamic teams and characters held up to the hype. The New England Patriots, defending Super Bowl champions, came into the game considered the favorite. The Denver Broncos, after their humiliating loss in their last Super Bowl appearance were the underdog. Yet, what we witnessed Sunday afternoon were two gladiators competing at the greatest level. The games character’s displayed two future Hall of Fame Quarterbacks, and they proved why; not so much statistically but in the way the two competed for four quarters of football.
Yet, with a missed extra point on the Patriots first scoring possession by Stephen Gostkowski, the game’s fate would already be nearly decided. In a 20-18 loss and a failed 2pt. conversion late in the 4th quarter Gostkowski later stated he “felt as though he lost the game for the team”.1
Yet, I say, let’s not be so fast to jump on the kicker in this one. A pass to Danny Amendola late in the 4th quarter on a crucial portion of the game could also pay tribute to the big loss. The play was ruled incomplete after Amendola appeared to catch or “not catch” the football. Honestly, I don’t know anymore. [The season may need to hurry and end so we can figure this whole completion of a catch thing out] Yet, the Broncos decide to challenge the play. Why? The Broncos wanted a catch and fumble. Yet at the end of the day, an overturned ruling would have gone against the team. That particular conclusion would have ended in a catch, fumble, yet down by contact and resulted in a 1st down for the Patriots.
This is just another circumstance within a game where game management falls into question. Yet, two turnovers on downs later, a final redzone score late, and a failed 2pt. conversion complete the game 20-18 with the looks of it on the shoulders of Stephen Gostkowski.
2Miller, S. T. (n.d.). How Peyton Manning and the Broncos upset the Patriots. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14638806/how-peyton-manning-denver-broncos-upset-new-england-patriots-nfl
while editing your blog, we briefly discussed officiating and its impact. Do you feel that the calls made that are based on "the refs discretion" effect the outcome of games? (pass interference or no calls, unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, reviews, etc) I can count a few instances where calls were made and were not made during the super bowl that greatly effected the game. Your thoughts?
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