If you are a football fan, without question this is the best time of the year; a true sports junkie’s paradise. There are thirty-four college Bowl games which began on December 19th. The NFL saw the last playoff spots and pairings finalized the last weekend of the season. It’s been a season of highs and lows; the lowest coming these last two weeks, particularly in the NFL.
One only needs to look at the long layoff between the end of the regular season and the start of bowl play to understand the rash of upsets that have occurred. Many of the bowl results have indicated that the betting lines were set by picking arbitrary numbers out of a hat. Presumably shrewd football mavens were frequently so far off base that marginal teams looked like powerhouses, and powerhouses played as though this culmination to the season was instead, the culmination to spring practice.
It started with 10 ½ point underdog Wyoming beating offensive juggernaut Fresno State. The scorefest between undefeated TCU and undefeated Boise State never materialized, with underdog Boise prevailing 17-10. This game had an over/under line of fifty-four points. The only thing definitive to come out of this bowl mess was the supremacy of power conferences, and the false superiority of lesser supposed up-and-coming programs. Witness the 51-24 thrashing Florida gave higher ranked and previously undefeated Cincinnati. The game wasn’t as close as the score indicated. You can say these are the things many find so endearing about bowl games. Not so for the last couple of weeks in pro football.
If you haven’t been paying close attention, professional teams have tanked games. Some, it‘s been said, were for the good of the team. Three weeks ago there were two unbeaten teams, The Saints and the Colts. At last count, New Orleans has lost three in a row, Indianapolis two. The Colts stand behind the decision to “rest their starters” for the playoffs lessening the risk of injury. Yet, the starters played two quarters in both games. I didn’t realize you couldn’t get injured during the first half of games.
New Orleans, having already lost two in a row, rested Drew Brees, the most valuable player on their team, and one of the most productive quarterbacks in football. The Saints lost their third consecutive game.
The St. Louis Rams secured the first pick in the upcoming NFL Draft this April with a lethargic showing in their last game of the year. They wouldn’t have wanted to risk a tie with the Detroit Lions for worst record. The Rams remained in contention for most of the game. They were behind by the score of 7-3 after three quarters. Leaving nothing to chance, the Rams allowed twenty-one forth quarter points. In the most thought provoking case of them all, The Bengals at least had the good graces to rollover from the get-go.
Sunday night the Cincinnati Bengals played -if you could call it that- the New York Jets in the final game at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. They should have just called in a forfeit, but that would have been too obvious. Instead, the Bengals fielded a team that succumbed to the Jets 37-0. With the win, the Jets clinched the final playoff berth. The Bengals got the chance to play the Jets again this Sunday on the Bengals home field. Did the Bengals lose just to have the opportunity to face the Jets at home? I don’t think so, and neither did football analyst and former Bengal Cris Collinsworth.
Collinsworth was astute in his appraisal of what he was witnessing. I translate without all the political correctness. What Collinsworth alluded to was that perhaps the Bengals didn’t give their best effort to gain an advantage over the Jets. The Jets had to win to get into the playoffs, the Bengals did not. The Jets had to use every play in their repertoire on both offense and defense to win at all costs. Again, the Bengals did not. The Bengals could hold back on any defensive scheme, or offensive set that would benefit them with a more important game at stake; props to Collinsworth for his candor. I don’t know if I totally agree that the Bengals tanked the game, but I totally agree it’s possible. I’ll even go one step further.
In addition to the Bengals not having to tip their hand to the Jets when they know they would face them again; I say that they would rather face the Jets again. Had the Bengals won, it would have meant that their first round playoff opponent would have been the Houston Texans, who beat the New England Patriots to put themselves in position. The Texans needed a Jet loss.
The Texans already beat the Bengals earlier in the year at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Why risk facing a team that trounced you when another could be had? Bengals lose, Jets win, and now the Jets travel to Cincinnati, and the Texans don’t reach the playoffs. Makes sense to me. Oh yeah, Jet fans don’t get too excited about seeing a replay of this past Sunday night.
I think the NFL frowns on this sort of thing, but they’ll never admit it. There’s too much money at stake. And let’s not be naïve, that’s the driving force that motivates the players, not winning. If winning was really that important, wouldn’t the Colts, Saints, Rams, and Bengals have put forth their best effort?
The Colts sacrificed a chance at an undefeated season. Both the Colts and the Saints sacrificed a chance at ending the season on a high note, some “experts” claiming they have now lost momentum heading into the playoffs. But what about the Rams and the Bengals? What did they really sacrifice? Both teams had nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Did these teams benefit from tanking their final games? The Rams will if they draft Ndamukong Suh, the otherworldly nose tackle from Nebraska. We’ll know Sunday about the Bengals. For the Colts and the Saints? They both have byes this week. They get to “rest” even more. Let’s see if it pays off. I think I’ll pass at venturing a guess. I have to rest now.
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