Rich Tandler’s 5 things possibly related to the Washington Redskins and other matters.
5. Let’s start off this Super Bowl heavy edition of The 5 with a look at Ahmad Bradshaw’s “gaffe”. I get that he should not have scored a touchdown in the late going to allow the Giants to milk the clock. But I’m not sure why he was put in that position to begin with. The Giants were at the six yard line; they didn’t need to get any closer to have a chippie field goal. After getting the first down on the pass to Hakeem Nicks why not just go into victory formation, have Eli Manning work the ball into the middle of the field, and then kick the field goal. Instead you’re asking your running back to do something that’s against every fiber of his being, stop short of the goal line.
4. It would be dumb to say that the Giants were lucky to win but they did have some good fortune go their way even before they went to Indianapolis. This New York Times article outlines five key moments where things went their way during the season and helped them win games. One loss along the way, in the regular season or the playoffs, and the Giants are watching the Super Bowl on TV like the rest of us. And yesterday, the Giants put the ball on the ground three times. They recovered two of the fumbles and a Patriots recovery of the first fumble was negated by a penalty. There also was the Wes Welker drop with four minutes left. The Giants were just spectators on that play like the rest of us. The thing is, you have to be in a position to take advantage of those breaks. The Giants were good enough to cash in on their good fortune.
3. Hitting on the pop culture aspects of the game, while I appreciated the production aspects of the halftime show—given that the guidelines are the excess if best—I have now officially passed the target age for these extravaganzas. Just like with the Black Eyed Peas last year I didn’t know a single song that Madonna sang and the only “star” who took the stage with her that I recognized was Cee Lo Green. The highlights of a mediocre batch of commercials were from car companies, the dog working his way into shape to be able to chase the VW and Clint Eastwood’s “it’s halftime in America” speech for Chrysler. Most of them, however, were the equivalent of putting $3.5 million into a pile and throwing match on it. Great National Anthem by Kelly Clarkson, she made it about the song and not about herself.
2. Some Redskins quarterback news popped up on Super Sunday and of course we’ll get into it in more depth on it in the days and weeks to come. But in preparation, I would suggest that you set aside what ESPN had to say about where the Redskins are headed and read what my colleague Ryan O’Halloran had to say about it. Nothing against the national folks but those of us who follow the team full time 365 days a year have a better grasp on the situation.
1. On a personal note, this Super Bowl marks the end of my first full season of covering the Redskins and the NFL as a full-time job for CSN Washington. I’d go back and count how many articles I’ve written in that year but that would take time away from moving forward and cranking out more great content this year. We don’t stop now; in fact, we barely even slow down. Keep a browser tab open right here all offseason as we will have multiple Redskins posts seven days a week.
Days until: NFL Combine 17; NFL free agency 36; NFL Draft 80; Start of NFL season 216
Rich Tandler blogs about the Redskins at www.RealRedskins.com. You can reach him by email at RTandlerCSN@comcast.net and follow him on Twitter @Rich_Tandler.
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