The Five Best Super Bowl Winners Since 1985 posted by Colin Linneweber

The New Orleans Saints will play the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV Sunday at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

 

The Colts (16-2) are currently favored by nearly six points to defeat the underdog Saints (15-3) this weekend.

 

No matter what the ultimate outcome is, fans can expect to witness a thrilling game between the offensively explosive Saints and Colts.

 

In tribute to this weekend’s championship matchup, I have decided to rank the five best Super Bowl winners of the past quarter-century.

  

1)      The 1989-1990 San Francisco 49ers- The dominant 49ers (17-2) absolutely destroyed the overmatched Denver Broncos (13-6) by a score of 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV to repeat as champions at the Superdome in New Orleans.

 

To this very day, the 49ers lopsided margin of victory over the Broncos remains the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history.

 

Legendary Niners quarterback Joe Montana was justifiably named the game’s MVP after he completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and five touchdown passes.

 

San Francisco’s underrated defense stifled John Elway’s aerial assault and they managed to limit Denver to a paltry 167 yards on offense.

 

Joe Montana is a four-time Super Bowl champion and he has been the focal point of many tremendous squads.

 

Still, the 1989-1990 49ers unit was the greatest one that Montana ever played on.

  

2)      The 1985-1986 Chicago Bears- The Bears (18-1) humiliated the New England Patriots (14-6) 46-10 in Super Bowl XX at the Superdome in New Orleans.

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Exercising the Demons posted by Amari Harris

The Cowboys have a huge match-up this week against the #2 seed Minnesota Vikings.  But, I don’t think that will keep any Cowboys fan from relishing in what has transpired over the last month.  Over these last 4 weeks the Cowboys have exercised all of their “demons” and now simply have to go into the Metrodome and take on the 12-4 Minnesota Vikings led by Brett Favre to advance to the NFC championsip.  Piece of cake, right?  Well before we stuff ourselves, let’s digest the last month of the season and see what the Cowboys were able to stomach (pun intended). 

 

Demon #1:  DECEMBER

 

It all started in New Orleans when the Cowboys took on the undefeated New Orleans Saints.  They were coming off back to back losses to the Chargers and Giants and the December monster continued to loom.  Most experts predicted that the Cowboys would not only lose Saturday night in New Orleans , but that they could possibly free fall out of the playoffs with more late-season losses.  The Cowboys went on to man handle the Saints for the majority of the game and DeMarcus Ware added a signature performance  to his growing legacy. 

 

After handing New Orleans its first  loss of the season, the Cowboys took on a semi-surging Washington Redskins team that wanted to show what they had to new GM Bruce Allen.  Result:  17-0 shut-out, courtesy of Wade Phillips and his suddenly vaunted defense.  The Cowboys had punched their ticket to the playoffs but I have to admit that there were

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The Cav Report: A New Era posted by Amari Harris

After the Cowboys beat up on the Washington Redskins a couple of weeks ago I had a chance to catch up with one of my old teammates, John Phillips, who currently plays tight end for the Cowboys.  We only spoke briefly but we did manage to discuss UVA’s recent hiring of Mike London as the new head coach.  I instantly realized that I had yet to publish my opinion on this hire and it is certainly a topic that deserves some discussion.

 

I’d like to say that I predicted that 2009 would be Al Groh’s last season as Virginia’s head football coach, but I think the writing was on the wall after the loss to William & Mary.  Groh is a good coach, so I think he’ll land on his feet real soon (hopefully in the NFL).  Now, UVA has to find a way back to its former glory.  The first step in the process was hiring a new head coach and I think the AD Craig Littlepage got it right with the hiring of London. 

 

As the Cavaliers defensive coordinator for 2006 & 2007, London had Virginia playing some of their best defense in over a quarter century.  Virginia finished in the top 20 in the nation in rushing yards, points allowed and sacks and managed to win 9 games that season despite their struggles on offense.  As a defensive line specialist, London turned Jeffrey Fitzgerald into a freshman All-American and Chris Long into the best defensive lineman in the country and second overall pick in the NFL draft.  He also led a shut-out performance against the Miami Hurricanes as the Cavaliers officially closed down the Orange Bowl with a 41-0 thumping of the ‘Canes in 2007.

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Back in the tournament! posted by Amari Harris

With a shutout win against the lowly Washington Redskins the Dallas Cowboys split their December games (2-2).  While it is not a complete turn around from their previous struggles, they showed some mettle down the stretch and have officially punched their ticket into the tournament.  There are still many dominoes that need to fall into place to determine final playoff seeding, but at least the ‘Boys got a shot. 

 

While the defense dominated last night and the offense made enough plays to keep the game out of reach, there is still plenty to be anxious about.

 

Wade Phillips can breathe a small sigh of relief as his job is safe for the time being, but I’m not sure the same can be said about offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.  While the distribution and efficiency of the passing game is a reason for excitement, the continued failure to capitalize on critical conversion and scoring opportunities may cost this team in the playoffs. 

 

On five separate occasions, the offense was stuffed on 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1 situations.  And it wasn’t even close.  Although some of the blame can be placed on Marion Barber (who was dancing around in the backfield like a ballerina), Garrett does not seem to have enough variation in the calls.  Everyone knows who’s getting the ball on 3rd/4th and short when Barber is in the game.  Even Emmitt Smith wasn't impressed with the play calling.  I’m not necessarily saying Deion Anderson is the answer on short yardage either, but in the playoffs the Cowboys will have to mix it up.  Maybe a fake to Barber (at fullback) with the pitch out to Felix Jones?  I’m not a professional coach or anything, but that seems to work around the league.  What about actually handing the ball to Felix Jones in the wildcat (That reverse to Austin was just ugly)?  A little misdirection never hurt anybody…except the defense. 

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Joe's Opening Drive: Week 15 posted by Joe Anello

After another dramatic Colts win, the still-undefeated Saints try their luck against the Cowboys on Saturday night while the second seed in the AFC is on the line on Sunday. Let's start the Opening Drive of week 15 in the NFL!

(8-5) Dallas Cowboys at (13-0) New Orleans Saints 

Dallas' DeMarcus Ware is going to play less than a week after suffering a neck strain, but that may not be enough for the free-falling Cowboys. Going into New Orleans and escaping with a victory will require near-flawless play and a lot of luck. Even without tight end Jeremy Shockey, Drew Brees has an abundance of weapons at his disposal. If the Saints move to 14-0, it will could signal the end of Dallas' playoff hopes and the end of Wade Philips' tenure as head coach.

***UPDATE: Dallas freaking did it. I'll be sure to cover this stunner in the Final Drive.

(8-5) New England Patriots at (5-8) Buffalo Bills 

Don't look now, but the rest of the AFC East is catching up to the Patriots. If Bill Belichick's squad loses another road game (which they've done consistently this season) and Miami or the Jets win, the Pats will fall out of the division lead and risk a playoff berth entirely. In a up-and-down season in Buffalo, this could be a signature win to carry them over into next year.

(9-4) Cincinnati Bengals at (10-3) San Diego Chargers

In the most significant game of the weekend, San Diego and Cincinnati are essentially playing for the number two seed in the AFC and an additional home game in the playoffs. San Diego has been lighting teams up in December while the Bengals were just lambasted by Minnesota. After the tragic loss of Chris Henry, I can't believe the Bengals are going to have enough in the tank to head out west and win.

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Big Daddy Believes In Miracles posted by Les Leonard

     How many Saints’ fans wrote off the Saints when Washington lined up their game-clinching 23-yard field goal? This year’ s “ Finish” mentality has produced the franchise’s best season start ever, not to mention the team’s most unbelievable victory in 43 years Sunday. Previous season mottos never produced the results that the ’ 09 slogan has. Big Daddy wonders if the Saints brought in Tiger Woods to demonstrate how awesome happy endings feel? Tiger always benefits from coming hard at the end both on and off the course. If it works for Saints fans for the next 13 years, the Superdome staff will have lots of new banners to hang. Seriously, Big Daddy wants Saints fans to understand the significance of a team that wins games they should lose. Haven’ t we suffered the downside of that equation for far too long? Hell yeah! But now its our time! In this edition of the Section 645 Saints Beat, Big Daddy questions the BCS, reports from the Kingpin, recaps the Redskins game, examines the NFL’ s playoff picture, and releases his World Famous Pregame Information.

     As 2009 winds down , the fraudulent BCS has screwed three more schools (TCU, Cincinnati, and Boise State) out of having the opportunity to compete for the national championship. Saying BCS sponsors pay college presidents handsomely to maintain “ the status quo” — although true, is exactly what they want the masses to believe. Refusing to change this terrible system, touting we can’ t disrupt college football’ s great tradition, sucks more than Congressional Democrats holding up health care reform due to they’re ridiculous anti-abortion stance. How can all sports, regardless of what level, seed teams to playoff for the trophy except Division 1-A NCAA football? Big Daddy thinks the NFL owners are the guys stopping progress. The NFL has no desire to see their popularity diminished like that of the NBA every time March Madness rolls around. Lets face it, this week’s match-ups of Buffalo at Kansas City, Detroit at Baltimore, Jets at Tampa, St. Louis at Tennessee, and Washington at Oakland is a perfect example to show how boring late season pro football can be. Viagra couldn’ t get football fans up for these garbage games.

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Going Forward: Can the Dallas Cowboys conquer their December Woes/Foes? posted by Amari Harris

To this point of the season the Cowboys have taken care of business, for the most part.  The Cowboys could very easily be 9-1 had they just maintained their composure against the likes of the New York Giants and Denver Broncos.  But instead of dwelling on what could have been, the ‘Boys did a good job of moving on as they went on to win 6 of their next 7 games and claim 1st place in the NFC east.  Unfortunately, none of that matters now.  The Cowboys are 8-3 with the Philadelphia Eagles in a close trail at 7-4, and the Giants still kicking at 6-5.  And being that the final five games of this season are in the dreaded month of December, the phrase “anything can happen” is an understatement. 

 

In the last 3 seasons the Cowboys have gone 5-8 in the month of December.  Their December woes are well documented so I don’t have to go too far into detail to paint the picture.  They have been battered and bruised in this month and they always seem to lose the big game.   Tony Romo has taken a large share of the blame for these losses as he has QB rating of 71.9 in the month of December while posting a 93.0 QB rating during the other months of the season.  So any Cowboys fan knows that December is looming and this will be the biggest test yet for this team.

 

The Cowboys final 5 games is a brutal stretch that includes 3 road games and 2 home games against the red hot San Diego Chargers and revenge minded Philadelphia Eagles in the final game of the season ( sound familiar).  They have 3 tough division games along with 2 tougher non-division games against the aforementioned Chargers and the best team in the leaguer right now, the New Orleans Saints.  The last time the

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And with the 5th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft the Washington Redskins select.... posted by Pablo Rotondaro

Well, the Redskins found another way to lose a game yesterday, there were some good things, more bad ones and a few headscratchers.The only good thing about losing as many games as they have this year is that they still have their top draft picks next year (for now) and it's looking more and more like a top 5 pick...can't wait until April!

There were many positive things in the game yesterday, the most encouraging sign of the game yesterday was that the defense was able to hold the Cowboys to only 7 points playing without Albert Haynesworth and without creating much of a pass rush in the meantime. They played tighter coverage than usual and LaRon Landry looked like the top draft pick that they thought he would be as he was flying all over the field and put the fear of god in Roy Williams who looked scared out of his mind when he went across the middle. Witten was a non-factor and Romo, other than the last drive of the game, couldn't hit anyone.They did give up a ton of yards on the ground but that was to be expected without Haynesworth in the middle, something that should signal to those who don't see how valuable he is that without him the defensive line isn't even close to being as good everyone wanted to think they are, he is the anchor against the run and the pass rush, and is a central player in the defense. That being said, they played well enough to win and deserved the shutout.

The offense was up to its usual pathetic performance as they failed to sustain any drives and could only muster up 4 field goal tries, hardly an impressive outing from the group although Jason Campbell likes to pat himself on the back for "stepping up" as he said in post-game interviews, that alone tells me that this guy does not get it but we'll get to that later. The special teams was not very good as they missed 2 field goals, the second of which was a 50-yarder but definitely makeable.The first one was only 39 yards but, after the debacle by the refs, it wasn't as easy as it should have been. Cartwright was great, he has always been a core player and a symbol of what this team needs more of, guys that give it their all and don't worry so much about their entitlement to things like a starting position. It seems like some guys just have a spot eventhough they don't earn it (Randle-El as a returner....WTF???) and other just don't play their best. The offensive line held together pretty well, Jones was once again solid as he shut out DeMarcus Ware, not exactly an easy feat and kept the Cowboys with their constant blitzes and pass rush off of Campbell for the most part.

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We gots to do better! posted by Amari Harris

Observations from Sunday:

 

- Jason Garrett tried to prove a point and the Cowboys almost lost the game because of it. 

 

Garrett came under fire for only running the ball 11 times all of last week, so he decided to double that total in the first half on Sunday.  That approach was somewhat understandable as the Cowboys got a pretty good push against a Haynesworth-less front four, but they should have mixed it up much more.  The Cowboys play best when they are spreading the ball around to all of their playmakers.  The wide-receivers didn’t even catch a ball until the 4th quarter, and Roy Williams didn’t register a single stat.  Which brings me to my next point?

 

- Roy Williams has a cancerous lackadaisical attitude and the sooner the Cowboys get rid of him the better off they will be.

 

Yes, I said it.  I just can’t watch this anymore.  There is just something about a guy dropping a pass and then smiling about it that bothers me.  He doesn’t even seem upset.  He takes no ownership of his faults.  Sure, Tony Romo let some passes sail but he hit Roy in the perfect spot on deep in cut on third down and Roy Williams dropped the ball.  He did get hit on the play, but he dropped the ball before he got hit.  Even Laron Landry questioned his manhood. The Redskins players were getting hit after catches too, but they were holding on to the ball.  Roy hasn’t shown any toughness going back to the Denver game when couldn’t manage to get on the field for one last play from the goal line.  If Bill Belicek coached this team, I have no doubt that Roy would be sitting on the bench right now, if not totally inactive. 

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Joe's Final Drive: Week 10 posted by Joe Anello

With all of the surprise upsets, there’s no way I can take the time to properly address them all. I’ll hit the best and worst of week 10 in this edition of the Final Drive! 

(3-6) Tennessee Titans 41
(3-6) Buffalo Bills 17 
Biggest thing to come out of this game besides Chris Johnson’s awesomeness is the $250,000 fine on Titans owner Bud Adams, who flipped off the crowds. Nice one Bud. Oh yeah, and Dick Jauron was fired today. Saw that coming. 

(5-4) Jacksonville Jaguars 24
(4-5) New York Jets 22 

We hear Jets coach Rex Ryan cried during his post-game talk to the players. Man has that team crumbled in unspectacular fashion. Mean while the Jags are 5-4 and scarily unpredictable. Maurice Jones-Drew’s kneel-down at the end of the game is getting some criticism, but he only did what he was told to do. The coaches trusted their kicking game and didn’t want to leave the Jets any time on the clock. I get it. 

(7-2) Cincinnati Bengals 18
(6-3) Pittsburgh Steelers 12 

Okay, we all have to start accepting the Bengals as a legitimate AFC contender. Any team that beats Pittsburgh and Baltimore twice in one season thanks to their defense should be treated likewise. Have you noticed they’ve turned into a power-running team? That added to their defense a conference champion makes.

 
One of many. 

(3-6) Washington Redskins 27

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McCardell to coach Redskins receivers (AP)

Longtime NFL wideout Keenan McCardell will be the receivers coach for the Washington Redskins. McCardell was hired Tuesday as the replacement for Stan Hixon, who was not retained by new coach Mike Shanahan. Hixon was hired Monday as Buffalo Bills receivers coach. McCardell caught 883 passes, 13th on the career list, over 17 seasons. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Virginia hiresLazor as off. coordinator (AP)

Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor has been hired as Virginia's offensive coordinator. New Cavaliers coach Mike London announced Lazor's hiring Thursday. Lazor has been the quarterbacks coach at Seattle for the last two seasons. Before that, he spent four years with the Washington Redskins -- two as quarterbacks coach, two as an offensive assistant. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Ravens hire Zorn as quarterbacks coach (AP)

Former Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn has been hired by the Baltimore Ravens to be their quarterbacks coach. Zorn takes over for Hue Jackson, who left to become offensive coordinator of the Oakland Raiders. Zorn was fired earlier this month by the Redskins after two seasons as their head coach. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Virginia hires Lazor as off. coordinator (AP)

Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor has been hired as Virginia's offensive coordinator. New Cavaliers coach Mike London announced Lazor's hiring Thursday. Lazor has been the quarterbacks coach at Seattle for the last two seasons. Before that, he spent four years with the Washington Redskins -- two as quarterbacks coach, two as an offensive assistant. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

NFL heads toward labor showdown (AP)

Rich, powerful and more popular than ever, the NFL gets closer to a doomsday scenario every day. Without a deal in the next five weeks to preserve the labor peace that has lasted since 1987, next season will have no salary cap. That means richer teams such as the Washington Redskins and New England Patriots will be able to far outspend others for free agents, while the likes of the Jacksonville... [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports