I rarely bet on football. When I do it’s because I perceive that one team has a huge emotional edge. I should have seen this coming a mile away. I didn’t. Or maybe last week I was just a week early in my premonition of doom.
When the Saints got bowled over by the St. Louis Rams 31-21 Sunday in a game that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate, they seemed to move to 0 for St. Louis in my lifetime. They also have yet to tackle Steven Jackson in my lifetime. There have been some dismal loses to St. Louis, but none more unexpected than this one. The Saints wandered into a World Series inspired city and got trounced just one week after embarrassing another winless team. The Rams are winless no more, as they chose to win one for their sidelined quarterback, Sam Bradford. The Rams may have taken themselves out of the Andrew Luck sweepstakes with this inspired victory.
If Hector Cruz had caught that line drive for Texas to win the World Series in game 6 none of this would have happened. Now, the St. Louis Cardinals’ incredible comeback from 10 ½ games out in late August to win the National League pennant, then the World Series has served to inspire the Rams to do the impossible, starting with stomping the Saints, even with journeyman AJ Feely at quarterback. Pencil them in for the Super Bowl.
All the Cardinals, including Tony LaRussa showed up, and it would have been horrible etiquette for the Rams to play less than inspired football. Saying that they dominated the Saints at the line of scrimmage doesn’t fully describe this game. The most positive thing you can say is that at least Drew Brees didn’t get hurt while he was getting pounded
I know if you’ve been living on a couch, you’re surprised that Texas and St. Louis have baseball teams. The Major League ESPN league consists solely of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, so this development had to be distressing to the baseball powers. That these two obscure teams produced a sloppy (ever play baseball in Arctic weather?) but thrilling World Series is further evidence that baseball is such a great game. While I love football and basketball, their suspense is greatly artificial due to bizarre and ever-changing rules.
Examples? The onside kick. Imagine if a baseball team got an extra inning when they wanted it. Advance the ball to half-court. Can we start the final inning with a runner at second base? Not enough offense? Constantly change the rules to protect the players. You know, the offensive ones.
Meanwhile baseball slogs along with the same old rules, and whether or not it’s a 1-0 game or a 10-9 or even 10-0 one, there’s a magic to this ancient game. There is no clock. Time never runs out. Only the strikes run out.
Time ran out on the Saints Sunday, and now they must do what they couldn’t do a few weeks ago – beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who will have had 2 weeks to prepare.
Can you say big game? The Saints are a disappointing 5-3. Disappointing not because they’re out of it, but because their road to a reprised Super Bowl now almost surely runs through Lambeau Field. In January. On the tundra. Frozen. Blech.
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