I haven't read a word of this thread, as I was in RR watching the game with my soon to be 89 year old dad, class of 1960, and my younger brother, who is a North Texas jazz man teaching jazz at a small private college in Indiana. Some observations:
1. This old man still has his marbles, AND fascinates me with some of his analysis. At what I was sure was the end of the year, when the refs looked for targeting against us, I said "they're gonna get us for targeting, game over," and he calmly stated he did not think it was targeting. He was right of course, and I asked him specifically what he saw that made him think it was not targeting, and he replied he "did not see the receiver's head snap back", and I said "I defer to you on any further targeting calls."
2. Of course I probably fascinated him with my prediction that our kicker would miss both kicks and "We need Dicker the Kicker" out there.
3. As far as the RB goes, we gave up calling his name, and substituted "Superman". When we heard he threw up on the sideline, we noticed a specific trend. When he was in the game he was either the decoy or the only offense they had.
I will never forget that run near the goal line in which we stopped him but it took 6 of our guys hitting him to knock him down. He took the handoff at the five, immediately got hit with a hit that would make most RBs fall immediately iMO, then kept going and was finally knocked to the ground by the sixth defensive man to contact him at the 2 yard line.
4. I think it is very possible I learned today what fans of teams who played against VY in 2005 must have felt. You don't tug on superman's cape, but sometimes you get lucky and superman finally gets worn out. I cannot believe we actually beat Superman today. If I'm a GM in the NFL today, I take this guy 1st round easy
5. Our Special Teams coach needs some quality time with the best Special Teams coach of all-time to try to figure out how to defend against a fake punt. Is it Bill Belichek? Why do we suck at defending the fake punt?
6. FG kicker? try someone else!!! Is it true we have a stud kicker on scholarship who is not kicking because ????