Hudson Valley athletics talk about the Super Bowl

Bobby Colla

Sports Editor

 

Seahawks soar, and Packers collapse

“The Seahawks organization is always going to put the pedal to the metal,” said Hudson Valley’s Head Football Coach Mike Muehling, in regards to the Seahawks comeback victory over Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game.

The Seahawks trailed the Green Bay Packers, 16-0 at halftime, and stormed back late to send the game to overtime and eventually win 28-22. The Packers absolutely collapsed at the end of the game, and allowed the Seahawks to make some plays that they shouldn’t have.

The collapse began in the third quarter when the Seahawks ran a fake field goal that resulted in their Punter Jon Ryan throwing a touchdown pass to Offensive Tackle Garry Gilliam making the score 16-7.  “I thought it was a great call,” said Muehling. The Packers defense was not prepared for the fake and allowed Gilliam to get over the top and catch the pass for the touchdown. The Packers absolutely should’ve been prepared for the fake but no one was.

Around this time the Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman hurt his shoulder, and remained in for the rest of the game. My wonder is why the Packers didn’t attack him, and test his arm for the remainder of the game.

“[The trainers] had to determine whether he could go back out there without hurting himself or anyone else, Can he do his job without making his injury worse?” said Hudson Valley Athletic Trainer Keith Thomas.

“Those players at this stage of the game have played with discomfort, but I would’ve probably asked him to do some specific activities on the sideline to see if he was healthy enough to do his job,” said Thomas.

With five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Russell Wilson threw his fourth interception of the game to Packers Safety Morgan Burnett. Burnett almost immediately went to the ground and gave the ball to his offense on the 43 yard line.

The argument by some Packer fans, is that Burnett should’ve ran the ball back further. They say this because the offense went three and out on their next possession and that contributed to the Seahawk Comeback.

“Obviously, if he starts running and fumbles the ball everyone would be second guessing his decision to run,” said Muehling. He also said, he believes Burnett should’ve ran it back at least till a defender threatened him. “You can’t fault him for what he did because they still should’ve won the game.”

After the three and out by the Packers, The Seahawks drove down the field to score a touchdown to make it a 19-14 game This left just 2:09 on the clock and the Seahawks had just 1 timeout left, forcing them into an onside kick attempt.

The onside kick bounced off the facemask of Packers Tight End Brandon Bostick and his blocking assignment Chris Matthews recovered the ball and gave the Seahawks even more hope starting at mid-field.

“He didn’t do his job and it resulted in his assignment recovering the ball,” said Muehling. “If he does his job and blocks the guy he’s supposed to Jordy Nelson probably catches the ball and the game is over,” he said.

The Seahawks would cap off the fifty yard possession with a 24 yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch, and take the lead for the first time in the game.

Then the Packers defense made another huge mistake on the two point conversion. The Packers defense blitzed on the play. As the defense was about to make the tackle, Russell Wilson threw up a prayer and the Packer DB’s didn’t make a play on the ball, allowing Luke Willson to make the catch and extend the lead to three points, 22-19.

“The defense had the them dead to rights on the 2 point conversion, but Russell Wilson made a great play, and the DB’s didn’t look like they knew how to break on a football,” said Muehling. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix who had 2 interceptions earlier in the game made no play on the ball and allowed the Seahawks to score.

The Packers did get a field goal to tie the game but then lost the coin toss to start overtime and it seemed like too much for them to overcome. The Seahawks marched down the field and walked off with a 35 yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Jermain Kearse, to win the game.

“It was perfect storm of events that led to Seattle winning the game,” said Muehling.

The Packers gave this game away and they have a long time to think about this. At least they don’t have to worry about too much media coverage, with the Patriots Deflate-Gate Scandal attracting the press to them.

Caught with their balls deflated

Another cheating controversy comes out before a Patriots appearance in the Super Bowl, and this time they were caught red handed.

11 of the 12 Patriot game balls for the AFC Championship game were under-inflated. The new Patriot controversy is being called Deflate-Gate.

On Monday morning, the Indianapolis Colts went to the press accusing New England of cheating. At first it seemed like just another accusation against the Patriots, but it came out later that night that it was true.

Now, both the Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady, and their Head Coach Bill Belichick have denied any involvement.

“It’s obviously not an honest mistake since 11 of the 12 balls were under-inflated,” said Hudson Valley’s Head Football Coach Mike Muehling. “Somebody purposely put the footballs at that PSI,” he said.

“Maybe they knowingly under-inflated them, maybe they didn’t do it knowingly,” said Muehling. The equipment manager takes care of the game balls in conjunction with the quarterback so what the statements by Brady and Belichick state is that it’s the equipment manager’s fault.

According to former NFL Quarterback Mark Brunell on ESPN, the Quarterbacks of each team get to choose the footballs they would like to use and didn’t understand how Brady didn’t know that the Footballs were under-inflated.

“At that level, I don’t know how the process is done, but obviously it is an issue, otherwise they wouldn’t regulate it,” said Muehling. “They wouldn’t say it has to be within certain poundage if it wasn’t,” said Muehling.

“It could’ve been Tom Brady saying something as far back as the beginning of the season and they tried to duplicate that every week,” said Muehling.

If not anyone else, Tom Brady knew about the under-inflated footballs and probably he is the reason that this took place.

Regardless of who was involved, Patriots again the center of attention for the wrong reason, and are becoming known for this.

“It’s not the first time that that franchise has had an issue,” said Muehling. “It tarnishes the franchise and the careers of the people within it a little,” he said.

“Obviously they weren’t within the rules, and my issue is, if they’re doing this, what else are they doing that may or may not lie within the rules?” said Muehling.

Muehling is completely correct in saying this. The Patriots are being investigated for this controversy, but are they searching for any other ways the franchise may be cheating.

The team also looks for any advantage it can get. The Patriots now have given themselves that reputation.

Muehling said, “They are an organization that has a reputation for always playing an angle to see what kind of an advantage over their opponent, and sometimes they’ll do it within the rules and sometimes they’ll do it without the rules.”