Another video relating to Scott Norwood.
This one takes a closer look at the Buffalo Bills as a team, and how they lost - as a team - Super Bowl XXV, when they in fact probably should have won. You see, as a Giants fan, it took me a few years to even be able to admit that the Bills were probably the better overall team on the field that day, but managed to lose for a variety of reasons. In this video, the guy explores that a little bit.
An NFL football fan who remembers that season will remember that the Bills looked hot and unstoppable for much of that season. In fact, the later that season went on, the better they got. Before long, everyone assumed that they would likely easily win the AFC title. Before long, they began to outright be Super Bowl favorites. They beat the Giants on the road in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, and so they were assumed to be the better team. Sometimes, I remember just how good that team was, how everything appeared to be falling into place for them, and it still then is difficult to believe that the G-Men somehow managed to get the better of them in Super Bowl XXV.
However, there were real reasons for why it happened. And this video explains it. The Giants defense giving them looks that Buffalo clearly got thrown off by, and how it took them almost the entire game to catch on and make adjustments which, if they had made them a little earlier, might really have made the difference. Also, how some dropped passes - particularly by star wide receiver Andre Reed - proved costly. And how missed tackles by Buffalo defenders, and their inability to stop the Giants at key times - particularly on third downs - also ultimately contributed to the Bills losing that game. When you look at it that way, then you have a Buffalo team that can probably look on all sides - offense, defense, special teams, and coaching - as strongly contributing to why the Bills fell short that day.
Also, they probably were a little too loose on the discipline factor. Many of the Bills celebrated their achievements during Super Bowl week, when they would have been better served not going out quite as late, and focusing more seriously on the game, and the challenges to come. Also, some of the Bills were a bit arrogant, and this probably worked against them. One Bills player complained that the New York Giants were not as famous as the team that they had just beaten, the San Francisco 49ers. Another made it known that he was getting his finger measured for a ring. And it seemed like several Bills players seemed to believe - and let this belief be known - that they expected to be the new "Team of the Decade" for the 1990's. Instead of focusing on just winning that one game, they got distracted and looked past Super Bowl Sunday, which is, frankly, a cardinal sin.
Yet on some level, it's a testament to just how good that team was that the Giants had to devise all sorts of strategies which were afterwards regarded as "brilliant" and "genius." That they needed to do extraordinary things, like controlling the clock for over 40 minutes, and great individual efforts by certain players like Ottis Anderson and Mark Ingram, and wonderful coaching jobs by Bill Parcells and a young Bill Belichick. And even after all of that, the Giants still only won by a single point, and that preserved by a barely missed field goal right at the end of the game.
But it's not impossible that the Bills might have lost that game, as much as the Giants won it. No, they did not play poorly. Yet, they also did not elevate themselves enough to get the job done when they absolutely needed to at key times, when some things, if they had gone even slightly differently, might have been enough to assure a different outcome on that day.
Take a look at the video below, and see what you think:
In His Defense: Scott Norwood
No comments:
Post a Comment