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PFL
Superbowl II Recap
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After roaring through the AFC playoffs with almost no strain, the Broncs rolled into San Diego poised to closed the book on what had been the easiest novel ever written on winning a PFL championship. Little did they know however, that Alex Smolka and the New England Patriots were not ready to just hand over the PFL title to the Broncs. They too, as did Denver, made it to the big dance after clawing their way through the intensely competitive conference playoffs. So the stage was set for the two Cinderella's of both conferences to square off in what has been termed as the best SuperBowl ever. Of course it was only the second true SuperBowl for the PFL. Even so, it is hard to imagine that the future Super Bowls to come could be any better The slugfest began with the Patriots drawing first blood on a 44 yard touchdown pass to Terry Glenn to go up early 7-0. Denver came right back on a 11 play 75 yard drive highlighted by a 30 yard passing play from Elway to Rod Smith. Terrell Davis scampered in from two yards out to tie the game at 7. The two teams alternated possessions back and forth for most of the first quarter tied at 7 before John Elway connected with Shannon Sharpe from 38 yards out. Denver lead 14-7. After an Adam Vinatieri field goal made it a 14-10 game, Denver blew the game open, scoring 15 unanswered points to go up 29-10 late in the second quarter. With less than a half of a minute to go in the first half with the ball on the Bronco 47, Gresham opted to go on fourth down, and was stifled by the Patriot defense. New England got the ball back with 29 seconds to go in the half. Two plays into the drive, Drew Bledsoe connected with Ty Law on a 48 yard touchdown strike and the Pats were back in business at 29-17 with seconds remaining in the first half. The Broncs seemed unfazed by the Pats good fortunes and came right out and scored on their opening drive of the second half when Jason Elam kicked a 21 yd FG to send the Broncs up 32-17. Early in the third quarter, John Elway was knocked out of the game by a vicious Ted Johnson sack. But that didn't seemed to phase the Denver offense as Jeff Lewis came in replaced Elway and lead the Broncos on an 8 play 65 yard drive to ended in a 37 yard scoring strike to Willie Green to put Denver up 40-17. Finally the Pats put together two great scoring drives and two great defensive stands to make the game close late in the second half. After Ted Johnson picked off a Jeff Lewis errant pass, Bledsoe marched his troops 44 yards for another score, this time to Sam Gash, cutting the lead to 40-24. With 8:12 remaining, the Vinateiri capped a 12 play 47 yard drive with an 32 yard FG to make it a 40-27. Ed McCaffrey scored on a 21 yd TD pass from Lewis to extend the Broncs lead back to 46-27. Back came the Pats. First Bledsoe to Glenn for 40 yards to set up Bledsoes fourth TD of the game to Ben Coates. The Pats were one step closer at 46-34. Then Bledsoe, red hot, hit Terry Glenn on a 25 yd scoring strike to make a game at 46-41. The Pats were back in it all of a sudden. After Waymon Gresham made another questionable fourth down decision to go for it on his own 48 yard line, the Pats defense once again rose to the occasion and stopped the Broncs on fourth down for the fourth time and took over on possessions inside Denver territory. Two plays later, the play that the Patriot fans will be thinking about all of the off season occurred. Drew Bledsoe pass was picked off by Michael Dean Perry. New England's comeback hopes for a SuperBowl title were washed suddenly washed away with 5:12 left in the game. Gresham, after so many questionable coaching decisions throughout the game, managed to prevail and win his first SuperBowl title after scoring late to make the final score 53-41. The beauty of the PFL was evident, proving that the games must be played before a champion can be crowned. How could a 7-9 team be considered a 9 point favorite to win the SuperBowl over a 10-6 team? And why wasn't the 12-4, & 11-5 teams in the big game? Why? Because it's the PFL, and in the PFL anything can happen.....I mean anything. Denver deserved their crowning achievement. After such a horrific start, they found the will to win when it counted. As for New England, everybody's good guy, Alex Smolka, just couldn't pull it off in the end. One pass, one error away from what seemed to be destiny. But as we watched and viewed these two gladiators go head to head, everyone stood proud. Because in the end, it was not about the Denver Broncos vs. the New England Patriots, or the SuperBowl Champs, or the AFC vs. the NFC. No, it is much deeper than that. It was about the PFL. The best SuperBowl EVER was the crowning jewel for a LEAGUE that shines brighter and brighter each season. Can you wait until next year? |
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