The wild ride that was the 2008 NFL season was what a football purist dreams of. You start off the season with the hype that the New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys are going to be the powerhouses of the league for the second year in a row, and you also have the New York Giants coming off a huge Super Bowl XLII upset off the Patriots. To start the season, you have Brett Favre getting traded to the New York Jets, and Peyton Manning missing the entire preseason; those were our cues that this was going to be interesting. Then in week one, 2007 MVP Tom Brady goes down in the first half with a torn ACL and MCL; step in Matt Cassel, who hadn’t started a game as QB since high school before playing backup to Heisman winners Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer. Thus as of right now in week one, the Patriots lost Brady, and the Cowboys beat the Browns.
Also on the Browns had 5 nighttime appearances and 3 Monday nighters; the Browns go on to finish their primetime season 4 – 12. Lets move on, Week 2, highlighted with a blown call by Ed Hochuli, allows the Broncos to upset conference rival Chargers in primetime, with more questioning of the NFL officials.
After Brady’s injury the New York Post declared that the New York Jets are a shoe-in for the AFC Championship; too bad no one told them that the Miami Dolphins were destined to win the division; also the New England Patriots came into New Jersey and put “Broadway” Brett back in his place after sealing the deal with a late interception.
Main things to note; the Tennessee Titans are undefeated up until week 12 finishing with the number 1 seed in the AFC and home field advantage. The Pittsburgh Steelers claimed the number 2 spot with impressive wins against the Chargers, Patriots and sweeping division rival Ravens 3 times (2 in regular season, and 1 in the playoffs). The Detroit Lions are the laughingstock of the league as usual with a brilliant 0-16 record, which was like watching the Dolphins from the last few years. Another thing, the Atlanta Falcons, who were supposed to be in shambles with a backup running back Michael Turner, rookie QB Matt Ryan, and Lawyer Milloy being the only big name on the team, ended up winning the first wild card spot, as well as the Philadelphia Eagles who at one point in the season tied with the Cincinnati Bengals (who were at one point trying to match the Lions in wins after Donovan McNabb, who was benched at one point, admitted that he didn’t know that ties were possible in the NFL). Also Seattle, who was expected to win the NFC West, turned in one of the worst performances ever; not a good sports year in Seattle overall, mainly due to injuries.
The season didn’t start to fold until the last few weeks, and still the only teams who had fully gained a playoff spot were Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee. Arizona, who would make it to the Super Bowl losing in the final minutes, looked absolutely horrible, with the major wins coming from with in the division as well as a 47 – 7 routing by New England. Finally in the last two weeks, it came down the wire. In week 15, the Patriots, Dolphins, Jets and Ravens were fighting for the final two playoff spots. The Patriots won out and became the second 11-5 team since the merger to not make the playoffs, the Jets were the Jets and folded, the Dolphins came in with the sleeper for the AFC east, and the Ravens won the last wild card.
So now the playoffs had shaped up, with Arizona taking on Atlanta, and Philadelphia taking on the Vikings with both the Giants and the Panthers getting a bye week for the NFC. Also, Baltimore was taking on Miami, and Indianapolis took on San Diego, with Steelers and Titans getting the bye for the AFC. All of the games except the Dolphins vs. Ravens game were close up until the last quarter; also, Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriots obviously forgot that when you give color commentary of a game, you’re supposed to be a neutral party (also CBS shouldn’t have paired him with the Dolphins game).
So the Eagles, Ravens, Cardinals and Chargers survived the wildcard round. Here comes the divisional round where men become men. Ravens were able to rout the Titans, and the Steelers knocked the Chargers by 11 points. Also, Philadelphia and Arizona both upset the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, setting up two pretty uneventful championship series in which the Ravens made it a game in the beginning, but the Steelers’ defense stopped Flacco. In the NFC, the Eagles brought with them the Donovan McNabb that they didn’t want, the one that inspired the joke, “Why doesn’t Donovan McNabb do Campbell’s soup commercials anymore… because any time he gets close to a bowl, he chokes.” So with that and Westbrook being shut down by the Arizona front line, Arizona made it to the Superbowl for the first time and haven’t won a championship since 1948, and are also the oldest team in NFL history—sounds like a certain baseball team out of Chicago that usually chokes when it comes close.
The main thing I can say is Arizona made it a game, but the Steelers just overpowered them. Steelers proved to be inefficient in the end zone which was weird for the league’s best, but again Rothlisburger is an over-hyped quarterback, with better receivers and a good running game. Fitzgerald proved why he is one of the best wide-outs in the league, and Bruce Springsteen proved he wasn’t dead. So in the end, the Steelers won their 6th Super Bowl.
2008 NFL Season In Review
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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