DaveZdyrko.com

My record picking against the spread for this year’s NFL playoffs stands at a fairly impressive 5-1. I nailed both conference championship games and got 3 out of 4 correct in the divisional round. The only pick I’ve gotten wrong so far was the game between the Jets and Patriots and I’m going to chalk that one up to being over-hyped by the Patriots-infested office at QUICKHIT in Foxboro.

That said, my previous success hasn’t raised my confidence in picking the outcome of Super Bowl XLV between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. This game could easily go any way and it should be an epic and exciting battle.

Green Bay (-2.5) over Pittsburgh

My enormous gut and parts of my brain are telling me to go with the Steelers on this one. Big Ben already has two rings to his credit, is a proven winner and doesn’t take no for an answer. Pittsburgh is also the more experienced team as many of its players have played in the “big game” before and should be better prepared for things such as the special ball they use for the Super Bowl or the longer half time show.

The Steelers’ franchise has also won this thing more than any other. So much so that one could argue that the Lombardi Trophy should be renamed the Rooney Trophy. Nevertheless, I’m not going to listen to my gut or the parts of my brain telling me to pick Pittsburgh. I’m going with the Packers to win and cover the 2.5 point spread because they were my pre-season pick to win it all and I might as well stick with them because getting that right makes me even smarter than just picking this one game correct.

Plus, I think one of the story lines that will unfold will be the match-up between Pittsburgh’s back-up center and B.J. Raji of the Packers. I think Raji’s going to make a big impact stifling the Steelers’ rushing attack and will get some good pressure on Big Ben up the middle. This combined with the fact that I really want this to be Aaron Rodgers’ coming out party, as it’ll somewhat tarnish the legacy of Brett “Sext Machine” Favre just a little more, even makes me want the Pack to win.

Green Bay 31 Pittsburgh 27

The Super Bowl, while a decent enough game between two of the game’s best teams and two of the league’s best quarterbacks, honestly bored the Hell out of me. I believe part of it was because there weren’t really any big hits, amazing catches, or really big plays. Both the Colts and Saints seemed to drive at will and would only have drives stopped because of mistakes on their part, except for the goal line stand towards the end of the first half (only reason Colts didn’t score at the goal line at the end of the game was the ball went right through Wayne’s hands).

It’s almost as if both Brees and Manning were too good at finding the open receiver and too good at putting the ball right where the receiver could make the easy grab. There were no David Tyree catch-the-ball-off-your-helmet moments or ones where a player like Larry Fitzgerald just proved he was a man among boys. It was quality football between two fantastic offenses and a few defenses that made some huge plays every now and then — the TAINT (touchdown after interception) and the Freeney sack.

Maybe the bigger problem is that I liked both teams and honestly didn’t give two shits about who won the game. I was clapping for scores or big plays by either team and was mainly just hopping it was a close game throughout. My biggest disappointment was the TAINT that ended the game instead of the Colts being able to tie it and possibly put the SB into OT. I’m glad Brees got a ring and am extremely happy that the Saints won a SB for the first time ever. But, if they had lost I wouldn’t have really cared that much. I guess that’s what honestly bored me the most. It’s much easier to get excited if you really love one team or really hate the other. When you’re indifferent and just want a good football game, it’s hard to get all that emotional.

Oh, yeah, it also didn’t help that the ads mostly sucked and the half-time show was 30 years past due.

There were a few good ones, but my pick for the best commercial during the Super Bowl goes to the Conan O’Brien one. It just left me in stitches.

During the Super Bowl and after one of Larry Fitzgerald’s many miraculous plays, we decided that from now on that he should be referred to as simply, “Better Than You”. The reason being that we figured that when he’s making some of these amazing catches, often with perfect coverage on him by the defensive back, that he must be thinking to himself as he’s going up for the grab, “I’m just better than you”, as he snatches the ball out of the air. He’s just been doing that kind of crap for as long as I’ve watched him play, which goes back to his college days. He’s an amazing player and thankfully he’s a class act character as well.

First, I want to say that I don’t think it effected the outcome of the game. The Steelers won and the chances are that they would’ve run even if the fumble was overturned. Nevertheless, I feel completely ripped off as a football fan that the final play for the Cards was NOT reviewed. Regardless of the outcome, the play SHOULD have been reviewed. I’m pissed that it wasn’t and  that the announcers completely ignored it despite talking about it in depth. It’s embarassing as a fan of NFL football. I feel ashamed and I feel ripped off. This could’ve been on of the greatest Super Bowls ever but it ended up a joke.

Not quite as active as last week, partly due to the fact that Super Bowl Sunday was as big of a downer on my traffic as it was to Bill Belichick’s ego, but there were still enough of your emails for me to update. Enjoy!

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It might only be February, but it seems highly unlikely that there will be a better play in 2008 than the one in Super Bowl XLII where Eli Manning miraculously avoided a sack and then David Tyree came down with one of the greatest catches that I’ve ever seen. Even if it were to have happened in the regular season, it would have been a big deal, but it happened on the game winning drive in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. A Super Bowl where the mighty New England Patriots were chasing perfection and immortality only to be dethroned thanks in part to this one particular play. The only thing that would’ve made it better if it was for the game winning touchdown. For those that missed it or want to see it again, here’s the play via Youtube.

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It might have been because I had the worst hangover ever, but the first batch of Super Bowl commercials that aired in the 1st quarter and into the 2nd sucked major balls to me. It wasn’t until a string of three straight commercials at some point close to halftime that I actually found any to be funny. These were some of my favorites (in no particular order).

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My plan to jinx the Patriots by predicting a blowout worked!!!! I am so unbelievably happy right now, no words can really describe the emotions I’m feeling. My sports life has been so crap over the past five plus years that I’ve been getting most of my joy out of seeing teams I hate do poorly. The New England Patriots going 19-0 would’ve been extremely hard to stomach. But to see them go 18-0 and then choke in the Super Bowl is without a doubt one of the greatest things I’ve witnessed in my lifetime as a sports fan.

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I’ll be rooting for the New York football Giants, but I think it’s a forgone conclusion that the Patriots are going to win this game and finish off their 19-0 “perfect season”.  The only question is whether they’ll win a close game or in a blowout. My money would be on the blowout because Belichick has had two weeks to prepare (or cheat) for this game and should have no problem confusing Meli. Final Score — Patriots 45 Giants 13.

In more exciting news, keep an eye out for my friend, Porsche Lee Briggs, in the Gatorade G2 commercial starring Peyton Manning! She’s apparently one of the “hotties” in the luxury box with him or something. FYI, she’s the pretty girl in the Flickr photo stream at the top of the page.