VITO'S VIEWS

One of the more interesting matchups in this Super Bowl is between the two fan bases.

Even though Philadelphia and Boston are both Eastern seaboard cities with a rich history in the founding of the country, they have very different histories when it comes to football.

Starting with their names. The Eagles aren’t the Eastern Pennsylvania Eagles. They’re Philadelphia to the core.

Boston changed its name to New England in 1971 to try to become a regional team the year they opened the stadium in Foxboro.

And then there’s the stadiums. Philadelphia’s stadium is in the city of Philadelphia. The Patriots could never get Boston to build a stadium so the Sullivan family built a 60,000 seat metal bench stadium in Foxboro for $6 million  in 1971.

Continue reading “Even a Super Bowl loss won’t tame the white-hot devotion of Eagles fans”

Doug Pederson is just in his second year as the Philadelphia Eagles’ coach, but he’s about to coach what could be a career-defining moment for him this Sunday.

He’s going to become the seventh coach to face Bill Belichick in the Super Bowl.

One of them, Tom Coughlin, beat Belichick twice as the New York Giants’ coach, but the other five not only lost, they made coaching gaffes that helped contribute to their team’s losses.

Now it’s Pederson’s chance to see if he can beat the New England Patriots with Nick Foles as his quarterback.

If he is to pull it off, Pederson has to avoid the types of mistakes made by the coaches who’ve lost to Belichick in the Super Bowl.

Continue reading “Pederson must avoid gaffes that have cost so many Belichick Super Bowl foes”

So where do the Jacksonville Jaguars go from here?

Despite the heartbreaking defeat in New England, they had a magical season that energized the fan base, will sell a lot of tickets and sent a message that they should be a contender the next three or four years.

But that same frustrating loss to the Patriots also revealed a hard truth about this team.

Namely that while Blake Bortles probably played well enough to convince the Jaguars to bring him back at $19 million, the odds are against them winning a Super Bowl with him at quarterback.

The top priority for the franchise has to be to find their long term answer at quarterback if they want to bring the Lombardi Trophy to Jacksonville. Bortles improved this year, but remains too inconsistent to reach elite status.

Continue reading “Jaguars won’t be Super Bowl-ready until they move on from Bortles”

It is unusual for a team’s chief front office executive to be in the spotlight before a conference title game.

But that is what is happening this week with the hype before the New England-Jacksonville game for the AFC title.

One of the storylines is the matchup between New England coach Bill Belichick and Jaguars vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin.

That is because the two men once coached together under Bill Parcells, and Coughlin has a 5-2 edge on Belichick in head-to-head matchups and twice beat him in Super Bowls.

The key to both of Coughlin’s victories was a fierce pass rush that throttled Tom Brady and held him to 14 and 17 points. And then Eli Manning directed game-winning touchdown drives in the fourth quarter of both games.

Continue reading “Is it ‘Coughlin Time’ again for Belichick and the Patriots?”

When Mike Tomlin coached the Pittsburgh Steelers to two Super Bowls in his first four years as a head coach, winning one and losing one, he seemed destined to be an elite coach in the NFL.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Seven years have gone by and Tomlin hasn’t made it back to another Super Bowl. His playoff record is now 8-7.

Even worse, he had the most talented offensive team in the league in 2017 and lost his first playoff game to Jacksonville despite a 13-3 regular season record, although the loss of Ryan Shazier during the season was huge.

Still, Tomlin must take most of the blame for how undisciplined the Steelers were during the season. And his premature talk about playing the New England Patriots twice were certainly ill-advised.

Continue reading “Steelers’ Tomlin looking more and more mediocre with each big-game loss”

They might be called the Other Seven.

They are the quarterbacks heading into the divisional NFL playoff round with a chance to win the Super Bowl not named Tom Brady.

Brady, of course, is the one with a chance to make the most history. He’s already become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls (Bart Starr also won five titles but the first three were before the Super Bowl was invented)  and now can become the first to win six.

Despite the drama surrounding the Patriots recently, he still overshadows the rest of the QB field in the playoffs. But the other seven can also put their names in the history book by winning it all this year. A Super Bowl victory is a defining moment for a quarterback’s career.

Two others — Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees — have already won rings.

Continue reading “Assessing the NFL Divisional Round quarterbacks”

Start the popcorn popping.

NFL fans may be in for quite a show in the next month as the New England Patriots begin their drive for a sixth Super Bowl victory.

Or maybe not. But the anticipation keeps things interesting.

At first glance, the Patriots appear to have an easy road to the title.

Their first opponent, Tennessee, lost three of their last four games. And both their possible second opponents are vulnerable. Pittsburgh has lost its best defensive player, Ryan Shazier, and its defense has a history of being carved up by Tom Brady. The other possible opponent, Jacksonville, has probably the league’s best defense, but is quarterbacked by Blake Bortles.

Continue reading “If the Patriots come up short, the drama in Foxboro could be delicious”

Five observations on the final weekend of the NFL season:

1. The top two seeds in the NFC go into the playoffs with 13-3 records and backup quarterbacks, but that is the only thing the top seeded Eagles and second seeded Vikings have in common. The Eagles have to be worried if they can win with Nick Foles at quarterback. He only played a quarter in the team’s ugly 6-0 loss to Dallas and was only four of 11 for 39 yards and pick. Meanwhile Case Keenum played most of the season, going 11-3. The Vikings seem the better bet in the playoffs with Keenum than the Eagles are with Foles. The Vikings also could become the first team to play the Super Bowl in their own stadium.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 17”

Looking ahead to the final day of the NFL’s 2017 regular season:

1. New Year’s Eve won’t be Football Night in America The NFL won’t close the regular season with a prime time game on New Year’s Eve because it got unlucky this year. They try to schedule good matchups for the season finales. Like Dallas-Philadelphia and Carolina-Atlanta. But it turns out Dallas is out of the playoffs and Philadelphia has nailed down the top seed so nothing is at stake. And nothing may be stake when Carolina plays Atlanta if Seattle loses to Arizona and the Saints beat the Bucs. So the NFL decided to pass on Sunday night and flexed games so playoff contenders play at the same time.

Continue reading “Taking a look ahead: NFL Week 17”

Looking back on Week 16 in the NFL:

1. The 16^th week of the season brought the playoff picture into focus and left the NFL without a good enough matchup the final week for a prime time Sunday night game. So the regular season will end with the second games when the 12 playoff spots will be set. In the AFC, the four seeds are set with the Ravens and Titans needing victories in final week to clinch wild card spots. The Bills and Chargers need wins and help. In the NFC, only one final spot is open. Atlanta gets a spot with a victory over Carolina while the Seahawks sneak in if they beat Arizona at home and the Falcons lose.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 16”