The NFL Year That Was

Hi guys, I know it's been a long time sine I've spoken to you all, so for that I apologise.

It's been another fantastic year in the NFL, especially for me as a Giants fan, so here's to hoping they can win the big one on Sunday. I'm going to write a few words about that then, but first let me give you some overall thoughts on the season that just passed.

I strongly believe that this league has become too offensively and particularly pass favourite. I think that when you have two quarterbacks breaking Marino's single season record, you need to look at why that is. Sure, Brees and Brady are both elite quarterbacks, but the Patriots receiving corps is, barring R Gronk and Welker, not an elite unite worthy of such an accolade. Such ridiculous calls like the one we saw in the Divisional Game between the Giants and the Packers where Umenyiora was called for head to head contact against Rodgers when his helmet barely brushed Rodgers' just goes to show how far away from defense this league is.

Don't get me wrong, I love watching an old school shout out, such as the Lions-Packers Week 17 game. But sometimes I feel that this league may be putting a significant disadvantage on defensive based teams. Look at the statistics. The Jets, Browns, Eagles, Seahawks and Jaguars all finished in the top 10 defensively ranked teams (Yards allowed per Game) and not one of them had a winning record, let alone the post season. Yes, most of them had enough issues on offense, but when half of the top 10 defenses don't make the playoffs, and in the Jets and Eagles case, have decent enough offenses, one has to question this league.

Furthermore, it would seem that the running game has become little more to many teams then an effective way of setting up the play action. When adding up the running yards of the top 5 running backs in each year, this year the total was 6,843. Apart from in 2007, when it was 6,768, this was the worst year in NFL history since 1993. This just goes to prove that whilst we have had the most successful and decorated passing year in the history of the NFL, we certainly have not had a vintage year for the running back.

Now whilst we're on the subjects of statistics, let's look at this year for the passer. Using the same technique as above, the passing yards come to 25,325. Now for last year this was 22,402. Are you seriously telling me that this year the quarterback was 11.5% better than last year? I mean, really? Tarvaris Jackson? Rex Grossman? Colt McCoy? Matt Cassel? Curtis Painter? Is Mark Sanchez really a 3,500 yards kinda guy? Not with the old rules he wouldn't have been. Lucky to make 3,000 I reckon. Just goes to show how passer biased this league is.

Anyway, before I look ahead to this Sunday, I'm going to look at the season that was and list a few things that caught my eye. Overall I think it was a great year for football. We had all the ingredients that one needed for a great year - a running quarterback, two great rookie quarterbacks, the tight end position being reinvented, a wide receiver showing that undrafted players can succeed, an elite year for some quarterbacks, some new playoff faces, but most of all, unpredictability. Who would have called the Chiefs to pull off one of the greatest upsets for a long time? What about those Seahawks taking both the Giants and the Ravens? Or the Rams beating the Saints?

It's not been all great however. Some things have been saddening as a football fan, from whatever team you support. Such things include : the absence of Peyton Manning, his Colts going 2-14 just shows how crucial to that team he was. Also, the Paul Brown stadium hardly ever being half full let alone sold out. C'mon. Your team made the Playoffs for god's sake the least you can do is support them. Finally, my heart goes out to Joe Philbin and his family. An awful loss of life for one so young, and my thoughts and wishes are with him as he starts life with the Dolphins, who incidentally are my surprise pick for next year.

Anyway, after it's all said and done, here are my thoughts for this season's awards, or some of them at least.

Coach of the Year - Jim Harbaugh. What he did with that team was nothing short of a miracle. With basically the same set of guys to turn the team around from being 6-10 to 13-3 is incredible, and he finally made Alex Smith feel like a wanted member of the team. Cudos to him.

MVP - I don't want to give it to Discount Doublecheck, but I feel that I have to. Let's be honest, he had an outstanding year. His redzone accuracy was like nothing you've seen before. Honourable mention must go to Brees, Brady and both Mannings.

Rookie of the Year - A tough one. Newton, Dalton, Green or the wildcard von Miller. I'm going to have to give it to Newton. He had a Rookie year like no other. And if his team could have won a couple of closer games at the start of the year then who knows how well they may have done in that division.

Favourite Moment - It has to be when Jerome Simpson made that now famous backflip over the top of Daryl Washington, and then landed it perfectly. Great to see also the pass coming from a Rookie QB.

Best Match - This is one which will have sneaked under the radar for many NFL fans, but it's one from early on in the year which was a true classic. Hosted by those Buffalo Bills, they beat the New England Patriots 34-31 with a 28 yard field goal in the last minute to snap a 15 game losing streak against the Pats. Such were the scenes of jubilation that stadium security had to guard the goal posts in case fans brought them down.

And finally, arguably the most prestigious of all my pointless awards is the Team of the Year Award. This year, it's going to the Houston Texans. There's no doubt in my mind that if they hadn't lost Schaub, Leinart, Williams and Johnson for much of the season then they would be the AFC representative in Indianapolis right now. Even then, to win your first ever playoff game with a 3rd string rookie quarterback is impressive. But that's not what impressed me most. Wade Phillips transformed that defense from the 30th ranked team to the 2nd rank team in ONE YEAR! That just shows you how incredible a coach he is, but also how flexible and willing to work his defense was.

Contrary to what I previously put, I won't be sharing my thoughts on the Super Bowl until tomorrow, I think that this is sufficient reading material to last until then. However, I will leave you with a teaser, and that is my predicted score : Giants 31, Patriots 23.

Please do comment with any questions or suggestions or disagreements that you have with this piece, I'll get back to you all personally ASAP.

Thank you for reading, I'll see you all tomorrow.

Chris,

P.S. Let's Go Big Blue!