Super Bowl XLIII Running Thread

The two situations in which Warner has excelled, he's had by far the best receiving corps in the league. That's a nice cheat sheet to have.

 

Except that Bradshaw had the best defense AND the best running game, too.

 

Sorry, but you couldn't be more wrong about the Steelers making James the top priority. Even yesteday against a run-oriented offense with a rookie quarterback, they came out daring the Ravens to run. They certainly aren't going to play run first against the Cardinals.

The game against the the Patriots is probably a better indication of what to expect from the Steelers. The Steelers focused heavily on the pass, even after the Patriots did some damage running the ball in the first half. I don't see how any defensive coordinator comes out against the Cardinals and doesn't dare them to run.

 

Warner had a pretty good running game with the Rams. Not as good as those Pittsburgh teams in the '70s, but it's not like Faulk wasn't a threat.

Montana also played with better defenses and running games than most people seem to realize.

 

That is an awful lot of imagination.
Suppose Oakland goes to Super Bowl III instead of the Jets. Maybe they win?
How 'bout the year after when KC got it done.

I think you are overstating things just a bit.

 

Anyone else getting a blowout vibe here? I don't know why, but the more I think of this game, the more I see the (third) and fourth quarter not really mattering.

Hopefully, it's Arizona smoking Pitt, but stranger things have happened. I just hope to God the Steelers don't win. I can't mentally deal with another Super Bowl 40.

 

Look at Namath's stats leading up to Super Bowl III.
Per Wiki:

 

But that encompasses a wild assed leap to assume that's what life would've been without Namath. There's absolutely no proof the AFL would've died without Namath, signing him was a fine asset for the league that got it a lot of good publicity, but he was by no means the league's only asset. It had survived quite well for five or six years before he joined, no reason to just assume it would've died without him. And, even assuming for argument that it would've, the idea that the NFL would now be stuck on 24 teams is quite flawed. The NFL would've continued to expand to meet the market demand in the cities then occupied by AFL teams.

And you're failing to note that the two leagues had already come together and there had already been a couple Super Bowls before Namath's historic win in 68. He didn't create the Super Bowl. And if Namath hadn't won it that year, the AFL would've won the very next year when the Chiefs nailed the Vikings and perhaps we'd be remembering Lenny Dawson as the QB who proved the AFL could beat the NFL, and then the Dolphins, Steelers and Raiders right after that. That day was coming regardless of whether the Jets won that game, Namath's team just happened to be first in line.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the NFL-AFL merger was signed in 1966. So the leagues merging wasn't an issue when Namath went to the Super Bowl.

But Namath signed with the Jets in 1965. Right as he signed, NBC gave the AFL a big (for the AFL) TV contract. Namath's signing gave the AFL the money and credibility it needed to not only survive, but also engage in a bidding war with the NFL. Note that the merger agreement was finalized not long after Namath's freakin' ROOKIE YEAR. Football never had a glamor player that resonated beyond the fan base (maybe Frank Gifford?) before Namath, and the NFL was hurting seeing that player in New York and in the AFL. That's one damn long shadow to cast.

And Namath was a Hall-of-Fame-caliber quarterback his first four years. His knees were completely shot by the time the NFL and AFL became the NFC and AFC, and most of the talent that had been around him was shot (or gone) as well, this in a pre-free agent era. The HOF case for Namath is slam-dunk.

 

Dear OOP: It is my firm belief that to stop the pass, one must first stop the run. Giving Warner a bunch of 2nd and 3-4-5s doesn't seem like a good plan to me.
The Ravens run a lot, but they don't run well. Against San Diego, the Steelers' first priority was shutting down Sproles, and that worked very well for them.

 

Yeah, Kenny Anderson and Chuck Muncie would have done just as well.

Sure.

 

Are we looking at the same stats?
Namth threw more INTs than TDs every year but one (1969). He his pass rating was never once above 75 percent.
He went 5-8-1,6-6-2, 8-5-1, 11-3, 10-4.
Yes his knees were shot, late in his career, but his mediocre stats can't be blamed on his crappy knees. His number sucked long before his knees crapped out.