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SB55 Review

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The game is done and dusted, the Bucs are the new SuperBowl champions, and we have another 6 months until we see the NFL again. Sigh. It’s time for our SB55 Review!

General consensus amongst fans is that this one of the better SuperBowl’s, but those fans tend to be Chiefs or AFC fans, while another large chunk of the population thinks is was a damn fine game indeed. There was action, excitement, and we got to see Tom Brady add another jewel to his hand of seven victories. Love him or hate him, the GOAT gap keeps widening.

Let’s take a look at the big key takeaways from SuperBowl 55 to define the big moments of the final game of the season.

Defense

D wins the big games, and the Bucs sure as hell brought theirs for SuperBowl 55. Patrick Mahomes not only didn’t record a TD, but he ran for over 400 yards in escape from the relentless attack.
The saying is that defences win SuperBowl’s and that sure was the case on February 7th.
Kansas City just didn’t have a response from their offence, and the injuries up front were not only apparent, but easily exposed.
Tampa might not have had the best overall D for the NFL season, but that doesn’t matter.
They had the best one in the big game.

Tom Brady

Tb12 is Super cool. He’s been here 10 times in the past, and his unflappable appearance in the game was the steadying rock to glide the Bucs down the ice. Brady never hit his 300 yard mark, but it didn’t really factor given that he had a solid running game to rely on.
He spread the ball around to his faves, as if he was rewarding them with post season bonuses on every pass.
Everybody got paid, and Tommy was the banker.
Perhaps the best Tom Brady pass was with the Lombardi trophy when he drunk-tossed it to Cameron Brate off a boat.
Drunk Brady might be the best Brady of all.

Gronk

If you bet on Gronk to score in the SuperBowl, congrats-you made a smart call. Rob has scored in 3 previous SuperBowl’s, and it was only logical that Tom would find a slant route of open field to hit Gronk for big gains. One TD was expected, but 2 was just the icing on that big Gronk cake.
Like Brady, Gronk really showed a different flair in the big game thanks to the more relaxed Buccaneers attitude. Patriots wins felt stuffy and corporate, but this victory was sweet.
Gronk will be back.

Mahomes

Patrick Mahomes is a hell of an athlete, a smart young man, and a guy with a huge future. Sure, he got bottled in the big one, but that was the point.
If you choke Kermit, then there’s no Muppet Show.
Gonzo, Scooter, Fozzie and Miss Piggy were all flumuxed once Mahomes couldn’t get a ball off.
He surely tried with some spectacular efforts, but all was nought when it came to the pirate invasion that continued to break through the lines.
Mahomes and the Chiefs will be back here again soon, they are the team to fear.

Britt Reid

Always somber when touching on accidents involving children, but this incident had a big effect on the game. When the coaches troubled son D&D plows into a family, that kind of trauma hits the family of the team. Teams feed off emotions during a SuperBowl, and having one of your family do something so stupid and selfish before an important occasion is something that the whole family hurts with.
Yes it can be shaken off, but it lingers because players feel for the coach and they don’t want him to hurt.
That’s what loses focus in a big game, especially on a young team.

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Super Sim

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If there has been any year that has felt like we’ve been living in a simulator, it has to have been 2020. With Super Bowl 55 peaking up around the corner, we went to the experts to deliver us a Super Sim of the game.

Conspiracy theorists are quick to point out all of the variables in play that lead them to believe that this is all some sort of cruel prank played on humanity by some vicious deity, or that our planet is somehow in a shoebox of some celestial toddler who looks at us from time to time.

Given what’s happened in the league and in the world at large, it’s not hard to see how.
Tom Brady runs another team in a different division to the big show, Aaron loses in the big show, Bill Belichick is pixelating, and AB is behaving. What is up with this world?

One thing that simulations are good for is Madden. Although rarely close to correct, running Madden simulations is a fun way to see how the game might play out if a computer ran the numbers for a few times. There are actually geeks out there who will run this game through numerous AI machines for a more correct prediction. These are the people who usually whoop you at DraftKings.

For this video we tap into Bobby V Gaming who has run his Madden to predict the big game on Sunday. These two teams did play on Week 12, when the Chiefs edged the Bucs 27-24, but how will it go down this time?

Final Score in the Simulation:
Chiefs 21 Bucs 16

We will be throwing down loads of Super Bowl predictions and fun throughout the whole week, so watch this space for more.

Conference Sunday

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What a wild weekend in the NFL Wildcard Playoffs! The Bills, Chiefs, Packers and Buccaneers all meet next week for Conference Sunday. Are you ready for some football?

The game lines for Sunday’s AFC and NFC championship have been released, with the Chiefs and Packers holding a narrow spread over their opponents. The Packers are favoured by 4 points over the Bucs at Lambeau, while the Chiefs are a scant 3 points favoured over the powerful Buffalo Bills.
Which two teams will be heading to the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay this season?

Here in the UK, those watching the Conference Sunday finals will have to wait until 20:05 for the NFC contest, while the AFC final follows directly after with a 23:40 kickoff. All of the games will be on NFL Gamepass.

Here are some thoughts heading into the final week of NFL playoffs before the SuperBowl.

Packers Offence

Aaron Rodgers continue to blister on at an MVP pace. The neigh sayers who bemoaned the Packers for not drafting a rookie WR to help Rodgers out have been silenced by the fact that he continues to spread the ball around relentlessly. Let’s not forget that the Packers have had the easiest route to the finals, so they will have much more to prove.

So Raven

Baltimore was smothered by the Bills defence on Saturday, forcing Lamar Jackson out of the game, and propelling them into the dank post season. Buffalo sure showed the blueprint to beat Lamar Jackson’s legs, and the Ravens will need a long hard look at what missing pieces they need to pick up in the offseason if they want to have any hope of making a longer playoff push next season.

Buffalo is Warming Up

The Ravens did what they could to throttle Josh Allen and the high flying Bills offence, but just don’t have enough to get it down. Buffalo is really starting to find their confidence now, which should be scary for a Chiefs team that barely escaped a bolstered Browns squad. Allen is also now starting to spread the ball out beyond Diggs, which will cause problems in KC.

We’re Secretly Brownies

As Patrick Mahomes made his way to the blue tent on Sunday night, a feeling started to roll across America ‘I might like the Browns’. Everyone started to root for this team as they showed their pluck and guile under the foot of the Chiefs presence. Cleveland didn’t play that bad. The Browns screwed up 2 HUGE chances in the redzone that would have made the game a totally different beast. Baker’s ill timed cross field interception took the momentum out of a huge drive, while Higgins leap into the end zone only to lose the ball to a touchback was a crappy way to end out the half. The fact that the refs missed a blatant helmet hit in the process means that the league still has work to do.

Henne Ain’t Great

Oooh everyone! Did you see the heroics of Henne? Yes, the 35 year old veteran back up had a few sneaky drives to keep the Chiefs in the win, but he also made some stoopid plays as well. How quickly everyone forgets the lame floater he tossed to a Browns player in the end zone. Not even Johnny Manziel would throw a lame duck like that. Any team that wants to sign Henne after that 2 quarters of mediocre play might be interested in some swamp land in Florida.

Reid’s Balls

Andy Reid has some pretty big balls. Going for it on 4th down with a backup QB, Reid decides to run a shotgun play quickly instead of letting the clock run and try to catch the D offside. The play worked, and sent the Browns packing. Thanks to the gonads of Andy Reid, there might be some big plays ahead.
Here is the play again.

Buc Up

Whoever keeps pissing in Tom Brady’s ‘Wheaties’, please stop. You’re giving him the motivation to star playing angry. While TB12 didn’t look amazing during the Saints game, he was facing one of the best D’s in the league. Tampa made some great adjustments to keep Tom safe, only allowing 1 sack as opposed to 10. Let’s also not forget that it was the Bucs who spanked the Packers huge this season, and with Tommy’s growing confidence, there could be trouble in Wisconsin this Sunday.

Brees Out

Well it looks like Drew Brees will be riding off into the sunset. Despite not officially saying this, every pundit and their uncle made their prediction that this would be Brees’ last game in New Orleans before taking a cushy broadcasting job. Brees has been a hell of a player, and such an ambassador for the city of New Orleans. There will be a big gap to fill after Brees leaves the swamp, and doubtful in Jameis Winston has being enough feet to fill those shoes.
The really classy moment came at the end, with footage of Brady and Brees talking to his family. TB12 throws a touchdown pass to little Brees…and no…you’re crying.

Have a great week, and let’s go Sunday!

Divisional Preview

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The wet and wacky NFL Wildcard weekend is now behind us, as we head into the final stretch with our Divisional Preview podcast.
Very few people correctly predicted the winners last weekend thanks to the plucky play of the Rams, and the vroom vroom of the Browns ‘Corvette.’
Wade & Ryan both chose the Steelers to topple the Browns (as did many) thus screwing their perfect playoff pools.

In this podcast the guys reflect on the all of the scores from the Wild-Wildcard Weekend that was for the first week of January 2021 in the NFL. The go through all of the scores, as well as lament some of the bonehead plays that got us there.
Wade spends a bit of time bitching about his Bears, and how close they kept it, although never within the reach of noodle-arm Trubisky.

Among some of the other news the boys discuss in this podcast includes:

Deshaun Watson

DW wants out of Houston, and who can blame him. Despite being the leader of the franchise, at times the organisation treats him like a ginger step-kid who abused the family dog. There is an utter lack of respect for a club that was going to do everything in their power to support him. Now that Deshaun wants to leave the Texans, loads of other teams are lining up to sign up to his services. Is it too late for the Texans to keep him happy, or will he be on his way?

Nagy & Pace

The Bears have brought back their GM and HC for another bash at the NFC North. It was felt that although the Bears did slip into 6 straight losses, the way that these guys recovered was enough to show that they have the skills to manage the team in the future. Tell that to thousands of angry residents of Chicago.

Dead Doug

Doug Pederson is dead. Not literally, just to Philly fans. Turns out his little exercise at trying out his backups during the last game of the season might not have been so wise after all. Doug is out, and you wonder who the heck wants the Philly coaching job? You have to eat Carson’s bloated contract and live up to the hype of a Super Bowl win within a decades reach.

Divisional Games

LA Rams vs Packers
Packers -7  +45.5

It’s Aaron vs Aaron as the boys can talk about how much they were teased as children with an ambiguous name. Kidding aside, this will be a good ole snow fight, as the Packers look to feast on LA after a relaxing bye week off.
How did LA get here? No…really. The Rams beat a hyped up Seahawks team with no QB. Sure, Goff was there, but he wasn’t that effective, although he was more so than Russell Wilson. LA was able to use their superior defence and big brain of Sean McVay to keep them in the game. Doing this against the Packers is another matter.
There are a few teams that have the players to be able to knock the Packers out of the playoffs. Watching the Bucs lay a beating on GB earlier this season showed exactly what needs to be done to keep Rodgers on the sideline. Keeping pressure on him, and shutting down Adams will be key.
Wade & Ryan both like this as an exciting start to the weekend, but sadly this one is going to be pretty predictable. With no real QB, the Rams will continue to struggle on first downs. If the Rams start to really fall behind, Goff will be chucking balls into heavy coverage that leads to picks.
Ryan- Packers 30 Rams 24
Wade- Packers 26 Rams 18

If you want the rest of our scores and predictions, have a laugh and a listen to the podcast. We want to thank all of you for listening, and keeping the podcast a moving up the charts.
Good luck to everyone this weekend, and we look forward when we can all get together soon.

Ryan & Romo

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It’s time for a little ‘throwback Thursday’ as we take a trip back to 2014 during one of the NFL in London games in a little video we call ‘Ryan & Romo.’

Tony Romo was not only a pretty good QB, but we know now that Tony is probably one of the best former player/ commentators in the game. Tony is so good, coaches actually get mad at him the next day for exposing their plays through his nonchalant style of examining play style.

In November 2014, NFL in London was invited by the NFLUK to attend one of the London training camps. (we miss these!). Tony Romo made the trip to London, but it was doubtful if he would play given he had been injured for 2 weeks prior. Coincidentally, the Cowboys had also lost 2 games in a row, so Jason Garrett was keen to get Romo back in for the London game.

Our guy Ryan Cull was determined to get Romo to laugh, and wanted to wait to ask the perfect question. After all, Wade had just got a big chuckle out of Jerry Jones, which led Jones on a strange dovetail story about Elizabeth Taylor (which was awesome).
As you can tell by the footage, both of them had a good time with the question.

Some of the players interviewed by our team have been absolute gems, while a few of them have left a permanent stain on our psyche’s.

As for the game, the Cowboys would go on to snap their two game losing streak and beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 31-17 in an uneven affair on November 9, 2014.
Tony Romo did indeed play in this game, going 20/27 with 246 yards and 3 whopping TDs. Two of these TDs went to Dez Bryant, who also had one heck of a game. DeMarco Murray (remember him) also had a TD in this game.
83600 London fans had a great time at the game (and an even better time with us all afterwards).

We really miss hosting these parties for you guys, as well as getting together with players and fans alike to celebrate all of us in the UK who love this sport.
Hopefully, we will all be together again soon.

Do you have any footage or great interviews from you fave NFL in London moments? Get in touch and fell free to reach out and we can help share them. We’re always looking for writers as well so get in touch.