The second Sunday in December brought us some of the coldest, wettest and most memorable football action in recent memory. The image of Calvin Johnson coming up off the ground after yet another amazing reception with his face mask and helmet completely packed with snow will be with Lions fans for a long time to come. Johnson stood there for a minute, perhaps simply in wonderment or perhaps just waiting for the cameras to get that great shot.
So, you figure that no team will be able to generate a viable offense on the frigid, wet playing field. That seemed logical at the beginning of the games on Sunday, however, once things (and players) got warmed up a bit, that logic quickly fell apart.
What was actually happening down on the field was that some of the better running backs were able to gain and keep their footing long enough to break through the first line of defense and get up a head of steam. After that happened the defensive backs simply could not maneuver quickly enough to catch the illusive backs. One little direction change and the defender slid right by, unable to change his own direction.
So the ‘bet the under’ theory quickly got blown out of the water. As a matter of fact, there were a record setting 90 touchdowns scored on NFL Sunday throughout the league and there were also ‘fantastic finishes’ a plenty.
For example, my heart goes out to those poor sports fans who had bet the Under in the Ravens-Vikings game. The Over & Under for the game was posted at 41.5 with the Ravens as 6 point favorites. At the end of the third quarter only 13 points had been scored by both sides and Under bettors were feeling pretty good about their wagers.
Then it happened. One of the most frantic and amazing finishes in recent memory. Forty four points were scored in the fourth quarter with 5 TD’s being scored in the final 125 seconds of the contest. Bye-bye Unders! Baltimore won the game… but did not cover.
Out in Denver it was not snowing, but it was really, really cold. Peyton Manning was getting tired of his critics saying that he couldn’t play well in the cold and put up 51 points on the day scoring in every quarter of the game. The Broncos covered the handicappers total of 50 points all by themselves and Denver easily covered the given 12.5 points.
