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Feb 3, 2004 Once again the Super Bowl was super, with a fantastic finish to a hard-fought gain. Last year excepted, several of the recent Super Bowls have been decided in the last few seconds. Who can forget the Ram’s Mike Jones tackle that prevented Tennessee from getting the last yard and a half it needed a few years ago? New England turned the tables on the Rams a couple years later with a last second field goal to take the title. Once again New England turned to its kicker to put them over the top in a very tight game. This writer stated prior to the opening of the NFL season that the most outstanding teams in each respective conference were the New England Patriots and the St. Louis Rams. New England lived up to its billing, marching steadily to the title after a shaky start. The Rams also came on strong after a slow start, but fell short by a few feet on Jeff Wilkin’s 50+ yard attempt against Carolina. The Rams had a variety of opportunities to put the game away early, but came up with only 9 points out of a possible 21, getting stuck in the red zone again and again. Carolina’s upset of the Rams paved the way for their first trip to the Super Bowl after they had no problem with the Eagles. Once again, Carolina was the underdog. Many foresaw the Super Bowl as a low-scoring affair and the for the first 24 minutes it was not only low-scoring, the game was scoreless. Both teams broke out in a flurry of scoring in the last few minutes of the first half. The second half was a see-saw battle with New England moving ahead initially and Carolina responding to every New England score. Carolina never lost heart and eventually started making large gains against the vaunted New England defense. The talented back-up running back, Deshon Foster, found the end zone on a mixture of power and speed and Carolina’s speedy receivers started pulling away from the New England secondary on several plays. Ricky Proehl, a perennial play-off star, was back for one of his many Super Bowl trips, made several clutch catches in the final quarter to keep the Panthers in line for the victory. Proehl, if you remember, was a thorn in the side of New England in the earlier Super Bowl when he almost single-handedly put the Rams back into the game. New England and Carolina were similar in many areas – stout, aggressive defense, fairly good ground game and ability to move the ball quickly down the field through the air. Although the game featured hot passing and pounding running, a good portion of the outcome came in the kicking game. For the first half of the game the action revolved around a punting/field position duel. Adam Vinitari, the hero of the Pat’s Super Bowl against the Rams, was almost the goat of this one. He missed a moderate length field goal, then had his second attempt later in the game blocked, barely lifting the ball above the line. Vinitari rectified himself, winning the game on a last-second, high and long shot down the center of the field. The game was decided earlier, however, by another kicker. Carolina’s kickoff, which came after they had fought their way back to a chance for victory. Instead of a standard kickoff, Carolina opted for a side shot, attempting to pin New England onto one side of the field where coverage could be loaded against them. The attempt backfired with the ball going out of bounds and giving New England the ball on the 40, just a pass or two from field goal distance. The attempt to pin a team against the side backfired several times this year in the regular season and cost some teams a victory, but this was the biggest mistake of all, in all probability costing Carolina the Super Bowl. An extra 20 yards gave New England the time and distance it needed to reach field goal range. Looking ahead, New England has shown it can return to the big dance and knows how to handle free agency. Will Carolina be a one-shot wonder, like Oakland or Baltimore, or will it return for another shot at hoisting the Lombardi trophy. ------------ About the author: Dwayne Hines currently has 12 books selling in major bookstores and writes for major magazines such as Physical and FitnessRX. Email Dwayne Hines: dhines@3dinet.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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