All apologies for the randomness, but I have no clue what I'm doing, so its time to get the snowball rolling...
NFL Network...
I'm calling an early TKO on the NFL Network for information due to their coverages of Senior Bowl and Pro Bowl practices...yes, practice.
Their site doesn't give much insight on much other than blogs regarding off season chatter, a.k.a Kurt Warner's retirement press conference that is announced for Friday.
Hopefully there will be more from the NFL Network tomorrow.
ESPN Website...
Not too much talk about the defensive side of the game. Both offenses are so prolific its difficult to overlook that situation. There's still plenty of time for this debacle to brew before the Super Bowl.
NFL Live on ESPN...
Not much on here either. Kurt Warner retirement...McNabb staying in Philly or not...Colts/Saints traveling back and forth for the Pro Bowl. Knowing how ESPN is, the biggest story will be how the players feel on the Pro Bowl being the week before the Super Bowl this year and how it will effect the playing surface and the players traveling down a day early.
Quick mention on how Shockey will effect the defense of the Colts...
Sharper...no real effect due to injury.
Schlereth...physical guy who will get in defenders faces and can make a difference.
Since there's not much on the ESPN and NFL Network front I'll switch to unconventional methods of seeing what people are saying/thinking about defenses. I went and checked out the Vegas odds for the game and right now its the Colts as a 5 1/2-6 point favorite with an over/under being 56-56 1/2. Suffice it to say that they're looking at roughly the same outcome of the NFC Championship game as far as points on the board are concerned.
Checking out pro-football-reference.com there are some very striking similarities between these two defenses based purely on the numbers and even then the numbers and and NFL rankings don't separate each team that distinctively. Granted the league rankings separate each team but anything plus or minus 50-100 yards moves you up or down pretty dramatically like you said on your show today...err yesterday by the time you read this today.
One stat I came across regarding the defenses is that the Saints are holding their opponents to 21 ppg and the Colts are holding opponents to 10 ppg. The big difference is the Colts have faced great running teams with weaker offenses and the Saints have faced, in my opinion are much more prolific passing teams in comparison to the Ravens and the Jets. The Vikings still have a beast of a running back with Adrian Peterson, but with Favre how can you not pass when the man is doing what he's done for the last thousand years.
That's all I could really find for today. With suspensions coming down for Arenas and Crittenton, Warner retiring, the Pro Bowl debacle there hasn't been much talk about the defensive side of Super Bowl...at least from what I've been able to find out. Personally, I think Dilfer hit the nail on the head when he said both defenses were great at being on dimensional for stopping the run or pass and haven't really shown much success for a more balanced offense...which I think the Saints do have. I'll let this brew in the heads of sportswriters across America tonight and let you know my findings tomorrow.
The most obscure stat I did find was on the offensive side of the ball. That is Addai had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 for the regular season. One pass, one completion, 22 yards, one touchdown.
Aaron
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