Maybe I have just been paying closer attention this year, but the NFL playoffs have been so boring this year. All of the games have sucked, there are no interesting story lines, and the games are painfully long and equally slow. At least in the Super Bowl we are garunteed entertainment with a halftime show, because if the first three rounds of playoffs are any indication, Super Bowl 51 will be an absolute drag.
Lack of Good Games
As obvious as it may seem, it is pretty difficult to have an entertaining post season when many of the games lack intrigue before and then only 2 of the 10 games have been close so far. In the wild card round, only the Giants vs. Packer game seemed like it would be good, but that turned out to be a blowout (which is no fun to watch). The other 3 games were all pretty brutal, as everyone expected. It is almost an insult that the NFL even made the Texans and Raiders play as neither team had any chance against New England the following week. The second round was the only time that there were close games, and they both came on the same day. The Packers vs. Cowboys game had a great ending, and one that will be remembered forever, but the rest of the game was fairly unremarkable. It started with the Packers going up big, and then Dallas came back to take a lead, only to lose it to the heroics of Aaron Rodgers. The other close game, Pittsburgh at Kansas City, was really quite boring. The winning team scored all 18 points off of field goals, which are not the most exciting things ever. Whereas few games had intrigue in the first two rounds, both Championship games were shaping up to be good. However, both fell completely flat and unamusing. The Packers got romped, and didn’t put up much of a fight. The same happened to the Steelers at the Hands of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. So, here’s to hoping that the Super Bowl is just absolutely amazing, because the Playoffs thus far have been a complete bore.
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Lack of Story Lines
Just like the matchup of the playoff games thus far, the story lines this year have seriously lacked intrigue. About everyone and their mother had the Patriots going to the Super Bowl before the playoffs started. Lo and behold, the Patriots are in the Super Bowl! Being that Bill Belichick is the Patriots coach, there obviously isn’t going to be anything interesting concerning the Patriots. At this point, I think everyone outside of the state of Massachusetts has had enough of the Patriots. Other story lines entering the playoffs included the Cowboys and how far their two rookies could take them, and Aaron Rodgers and the Packers entering incredibly hot. Well, the Cowboys story is quite stale at this point in the season, and I was tired of hearing how good Zeke and Dak have been this year. Sure, they have been good, but they have been behind an offensive line that is sending three members to the Pro Bowl, so I think just about anyone could be pretty good behind them. The Packers story was a little more interesting, as they entered they playoffs on some long win streak after Rodgers called that they would win out the remaining games of the season after falling to 4-6. However, when Jordy Nelson was knocked out of the first round with broken ribs, their chances surely took a dip. No matter how good Rodgers is, no quarterback can carry a team with an atrocious defense and 0 weapons around him to a Super Bowl, so everything reported about them just seemed a bit far fetched.
The Games Are Soooooooooooo Long
I don’t know when it happened, but man have NFL games ever gotten long. Every single game seems to take over three hours. There are seemingly more commercials than actual coverage of the game, and I’m sure that the time you watch commercials is greater than actual play time. This is because the amount of time where football is actually being played is pretty scarce in the game. The average play is less than 10 seconds, but they get 35 between plays? It makes for a game where the game really isn’t even played that much. Plus, with all of the games being blowouts, they are so boring to watch, and the constant drone of old men (the commentators) trying to keep you entertained is incredibly boring. I will have my fingers crossed for the next two weeks hoping for an entertaining Super Bowl because we all deserve it at this point for sticking with such a terrible postseason.
