The Giants had just shocked the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco and were boarding buses for the flight back east. Parcells, playing with a backup quarterback and no scary offensive weapons, knew they'd have to face the best offense in football, Buffalo's, in the Super Bowl. He looked across the aisle of the bus at offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt and said to him, "Shorten the game.''
The Colts had the ball for just 3:07 in the first quarter, 6:25 in the second and 1:30 in the third. That's right -- three plays and 90 seconds in one quarter, sandwiched around 11- and 13-play Miami drives.
Dan Henning and Tony Sparano made a mistake in play calling though. With 4:33 left in a 20-20 game the Dolphins had ball at the Colts 30 yard line and it was 3rd and 6 yard to go for a 1st down. They play they called / ran was a run by Brown behind the left side of the line, behind guard Justin Smiley and Jake Long. The play gained only three yards and Miami settled for a Carpenter field goal from 45 yards out to take a 23-20 lead and gave the ball back to Peyton Manning with 3:55 to play. Opps!
It took Manning 32 seconds to go 80 yards, thanks to the 48-yard catch-and-run by Pierre Garcon, the replacement for Anthony Gonzalez. That made it 27-23 with 3:18; “good night, the lights…..”, the Dolphins couldn't score in the last 3:18 and the game was over.
Think about it. If the Dolphins converted made a meaningful attempt to convert that 1st down and made it, they get to cut more time off the clock, and maybe the Colts have to start using their three timeouts? Maybe Peyton Manning gets the ball back with less than two minutes left, needing a field goal or touchdown to tie or win? Maybe the Dolphins can get two more first downs before kicking a field goal or scoring a touchdown, the clock could bleed down to zero and Miami will have won without letting Manning have another possession. If Pennington throws an incompletion, kicker Dan Carpenter has a 48-yard field-goal attempt. Carpenter's a second-year kicker; his career-long is 50, and on the evening, he had already hit from 45 and 44 yards missing once on a 49 yarder.
Chad Pennington has the highest completion percentage of all time in the NFL at 65.61%. That’s his strength, short accurate passes. He had been very efficient and safe with the ball all night – they should have let him throw the ball. …….
Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports and Major League Baseball in particular. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his clients.----------
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