5. Montreal Alouettes 28, Saskatchewan Roughriders 27; the 97th Grey Cup [CFL]: 55-yard lines, endzone goalposts, legal forward motion, 3 downs and out…and 13 MEN ON THE FIELD!?!
HIGHLIGHT
The anti-Arena Football League (R.I.P.), with its vast expanses of 110-yard fields and 20-yard endzones, 18-game seasons, 3-down possessions, 1-point scores on punts, and 12-man teams, the CFL is vastly under-appreciated in the US. Though the reality that many of its players are simply the cast-offs and never-weres of the NFL is unshruggable, the league is a superb filler as we wait for American football to start in those last heated weeks of the summer.
Of course, when this filler is a back-and-forth brawl of a comeback upset like the 2009 Grey Cup was (the CFL's championship match, equivalent in consequence to the NFL's Super Bowl), one shall hear no complaints about the lack of star power. When heavy favorite Saskatchewan went up by two scores in the first, Montreal, which was a Buffalo Bills-esque 0-4 in their Grey Cup history heading into the game, the Alouettes' (French, meaning lark) was forced to again turn to all-continent QB and three-time league Most Outstanding player Anthony Calvillo for an answer.
Calvillo, fourth on the all-time list for professional league passing yards and who once tossed over 6,000 yards in a season, rose to the call of duty, passing and rushing his Alouettes back to within 2 immediately after a TD pass. When Montreal missed a FG as time expired, the season seemed over, but...
...well, see the highlight.
4. Indianapolis Colts 35, New England Patriots 34; regular season [NFL]: Even the best decisions cannot account for Peyton Manning
HIGHLIGHT
Mozart composed his Requiem, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, and Peyton Manning plays American football; genius assumes many forms.
Down by a three-possession 17 points in the fourth quarter, Manning, in vintage fashion that is truly only his, led his Colts to within 6 points in the closing moments of this Week 10 Sunday night thriller. What followed on 4th & 2, with New England in possession inside both their own 30 and the 2-minute warning, provided for the most audacious and downright correct coaching decision of the NFL regular season.
Coach Bill Belichick's choice to try the fourth-down conversion, while ultimately fruitless, provoked and fueled debate on coaching conventions, led to his further exultation by the football blogosphere stat geeks, and, while possibly the product of arrogant self-absorption, further wrote his legend. Of course, we remember the denouement as such that Manning hit Reggie Wayne on the double-move slant with :16 on the clock...
3. Cincinnati 45, Pittsburgh 44; Big East Championship [NCAA]: Kelly’s Heroes
HIGHLIGHT
In what turned out to be Brian Kelly's farewell to the school and city of Cincinnatti, his Bearkats faced a 31-10 hole in the second quarter after Pitt's freshman RB sensation, Dion Lewis, rolled through Cincy defenders like they were banks of the snow that blanketed the field on that afternoon.
Kelly, who in 2001 set the all-division single-season records with 58.4 points-per-game and an average margin of victory of 48.0 points when his Grand Valley State Lakers obliterated their way to the then D-IAA title (yes, that means they sustained an average score of 58-10 over 10 games), saw Mardy Gilyard return a kick to the house in the closing minutes of the first half to begin a steady comeback that culminated in a final TD heave by QB Tony Pike to Armand Binn; after the XP, Cincy reached the final winning score of 45-44.
Kelly went on to arguably the most coveted coaching job in sports, while the Cincinnatti team he left proceeded to be single-handedly annihilated in the 2010 Sugar Bowl by Time Tebow in a 51-24 Florida rout.
2. Arizona Cardinals 51, Green Bay Packers 45 (OT); NFC Wild Card [NFL]: Madden NFL Football incarnate
HIGHLIGHT
Were we to allow 12-year olds to coach either sideline in the NFL, this is what we should expect--pass, pass, pass, pass, go for it on every fourth down, then pass some more. With two teams that had just faced one another the very previous week, intrigue was bound to ensue, and how it did!
Without defense, formidable rushing, or safe leads, this video-game-that-was-a-foot
Of course, the second of these two defensive highlights was as poetically rife with irony as one could expect on the gridiron; following this mythic, two-sided offensive heartstopper of a shootout that included a 21-point Green Bay comeback to force OT, Karlos Dansby was the man in the right place at the right time to catch Aaron Rodgers' airborne fumble in overtime and returning it for the clinching score (and the only time an NFL OT game has ended as such).
1. Auburn 38, Northwestern 35 (OT); Outback Bowl [NCAA]: God’s housewarming gift to 2010, sans kitchen sink
HIGHLIGHT 1 (regulation)
HIGHLIGHT 2 (including OT)
When we, as football fans, wish for good games, we could not venture to think, let alone hope, for such timelessly epic slugfests like the 2010 Outback Bowl. This was that game of the year that would've been considered one of the best college games in history were it played on a bigger stage.
Northwestern, behind the arm of QB Mike Kafka, who approached a NCAA record with 78 passes attempted (yes, that's right SEVENTY-EIGHT ATTEMPTS), came back from three separate 14-point deficits despite 6 turnovers as the underdog who posted 621 yards of total offense. Yes, those wildcats vainly used all nine of their Wildcat lives en route to an ultimate overtime defeat, but lest we be disappointed, then we should consider the course of the game itself.
In the single most convoluted football game that I have ever watched, a concentration of chaos bound only by the constraints of time and of rules. Comebacks, record-setting performances, back-and-forth big plays, a game's worth of excitement in the single OT period alone (), a score of times that either team should have lost only to be saved by the deus ex machina only to be found in crappy spy literature and Michael Bay films--a fourth-down sack marred by a facemask, a roughing-the-kicker penalty that forced a a failed TD attempt, missed field goals left and right, giveaways like there were cash prizes, outrageous 2-point plays...
...and at the end of the afternoon, though fate seemed to claim Northwestern as the victor, Gene Chizik's Tigers endured the siege and throes of fate in the most thrilling game since Boise State's victory in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.
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