Diminished Intelligence

We do seem to be coming into the generation of declining intelligence, as reflected in discussion surrounding the football games this past weekend.

On the gambling/predicting side of it, forget “covering the spread,” three of the four teams favored by the odds makers lost. In two of those losses, the game was never even competitive. In the game that was forecast to be a blowout, not only did the wrong team win, but the game was decided by a single point, with the clock expiring. By a missed field goal, no less, with the ball bouncing off the goal post twice.

So much for “home field advantage,” three of the four home teams lost.

The Cowboys decided to shut Russell Wilson down and make Seattle beat them with their much vaunted running game – if they could. They could not, but they never stopped trying, even when it was obvious that they could not. They ran on first and second down well into the fourth quarter, and never gained more than 1.5 yards per run.

There are things you can do when your opponent is stopping your running game, but Pete Carroll never tried them until it was too late.

John Harbaugh left a rookie quarterback in the game after he dropped the ball three times, threw an interception and was held without a score. He had a Super Bowl winning quarterback on his bench and didn’t use him. He later explained that he did this because the kid "is the future of the team.” Stupid. He's a rookie. If he's the future of the team, let him play in the future, when he has gained enough experience to be of benefit to the team.

John Harbaugh placed the feelings of his quarterback as more important than giving his team an opportunity to win the Super Bowl, which is stupid. The team is stupid enough to thank him for doing it, and the media is stupid enough to applaud it.

Update, Monday 10:05pm: Just to add to the embarrassment of the punditry, the NCAA team favored by six points was blown out by 28 points in a game that made one wonder how Alabama won even one game, let alone fourteen.