In 1990 UNLV dominated the NCAA basketball tournament, ending in a 30-point destruction of Duke for the national title.
Yes, I know it’s Super Sunday. I’m going somewhere with this. Promise.
The Rebels had everybody back in 1991, and by the middle of that season were without question the best college team I have seen before or since. They simply destroyed people. The consensus among media, fans and even opposing coaches was that March Madness would be a formality and UNLV simply couldn’t be beaten.
But UNLV played an awful Georgetown team in the second round of the tournament, and struggled mightily. If Georgetown had a perimeter player who could throw it in the ocean from the pier, the Hoyas would have won.
Again, I have a point. Please stay with me.
The point is the Rebels had lost it. The grind of being the hunted had ground away their edge. Something like that. I wrote, and said on the radio, that they were going to lose when people thought you had to be nuts to say that. Duke took them out in the national semifinals.
I’m pretty sure the same thing just happened to the Patriots. They stormed through first two months of the season foaming at the mouth, accelerator plastered to the floor, emptied the tank, were canonized in the media, and ran on fumes the rest of the way.
As Steve Young just said on SportsCenter, they were waiting for somebody to beat them. It’s a strange thing to say and hard to explain, but I’m convinced that’s exactly right. That’s what their game with the Eagles was about, and with the Ravens, and the first one with the Giants, and with the Chargers last week.
What pisses me off is I didn’t see it until it was too late.
But having said all that - Even if the Patriots had found a way to win, when your offensive line gets bitch-slapped like that, you’re not the best football team ever…
(Keyshawn Johnson just referred to UNLV-Duke ‘91. I’m not sure if that pleases or horrifies me.)
Much more tomorrow.
