Manic Monday: Super Bowl XLV Edition

Henceforth, we'll be posting random thoughts on Mondays, and what better way to start with some random thoughts dancing around in our foggy post-Super Bowl heads as we mourn the end of football season? My take on Super Sunday after the jump.

The Game
Aaron Rodgers has reserved his seat in the Pantheon. He's not there yet, but another Super Bowl and continued play like the past two years and people in Green Bay will be saying "Brett Who"?

Enough with the championship belt thing. It's stupid.

How did Jordy Nelson rack up all those yards when it seemed that he dropped the ball every time he was targeted?

Is Joe Buck really a robot, or does he just play one on TV?

He may have had a fumble, but the Steelers win that game if they had handed Rashard Mendenhall the ball and got out of the way.

Experience (Steelers) vs. Speed (Packers). Speed won. Barely.

Does anybody else think that game should have been a blowout? The Packers played well for about  a quarter and a half, but it was still enough. They gotta learn how to finish games.

Is Big Ben morphing into a bear before our very eyes?

Charles Woodson is even more important to that Packers D than people realized. When he went out is when the Steelers started moving the ball

How many boneheaded special teams penalties can we have in one game?

NFL= No Fun League (re: the ridiculous celebration penalty after Nick Collins' interception return for a TD)

The Ads
It's a marathon, not a sprint, and the ads this year started off very entertaining, probably due to the fact that the goofy Doritos ads were frontloaded. Once we hit the second quarter, though, they lost more speed than the Packers offense.

The Good: Doritos (hilarious, don't know what they had to do with chips but funny as hell), Chrysler (perfect use of Eminem and the only ad to play on the heartstrings), VW (If I ever have a son, I want him stalking around the house in a Vader outfit), Audi (good to see Kenny G has a sense of humor), Bud Light (nothing earth shattering, but severance package was funny), Best Buy (if only Ozzy had bitten Bieber's head off), Motorola (nice shot across the bow at Apple)

The Bad: Etrade (time to retire the baby), Budweiser (VW's unpimp your auto guy as a cowboy singing Tiny Dancer makes me want to pour boiling oil down my throat), Coca-cola (dragons? really?), Brisk (terrible use of Eminem and a weak call back to the heady days of Rocky and the Karate Kid), Snickers (lazy effort to play off last year's hit with Betty White), Chevy (boring and formulaic for the most part, although the Lassie commercial was pretty good), Kia/Hyundai (I don't even have a joke other than to say they should merge since they pretty much are already the same company)

The Ugly: Groupon (very poor taste. I'll never buy from them), HomeAway (didn't even know what the ad was for, which is not a good sign, but the Test Baby thing was awful)

The Cringe Inducing: GoDaddy (anything involving Joan Rivers needs to be left on the cutting room floor), Teleflora (funny joke especially juxtaposed with goodie two-shoes Faith Hill, but inappropriate)

The Performances
I don't watch Glee but that girl can sing, even if it didn't make any sense for her to be wearing a winter parka in a domed stadium.

Christina Aguilera can also sing, but maybe a teleprompter next time. Also less screaming and stupid arpeggios. When Vegas has prop bets on how long you'll stretch out the national anthem, it's time to cool it.

From my Twitter feed: Was that The Black Eyed Peas or was that the Tron sequel?


Slash must be hard up for money. He played that thing with the same amount of enthusiasm my dog reserves for when he's getting a bath.


Does anybody else remember the original, pre-Fergie Black Eyed Peas, when they were a socially conscious hip hop band and were actually, you know, good?


The Food
Unbelievable. The menu: Crack dip, Guacamole, Pepperoni rolls, Buffalo Chicken Dip, Schwetty Balls, Chili, Jalapeño/Bacon/Cheese Corn Muffins, Crack Mac, Wings, Brownies, Cake Balls, and Oreo Balls. My arteries clogged just typing that.


The Company
The best.


Congrats to the Packers. Word has it that, while I was typing this, Jordy Nelson dropped three more passes...