Stuff I Saw On YouTube: Spock's Brain

Regardless of whatever merit Past Interference might have for the few worthies reading it, PI admits it has not posted nearly enough original content to even warrant its pathetically tiny readership. To hopefully help in improving the frequency of posting until football season starts, PI hereby inaugurates a new non-football related feature: Stuff I Saw On YouTube. Let’s kick things off with a little Star Trek related material. The original series remains my favorite show of all time. But even the great TV series have their share of bad episodes and if you want to argue “Spock’s Brain” was the worst of them all you won’t get any argument from me.

A quick synopsis: A hot but childlike woman steals Spock’s brain and bring it back to her world so that the brain can power the supercomputer that runs her civilization (consisting of a lot of hot childlike women). Kirk figures out where her planet is, gets Spock’s brain back, has Dr. McCoy reattach it, and teaches the hot childlike women how to run their own society without a controlling brain. Yes, a terrible episode. But what makes it a legendarily terrible episode are two additional plot developments. First, McCoy and Scotty rig up some sort of preposterous device that McCoy uses to make Spock’s brainless body walk and move. Second, from the planet’s supercomputer McCoy gains the knowledge to enable him to reattach Spock’s brain. However, McCoy begins to forget that knowledge as the operation drags on. Solution? Why he reattaches the speech center of Spock’s brain so Spock, while still on the operating table, can instruct McCoy on how to finish it up! Now I have no idea if the writer of the episode intended it all to be treated as camp (the camp craze sparked by the Batman TV show was still going strong), but clearly doing so is the only way to wring any enjoyment out of it.

Until recently.

Almost 40 years later somebody figured out a way to turn this episode into a masterpiece of entertainment. A guy named Mike Carano turned the episode into a play he produced for the stage and by simply recreating the episode ridiculous word-for-ridiculous word with actors perfectly impersonating the original cast, “Spock’s Brain” becomes a masterpiece of comedy. I’d pay good money to see this.

News story on the show plus clips
First scene

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII

Another cockeyed take on a great Super Bowl

Super Bowl XXXVI. Simultaneously a replay of and the mirror image of Super Bowl XXXIV. (Just rearrange the Roman numerals). Both games featured an explosive, heavily favored Rams struggling to put points on the board and terrific game-tying comebacks trumped by game-winning plays that ended with no time left on the clock. But of course in Super Bowl XXXIV the Rams blew a big lead but won anyway while in Super Bowl XXXVI they overcame a big deficit but gave up a game-winning field goal and wasted the comeback.

Now I enjoy watching a great game (and it was a great game) and a big upset as much as anybody, but while this is certainly a candidate for the best Super Bowl ever, a few things about the game have bothered me for years. First, it’s harder to root for an upset when you have no reason to dislike the favorite. And all of the Rams’ big stars, Warner, Faulk, Holt and Bruce, seemed to be genuinely nice guys. No T.O.’s or Ocho Cinco’s to hate. But that’s a minor point. What made the Rams interesting (to non-Rams fans) was that explosive offense. In an era where more and more teams were moving towards the boring West Coast Offense the Rams defiantly stuck with the vertical passing game, executed it brilliantly, and racked up lots of wins and passing yardage. In starting their own championship run while short-circuiting a potential Rams dynasty in the process, the Patriots somewhat discredited the concept of building a championship offense around the downfield passing game (they tried to make amends in 2007 and blew it!)

That’s the aesthetic stuff. What bothered me the most about the game was the feeling that the Patriots hadn’t won the game as much as the Rams lost it. Until that final drive New England had done virtually nothing offensively. A Rams turnover set up every score: a pick six, another INT leading to FG, and fumble to set up a short TD drive. Plus, the Rams drove into NE territory a few times and came up empty. The Rams dominated all the stats: total yards; time of possession; yards per play but the three turnovers proved to be the great equalizer. Note that in the four biggest games for the Greatest Show On Turf, the Super Bowls and NFC title games of 1999 and 2001, the Rams won three of four but nearly went 0-4. All the games were close and the Rams caught some big breaks in the ones they won. For whatever reason the Rams failed to play dominating football in big games whether they played the Patriots or somebody else. Warner played particularly poorly in Super Bowl XXXVI.

I guess what I’m getting it here is that ideally the greatest Super Bowl would feature both teams playing at a very high level and in Super Bowl XXXVI we didn't really get that. I don’t want to deny the Patriots credit for slowing up the Rams offense but the Rams’ poor play in other big games and Warner’s sudden decline (it took him eight years to regain anything like the form of his MVP years) indicates to me that the Rams offense just played well below par. As I wrote previously the Rams’ offense blew lots of opportunities in Super Bowl XXXIV as well but at least they didn’t turn it over so the Titans “earned” all their scores on long drives. The Titans impressed more in a losing effort than New England did in winning. Plus, the finish of Super Bowl XXXIV was slightly more exciting. So given that the games played in oddly similar fashion and that I find the earlier game to be the greater one, Super Bowl XXXVI isn’t the greatest ever.


The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI

How Does Dyson Not Score?


Super Bowl XXXIV ended with about as great a 4th quarter as we’ve ever seen. A great comeback from a seemingly insurmountable deficit, a go-ahead TD bomb, and the to-date unique feature of a clutch open-field Super Bowl tackle ending the contest. But all that happened in the game’s closing stages. The first half was something else altogether. There never should have been a great fourth quarter. In the first half the Rams drove deep into Titans territory five times but scored only 9 points. Why? They missed one FG attempt, botched the snap on another and Kurt Warner went 0-12 in the red zone. The score should probably have been at least 19-0 at the half, maybe more, and the game would have been over. Instead of putting them away in the first half the Rams played with fire and let the Titans hang around. But St. Louis finally appeared to have slammed the door shut after they scored the game’s first TD halfway through the third quarter to up 16-0. History sad the game was over. The 33 previous Super Bowls had seen exactly one double-digit comeback, and that was only a 10-point first quarter deficit. But somehow the seeming Ram deathblow turned instead into a wakeup call for Tennessee. Three consecutive Titan scoring drives tied the game at 16 with just over two minutes left.

What intrigues me the most about this game are the play calls on the game’s two biggest plays, the final offensive play for each team. Each team’s offensive coordinator called a play that went against all game logic. The Titans’ three scoring drives totaled 7:66, 7:39 and 6:17. These three drives were interspersed with two Rams drives totaling all of103 seconds. So when St. Louis got the ball at their own 27 with 2:12 left to play, you’d have expected them to burn some clock while attempting to advance the ball downfield for the winning score. This would at least prevent the Titans from having any time to work with regulation should they force the Rams to punt. It would also give the exhausted Rams’ defense a little extra rest should the game head to overtime. But Mike Martz rejected this logic. The Rams dominated their opponents in 1999 with their quick-strike vertical game. So why should they abandon it now during the game’s most critical moments? As for leaving Tennessee time should the deep bomb fail, the Titans previous scoring drives all consumed over six minutes of clock. They hadn’t established any ability to score quickly. And how much would a little extra rest mean when the Titans’ offense had been kicking the crap out of your defense for the last quarter-and-a-half? The Rams needed to avoid going to OT at all costs. Taking their chance with the deep pass actually made a certain kind of sense.

After Steve McNair’s brilliantly drove the Titans to the Ram’s 10 with six seconds remaining, the Titans’ options seemed clear enough. With no time outs left they’d have to pass into the end zone to maximize their chances of a second plays should their next pass attempt fall incomplete. But if you call a perfect play the first time you obviously won’t need a second one. Just ask Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr. And the Titans did call the perfect play (“Gun Spear Right Open Zag Firm Silver Right Detroit”). It should have worked. I’ve seen the replay many times over the years and I still think now what I thought as the play unfolded in real time: how did Kevin Dyson not score? McNair hit him perfectly in stride at the 5. He had a ton of momentum and most of the Ram defenders were still in the end zone (expecting the end zone pass that never came). But one person’s incredible superhuman effort trumped the perfect play call. Mike Jones deserved every bit of credit he got for his game-winning tackle. He grabbed and fell on Dyson’s left leg and got his knee down at the one to end the game. Jones never took his eyes off Dyson and so he put himself in position to make the tackle when he saw the ball go to Dyson and didn’t go for a big hit. He just made both a smart and athletic play to seal the championship.

So was it the greatest Super Bowl ever? You can make an argument. The second half provided all kinds of momentum reversals, the biggest Super Bowl comeback ever, two all-time great plays and a contest not decided until the very last second. And the first half, while far less competitive, wasn’t without interest as the Rams kept finding ways to squander scoring opportunities. Two teams of contrasting styles and a near-huge upset. This game’s a contender.


The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

The Return of Jason Taylor

Jason Taylor returns! Less than a year after the Dolphins traded him to the Washington Redskins, the man is back in aqua and orange. Past Interference’s reaction to the 2008 Taylor trade was mixed; I approved of the move, Jeff hated it. But all Dolphin fans agreed it was a sad day to see the greatest defensive player in Miami Dolphins history leave to play for another team. But Taylor is back and his return not only washes away all that bad feeling, perhaps more importantly it sends yet another signal that this franchise has completely turned around under the leadership of Bill Parcells. You may recall the Dolphins received Washington’s 2009 second-round pick in exchange for Taylor, a pick subsequently spent on QB Pat White. In exchange, Washington received Taylor’s services for 2008 and those costly services wound up being nearly nonexistent. Taylor missed half the season with an injury and when he did play he wasn’t much of a factor. And Miami, finishing with their best season in years, certainly didn’t miss him. Now just a year later Taylor’s back as a free agent while costing Miami very little to sign. So essentially Miami got a second-round pick for free. Do you know how incredible that is? For most of this decade the Dolphins were known for trading away valuable draft picks for virtually nothing (see A.J. Feeley, Lamar Gordon). Even if Pat White or Jason Taylor do little in 2009 the team at least won’t have lost anything (and I believe White will in fact make important contributions). It’s just nice to see the Tuna emphatically end the team’s era of trade futility. Plus Jason Taylor’s a Dolphin again. Good times.

Miami Dolphins Draft 2009

I’m not going to offer an idiotic grade to evaluate the Miami Dolphins’ 2009 draft. Miami needed cornerbacks and they drafted cornerbacks. They needed wide receivers and they drafted wide receivers. Vontae Davis and Sean Smith sure seem like good picks to me. They were drafted where they were supposed to be drafted anyway. And Patrick Turner. I know he earned an underachiever label in college but damn, 6’5”, 223! Miami really, really needs a wideout that size who can play. He supposedly lacks speed but Miami’s got a guy with blazing speed right now who hasn’t done a whole lot in his first two seasons. I’ll take size and good hands any day over speed. (Though the whole package would be nice). After last year, Parcells, Ireland and Sparano certainly earned the benefit of the doubt on all personnel decisions so let’s trust the triumvirate that these selections will pan out.

The most intriguing pick is clearly Pat White. Quarterback was the last position you’d expect Miami to go for, especially using their second pick on one. Chad Pennington played like an MVP last year and Miami spent a second-round pick on Chad Henne just a year ago and he hasn’t played a down yet. So the White pick immediately meant two things: (1) John Beck was toast; and (2) White’s going to be running the wildcat. On the second point, teams started figuring out the wildcat as the year went on and they countered it by blitzing. If your RB has got the ball and the defense stuffs the middle, he has to beat them by throwing. Ronnie Brown isn’t really the guy to do that on a consistent basis but Pat White sure could be. If he can catch as well then I’m really looking forward to see this offense in 2009.

As for Beck I suppose I ought to say a few words here. I posted favorably on him awhile back after reading a nice write-up about his drive, desire, and dedication to the game. But it turns out that while those qualities are very important, they aren’t quite as important as things like being able to throw and complete passes on a consistent basis. Playing for the 2007 Miami Dolphins wasn’t exactly the situation a young quarterback could be expected to thrive in but you at least have to see the occasional flash of brilliance here and there. Instead, Dolphin fans just got a lot of turnovers from a guy who looked lost out there. Once when examining Jay Fiedler’s career I noted his problem of not getting any real playing experience until he was in his late 20’s. The late start gave him only a tiny window to improve his play before the inevitable age-related decline of his physical skills. And that’s what happened. Fiedler did improve somewhat after a couple of seasons but he plateaued before ever reaching championship-caliber level. Now 28, Beck’s suddenly in the same boat; if he gets to start now that is (something that’s not going to happen). Miami should never have drafted him if they didn’t plan to start him right away. Beck I think also illustrates a slightly different age-related problem.

Beck became BYU’s starting QB as a freshman…at age 21(!), about the time most college players are graduating (or at least ending their college careers). As a senior, Beck was ranked as the country’s second-best college QB. And he was 26(!), a good five years older or more than most of the guys lining up across from him. So was Beck’s great collegiate performance a result of superior skills and determination? Or did Beck’s age just give him a huge advantage due to his greater physical and emotional maturity and life experience? Probably some combination of the two but still, honestly evaluating Beck as an NFL prospect in 2007 was complicated by his age. Literally, as a mature man against boys how could he not have a leg-up on the competition? Call it the “Chris Weinke problem”. Generally you want to draft guys who play with the poise and skill you’d expect from a much older player. You don’t want to draft an actual older player.

Super Bowl Upsets

In my post on Super Bowl XXXII, I stated that people have forgotten just what a huge upset Denver pulled off that night. If we define “upset” simply as when the team favored by the odds makers loses, then there have been thirteen upsets in Super Bowl history (through Super Bowl XLIII). Here’s a table showing all thirteen:

Super Bowl	Teams	Favorite	Final
III	Baltimore v. NY Jets	Baltimore by 17	NY Jets, 16-7
IV	Minnesota v. Kansas City	Minnesota by 10	Kansas City, 23-7
V	Dallas v. Baltimore	Dallas by 1	Baltimore, 16-13
VII	Washington v. Miami	Washington by 2	Miami, 14-7
XV	Philadelphia v. Oakland	Philadelphia by 3	Oakland, 27-10
XVII	Miami v. Washington	Miami by 2	Washington, 27-10
XVIII	Washington v. Oakland	Washington by 3	Oakland, 38-9
XXII	Denver v. Washington	Denver by 3	Washington, 42-10
XXV	Buffalo v. NY Giants	Buffalo by 7	NY Giants, 20-19
XXXII	Green Bay v. Denver	Green Bay by 12	Denver, 31-24
XXXVI	St. Louis v. New England	St. Louis by 14	New England, 20-17
XXXVII	Oakland v. Tampa Bay	Oakland by 3.5	Tampa Bay, 48-21
XLII	New England v. NY Giants	New England by 12	NY Giants, 17-14

Now I would not call of those games true upsets. In seven of those thirteen games the line was only 3.5 points or less so the matchups in those seven games were seen as essentially even or close to it. The other six games featured one team favored by a touchdown or more and five of those were double digit favorites. So really the Super Bowl has seen six big upsets in 43 years. Here are the six in order of the biggest pointspread overcome to the least:

Super Bowl	Teams	Favorite	Final
III	Baltimore v. NY Jets	Baltimore by 17	NY Jets, 16-7
XXXVI	St. Louis v. New England	St. Louis by 14	New England, 20-17
XXXII	Green Bay v. Denver	Green Bay by 12	Denver, 31-24
XLII	New England v. NY Giants	New England by 12	NY Giants, 17-14
IV	Minnesota v. Kansas City	Minnesota by 10	Kansas City, 23-7
XXV	Buffalo v. NY Giants	Buffalo by 7	NY Giants, 20-19

Based purely on pointspreads, Denver’s upset win over Green Bay in Super Bowl XXXII was tied for the third-biggest upset in Super Bowl history.

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V

Not one of the greatest plays ever.


At the time I watched this game play out before my eyes, I remember thinking it might wind up being the greatest Super Bowl ever. You had a close relatively high-scoring game, the Holy Grail, the Mecca of Super Bowls, what wasn’t to love. Well, with the passage of time I can now say it wasn’t the greatest ever. Why? Three reasons: (1) No lead changes; (2) No classic finish; and (3) No great plays. What’s that you say, there was a great play? Well, it’s true one play from that game has gone down in history as one of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl history. The Helicopter. Let’s set the scene: Late third quarter. Denver ball. Third-and-six at the Green Bay 12. Elway scrambles. Nobody’s open. Elway decides to run for the key first down. As he nears the first-down marker he launches himself in the air where he’s met by two Packers, the resulting collision spinning him 360 degrees in the air before he landed on his ass two yards past the marker. First down at the Green Bay four-yard line and Terrell Davis takes it in two plays later. Elway’s scramble remains THE signature play of that Super Bowl. The play where Elway, denied for so long, put the game on his shoulders/legs and willed his team to victory. The play that proved to Denver they could pull off the upset and win the game. Right? WRONG!

Let me expound a little. The reason we’ve heard so much about that play is: (1) people have retrospectively invested it with a lot more significance than it actually had during the actual game; and (2) 360-degree spins in mid-air are freaking cool! Point (2) speaks for itself. As for point (1), consider the game situation. The score was tied 17-17. If Elway gets stopped then his team either tries a chip-shot field goal attempt or goes for it on 4th-and-short and with the way Davis dominated that game he almost surely makes it. Denver would very likely have taken the lead even if Elway’s leap for the first down had come up short. As for momentum, any that his run and Davis’ TD gave the Broncos lasted exactly 23 seconds. In case you forgot Green Bay fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Denver recovered at the Green Bay 22. Denver had a shot at taking complete control of the game. And what happened? On the very next play Elway threw a pick in the end zone. Momentum gone. Four Favre passes, a penalty and 1:39 later the score was tied. Luckily for Elway Favre ran out of magic for the rest of the 4th quarter and Terrell Davis took over the game late. But if Green Bay had been able to pull it out I submit to you Elway’s end-zone INT would have been the game’s signature play and probably the signature play of Elway’s personal Super Bowl highlight reel. But Denver won so we remember the helicopter and forget the interception. That’s football. But spare the paeans to Elway and his six-yard run supposedly sparking his team to victory. That’s not what happened. A tough run and a tough hit with a spin, that’s all.

Besides Elway’s potentially costly INT, the other thing people forget about this game is what a gigantic upset it was. The Packers were the defending champs. The NFC had won 13 straight Super Bowls, only two of which were decided by less than double digits. Favre had won his third-straight MVP while Elway had lost in all three of his previous Super Bowl appearances and he’d played badly in all of them. The odds makers made Green Bay a huge 12-point favorite and deservedly so. Nobody considers this much of an upset anymore since Denver repeated a year later but at the time the Broncos’ win was a real shocker.



The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion