NFL: 2015 Pro Bowl was better than expected
By Ryan Ratty
The expectations were low, but the 2015 NFL Pro Bowl was better than we expected
Year after year the Pro Bowl keeps getting looked down upon and with good reasoning too. For what it’s worth, players are basically on vacations as their families come with them to the hot sun in Hawaii and the players get to hang out with the bests in the league. The Pro Bowl doesn’t count for anything and for that reasoning, players really do not try in this football game and it doesn’t come as surprise to the game’s viewers. Players do not want to risk injuries and that makes the game a little unlike a football game. Because of that reasoning, people believe the Pro Bowl should not exist.
Two years ago, the NFL saw just how absurd the Pro Bowl was. In that game, the NFC, led by Mike McCarthy, absolutely dismantled the John Fox-led AFC teams to a score of 62-35. With that game showing just how poor the Pro Bowl format was, the NFL decided to switch the format of the game into more of a fantasy football drafted format.
In 2014, the Pro Bowl’s new format made the game much more competitive and much more watchable. It was a game between Team Rice and Team Sanders. In that game, Team Rice won 22-21 and even though the game still had its share of lackluster play and the players didn’t play their hardest, the new format gave a ton of optimism for the future.
Leading up to this year’s Pro Bowl, much was made of the battle between two of the best receivers that have ever touched foot on an NFL field. Michael Irvin and Chris Carter are two of the most accomplished receivers in the history of football and because of their personalities, this game had the makings to not only be a competitive one, but it had the makings to be an entertaining one as well. For those people that watched the game, good for you, but for those of you who didn’t watch the game, shame on you. The reason why is because this game was, in fact, entertaining and it was a great way to go into the week of the Super Bowl.
For obvious reasons, the Super Bowl is the most watched and the most nerve-wracking game in all of professional sports. That being said, having a fun game like the Pro Bowl a week before the big game is something that is exciting for the league’s fans and the players in that game.
With so much talent on both sides of the football in both phases of the game, remember there isn’t special teams in this game, this game was going to be a fun one. The game started with an impressive drive from the Dallas Cowboys’ dynamic duo of Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray. The duo drove down the field before veteran and future Hall of Famer Adam Vinatieri kicked a 32-yard field goal. From there, the top pick in this game, Andrew Luck, scored easily. In this drive, Luck completed all five of his passes for 55 yards including a touchdown to Greg Olsen.
This game was dominated by the tight ends. Jimmy Graham, Jason Witten, Greg Olsen, and Martellus Bennett are four of the best tight ends in the NFL and this group isn’t even including Julius Thomas and Rob Gronkowski, as the former is out with an injury and the latter is about to play in the Super Bowl. In the Pro Bowl, the four combined for 15 receptions for 139 yards and four touchdowns.
Although the implications of this game were extremely meaningless, these players played for pride in this game. In fact, this game came all the way down to the last second. Down three with just over eight minutes to go, Matt Ryan drove this team down the field. Interestingly enough, the mixture of Ryan and Mark Ingram was able to guide Team Irvin down the football field and ultimately win the game. Even though they are rivals in the regular season, Ryan and Ingram were able to settle their differences in this game.
It was 3rd & goal. Team Irvin decided to throw the football. Ryan threw for Emmanuel Sanders, but the pass was broken up by Team Carter’s Aqib Talib. After the play, Team Irvin could’ve gone for the field goal and live to fight another day. However, Team Irvin went down and it played off big time. On the next play, Ryan would find another rival in Jimmy Graham in the back of the endzone for the go-ahead score.
From there, Andy Dalton tried bringing Team Carter back, but as NFL fans have seen over the past few years, Dalton isn’t the most clutch quarterback in the world. Dalton failed to bring this team back and Irvin’s squad was able to come away with the victory. For the second consecutive year, the Pro Bowl was exciting to watch down to the finish. Even though it’s becoming more of a fad because fans don’t want to believe it, the NFL proved that the Pro Bowl should be something to watch in 2016.