From the Bleachers
by Cormac EklofRSS 
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However, if you actually watched the game, there was a number of aspects that didn't sit well after the fact. Certainly not with this column anyway.
To summarize, Kentucky interim coach Lance Guidry watched as his team drove down field into field goal position with a minute left in the game, trailing by, you guessed it, three. Instead of kicking a relatively simple chip shot, Kentucky went for it on fourth and two, and didn't make it.
Sadly, it’s not.
Before the game, NBC showed the President of the United States, Barack Obama, deliver his moving speech at the Newtown memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Considering that one of the teams about to play football were wearing a decal on their helmets in memory of the victims, and considering that the tragedy has permeated all levels of US society, including sports, you would have imagined this was a safe enough decision by NBC (to show The President’s speech before the game).
The game was to all intents and purposes over before the end of the first quarter. The Patriots offence had its way with the much ballyhooed Texans defence and J.J. Watt (no sacks and no passes batted down) while the defence, led by the incredible Vince Wilfork, destroyed almost everything Houston tried to do. The Texans ran nine plays that went for negative yardage. Nine! Worse yet for Texans fans, their team appeared to raise the white flag very early. Instead of running a hurry up offence or showing any urgency to even cut into the lead, Houston huddled up after every play and ran running plays to backup Ben Tate before bringing on the punting team.
The signature play of the night? There are a few you could choose from, including Brady’s beautiful play action fake, touchdown toss to Brandon Lloyd, however the funniest was J.J. Watt forcing a fumble off Danny Woodhead only for the ball to roll to Lloyd in the end zone for a Patriots touchdown.
In an exciting scenario the kids had 80 seconds to fill their carts with toys and other fun things for themselves and their siblings. They were also each given a gaming system and two video games. All of it was paid for by the Andre Johnson Charitable Foundation.
How so? Simple. Alex Smith lost his job because his coach took advantage of his injury to cram a rookie in instead of him, and once that injury healed, Smith found the door locked upon his attempted return. Smith was honest and acted in the best interests of the team in saying he had concussion symptoms.
The team in turn should have respected that responsible behaviour and ensured that Smith be allowed keep his job, which he did nothing to lose, on his return. Instead Harbaugh has taken advantage of the situation and handed the job to an untested rookie who has not paid his veteran dues.
