I'm not the yelling type. Even in a sports bar where everyone is shouting, I bottle up my emotions and stay quiet. When Eli Manning hit Plaxico Burress in the end zone to give his team the team with less the 30 seconds left to go, I let out a whoop that startled the boys and made Minette and Andy cackle. I'm certainly not a Giants fan -- I root against them more often than not -- but I do hate the Patriots almost as much as I hated the Cowboys in the 90s. That loss by the Patriots was more pleasant than any loss since UNLV got beat by Duke back in 1992. The only drawback is that we have to keep hearing about the 1972 Miami Dolphins and their stupid champagne. Here are my drunken observations from the game. Feel free to add your own:
* It was the without question the best Super Bowl ever played. Both teams played great. Brady led his team from behind with a little over 2 minutes left, and then Eli Manning (!) brought his team right back and drove the length of the field, throwing his second touchdown pass in the fourth quarter against the defense that has shut every other quarterback down in the fourth quarter this year. There were only two turnovers, one by each team, and neither was particularly damaging. I'm tempted to say it was the greatest football game I've ever seen, but it's too soon to make such a claim. Still, I can't think of a better one at the moment.
* That first drive by the Giants was brilliant. Even though they got only 3 points, it wore down the Patriots' defense. And it set the tone for the game.
* There were several moments when the Patriots could have taken over the game, but the Giants' defense shut them down each time. After the Giants fell behind 7-3, they had to punt twice. Both times, they forced the Patriots to punt in turn, making the game a defensive battle. In the second half, the Giants could have melted when the extra man couldn't sprint off the field fast enough during a Patriots' punt, giving the ball back to the Patriots on the Giants' side of the field. But they sacked Brady and forced them to turn it over on downs.
* Why didn't the great Belichick try a 49-yard field goal on 4th and 12? If Gostkowski wasn't hurt, that goes down as a dumb decision.
* Tom Petty is old.
* The game was well-officiated. There was only one bad call that I saw -- a push-off by Amani Toomer on a long sideline reception -- but it didn't affect the outcome in any meaningful way (Manning threw his only interception shortly after).
* In the same way that the Colts' offensive line should have been the MVP in last year's Super Bowl, the Giants' defensive line should have been the MVP this year. They swarmed all over Brady, sacking him five times and making him look mortal.
* With two minutes left to go and my team down by four points, I'd rather have Eli than Peyton leading my team, even though Peyton is by far the better quarterback. Eli is cooler in the clutch. Or maybe I'm just deceived by his placid demeanor.
* If Asante Samuel had held on to that interception on the Giants' last drive, the sports world would be talking about how great Brady and Belichick are. Oh, and the 2007 New England Patriots would be the greatest sports team of all time. He had two hands on the ball, but he couldn't bring it down.
* The most amazing thing is that New England didn't play poorly. In fact, they played well. The Giants played just as well, and ended up with the ball at the end. I still can't get over it. At first, I thought that if these two teams played 10 times, the Giants would win maybe one of them. After the game, I got the feeling that the two teams are evenly matched. The Patriots would probably win 6 out of 10. The Giants peaked at the right time. The Patriots peaked in October. The October 2007 Patriots against the October 2005 Colts might be the greatest matchup of all time.
* I love watching that play by Eli Manning when he almost got sacked by two defensive players, spun away, and flung the ball downfield to a guy named David Tyree who made a circus catch with the evil Rodney Harrison hanging all over him. We'll see that play as often as we see Montana to Clark, Elway's jump and spin run, and Marcus Allen's cutback run.
* The Patriots are without question the greatest team not to win the championship. They remind me a lot of those 2003-06 Colts teams that couldn't get it done in the playoffs.
i feel the same. if the colts can't win it, the next best thing is a pats loss!
ReplyDeleteEverybody gets old. Tom Petty is doing it gracefully.
ReplyDeleteTom Petty doesn't really look that much older than he did 20 years ago. I should have said that his music is old. All four of the songs were from the 80s.
ReplyDeleteNot the best superbowl ever. The best last 5 minutes of a superbowl ever. The rest of the game wasn't all that great.
ReplyDeleteEli threw the ball up for grabs 3 times on that final drive. He was doing the same things that made him the worst quarterback in the NFL this year, in terms of turnovers. I'm not saying they won because of luck; i'm saying that it wasn't a super-skilled Montana-esque drive, where you are aware that a master is at work.
I'm happy for Eli. I'm not convinced he's "turned a corner" and is now going to be a different player. I suspect within 2 years he'll be a backup. But for the last 4 games, he's been pretty good. Good enough to succeed in a way few of us can even imagine.
Besides, imagine living the rest of your life as 'Peyton's little brother who couldn't win the superbowl.' In fact, the win probably saved peyton from eventually being skinned alive by his little brother.
Botched
P.S. What? Tom Petty's music is old? I totally disagree. I'm pretty sure that 'Last Dance with Mary Jane' is from like 1993, which is just uh, 15 years ago.
But he didn't play Last Dance with Mary Jane, did he? That would have been fresh by comparison.
ReplyDeleteI liked your choice for MVP, Bob. The pressure the Giants' defensive line was getting all game long was the key, I thought. It was mostly with a 4-man rush, too. They made pretty-boy Tom (Brady, that is, not the singer, Petty) look a whole lot less like Montana (Joe, that is, not the singer, Hannah).
ReplyDeleteBlind Side by Michael Lewis is a great book about interior line play. He gives a good history of the passing game vis a vis Lawrence Taylor-types up through the Bill Walsh revolution--short routes and timing patterns. Of course, to make anything work you've got to protect the QB. Take note, Patsies: You can't call yourselves the greatest team ever unless you can.