Unbelievable game. I have to admit that I didn't give the Giants much of a chance in this game. I thought the Pats would roll up on them. However, it was clear from the get go that the Giants were going to put up a good fight.
The Giants opening drive set the tempo. They held on to the ball for 10 minutes of the first quarter on their opening drive that ended with a FG. The best way to beat the Pats is to keep their offense off the field. On the ensuing drive, Brady led the Pats on a methodical drive ending with a TD getting the score to 7-3 in favor of the Pats. At that point, I was thinking the Giants need a similar drive to keep the ball out of that offense because the Pats offense is a machine that can score at will. However, the Giants defense really stepped up. The front four put constant pressure on Brady and when he wasn't sacked, he was hurried and had a number of balls batted down and he took a number of shots. You could see that he just wasn't himself. He had a number of bad throws and just never seemed to get into a good rhythm. I know Manning got the MVP (and he certainly made some great plays) but that defense was really the MVP of the game.
The final quarter was fantastic. It was pretty amazing when the Giants took the 10-7 lead. It was almost like in Rocky IV when Rocky hits Drago and cuts him and Tony starts yelling, "HE'S CUT! HE'S CUT!" Everyone is shocked including Rocky. That was the feeling I had. However, it was short lived when Brady marched down the field again and hit Moss for the TD with 2 and a half minutes left. I almost thought that would be a fitting end. Brady, who had struggled most of the game, engineer another flawless drive that ends with a game winning TD to Moss who has had a record breaking season and is in search of his first Super Bowl title. I really thought that was it. However, Manning and that Giant offense came up HUGE!
The Giants drive started out a little rocky. There were a couple of questionable passes by Eli. First, the one over the middle in triple coverage to Plax. Then that floater on the left sideline that was almost picked off and the most dangerous was the one on the right sideline where the WR maybe ran the wrong route and the ball ended up right in Pro Bowler Asante Samuels hands who inexplicably dropped it. Still, the Giants managed to overcome all of that and the play where Manning was engulfed by Pats and looked like he would surely be sacked but somehow broke free and heaved the prayer to Tyree who made an unbelievable catch with Harrison all over him was the play of the game. That's a play that Giants fans will never forget. The TD play to Plax was an easy call. The Pats were going to blitz heavily and they had Plax one on one in the corner and Eli threw up a perfect pass and the rest is history. Brady still had 35 seconds and all three timeouts to work with but it was kind of fitting that the Giants D stepped up again getting another devastating sack. Bottom line, it was a great game.
I wasn't really rooting for either team. I suppose I feel a little bad for Seau as a Super Bowl win would have been a nice way to cap off a great career but still I'm pretty happy that the Giants were able to knock off the unbeaten Pats. The Pats just seemed so arrogant and smug and it's good that they were knocked off of their pedestal. The interesting thing is that the Pats had an opportunity to become only the second "perfect" team but with that loss it puts a HUGE damper on an otherwise tremendous season. The '85 Bears went 18-1 and one of the great 49er teams went 18-1 but they each won the Super Bowl. The Pats went 18-1 but couldn't pull out the big game thus tarnishing a great year. It's interesting because I don't think the Pats or their fans are taking any consolation in their other 18 victories right now. To have the season that they did and break the number of records that they did only to fall short in the Super Bowl has to be pretty devastating.
Well, great way to end the season. One final note, it's interesting that the Manning brothers won the Super Bowl in back to back years. I think Aikman said it best when they showed Peyton's reaction to Eli's TD pass at the end. Aikman said about the pumped up Peyton that he thought that Peyton may actually be more happy this year for Eli winning it than when he won it himself the previous year. They seem like good guys and it's nice to see them each get a ring.
Until next year...HAIL TO THE REDSKINS!!!
1 comment:
Great game is right. The Giants were just simply more physical and more the dominant team yesterday. Eli played great against a very good team, but I think the Giants D-line was really the MVP. It seemed like every time Brady went back he was hit.
The Giants made a couple of big plays when they needed it, but really, I think it was a good old fashioned physical beating that did it for them.
The schemes seemed good for both sides, the only questionable coaching call that I can remember is the Patriots not trying the 49 yard field goal on 4th and 13. It was really a matter of two teams just lining up and seeing which guys were going to win the individual physical battles. The Giants players showed that they wanted it more.
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