Get it? Because the Giants won...
Sorry if I'm a little slap-happy, but there's nothing worse than three-and-a-half hours of bad Super Bowl followed by a sudden, upsetting, and annoying conclusion.
What have we learned?
1. Your biggest, best receiver will always be open near the goal line late in the game.
Why did Joe Montana even bother looking at John Taylor back in the day? I guess because he didn't get to go up against tonight's defenses.
Randy Moss and Plaxico Burress—in other words, each team's freakish deep threat—both beat awful single coverage for wide-open touchdowns in the last three minutes. That's just awful. I sat through that crappy 7-3 game for that?
2. I hate the Giants.
Late in the game, my brother Dave mentioned how badly he wanted to see the Giants lose, considering how they'd beaten the Broncos half-of-Super-Bowl-history ago. And you know what, that is crap. I hate those guys.
The Giants have now won three Super Bowls in my lifetime, the same total as the Patriots, Cowboys and Redskins, and one shy of the 49ers. Five teams have won 16 of the Super Bowls since I've been around, and the Niners actually got the last one before I was born, too. That's why it's so dumb to say the NFL has parity.
3. The Mannings are super! (Sorry, they're Super!)
I don't know if other people hate the Mannings as much as I do—I doubt it—but do these guys really have to win the Super Bowl every year now?
Actually, for once I thought the Peyton angle was underplayed—he's one of the few crowd members whose reactions have ever meant something to me. First off, you have the face of the NFL watching his little brother on the league's biggest stage. And second, his brother's playing against his own biggest rival. I mean, that's incredible. Can you imagine facing your brother's biggest rival under circumstances anything at all like the Super Bowl? I mean in anything in life? The family story was the most interesting one to me, but it didn't get that much play...then again, I didn't follow the pregame hype ramp-up very much, so maybe the rest of you guys were already sick of it.
4. I suck.
One of the biggest reasons I ever started this blog was because I believed in myself. I saw so many dumb predictions flying around—the Colts'll win the Super Bowl, or Eli Manning should be the No. 1 pick—that I just had to set the record straight. How's that going for me?
Well, I've been blogging for three Super Bowls now, and for those games I've picked the Seahawks, the Bears, and the Patriots. Time to retire?
13 comments:
Thanks for stating the obvious. Maybe you can stop believing in yourself now and do as you suggested... Retire. Too bad you can't go out on top though.
Oh, no, he didn't!
Wow?! Really?!
I couldn't disagree more. I was on the edge of my seat the entire game. I was thrilled to see a close game instead of a blowout as most expected. In fact, I think it was one of the best Super Bowls ever.
I have no problem with then Mannings, and I definitely prefer them to Tom Brady and his stupid supermodel girlfriend who was shown delicately sipping her wine at the game. I think it's hilarious that Brady scoffed at Plaxico's prediction that the Pats would only score 17 points in the game and they only ended up scoring 14. I loved seeing Brady get sacked 5 times too.
The best play of the game was on the Giants last drive where Eli had like three different Pats hanging on him and somehow gets away to complete a crazy 30 yard pass to Tyree.
The only bad thing about the Giants winning is that now we have to listen to Mercury Morris again. That really sucks, but I'm happy for Eli and the Giants anyway.
I meant to mention that catch...one of the manliest grabs of my lifetime, and not a bad showing of evasiveness by Eli, either. Maybe the biggest catch I've ever seen, but I feel like I should think about that one before I anoint it that way. Very impressive.
It was a close game, and that's nice, but I just didn't think it was a good close game. I mean, the Giants' defense was impressive and had a great pass rush, but I think (and I'm sure some will dispute this) a lot of New England's struggles were just New England not playing well. To me, it's not a great game if one team doesn't really show up.
Now Patriots-Rams...or Rams-Titans...or Broncos-Packers...or even Patriots-Panthers, though that kinda bored me for some reason...those are great Super Bowls.
And finally, Tom's girl is hot, who cares if she's stupid?
Yeah she's hot, but she could've at least pretended like she was at least a little bit interested. I mean, at least Jessica Simpson wore a jersey (albeit a ridiculous pink one) and was actively rooting for Tony.
Anyway, I agree, the first three quarters left a lot to be desired in terms of offense, but I thought the fourth quarter made up for it.
I also agree that the Pats missed many opportunities. (I bet Bill is regretting going for it on 4th and 13 instead of kicking the field goal now.) Brady looked surprisingly average, overthrowing and under throwing his receivers all night. However, he had never been hit as much as he had before last nights game either. You have to wonder how that affected him.
To me, it just looked like the Giants wanted it more than the Pats did last night.
By the way, I agree that both of the last 2 touchdowns were really disappointing. Both teams looked remarkable driving down the field to get into the red zone and I was really expecting a more exciting play to get into the endzone. Instead, both teams decide not to double (when they've both been doubled and triple teamed the rest of the game) the other's best receiver when it really counts most. I guess retrospect is 20-20, but I have a hard time understanding that decision.
Last night's game definitely ranks as one of the worst Super Bowls of my life. I can't believe I sat through a 7-3 game to watch Eli Manning turn into a mobile quarterback and David Tyree into a big play receiver. Or to watch the Patriots turn into the NFL equivalent of Fred Thompson: perfect on paper, but flat, laconic, and overhyped when it mattered most.
And whatever happened to the Pats' O line? They were supposed to be the best in the game, and they played like a bunch of wide-eyed backpedaling fat guys. That notwithstanding, on the Pats' last possession I couldn't help but wonder why Bellichick hadn't been smart enough to call Brady on a roll-out before the last 30 seconds of the game. Maybe he could have avoided being hit long enough to make some decent throws.
The Pats' D looked exactly like it did against the Colts last year - slow, over-the-hill, and exploitable. In short, they played like the group of 40-somethings they are.
I thought the Mannings and the NFC East were overhyped before, but this is going to be ridiculous.
Blaine, you are completely wrong about Brady's girlfriend. Jessica Simpson is the single most annoying celebrity woman, and I tip my hat to Gisele for being better looking, classier, and willing to take a back seat in her boyfriend's big game.
Mike, don't stop predicting - if you are bad at it, then I am too (except that I picked the Steelers over the Seahawks - but I can NEVER bring myself to pick/cheer for a member of the Manning family).
In other words, it was a deflating end to an underwhelming Super Bowl. And we didn't even get rid of the '72 Dolphins in the process.
I think money from those pink jerseys usually goes to breast cancer research, so they're not that ridiculous, you heartless bastard.
John, can't believe you're leading with a Fred Thompson slam. Ouch. New England's offensive line was destroyed by their Giants defensive counterparts...and that is one area of the game in which New York clearly outplayed New England. I definitely credit the Giants for that.
I agree, too, that New England apparently did not solve the problems of its aging defense, which killed them last year in the AFC Championship. I guess the explosive offense helped hide it all season...but maybe not. I don't feel like being the guy who changes his story and points out that the Pats had weaknesses all along-they just happened to lose this particular game. Was it a choke job? That one I'm still thinking about.
Also, I agree with John on Gisele vs. Jessica Simpson, but I hope this discussion of quarterbacks' dating habits doesn't turn into a trend.
And of course I'm crushed about the Dolphins. Too bad, because the Pats did win more in a row this year, and of course set the NFL record for consecutive wins (spanning two seasons) a few years back...
I hate to sound like I am changing my tune as well, but the more I think about it, the more I believe this year's Pats team may not have been as good as teams they've had in other years, at least on defense. In my view, the league as a whole was down this year, and the Pats covered for an aging defense with explosive offense. I wonder how the Pats of this year would stack up against their previous Super Bowl teams - I would at least take their defense from prior years. So it is an interesting question whether they choked or really weren't that great all along, although I still think they should have won last night.
And maybe we should be looking at the bright side - I didn't think it was humanly possible, but Tiki Barber looks like even more of a chump now than he did before.
Nicely said John. I agree completely. The Pats were great on offense this year, but overall they were overrated. The last quarter of the season they were struggling to beat teams who were thought to be far inferior. In the first two games of the playoffs they didn't look dominant, and they certainly didn't look like "the best team ever" as some had suggested.
The Patriots "amazing" season was impressive, but there were outside contributing factors to be considered as well. They get to play in the weakest division in the NFL which means they get to play the Bills twice, the Jets twice, and the Dolphins twice all of which are virtually guaranteed wins. The NFL seemed to be devoid of true "title contenders" this year with the exception of New England and maybe the Colts. Teams most expected to be good title contenders this year never lived up to the hype. Teams like Baltimore, Chicago, San Diego, Cincinnati, Denver, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh all largely underachieved. The Pats are a great team, but not one of the greatest ever, and wouldn't have gone undefeated competing against the teams in the league last year or the year before.
Ah, Tiki. How sweet it is.
The Pats definitely weren't as well-balanced as they've been in the past. I didn't expect it to matter. After all, all sorts of recent Super Bowl winners have been offense-heavy: Indy, St. Louis, the Broncos. But those defenses did play better come playoff time. Even still, looking back now, I would have to say the Patriots choked.
I don't know about all the quotes, Blaine. The Patriots still had a pretty amazing season in my book, but I agree they don't deserve to go down with history's greats without a Super Bowl win. And your list of potential title contenders is terrible: Denver? Cincinnati? Baltimore? Did anyone think the Broncos had a shot, really? I mean, New England was unbelieveable, Indy was really good, Dallas got off to a fantastic start, Green Bay had a very good year and almost made the Super Bowl...once again, I don't buy that there weren't any good teams this year, just that the good teams all seemed to underperform to some degree in the playoffs (Giants excluded, of course).
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