As I watched a room full of exhilarated Pats fans celebrate following Billy Cundiff’s shanked field goal, I couldn’t help but thinking, “This isn’t how you want to win.” The uneasiness aside, it’s fantastic to be returning to the Super Bowl. The Patriots-Giants rematch that nobody expected has become a reality.
Now let me say it… STERLING MOORE?! You better believe it. Forget about Tom Brady or Billy Cundiff, it was Bill Belichick’s latest street-meat member of the secondary that saved this game on back to back plays. Rob Gronkowski completely shattered his ankle, but was healed by a team of his favorite strippers in the Patriots lockerroom. Tom Brady, by his own admission, really sucked. But in the end it was enough… barely.
As I alluded to in the pre-game article, I think that the Giants will beat the Patriots. They’re the originators of the recipe to beat the Pats, and they are playing well. While neither the AFC championship nor the NFC championship was truly “won” yesterday, I think that ultimately Eli Manning is a better quarterback than he was in 2008 and the Patriots’ pass defense is much worse. If they can consistently disrupt Brady, I have to give them the nod in this game.
While that’s my feeling, I never really saw the Patriots as a legitimate championship caliber team this year. To have them in this situation is remarkable – it’s one game and I’m fully aware that anything can happen. If I don’t die of a heart attack pre-kick-off it should be a fun game to watch.
This Super Bowl, distilled and boiled down to its essence, comes down to this in my mind:
If the Patriots win, Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in NFL history (which I will prove should this happen). If the Giants win, Eli Manning will be vaunted into the class of quarterbacks with two rings and will be remembered as the guy who had Tom Brady’s number. Simply put, I will never hear the end of it.
This will be the single biggest NFL game I have ever watched, and probably the single biggest sporting event I’ve ever watched in terms of what I have riding on the game; years worth of mockery, one way or the other.
This defense isn’t that bad – they are resourceful and clutch. Did you watch the last two games? Nobody thought the 2001 defense was good until the same players won in 03-04. Chung and Spikes have made a huge difference
The Patriots are more well equipped to handle what the Giants do than they were in 07. The Hiants get pressure from their front 4 – while the Patriots strength is the OL. Compound that with the fact they are running primarily out of 2-3 TE sets and they should be able to minimize Giant pressure
I’m not saying Patriots will win but they know what the Giants are going to do – Brady got his bad game out of the way – And Wilfork isn’t going to be worried about a roughing the passer penalty anytime he grabs Eli
the last two games the pats have played the offensive masterminds of Joe Flacco and Tim Tebow
Joe Flacco’s career QB rating is 4 points higher than Eli’s…
Eli averages 5.5 more touchdowns and 336 more yards per year, qb rating is great at judging game managers.
Which is why game managers like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees led the league in QB rating this year…
and two of them are at home, one after being outplayed by Eli
the pats 2001 defense was 6th in the league
It will definitely be interesting. I stand by the fact that the addition of Spikes and Chung make a huge difference – especially in the running game. The Giants are unlikely to run against Wilfork (quite possibly the best player in the playoffs thus far), and Spikes.
The Patriots secondary is an issue – however they are stout in the red zone – thats a fact. As long as they only give up a majority of field goals it should be fine.
The real question is who the hell do the Giants put on the TE’s? After the front 4 what do they have? The Giants secondary is horrible too but they dont have the big corners that the Ravens had to match up with Gronk and Hernandez.
Patriots fans may very well look back at this matchup two weeks from this morning and realize it was far more favorable than the 49ers – but it sure as hell doesnt feel that way right now
If you want to find the best player in the playoffs so far he wears number 10 for the giants
Eli’s had a great playoffs. He’s gotten lucky too. His receivers have been spectacular. The 49ers don’t collide 2 DB’s intercepting the same awful pass and NY is out. But so far he is the playoff MVP.
Not sure how one QB can have the other QB’s number … Still the rest is on target. Lots of us didn’t see the Patriots as legitimate contenders two months ago. And it wasn’t clear the Giants would even make the playoffs. Meanwhile the Packers looked unbeatable. But here we are. The Patriots will use short passes and runs to beat the Giants pressure. The Giants will hit the Patriots with long passes. And it will probably go down to the wire.
If the Giants’ plan is to beat the Patriots with long passes – I am willing to go out on a limb and say they are going to lose.
Giants receivers have been very good recently. Patriots have been better since moving McCourty to safety and getting Chung back, but it’s pretty scary knowing Julian Edelman has significant defensive responsibilities. Eli has been good. Pats are vulnerable.
I agree, the perception will be that Eli had Tom’s number but the reality will be that the Giants defense had their number, not Eli. At least that was the case in 2008 and what I think most people expect to happen in this game.
Our offense is – wait for it – better and more balanced than it was in 2007. In 07 every single pass was vertical and on the outside of the hash marks.
Our running games is better, and our offense is more diverse. If the Giants figure out how to stop our TE’s then god bless them they deserve to win
Giants beat them already this year, in new england with those two tight ends
For what its worth – was listening to Brady’s weekly interview on the radio and he promised to play the best game of his career in two weeks
“Just 17 points, come on Plex”
Tom Brady didn’t lose that Super Bowl Rodney Harrison and Asante Samuel did
Scratch that… Asante Samuel did.
If Rodney tries to decapitate David Tyree instead of go for the ball he would have been dead nevermind making that play
damn those defenders for only putting up 14 points. DAMN THEM!
not sure what that means
Tom Brady’s offense, which that year was the most prolific offense of all time, managed to put up 14 points, the lowest point total of the season in the biggest game. So you can blame 2 guys for 2 plays but in reality the offense, led by Tom Brady, did not play well for the entire game
I agree, which was due to the Giants defense. Still regardless of how bad it all was, if the “best cornerback in the league” could catch a ball that you could have caught, they would have won.
and if Brady had put up even half of the points per game he put up all year that interception is meaningless.
Good defense. As they say, defense wins championships.
so does that mean you wont use Brady’s three super bowls as a resume booster?
Of course not. But in championships, defense trumping offense is the norm.
Giants defense won that Superbowl. Everyone points to the final drive, but it never should have come to that. The best offense of all time needed to score some points. A few weeks before the same Patriots team had scored 38 (?) against the same Giants team. The Giants chanegd what they did and the Patriots didn’t respond.
Mr. Kelley is spot on here.
Brady was able to put up 38 on the road a month before, same coaching staff, same players and he scores less then half of that in the biggest game of the year, but lets not blame him.
The Giants defense may have won it, I would give some credit to the guys who scored in the last minute as well, but the Patriots offense, led by Tom Brady lost it.
Not only does this guy have a hot wife and nice fleecy uggs to keep him warm but when he wins he gets all the credit and when he loses he gets none of the blame, nice life.
If you recall, he scored with just about no time left and everyone thought the Patriots had won. Then, the defense gave the game away. Sure, he should have scored more. But in crunch time he did what he needed to do to win the game.
It took him 59 minutes to score 14 points, in a dome on a neutral field. It took him 28 minutes to do it against the same defense outside on the road.
The pats defense gave up exactly their season average, and brady’s offense scores 2/5ths the amount of points then they did that year, that falls on the QB. I dont care if you are playing the 85 bears. if you are the best offense of all time, they scored the most points ever in a season, and have “the best QB ever” you need to find a way to score more then 14 points.
But Eli, a fellow elite QB, only mustered 17 and it took him a miracle to do it!
17>14
True dat.
Its fun to draw on comparisons from the 2007 superbowl but these teams are very different from 4 years ago. It should be a good game that comes down to the very end, we can only hope.
It is true. The teams are so different. And Brady already had his bad game this postseason – and they won. I wouldn’t bet on another one
Despite Brady playing badly they won because of Flacco, who is a disgrace. That was just awful to watch. Two straight games and he proved all his critics correct. If Brady is going up against a someone competent QB they lose that game.
I agree with regards to this game, but not Flacco’s career as a whole. I’ve been a proponent of his for a while now. In the game you’ve specifically called out, he threw for 306 yards, 2TDs, and one interception – all of which should be enough with the Ravens defense. That aside though, Flacco and Eli have been compared a lot in their careers. Obviously Eli gets the nod now, but one of my long-standing arguments with Giants fans is this; if the Asante Samuel can catch a blatant interception, or if that last minute of the Super Bowl against the Patriots doesn’t play out like it did, who is Eli Manning today? He’d have a poor playoff record and would be nothing more than a decent throwing quarterback with a major interception problem. He’d be, say, Jay Cutler and might not even be considered as good as Flacco who has won some big playoff games. Eli’s last minute Super Bowl heroics saved his reputation and likely his job. If one of the 3 or 4 ridiculous last minute happening from that game doesn’t happen, he is Joe Flacco caliber. The same can’t be said for Tom, as he’s proven he can win and win again. Which is precisely what Eli is trying to prove this year.
That is a whole lot of if’s there and you know what they said about if’s and aunts and uncles.
If you take that super bowl away Eli’s playoff record is 6-4, a winning record in the playoffs not sure who would consider that poor.
and are you really saying there are no if’s in toms career. If the tuck rule is a rule that actually makes sense this whole thing might not even start. if adam vinateri is say billy cundiff does tom have any super bowl wins? because he has never thrown a super bowl winning touch down pass.
and as mentioned earlier eli throws for 5.5 more touch down passes a year then flacco. just for reference eli to tom is a 1.7 difference. if throwing 5.5 more makes them comparable then how would you define eli and tom’s 1.7?
There’s actually one one if – if the perfect storm of miraculous events (as described by SI) hadn’t occurred in the final minutes of the 2007 Super Bowl, then Eli is viewed as a chump. That’s it.
Sure, Tom has had more than his share of excellent breaks. But the difference is everytime he’s played in the Super Bowl he’s put his team in position to win the game. He won 3 or them and lost 1. Eli’s only been there once, and he pulled it out, but that win needs validation which is what this year is all about for him. If Tom had a single Super Bowl and won it in a similar fashion to how Eli won his, I’d say the same thing about him.
As for Eli’s playoff record, he’s still building it. This year has obviously been a huge step, and like I said, he’s moving in the right direction. I wrote article before this year’s playoffs where I looked at Eli’s playoff record in the 4 seasons he’s made it there. Aside from 2007 in which he won, I said, “For the record, aside from 2007 in which Eli won the Super Bowl, he’s made the playoffs on three other occasions; 2005, 2006 and 2008. In those three playoff appearances Eli is 0-3, with 1 touchdown, 6 interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 54.”
As I said, without 2007 Eli is considered a joke. But he’s making a name for himself this year for sure.
That’s right watch your mouth when you come back at me with eli comments and ill sick jbone on you