GEE, MEN!!!!!! Eli and the Giants Shock the Patriots
"I cannot believe what I just saw." - Jack Buck, after Kirk Gibson's walkoff home run off Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series.
The game has been over for over an hour, and I still can't believe it. Eli Manning and the New York Giants shocked the world and upset the 18-0 Patriots by a score of 17-14 tonight in Super Bowl XLII. It's quite possibly the biggest upset ever. Well, not technically the biggest upset from a pure spread standpoint, but in the context of New England's attempt at an 19-0 season, it's a whopper. Just unbelievable.
How'd they do it? In a word, Defense. As I (not so boldly) predicted, they blitzed the crap out of Tom Brady. What I didn't expect, though, was for it to work. Brady was on his back all night. Brady wasn't bad, and he didn't really do anything to lose the game. He just didn't make enough plays to win it.
While the Giants defense won the game, it wouldn't surprise me to see MVP Eli Manning and the Giants go on a run where they win two or three more Super Bowls in the next five years or so. The guy, despite the mountains of crap he's gotten the last few years in New York and across the country (and from me), played flawless football over these last four games. Games where it counted most. He's for real. So much composure in the pocket. The ability to make something out of nothing. Escaping the rush on the key pass to David Tyree (who?) was magical. Incredible accuracy on third downs. Eli's recent play reminds me of a young Tom Brady back in 2001 when they shocked the Rams to win their first of three Super Bowls. Young Tom (and modern Eli) weren't always the prettiest in the regular season, but they were flawless in the playoffs. This seriously might catapult him into the next stratosphere of Quarterbacks. I can't say enough about the performance of Eli. I can also honestly say that he has something that Peyton Manning doesn't have. He's got moxy.
Peyton is clearly more impressive in the regular season. He's a hundred times more impressive on the stat sheet as well. Hell, even his commercials are better. And while Peyton did earn his ring last year against the Bears, he wasn't the key player on the Colts in that game (despite his MVP award). The key to that game was Jeff Saturday and the offensive line that simply beat the crap out of the Bears' defensive line. And of course there was Rex Grossman and the offense's inability to hold/move the football. (They were only down by 5 in the 4th quarter despite playing like complete garbage!) When you look at Peyton's career, he has never really been that good in any key playoff (or Bowl!) game. (The one exception being the second half against New England in the 2007 AFC Championship game.) I guess my point is Peyton Manning is a great regular season QB that has continually choked in the playoffs. If it wasn't for Rex Grossman and the Bears being so woefully inadequate, we'd still talk about Peyton being a playoff choke artist. (Just a 70.6 rating in last year's playoffs - the year he won.) Eli Manning is anything but a choke artist. He's just a winner, and without him they wouldn't have beaten any of their four opponents this offseason. Peyton has never come close to carrying his team on his back like Eli just did. Not in the playoffs.
I read a great line from Jim Rome on Joe Posnanski's blog about Peyton Manning. Rome basically said "while Peyton Manning never seemed to do anything too tragic, he was at the scene of a lot of accidents." That perfectly describes how Manning's playoff career has gone (outside of last season.) And how Tom Brady's night went tonight. He didn't blow it, but he was there and he didn't win it.
And what of those Patriots? We should have seen it coming. While they were winning all their games, they simply weren't that dominant over the last eight weeks. When Vegas was handicapping games, they were routinely giving New England 14, 17, 20+ points per game. And they weren't coming close to covering any of them. Sure, they won. But they weren't that convincing. Not like they were earlier in the season. In a weird way, they were like the Bears last year. Remember when the Bears were 8-0 and the toast of the NFL? I do. Seems like a decade ago. The Bears, of course, yo-yo'd behind Grossman to three regular season losses (and a complete lack of respect from the national media in the playoffs), but the overall comparison is apt. Start the season white hot; lose a few key guys to injury (Bears lose Brown and Harris, Pats lose Colvin); finish the season lukewarm but still good enough; win a few lackluster playoff games at home; lose the Super Bowl. Am I reaching here?
I do know one thing. If I was a New England fan, I'd be suicidal. Seriously, I'd be climbing on my roof right now, ready to jump into a mountain of snow. Well, not seriously, but a loss like this might seriously prompt me to stop watching sports. No joke. The Buckner Game might move down a notch on the list of worst losses in Boston history. I wonder if Bill Simmons is going to release an emergency 2.1 version of his "levels of losing" column for ESPN.
The best thing about tonight was that the game was awesome. The game, as it rarely does, lived up to the hype. Despite the score being as low as 7-3 for three quarters, it was still an interesting game. The fourth quarter, though, sent this game to the next level. So great. You watched it, so I'll skip out on the recap. The only negative is when I flipped to ESPN after the game to see Mercury Morris' smiling face gloating over the Giants win. Who knows how many more years we have to listen to that jackass now? And the stupid anchor that interviewed Morris congratulated him on the win tonight. My Lord.
There was one more negative about tonight that I forgot to mention. Football season is over. Six long months till they break out the pads. I'm going to miss it. Till next time...