Super Upset

Yesterday's game may not have been the most exciting but it was suspenseful. And it will rightly take its place in history as a great Super Bowl. In some ways it reminds me of the Rams win over the Titans, where Kevin Dyson was stopped on the 1 yard line as time expired. Both games were fairly uneventful but close entering the 4th quarter. And both games ended dramatically. Of course, this Super Bowl had the huge upset that no one could have predicted*.

It's actually comforting to have the Giants win over the Patriots. For it proved once again the old adage that defense wins championship. That was the story of the game - the total domination of the Patriots offensive line by the Giants defensive line. Brady never had a moment to relax. When given time, he's a surgeon out there. Given the pressure, he was relegated to 2 receivers - Faulk and Welker. This should not be underestimated for someone used to spreading the ball around to 5+ receivers. Pressure is a great neutralizer. And the pressure the Giants put on the Pats more than offset their disadvantage in the secondary.

So I give a huge shout out to the Giants for playing such a great game - congrats!!!

Couple things:

- Can we please refrain from anointing Eli Manning as the next great quarterback. I have to give him kudos for being the winning QB and all. And the 2 TD passes were fantastic. But the Giants won almost in spite of Eli. He was lucky on some many passes that the Pats did not intercept. And just as lucky that his team was able to recover his myriad fumbles. He played slightly better than Rex Grossman - Pats just didn't take advantage of his stupidity.

- So I see ESPN is already calling the David Tyree catch the greatest play in Super Bowl history. How about we want a little and allow history and time to put it in its proper place. Then again, it wouldn't be ESPN if they weren't trying to create a story out of nothing. Was my childhood a lie when I remember ESPN being good?

- Similarly, let's hold off on where this falls in the greatest upsets of all time. Right now it feels like a huge one, to join the ranks of Villanova and Buster Douglas. But I have a suspicion we may be singing a different tune 10 years from now. After all, the Giants did only lose by 3 points the last game of the season. Sure it surprised me - I'm the idiot who predicted a Pats blowout. But it's too early to proclaim its historical significance. Only time can define that.

- Really crappy ads. Made me think - someone paid $2.5MM to show me that?

- At the end, the biggest downfall for the Pats was a mixture of complacency, arrogance, and stubbornness. And I don't say this to diminish the accomplishment of the Giants. For I don't doubt they would have adjusted to the Pats. But the refusal of the Pats to change their game plan as the offensive watched Giant after Giant fly by and drill Tom Brady was confusing. It wasn't until the last drive that they actually designed short passes for Moss. Bellichick got outcoached in this game very very bad.

- Bellichick is an ass, if there was any doubt before.

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*sports*football *NFL *Super Bowl *New England*Patriots *New York *Giants*upset *ESPN