Super Bowl Post View

“I have become comfortably numb”

I am not sure how the tone of this piece will come off.  I am still in shock.  Sure, I knew the G-men would cover, but beat the undefeated Patriots?  If you told me Eli Manning would take the ball from his own twenty-fiveish and drive the Giants down the field to score a Super Bowl winning touch down, I might not have believed you.

Before we delve too deeply into this, lets discuss what I would have said in my preview.  Thrillho can vouch for its validity.  I won’t touch the Patriots keys to victory, because well those were obvious.  If you read this blog I assume you dig for sports news, therefore you have some level of intelligence over the common fan.  So I won’t bore you with the bullshit. 

Keys to victory for the Giants-

1.  “Brandon Jacobs needs to get to the edge.  By doing so, it will force the Pats secondary to play too close to the line of scrimmage, which will open up the passing lanes.” 

Jacobs was not that effective last night.  The passing lanes were opened by using 4 and 5 Wide Receiver sets.  Although the yards were not impressive for B-Jac, the Giants used him as a decoy, a blocker, and for play action purposes.   

2.  The Giants defense needs to pressure Brady.  He has not been hit all season, be cautious though.  If you blitz too often, someone is open.

Well,  Steve Spagnuolo claims he brought blitz packages only 30-35% of the time.  This means the Giants front four were able to apply the pressure, something the Patriots have never experienced this year.  Brady was sacked five times, and knocked down eighteen more times.  Amazing.

3.  Cover Wes Welker with Aaron Ross.  Every play Ross needs to be manned up against Welker to take him out of the game.  Ross was a member of the Texas team that won a national championship game. 

This did not happen, but probably should have.  Welker was the ONLY option all game.  He had 11 catches for 103 yards and a gaudy 9.4 yards per catch.  This was Spagnuolo’s only mistake in his game preparation. 

4.  Pound Jacobs, then follow up with Bradshaw.  Jacobs is a true bruiser, but he is not effective up the middle.  When Bradshaw enters the game, his speed is surprising defenses get caught off guard.

This was not as effective as I thought.  Bradshaw was called for a penalty for “batting” and fumbled a snap.  Jacobs and Bradshaw never really got going. 

5.  Steve Smith needs to be the key WR for New York.  Rookie Smith has played in National Championship games at USC.  The pressure will not get to him. 

I certainly was off on this prediction.  Sure, Smith made some catches, but he played like a rookie.  He had a case of the drops last night, handed an INT to the defense, lazily misplayed a would be TD pass at the end of the half, and ran the wrong route three or four times.  Still, he and Toomer did their part.  Smith’s greatest contribution was the 3rd and 11 play where he tight roped the sidelines to get out of bounds after picking up the first down which led to an insane win. 

Let’s recap the biggest plays and sequences in the biggest game of the year.

Series 1-  The Giants received the kick-off and drove almost the full length of the field.  While they only took one shot at the end zone, they ate up 9:59 on the opening drive.  This set the tone.  It was obvious the game plan was to keep Little Tommy Brady off the field.  16 plays, 63 yards and 3 points.

Series 2 for the Giants-  After the Toomer catch and “no call,” the Giants were way to hesitant to throw it into the end zone.  Steve Smith went down to catch the ball, then put it into the hands of Ellis Hobbs.  This is important because as TMQ would say, “You can’t dance with the champ.”  The Giants came away with no points, and didn’t even try to get it into the end zone. 

Brady was off-  Maybe that ankle was hurting, maybe he wasn’t used to the pressure.  Either way, he missed time and time again on long balls, and missed a wide open Moss in the end zone.

Tuck’s strip-  At the end of the first half, I had come to terms that the Pats were going to hang three before the half.  In hind sight, that stirp may have saved the game. 

Pats pass up FG attempt-  4th and 13 and they went for it?  Why did the Pats not try the 48 yard field goal?

Manning to Boss-  The Giants offense went into a serious lull until the 4th quarter.  The 45 yard catch and run by Kevin Boss took the ball from the Giants 20 and was tackled inside the Patriots 35. 

Manning to Tyree (TD)- Amani Toomer said Tyree couldn’t catch anything on Friday.  With the game on the line, Tyree caught a rocket.  Manning laid that ball out perfectly.  If he put any less on the ball, it would have been an INT. 

Here Come The Pats-  The Giants have angered me this year in late game situations.  After getting the lead, they went into conservative mode giving New England the ball down three points with 7:54 left in the game.  New England of course marched down the field to score the go ahead with 2:42 left on the clock.    

Giants answer-  Here is a break down of the plays on the final drive.

• 1st and 10 from the NYG 17-  Manning to Toomer for 11
• 1st and 10 from the NYG 28-  Manning incomplete for Burress
• 2nd and 10 from the NYG 28-  Manning incomplete for Burress
• 3rd and 10 from the NYG 28-  Manning to Toomer for 9
• 4th and 1 from the NYG 37-  Hand off B Jacobs for two yards.
• 1st and 10 from the NYG 39-  Manning Rush for 5 yards
• 2nd and 5 from the NYG 44-  Manning incomplete for Tyree
• 3rd and 5 from the NYG 44-  Manning to Tyree for 32 yards
• 1st and 10 from the NE 24-  Manning flushed, sacked for loss of 1
• 2nd and 11 from the NE 25-  Manning incomplete to Tyree
• 3rd and 11 from the NE 25-  Manning to Smith for 12 yards
• 1st and 10 from the NE 13-  Manning to Burress for TD

With 2:42 left on the clock I sent a number of text messages to friends saying, “Time for Eli to make his legacy.”  Well, he did.  Also, after the Smith catch, I saw the Pats lined up for a suicide blitz and screamed, “HERE THEY COME, THEY GOT IT, THEY GOT IT.”