Super Bowl XLII

The Giants are your Super Bowl XLII champions. When the 2007-08 season began, I for one did not come close to predicting this and if anybody had, they were Giants fans deluding themselves. The team had just lost team leader/spokesman Tiki Barber and there was tension in the lockerroom over the exit of Barber and the nature of head coach Tom Coughlin, with such nature possibly forcing Tiki into earlier retirement. This was a team who for the past few years started off strong, but then wilted into oblivion, either failing to make the playoffs or enjoying a one-and-out journey therein. But something changed this year. After their defense was throttled by the Cowboys and Packers and the offense looking fairly average, the young Giants grew up. Eli Manning, starting his fourth year, finally made the jump to good starter and game manager. We was no longer looking to win the game on every throw, thereby costing his team when he was inevitably sacked or made the wrong throw. Most people point to the Giants Week 17 loss against the Patriots that was the turning point in their season. In actuality, the turning point came in Week 12 against the Minnesota Vikings when Eli threw four interceptions, with three of the four being returned for touchdowns. After that blowout, the Giants lost only two more times with one of them that Week 17 tilt with the Pats. Eli started letting the game come to him and though he was still prone to turnovers, they were not the forced throws. By beginning to play within himself, the Giants looked stronger, but were not yet championship material. The Week 16 victory over the Bills followed by the loss to the Pats set the Giants up for their run to glory.

There were growing pains for the rest of the team as well. Next, Brandon Jacobs growing from short yardage and goal-line running back to everyday starter. New Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo began with his defense looking so bad in the first two games, that talk of Coughlin's firing was in order, but somehow finally got Strahan and others on the same page and turned them into a force. Plaxico Burress was on the injury report what seemed like every game this season. The Giants suffered through the loss of Jacobs for a few weeks, Jacobs' backup Derrick Ward for most of the rest of the season, Shockey for the last few weeks and the playoffs and in the end, they had to rely on rookies Ahmad Bradshaw, Kevin Boss and Steve Smith, who outgrew their youth on the way to the Giants winning 11 straight games away from home, including Super Bowl XLII in Glendale.

The Game Itself
I cannot tell you what happened for the first three and a half quarters as I was on an airplane coming back from Florida. The pilot provided us two score updates, saying we think the score is still 7-3 Patriots (of course, not giving any indication as to how much time was left and in what quarter). We landed early, but were stuck sitting on the tarmac waiting for our gate to clear so we could park. I was watching the score updates on my Blackberry, but I thought it was malfunctioning when it kept saying 7-3 Patriots. I then ran through the terminal at Bush Intercontinental Airport, jumped in my car, sped down I-45 listening to the game on the radio and arrived at a party with about 9 minutes to go in the game. I didn't realize just what was in store as I settled into my chair with a nice cold beer and some cold food that I believe had been sitting out for at least 3-4 hours by the time I arrived. There were Giants fans, Patriots fans and certain of us who just wanted to see history. Watching the game (and discussing with people beforehand), I was really torn as to who I was rooting for. On the one hand, the entire Judz clan (myself excluded - Go Oilers!!) are huge Giants fans. On the other hand, I hate the Dolphins. I have no real reason why (especially with having spent most of my life in south Florida), but I think it has to do with the fans and the local media, which includes certain former players on that undefeated '72 Dolphins squad. I actually love the fact that get together and pop champagne when the last team gets its first loss (and I am sure this champagne toast was the sweetest of them all). However, the smugness of certain of those Dolphins players this season just irritated me to the point I wanted the Pats to go undefeated just to make these jackasses (Mercury Morris, I am looking at you) shut the hell up. Alas, as the 4th quarter progressed, I inevitably found myself rooting for the underdog Giants as they just seemed to be a happier lot. What many experts (myself included as I do consider myself an expert) failed to realize was that this Giants team had nothing to lose, while the Pats had everything on the line. They harped on how the Giants couldn't have a "just happy to be here" mentality. But what came through on that field was youthful exuberance combined with an amazing toughness that was garnered throughout the road winning streak and previous years breakdowns, along with the intense scrutiny that comes with playing in New York. The one thing the experts could agree on was what would need to happen for the Giants to win - (1) Get pressure on Brady, (2) No bad turnovers by Manning, and (3) Don't just be happy to be there. In the end, the Giants pretty much succeeded in all three facets. Brady hadn't seen pressure like that since the media scrutinized him for leaving a pregnant (and hot) Bridget Moynahan for (extremely hot) Giselle. Manning did throw one pick, but it was not entirely his fault as the receiver should've made the catch. As the cliche goes, the Giants just made the plays that won them the game and the Pats were powerless to stop it. Let's not forget the little things that need to go right for a team to pull off an upset like this. Every game has that one play that everybody remembers. Whether it was Scott Norwood missed field goal against the Giants, Kevin Dyson being tackled one yard short of the goalline preserving the Rams victory over the Titans, Vinatieri's field goal that barely cleared the crossbar to beat the Rams or Garo Yepremian's blocked field goal that he picked up and tried to throw only to throw it backwards and having the Redskins return it for the touchdown to bring the lead down to 7 in a game that the '72 Dolphins still won to keep their undefeated season intact. Last night, with just over a minute remaining, Eli Manning somehow gets out of the grasp of Adalius Thomas, fires the ball downfield into the waiting hand and helmet of little-used David Tyree (who earlier caught the Giants' first TD pass) in what could replace Dwight Clark's catch in the back of the endzone as "The Catch," but will most likely need it own nickname.

I made the point that the only way the G-Men had a shot to win was if the game had occurred the prior Sunday, with the Giants coming off the big victory over heavily-favored Favre and the Packers and with only one week for evil mastermind Bill Belicheck to gameplan for the Giants. Oops. During those two weeks, the Giants were able to figure out how to stop Randy Moss, get pressure on Brady and completely shut down the Pats running game. Of course, they had no answer for Wes Welker, who easily could've been named MVP of the game, despite playing on the losing squad. His 11 catches for 103 yards and key third down receptions kept the Patriots in the game with Brady struggling to stay off the University of Phoenix Stadium turf. The real MVP was Plaxico Burress who predicted (not guaranteed, predicted) that the Giants would win 23-17, which caused Brady to say sarcastically and phrased as a questsion, "We're only going to score 17 points?". Instead of Plaxico's words becoming the bulletin board material the ESPNers wanted everyone to believe, it was Brady's response that produced the true bulletin board material for Strahan and company. The Pats should be congratulated on their accomplishments this year and I don't care what Ron Jaworski said on Mike & Mike this morning, this Pats team is still one of the most dominant teams in NFL history, just as the 2005 Colts were extremely dominant until Dungy sat out his players in the last week of the season, then had his son die and the lockerroom changed. One game doesn't a season break as the Pats 18-1 season will be remembered, but now with a different context of being the Goliath that was taken down by the David-esque Eli Manning and his Giants.