Super Bowl XLVI Recap

What a game! As a die-hard fan of Big Blue, I am somewhat speechless today, and not just because I was yelling at the TV half the night. There was a lot of great play, some terrible play/brain-farts, and plenty of stressful moments. There is a ton to talk about, from Eli Manning's ascention to legitimate elite status, to Tom Brady's mortality, to Tom Coughlin actually getting credit from a Giants fan.

Not to toot my own horn, but in my conglomerate of Super Bowl XLVI Previews, I not only called the winner, but the correct score margin, (sure I was wrong on the final score by two touchdowns, but still). I'd wait for the applause to finish, but I'll assume everyone is clapping on the inside. I successfully predicted the Giants' Mario Manningham (and to a lesser degree the tight ends) being a factor, the Patriots not allowing the big play, and Eli playing a little better than Tom. In fairness, I was also wrong in a few spots: saying the Patriots wouldn't do much on the ground (BenJarvis Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead ran well), and saying that Rob Gronkowski would be fine (and he was horribly bad).

I'm sure that phrase has been a headline somewhere in the last 36 hours, but I haven't seen it, so f*** it I'm using it. Eli Manning played the best game of his professional life Sunday night. For a quarterback who has had legitimate accuracy issues over his career, to complete 75% of his passes in the Super Bowl, shows a definitive level of clutchness.

Everyone keeps talking about the pass to Manningham, and rightly so. You will not see a more perfectly thrown pass anywhere on the planet,ever in your life. You will see some that are just as good, but none better. Even the nuances of it that most people don't see, like Eli having to pull up as he is about to release the throw, because 750-lb Vince Wilfork is pushing a blocker into his face, make the pass that much greater.

What's gets lost with that pass is how great Manning played the rest of the game. He was the best player on the field, and 12 months ago you never would have said that with Brady on the other sideline. He fit balls in tight windows, he threw passes where only his receivers could catch them, and never really had the "WTF ELI!?!?!" moment. He seemed like the more confident QB. I said in my breakdown of the Giants O vs. Pats D, that Eli finally seems comfortable in his own skin, and it was never more evident than Sunday night. Manning was in total control, never looked rattled, and came away with his second Super Bowl MVP Award (same as Brady, by the way).

That isn't to say Tom Brady played poorly. He should have been sacked at least five times, but used his amazing footwork, underrated strength, and all-time great football IQ to avoid three of them. He didn't have a ton of time to throw, yet completed pass after pass and had the Giants on the ropes on multiple occasions. But when it comes down to it, the plays that the game hinged on were partly his fault.

He made one of the best plays in the game with his escape of Jason Pierre-Paul's sack early in the fourth quarter, but then made one of the worst plays of the game (on the same play) by tossing it up for grabs and being intercepted by Chase Blackburn. Defenders of Brady (read: homers) will say it's no different from Eli throwing this prayer to David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII, but it wasn't nearly as "smart" of an attempt. Manning didn't have much choice; There was two minutes left, the Giants were trailing, it was third and long-ish, he knew he should have been sacked, and hucked it as soon as he saw a slightly open receiver. The pressure on Brady was similar, as well as tossing it the second he set his feet and saw a receiver, but there was a full fourth quarter left, the Patriots were ahead, and it was first down. Really a bad decision by Brady, that is a ball you throw away unless you team is desperate.

But, just like many plays in the game (I'm looking at you, Wes Welker), you can't completely blame Tom Terrific for that play and/or losing this game. He was doing it mostly on his own.

Rob Gronkowski couldn't out-fight a freakin' substitute teacher he is 6 inches taller than for an up-for-grabs football in the Super Bowl. There is no reason that guy should have even been on the field in his condition. But with that said, he needs to make that play. Gronk is big, he is tough, and he is strong. But with the injury he was slow, awkward, and unconfident in himself and his abilities. Him being out there as a decoy is bs, since the Giants stuck their slowest linebacker on Gronkowski the whole game (Blackburn) and said "go ahead and throw it to him", and he caught two passes for 20 yards. You can't be a decoy if you can't make any plays, you just limit your team's offensive options.

Besides the 6' 7" waste of space, Brady was working with a tiny possession receiver in Welker, washed up outside receivers in Deion Branch and Chad Ochocinco, and a small white guy playing running back in Woodhead (who played the best of all of them). His only legitimate star offensive player was Aaron Hernandez. I don't make much of his or Branch's drop on the last drive, because passes to the middle of the field with one timeout and 45 seconds left don't do much for you anyways. They ended up getting roughly the same field position, I don't think five or ten yards make that Hail Mary successful.

However, let's be honest, Eli isn't exactly throwing to Jerry Rice or Randy Moss, either. Hakeem Nicks is extremely talented, but he is young, runs inconsistent routes and has inconsistent hands (thankfully they were very consistent on Sunday). Victor Cruz is a lot like Steve Smith (former Giant & current Eagle, not the stud in Carolina), in that he is being made by Manning's ability to deliver the ball on time. He runs very good routes and has very good hands, but put him in another system and no one knows who he is (much like Welker). Manningham made the great catch, but there's a reason he's been in the league 4+ years and is still a third receiver (hint: he's not good).

I think consistently that argument is still true, as both these teams and head coaches want a great defense. But to say either of these teams are that good on the defensive side of the ball is a joke. The Giants have a great pass rush, and the Patriots have a great linebacker corps. At the other positions, there is one player on each team that you can even call very good (Wilfork for the Pats, Cory Webster for the Giants). Not comparing those two in talent level, Wilfork's an absolute beast and Webster is better-than-average at this point of his career. The point is, other than those two, their respective units don't have any other verifable talent.

As mentioned earlier, the Giants' Chase Blackburn was a teacher in Ohio in November, (not the offseason, not August, in freakin' November), and he starts the Super Bowl! If New York hadn't played them twice, I wouldn't be able to name a single Patriots defender outside of the linebackers and Wilfork (and I live in Massachusetts, and my girlfriend is a Patriots fan). The overwhelming fact is, in the "new & improved" NFL, you don't need to be great all over the place. Have a great combo at one position defensively, couple that with a good QB and competant coach, and you are a yearly contender, (people in Cleveland might tell you it's not that easy, but we aren't talking to them right now).

And both these teams have that, coupled with exceptional QBs and great coaches. (There's my credit to Tom Coughlin. If you want more go somewhere else, I've been around the last eight years). I wasn't overly impressed with either team defensively, I feel like both played well enough to win and bad enough to lose. The only dominant player on either team was New York's Justin Tuck, with New England's Jerod Mayo a close second.

Can everyone stop please? The Wes Welker play wasn't all that huge. At that point, I had undying confidence in Eli Manning being able to drive down the field with two minutes left to score the winning touchdown. New York was a penalty here or there from scoring 30+ points, they moved the ball all day on the Patriots defense, and New England's defense is as bad as the Giants in the two-minute drill. He should have caught it, it wasn't a great throw, but it didn't cost them the game. Made it less likely for them to win, but didn't lose it. The Giants still had to drive down and score, and I'm pretty sure they do that either way.

The game, overall, was not that well played, with both teams looking sloppy and rusty. It's hard to keep your edge through a bye-week, but this was ridiculous. Both teams had 12 men on the field penalties (Giants had two, including one in the final 20 seconds). New York had to burn two timeouts early in the fourth quarter, in a game they trailed, to avoid delay of game penalties (and after the 2nd one they had a false start, so they lost the timeout and the yards). New England wasn't much better, more than doubling their postseason penalties (two in the first two games combined, five on Sunday). Not saying it was a bad game, but penalties like those shouldn't happen during Week 21.

I won't ever forget this game, but only because I'm a Giants fan and my team won. If I wasn't, I would probably forget most of the specifics in a few days. It was a good game, but not a great game. It had some star power, but Brady's not the same celebrity after 18-1, and Eli Manning will never be on brother Peyton's level, no matter how many titles he wins. New York deserved to win, it just wasn't an epic Super Bowl. When compared to Super Bowl XLII, and the Eli-Tyree pass/catch, I guess that's not a surprise.

However, it did have plenty of drama, and came down to the wire, so at the end of the day you can't ask for much more from the last game of the season. Eli is now immortal and a lock Hall of Famer, and Tom Brady is busy looking for Bridget Moynahan's number (Patriot fans know why).

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