From my viewpoint (a supporter of an NFL team that is neither the Giants nor Patriots), it is very interesting this morning to hear the reaction from angry Patriots fans and gloating Giants backers with their rose-colored homer glasses. My 2 cents:
1) One of the better Super Bowls? Seriously? Are you kidding? A little flurry at the beginning of the first quarter, trading punts until the end of the 2nd, one Pats drive to start the 3rd, then an absolute bore until about 4 minutes left, and even then, while the game was close, there was no real drama when you get right down to it. Yeah, Brady had almost a minute, but only 1 timeout, needed a TD, Gronkowski wasn't even able to get on the field...what were you expecting? A couple of deep bombs to
Julian Edelman to lead a rousing comeback? Maybe Wes Welker skying over a pair of DBs for a catch in the back of the end zone? Their dink and dunk offense didn't have a chance of getting down the field.
2) The catch. Are you kidding me? Comparing Manningham's grab on the sideline to, well, any great, memorable catch from previous games? It wasn't 4th down. Time wasn't an issue. He wasn't challenged by a defender on the catch. Yes, it was a good grab and he did a good job seemingly getting both feet down, but that catch had no more impact at that point than with 10 minutes left in the second quarter. They still had plenty of time, plenty of downs, plenty of options, etc. No doubt it helped them move the ball, but that's it.
3) The Giants rattled Brady. Baloney. Yeah, Brady took a shot in the 3rd that hurt his shoulder, but to say that he had the yips the rest of the game or didn't play as well? I guess you didn't see him winging it onto guys hands in the 4th quarter and them dropping it. It's utter homer/anti-Brady BS to continue the phony storyline that Brady isn't good in big games anymore. He set a record for consecutive completions in this game. He was sharp most of the game. He slid out of trouble time and again to buy time to find...nobody open. Was he supposed to throw it to himself? And where, exactly, was the run game that was pretty effective with BJGE? The dumb slams into the line by Woodhead were both predictable and useless, I think I successfully called about 95% of them - when they were going to run him or send him out on a route. If I can, then the Giants certainly could (and did).
4) Manning! There is nothing worse this morning than hearing people say 'with the game on the line, I'd have to say I'd want to have Manning instead of Brady at this point!' Get real. If you answer 'Manning' to the next question, then you're related to him or a hopeless homer (not that there's anything wrong with that):
With the game on the line, who would you rather have the ball? Brady with Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham - or Manning with Welker, Branch, and Danny Woodhead?
There is just no way Manning or Rodgers or Peyton or Favre or Montana could have done any more with that group of receivers than Brady did. To get that far without a single deep threat is pretty amazing. Yes, Manning played well, played very well for most the game actually. But when he lost two TEs and they just had to spread out the Pats suspect secondary with one of the best group of 3 receivers in the league? Well, let's just say that's a lot nicer than having a gimpy TE, one with butterfingers, an aging 3rd down receiver, and seemingly a half dozen slot receivers that excel at catching 4 yard crossing routes.
5) De-fense! One thing I'm not hearing much about is the defenses. The Giants D did OK, but didn't get enough pressure on Brady. A few less drops or someone to throw to and he'd have had a field day. And the (rightly) maligned Pats defense did
not lose the game for them, as I suspected it would. Look, they only gave up 19 points to a very good offensive team. 19 points! For a good offensive team, which the Pats pretended to be all year, that defense did a good enough job. Frankly, though, if the Giants had spread them out more it probably would have been a slaughter (my guess is the Giants intentionally played it 'safe' to limit the time Brady had the ball, which worked). They also forced two fumbles, they just weren't able to recover them. Got sacks at a few opportune times. They were good enough.
6) The pick. Oh, give me a break. Gronkowski had the guy totally beaten, even on a bum leg. The only reason it got picked was because Gronkowski actually got too far away for Brady to throw it far enough, instead it only got as far as the linebacker trailing after him. And he made a nice grab when Brady had it drop into his arms.
7) Safety dance. I don't want to hear any more commentators talking about how it was 'absolutely the right call' to nail Brady for intentional grounding on their first play. Was it? Arguably. But it happens over and over again in games and
is not called. Manning did it at least once and it wasn't called. It wasn't the right call when you don't ever call it the rest of the year. It wasn't the right call when you don't ever call it the rest of the game. When you hand one team 2 points at the very beginning of the Super Bowl, you'd better be on high alert for any other instances the entire game, and the officials these people are praising for their 'gutsy call' didn't call it again when they could have.
It was a so-so game with little drama.
It could have been dramatic when the Giants lost their top two tight ends...except they're a better team when they use their WRs more, anyway.
It could have been dramatic when the Pats gave Manning the ball with under 4 minutes and a slim lead...except the only reason it was close was because their dumb, tentative play calling all 4th quarter never gave them any point when they could have been up by two scores at that point, they only need to get a little past the 50 to kick the winning field goal, they had a timeout left, there was almost 4 minutes to go, and the Pats had only managed to stop NY WRs a couple of times on lucky plays to that point.
It could have been dramatic when the Pats let the Giants score a TD to get the ball back with 57 seconds and a timeout...except the Pats don't have a single downfield threat except when one of their TEs manages to get down the seam for maybe 20 yards if you want to call that a deep threat. Did anyone except a Brady relative or Pats homer think they could get down the field in 57 seconds for a TD throwing 4 yard dump offs to Danny Woodhead and Wes Welker?
Hey, how about those Giants, though? They've put together a heck of a group that may not be done winning, yet. Solid QB, about 2 lines worth of good to great D-linemen, good enough O-line, good enough TEs, great top 3 group of WRs, good enough LBs, a decent RB when he's healthy. They can make another run next year if they improve their running game and secondary. Their offense didn't exactly shine last night (it was sort of dreadful at times) and their defense got more lucky than anything all things considered, but they totally did enough to win and that's what matters.
Added bonus is that it's an awesome album.
And the full art awesomeness:
Hard to pick just one of Derek Riggs', but I think this one is my favorite. And, again, a fantastic album. Very honorable mention to Live After Death, The Number Of The Beast, and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son from the Maiden catalog which features almost uniformly awesome covers (including some fantastic covers for singles - Aces High, The Phantom of the Opera, etc.).
An album cover so cool, so Middle-Earth-ish that I picked it up blind, my first Yes album...my still-favorite Yes album (with the magnificently glorious The Gates of Delirium). And below in all it's full art fold out glory.
Just creepy enough to be their best cover...on their 2nd best album.
Weird, baby. Weird. What always gets me is that you look at it, then after a second you see that there's a whole line of them marching off into the distance.
I might change my mind on this one, but I like it a lot. Mountain King and Handful are pretty awesome, too.
Speaking of fantasmic Middle-Earth covers...and again, your basic everyday one-of-the-best-albums ever!
