My Perfect Super Bowl
I can claim a perfect record in Super Bowl XLII. My night was a true 100 percenter! Not only was i wrong about the result--there i had plenty of company--but i was wrong about every single aspect of the Giants' extraordinary 17-14 upset of the previously undefeated New England Patriots.
I said the Patriots would romp: no comment necessary.
I said the Patriots always owned the 4th quarter: it was that Giants who made the final seconds count.
I said the Giants could win only if they rushed the ball effectively: their rushing game was a non-factor.
I said the Giants couldn't win unless Eli Manning was sensational: he was perfectly serviceable, but nothing special through three quarters.
I said Eli would crumple in the 4th quarter: he was a standout, never more so than when he somehow eluded what appeared to be a sure sack and completed a critical pass to David Tyree.
I said the Giants' pass rush would not succeed in disrupting the Patriots: they harassed Brady relentlessly with an array of blitzes and turned him, at least for one night, into a perfectly ordinary quarterback--certainly not superior to Eli this night.
I said Tom Coughlin would never outcoach Bill Belichick: he did and Belichick will have to explain his bizarre decision not to attempt a 48-yard field goal that, in retrospect, could have been crucial.
I said a lot of other things that didn't turn out to be true either. Of course, had the Pats kept Manning in their grasp with less than a minute to go, none of that would be so painfully obvious. Still, perhaps I should have payed a little more attention to the kismet that was out there surrounding this surprising matchup. And a little more attention to history too.
The Patriots dynasty, one that may have ended tonight, began in the most unlikely fashion, with two straight losses to open the 2001 season. Nobody back then could have imagined that the Pats would rally to reach the Super Bowl and, behind a young, relatively inexperienced quarterback, upset the offensive juggernaut that was the St. Louis Rams. Does that sound remotely familiar?
This season the Giants lost their opening pair too. And they appeared headed for 0-3 and ignominy when they staged a comeback against the Redskins--and then were the lucky beneficiaries of a too-young quarterback and a too-old coach, as Washington failed to score in the final seconds with four cracks from the one-yard line. Having barely survived last season's disappointment, Couglin dodged the pink slip that was waiting for him; at 0-3 he would either have been sacked immediately or been a lame duck flapping his arms red-faced in frustration on the sideline.
Still, going into the final week of the regular season, the Giants were a playoff team, but hardly one that looked like anything more than a one-and-out entry. That's when Coughlin decided that rather than rest his starters for a game that meant nothing to the Giants' post-season standing, he would take a shot at knocking off the undefeated Pats. The Giants hit 'em with their best shot--or at least what appeared to be their best shot--and still came up short. Even worse, the naysayers could point to three starters injured in the game who would be sidelined for for the first playoff game--and all for nothing.
But football is strange game of emotions and chemistry. And clearly that game against New England turned out to mean something, not nothing. Apparently, even in defeat, there emerged a sense among the Giants that they could hold their own against the NFL's best. And last night they proved it again--and, in the end, actually proved that hey could outplay the league's best.
The Giants upset will go down as one of big three in Super Bowl history, along with the Pats over the Rams six years ago and the Jets over the Colts way back in Super Bowl III. It was not pretty, but rather won with hard-nosed football that, with its intensity and last-second heroics, made for very high drama. And mercifully it managed to overshadow--at least for the evening--the "Spygate" story that haunts the Patriots and that will not die.
Maybe defeat will finally kill it. A U.S. senator may still wonder why the Patriots outplayed his Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX, but maybe now can return to the country's more urgent business.. An assistant golf pro in Hawaii, having enjoyed his Warholian 15 minutes by hinting he knows of evil doings by the Pats video crew, may now go back to tending greens. If the Patriots had to be brought down, they were leveled the way all fans preferred to see it--not by pompous legislators or posturing nobodies, but by a inspired team that was simply better on the day that counted.
The Patriots had an extraordinary season and, knowing their style, will make no excuses. But maybe the burden of chasing history finally took its toll. Or maybe their luck simply ran out. Patriots fans can certainly look back and say the team might have been better off going into the Super Bowl had it lost that one game, to the Ravens back in early December, that the team clearly deserved to lose. But now, at 18-1, their record-breaking accomplishments have been rendered relatively meaningless, fodder for the stats-meisters and, at best, a motivational tool for Belichick next season.
The Super Bowl is not always about which team is better, as the Pats' victory over "The Greatest Team on Turf" once attested. Now the Patriots have been on the other end. And beyond that, I witnessed a far greater miracle: it turns out Tom Coughlin can smile. Who knew? Certainly not me. I knew nothing tonight.
