Pages

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Giants Pull the Upset!, Patriots Choke?






Right before the game started I made my prediction that New York would pull the upset and beat the Patriots 24-21. I made my prediction based on a few things -
1. The Giants play great on the road.
2. They lost to the Pats the first time by 3.
3. They had guys who were capable of putting pressure on Brady.
4. Eli was playing great ball.
5. Brandon Jacobs is bigger than 3 of the 4 New England Linebackers.
6. The Pats are older and playing 18 games might take a toll.
6. Karma might have been on their side.




Okay, the last one was just a plain stretch but to go undefeated all year, including the Super Bowl, well, it's only been done once before. So, basically, it had a 1/41 chance of pulling that off. I just think that the Giants had the perfect personnel to be able to beat New England. All year it has been Brady standing in the pocket for an amazing amount of time just waiting for Welker and Moss to get open, beating the coverage downfield or underneath. But when he gets pressured, and oh boy did the front four of the Giants put pressure on Brady tonight, he seems out of Sync. There was no, "Moss, Open Deep" or "Play Artist - Pats Running Game." The front four played amazingly, and when that rookie had that last sack for the Patriots when Brady was on his back calling for a timeout, I knew that it was over. Maybe it was Brady's ankle, but I doubt it. He didn't look as if he was having trouble pushing off of it, although he had a lot of balls that were underthrown. All week I kept seeing Belichick saying to his players "Just do your job." I could not have agreed with him more. If the Pats would just have done their job, then everything would have probably wound up a win for the Pats. I don't think the Pats didn't do their jobs, I just credit the Giants for not letting them. The front 4 for New York just flat out dominated their offensive counterparts. New England couldn't even incorporate any of the screens that Brady usually gets to Faulk. He did use Welker and Gaffney on a few WR screens but you usually see the RB screens from New England. During the game, I just kept wondering if Vrabel, Seau, Bruschi, and Thomas where in the game. Thomas had that sack/fumble on Manning, but I don't remember even seeing Vrabel, Seau, or Bruschi even making a tackle. Maybe I have a bad memory, but nothing really steps out in my mind, you know, there is always that play that one of them makes in every game that turns out to be huge. I just checked the stats Bruschi - 8 tackles, Vrabel & Seau - 2 each, and Thomas had 5. More than I expected, they must have in the first half, because I don't remember much of them.

I thought when the Pats had that drive when they were rolling that the game was shifting sails and the Pats were going to pull it out. Brady got in a groove and just marched right down the field and set up the Moss TD. What happened to Webster on that play? I mean seriously, I think I could have fell down like that and tripped over my own feet just as well. With that being said, he did an excellent job on Moss the other 75 plays of the game. (Except that same series when Moss was on the left side and Brady missed him, but no one will remember that blunder either).

Offensive Impact Player of the Game -
David Tyree - 3 Catches - 1 TD (his first of the season) - 1 helmet catch (after Manning made an amazing escape on 3 and 5 for 32 yards)

Defensive Impact Player of the Game -
New York D Lineman - 4 Sacks (Kawika Mitchell had the 5th on a blitz) and countles knock downs and hurries
Antonio Pierce - 11 Tackles - he always seemed to make a big stop. And for some reason was always in the area where Moss was being tackled. I was perplexed as some of this because Moss was so open on those little routes he was running.

So I am wondering if that the Giants have pulled the biggest upset ever, or is the biggest choke ever? Leave a comment about this I would love to have some conversation. Since I am usually a very positive guy I would consider this to lean in favor of the Giants as pulling the upset. I just think the Patriots didn't play their best ball and New York played the best that they could and a little bit more. They were definitely the aggressors. And I guess Karma does come back to haunt you. Maybe the Patriots won't challenge the integrity of the game by running up the scores the way they did this year. I would hope that they will respect the game and the unwritten laws of sportsmanship a little more from now on.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

giants did good but if ther superbowl was best of 3 pats would have easily taken it. Lucky fluke, samuel missed an eays gamne ending interception. Luck prevails for the giants. Patriots 18-1 is still amazing even though they didn't win it all. Winning the superbowl is what you want but they still won 18 straight which is a record that will remail untouched. 17-0 1972 dolphins. Imagine if they had one more to play. Patriots domination let out at the wrong time but still a great season.

Drop Step Dunk said...

Rush,

Thanks for the comment! Yes, I agree that 18-0 will probably never be touched again. I also agree that if the Super Bowl was best out of 3 then the Pats would probably win, but who's to say that the Giants wouldn't come incredibly close. Especially since if you combine the scores from the SB and their regular season game the score is tied. So who gets the nod in game 3? It's kind of like saying if the Colts were healthy all year and Marvin Harrison didn't fumble on his first catch back then Indy would have beaten the Chargers and Pats, and it would be Manning vs Manning in the SB. These are things that you can't just imagine, because there is no way to find out.

Thanks again for the comment and taking the time to read it.

DSD

Anonymous said...

Yes, Rush, the Patriots are without a doubt the 43 best team in the history of the league. Not too shabby! At least til next year and they'll have to slide down to 44th. Oh well. It was so nice to see arrogant Boston folks choking on their chowder and crying all the way back to Mass. Cheaters never win, remember?

Drop Step Dunk said...

Thanks for the Comment Lonnie!

Aqsa Rao said...

nice post.....keep it up
Pull Up banner