February 4th, 2008 omo
Star Ledger’s Politi writes it well. It’s the most circulated local paper in NJ, and as much as NY is the official home of the Giants, they all live and work in NJ anyways.
But another NY-based organization does it better. And I’ll sum it up thus:
This was possible
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Because of this
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Set up, ultimately, by this
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It’s a “miracle” win or whatever, but statistics betray the essence of an evolving team and growing players. Few can doubt that Eli Manning is exactly that. The Giants Offense is still pretty offensive, and the quality of play was questionable with signature dropped passes. Burress dropped a key pass and Smith’s dropped pass turned into an int. I’m just glad CHFF’s gameplan FAILED bigtime (Giants won with only 3 out of 5 “accomplishments” if you give them “establish the pass.”) simply because it doesn’t take into account the stuff that makes sports so much more wonderful to watch than scripted acting.
The key to their win Sunday was in the chess game. No doubt that Belichick’s crew is one of the tops in the league, but unlike the Giants, their team wagered on Tom Brady being his excellent self. If he was to fall then they were done. All the more that fatal flaw played into the Giant’s improved pass rushing strategy, creating an exacting effect on the Pat’s performance overall. For the clutch G-men, their strategy revolved around their relentless defense and let Manning do his thing, giving him merely an opportunity to take the trophy home rather than pinning all their hopes on him. Of course in the bigger picture the defense and offense of any superbowl-winning team have to execute, but for the Giants, their two groups stood on their own. When one falters they can rely on the other for help. When the Patriot offense falters…well they’re done.
It’s this fundamental dynamic that makes the historic saying about the playoff ring true: it’s the defense that wins playoff games.
To go into detail, the Giants engineered the longest Superbowl drive ever in the first quarter. Their sucky passing game gave them only 3 points, but for every minute Manning has the ball, that’s a minute the Giants D can rest and keep the ball away from Brady. Manning converted like, what, 5 third-downs in a row? Or did they establish the run? It doesn’t really matter. The Giants D returned the favor with their explosive performance in the second quarter, once their defense backs started to not suck…well, I’m not sure if that happened or not. Moss may be still right about the team of Joes still being ordinary. But people like Strahan, Osi and Tuck gave them their opening-half best, laying it in on Brady for good effect, keeping the score low for a good 30 minutes and well into the 3rd quarter.
And as the Patriots finally converted in the 4th against a worn and tired Giants D, Manning stepped up. He had to, of course. And for the first time broke a tackle? Payton must be proud.
The flip side for the Pats, is true. Their defense held up but, as I rag on Eli Manning’s crew, that’s just not acceptable if you want to go 19-0. It’s hard to say if the Giants offensive established either a running game or passing game, but we didn’t really see much of both. Boss’s catch & run and the epic Tyree catch was really it as far as big plays go. Bradshaw had a breakout but that was just 13 yards. What they did, however, was established the clutch game…heh. What impressed me the most was the catch Smith made just inside the 20 for a first down and stopped the clock as he fell out of bounds after the catch. It’s the pass that set up Burress’s TD catch. It’s the kind of pass Manning and Brady make on their final-quarter scoring dash to overtake the lead. Manning did it for the 6th time this season and Brady for the 4th. But it’s also exactly how the Pats D let down when their offensive wasn’t able to generate the kind of score they are used to seeing.
Ah well. I knew it was going to be a really close game. I wouldn’t have dared to say Pats would lose, but it wouldn’t be a legendary upset otherwise.
Tags: football, giants
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