Super Bowl XLII

After another brief hiatus, I have once again returned to preach to the masses and continue the blog. As one of the most grandiose and most popular sporting events of the calendar year falls upon us, I felt this would be the appropriate time to speak about Super Bowl XLII, the 2008 edition of American football's championship game. This year's matchup has a northeastern flavor. No it's not Yankees/Red Sox, Knicks/Celtics, or even Rangers/Bruins, but rather the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Although they are two franchises that have long histories and are geographic neighbors, there has never really been a rivalry between the two squads. They have rarely been relevant at the same time. In fact, up until this decade, the Patriots were one of the typically one of the league's worst performing teams. Now they fall under the same category as the Steelers of the 70's, the 49ers of the 80's, and the Cowboys of the 90's. This year's Super Bowl once again gives the nation's most obnoxious, self-promoting and self-centered region a chance to once again serve as the center of the world for one weekend. Boston versus New York. To us North-easterns, it doesn't get much better than that. New Yorkers think of Bostonians as dirty, uncouth, loud-mouths with massive inferiority complexes. Bostonians think of New Yorkers as arrogant pussies who are mostly transplants and aren't as great as they believe they are. Recent sporting history would prove the last few words of that sentence to be the case, but in measuring other characteristics of each city, both are unique and intriguing cultural centers in their own right. If the game itself and the extra-curricular theatrics that always come with the Super Bowl Package aren't entertaining enough for middle America, the back and forth banter between natives of these two rival cities should make up for any lack of actual sporting drama.

Now for my game-relevant thoughts about this matchup. I am a Giants fan. I will make that be known at the outset. I always have been, and always will be. In fact, the Giants are my second favorite franchise in all of sports, behind the Mets, of course. As ecstatic as I am that my favorite football team has made it to the zenith of its sport, I am understandably quite shocked, and have properly failed to fully absorb the fact that the Giants made it to their championship game before the Mets made it to theirs. I'll admit that I was one of Eli Manning's harshest and most outspoken critics for the duration of the regular season. After the fiasco at home against the Vikings, I said that even if the Giants had made it to the playoffs (which considering the amount of talent on the team, and the lack of quality in the NFC it would have been monumental had they not), that Eli should not come back next year as the team's quarterback. This is a team that is built to win now, with a demanding fanbase that expects its team to perform at the highest level. The feeling is that if you play for and represent the most important city in the country, the teams' results should mirror that eminence. Is that a fair statement or belief? Not necessarily, but being a lifelong New York sports fan, this is a sentiment that is popularly echoed and supported throughout the tri-state.

Yet, something happened to this team during the second half of the Week 16 road game in Buffalo that altered it's destiny. The Giants were getting whipped by a Bills team that had far less talent than they, and nothing really to play for aside from the role of spoiler. The Giants had a ton to play for: their playoff fate was hanging in the balance. If they lost, they would need to defeat the perfect Patriots in order to make the playoffs as a wild card road team. Great. What exactly happened during that game, I'm not sure. Was it a combination of Kevin Gilbride's playcalling being properly carried out or improved? Was it an improvement in the play of the Giants' offensive line? Was it the increased focus of the team's wide receivers? Was it the weather, Ahmad Bradshaw, a healthy Brandon Jacobs, and a mediocre Bills defense? Did Tom Coughlin make a ridiculous halftime speech that would dwarf anything the writers at "Friday Night Lights" could ever concoct? Whatever happened at halftime of that game, the Giants offense finally woke up, and started pouring it on the Bills through the atrocious weather that typically defines Western New York in December. One of the most scrutinized teams in professional sports found itself amid the blustery conditions of a Buffalo winter. Fitting, dont ya think?

As we all know, the Giants continued their strong play from the second half of the Buffalo game that assured the team of a playoff spot. They seemed to gain a new confidence through succeeding through that blustery weather. They gave a solid effort in the final game of the season, and almost came out on top against the Patriots at home. Contrary to popular belief, I actually felt that more confidence was gained after the difficult win in Buffalo, then after the close loss against New England. It's difficult for any team to gain confidence after losing a game, and I don't buy the hype that they felt better about themselves after Week 17. With a confident Eli Manning trusting his teammates and his playcallers, the Giants defied the odds by winning three consecutive road games. Throughout recent weeks, they have begun to look more and more like the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl Championship squad from two years ago. A team with a young quarterback that brought a conservative gameplan to life, executing it to a "T." A team with a multi-dimensional running game, a physical offensive line, and a hard-hitting defense. As we all know, professional sports is full of parody. Of course, some teams are better than others, and some players are better than others; but how much better can they possibly be? All of these players and coaches are professionals after all. The name of the game is confidence, and this team now exudes plenty of it. This is a confident team that a confident city should be proud of.

With ALL of that being said, I still don't think the Giants will win the Super Bowl. Kind of a letdown, eh? To be perfectly frank, I believe that the Patriots are just too good at each and every position. It's tough for me to admit Boston's superiority in anything, but there is only so much confidence can do for one team, especially when its opponent is just as confident, has more talent at all of the key positions, and has failed to lose a single game. Lets face it, while the Giants are on a recent hot streak, the Patriots have been on a 5-month hot streak. I love my Giants, and I would love for them to win the Super Bowl and shut up those obnoxious brutes from Boston, but you're giving this New England coaching staff two weeks to prepare for a quarterback who has made his fair share of bad on-the-field decisions over his brief NFL career. Brady was able to torch our secondary late in the teams' first meeting, and the Patriots offensive line was able to handle our vaunted D-Line. When you give Brady ample time to throw (as with almost any NFL starting quarterback), he will find ways to find open receivers and pick you apart. The offensive line is the key to that team, and unless our front four can manage to physically dominate their O-Line, I'm not sure if we can hold them under 30 points. I compared these Giants two the Super Bowl winning Steelers of two years ago. Unfortunately, this Patriots team is the best in NFL history, and they would have defeated those Steelers in a dogfight. I believe the same will be the case with this game. It will be a close contest going into the fourth quarter, 24-20 in fact. Yet, I believe that the Pats will manage to find a way to torch the Giants secondary late in the 4th quarter as they did in the previous meeting, and close Super Bowl XLII out: 31-20.

I really hope I'm wrong, and I hope Harry Carson, LT, and Phil Simms, among others show up for this game. This squad needs all the luck and inspiration it can get. Where are Bill Buckner and Jim McMahon when you need them? GO BIG BLUE!

Thoughts?