NFL Picks: Super Bowl 2008
I went to a buddy’s house to watch Brock Lesnar get his ankle ruined in 1:30 tonight and a different buddy (Saint’s Fan) asked me if I’m nervous about tomorrow.
I’m not.
I was pretty sure the Giants were going to beat the Bucs. The Bucs were not a very good team and they only managed to go 9-7 in a really bad division. I expected the Giants to get beat by the Cowboys leading to another ridiculous offseason full of “Fire Coughlin” and “Fire Eli” idiots telling me that the best thing for the Giants was to get a new coach/quarterback combo. My response to this became simple… which is the same response I have anytime anyone randomly complains about one of my sports teams. Fix it. When they started to tell me that the best thing was to fire Eli and start over, I simply asked them to tell me who they were starting at quarterback next year.
“Draft a guy.” Really? We should use our 24th-ish pick in the draft to get another rookie quarterback? Good plan.
“Get a free agent.” Who? Donovan McNabb? He’s free. Maybe we could get Vinny. Man never retires. Garcia? He’s 90. Daunte Culpepper? Handball-playin Jake Plummer? There is no one out there to get as a free agent. Chad Pennington? Maybe he’d be better playing for a non-insane fanbase?
Backup Jared Lorenzen? News for you: if Lorenzen was any good, he’d have won the starting job.
Giants fans, as a whole, love to complain about their coaches and their quarterback. They would have liked nothing more than to cut Eli after his third season and started over with Brady Quinn… who would have sucked…. who would have been cut… to pick up another rookie… who wouldn’t have been ready… and would have sucked…. etc, etc, etc.
Thank God that the Giant organization, sometimes to a fault, is patient. They gave the team time to develop under insane media pressure. They gave Eli the time he needed. Someone realized “hey, this guy’s been our quarterback for two full seasons and we’ve made the playoffs both times.” Someone realized the team went 8-8 with practice squad guys on the left side of the offensive line for half the season. They gave everyone a new season and now you can’t find a guy who wanted Eli cut. Now the guy who gave me “Anyone but Coughlin” in September won’t admit to ever hopping off the bandwagon. Terry Bradshaw and his stupid, bald face couldn’t say enough bad things about Coughlin for the last few years. But Bradshaw was the first idiot, with his good-old-boy grin, to stick a microphone in Coughlin’s face to congratulate him on a job well done after the NFC Championship game. In a nutshell, Bradshaw’s representative of the insane people Giant fans that reasonable people deal with on a daily basis. Guys who are convinced all we need is to plug a new coach in there and there won’t be any growing pains. Guys who are convinced we’ll get Bill Parcells for one more run or Bill Cowher to come out of retirement. Now, you can’t find a piece of Giants paraphernalia anywhere in the state. Everyone’s pushing their way back on my bandwagon. All the people that didn’t keep the faith all season are crawling back, begging not to be reminded of their transgressions.
As to whether or not I’m nervous? No… not really. I never expected to be here at the beginning of the season. I didn’t expect to be here when the playoffs started. I expected to beat the Bucs, I expected to lose to Dallas, and I expected to beat Green Bay. They Giants have been playing with house money since Dallas. They’ve been touchdown dogs in every playoff game and have been tremendous. At the very least, they’ve made the impossible-to-please New York media just shut up and enjoy the game for once.
And, now that they’re here, I think they’re going to win.
Maybe I’m crazy and maybe I have the fan blinders on… both of which are entirely possible… but I can see it. For the last three weeks, everyone has expected Eli Manning to fold under the pressure. He hasn’t. Everyone is still expecting him to fold under pressure this time around. But here’s the thing: Eli doesn’t really have to do that much.
The Giants have a very solid core of young, fast, big running backs. Over sixty minutes, which 30-35 year-old linebacker is going to hold up getting pounded by Brandon Jacobs or Ahman Bradshaw? For that matter, which old linebacker is going to be able to catch Ahman Bradshaw in the third quarter? For all the lil-white guy love that Wes Welker gets, the Giants have a decent slot guy in Bogus Steve Smith who’s been coming into his own in the last few weeks. On the third hand, they now have a tight end in Kevin Boss who actually doesn’t drop gimme passes and then laugh and clap like it’s no big thing. The Giants do not have a flashy offense because they’re back to standard Giant football. Run the ball until you exhaust the linebackers and then hit short routes over the middle. Have the wide receivers there as a deep threat, but hit them rarely.
The Patriot secondary is really, really good. Analysts love pointing that out. Newsflash, though: the Giants don’t need to go into the secondary if they can dominate this old group of linebackers. The Patriots have been playing with a lead for most of the season… teams have been forced to pass. There’s a reason that the Patriots have struggled in close games. Their front is old. That’s their weak spot. If Eli continues to make good decisions and doesn’t force plays, the Giants can wear this Patriot defense out. Can you think of anything more damaging to the Patriots if the Giants win the toss and grind out a huge, long, 80-yard-drive and start battering Junior Seau and Tedy Bruschi? And also: how closely do you think the referees are going to be watching the Patriots for personal fouls in this game? Do you think Vrabel’s going to get away with any leg-whips this time around? I don’t.
On the other side of the ball, the Giants defense is as good, if not better, than what the Chargers trotted out there a couple weeks back. The Giants led the league in sacks. In the last game of the season they fell apart in the fourth quarter. If they can stop themselves from doing that, they win. Hands down.
The Giants have a second chance to end a historic season. They have a chance to do it on the biggest stage. And for all the faux-motivation things that have come out this week (the Patriots trying to trademark 19-0, the cast, the taping at the Super Bowl, the parade planning) I don’t think anyone’s mentioned the biggest one. This Giants team seems to love Eli Manning. If they go out and win this game, they can FINALLY shut the New York media up about him once and for all. They can FINALLY shut up Tiki and his stupid, toothy face. They put Eli Manning and their team on the short list of beloved, unforgettable teams that the city will talk about forever. They go on the list with the ‘69 Mets, the ‘94 Rangers, the ‘90 Giants, and the ‘68 Jets.
They do all of that AND go into next season $40M under the cap. If anything, win or lose, THAT makes me more excited than anything.
Giants outright, over 53, 31-28.
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Now *I* can die in peace.
Aaron
3 Feb 08 at 11:49 pm
96 yankees are on that list.
dapper d
5 Feb 08 at 10:33 am