well, red sox nation has finally put to rest the whole “curse of the bambino” bruhaha.
what will the new curse be called for the patriot’s nation?
curse of the trunicatus? curse of the don?
The Manning Curse?
Boston fans would indeed feel as though they were cursed as a sports town because their team didn’t win the superbowl.
Boston seems to self-identify as a cursed sports town where only their magnificent dedication as fans gets them through all the rough times. It’s bizarre. I guess that attitude probably changed somewhat after the world series wins - but even before that, they had the Pats and in fairly recent history one of the most dominant basketball dynasties.
If you could only give it to one person, who would you have given it to? My list was Tuck, Eli, Tyree, in that order.
You’re absolutely right: you didn’t watch the same game. His first half wasn’t very good? Maybe you tuned in late and missed the 10:00 opening drive that included three passing third down conversions. They had that one pathetic 3 & out, but aside from that he played his position quite well.
As for the one he “flew over a wide open Plaxico’s hands”, he threw it to where Plax was supposed to run; Plax either let up or was confused. Aikman explained this on the broadcast that everyone but you saw.
The prize for “least knowledgeable NFL fan” goes to…YOU! Or maybe it’s like this Superbowl, where everyone in the world sees one NFL and you see your own special one.
Just so you know, Tom Brady’s shoulder has been listed on every single injury report for 80 straight weeks. Yep, that’s right. Every single week since 2002 he’s been listed as “Probable - right shoulder”. It’s a running joke in the NFL at this point. Kenny Mayne based one of his skits on it. Chris Berman and Tom Jackson laugh about it. Mike & Mike laughed all Thursday morning about it after the injury report came out.
And again, not sure what game you were watching, but the rest of us saw a game where the Giants blitzed a fair amount at least, if not quite a bit. “Little to no blitzing”? Really?
Maybe you listened on the radio instead of watching it on tv…
Let’s not get crazy quite yet. Big Ben is a rate-stat machine, though on the plus side Eli didn’t stink up the joint in the Superbowl like Ben did. At least he didn’t in the game everyone but you saw.
To quote Mike Greenberg from this morning: “If you were bored in the middle part of this game, then I respectfully submit that you do not like the game of football.” And he’s absolutely right.
Well, the Steelers had Burress at one time, but he was already with the Giants when we won the Superbowl two years ago.
It’s almost like they’re turning into Yankees fans. 
This was my initial thought as well, but now I think it was a good call as opposed to ticky-tack bullshit.
When they came out of replay, they went to the “behind the punter” camera. For a split second, everyone was lined up and waiting. Then all of a sudden Blackburn – who was lined up across from the OL – hauled ass to the sideline, not quite making it before the snap.
That means the Giants had 12 guys on the field, lined up and waiting for the snap. This, IMO, is the defensive equivalent of “12 men in the huddle”, since it would be silly to ask offenses to try and deal with reading that.
Sure, on a punt it doesn’t much matter, but even then the backs have to identify who their responsibility is in blocking, so in the end I’d say that penalty was a good call.
You know, it’s funny you should say that: I was just saying to myself, “Diogenes is the only smart person here, the ONLY person who knows anything about football, the ONLY one on this entire post who isn’t a childish putz.”
Gosh, it must be swell to be as mature and intelligent as you, Di.
I don’t know about everybody else, but I’m going to work real hard, so that maybe, just maybe, I can be half as brilliant and non-childish as Diogenes.
You know, that is a pledge we should all make. Perhaps you could start a newsletter for this new group. The “We Should all Work Hard to be Half as Brilliant and non-childish as Diogenes” newsletter or WSAWHTBHABANCAD for short.
Hey, was this mentioned …
I think this was a very important game for the future of the NFL, and I’d say the same thing if it were the Bucs or the Packers instead of the Giants.
In the copycat league of the NFL, whatever wins propagates. Last year we saw the high-flying Colts offense beat the Patriots, so the Patriots immediately responded by bringing in a stable of big-play receivers, thinking that this would win them a championship.
Guys like Ron Jaworski will prattle on and on endlessly about how the passing game wins. If enough people buy into it, that paradigm will proliferate enough so that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. And that would be a tremendous shame, since that’s counter to what makes the NFL so great. If you think high-flying offense is what makes the NFL great, I’d suggest you switch your fandom to the Arena Football League where they cater to that taste.
With this win, hopefully the pass-happy days that have tainted the league since Peyton Manning opened his whiny yap will start to be put behind us. At least until the next set of rule changes to prop up the passing game is enacted.
I think I have to disagree. The argument from Jaworski and others is that you win more (though not exclusively, of course) with the passing game than the running game, and I think that’s true. The part of that philosophy that is often overlooked, however, is that pass defense is every bit as important as pass offense, and undoubtedly the single biggest factor in the Giants’ Super Bowl win was their pass defense (specifically their pass rush). In my opinion, the second biggest factor was the Giants’ ability to have a good (not great) passing offense themselves, considering the caliber of opponent.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate old-school Giants football as much as the next guy, and I absolutely loved that opening drive when they ran on 1st & 2nd Downs, what, four times? Objectively speaking, however, the Giants’ running game was merely adequate, even on that opening drive. If the Giants’ passing attack had been even slightly less proficient at converting all those 3rd & 5’s and 3rd & 7’s that the running game handed them, the story would be the terrible failure of the Giants offense to capitalize on a heroic performance by the defense.
Also, dude:
I mean, damn! 
Great game…I loved seeing the Patriots go down!
And Dio, it’s been mentioned before, but the reason taping on the sidelines is illegal and taping from the box isn’t is not because it’s arbitrary. Taping from the box and taping signals is completely legal for POST game analysis. Taping from the sidelines is done, and I’m sure was done by Belicheck (because otherwise, why put your self at risk) for IN game analysis. So, the Patriots were taping signals for use in the same game they were playing in, which is a clear violation of league rules, and for good reason.
So:
Legal: taping signals for post game analysis.
Illegal: taping signals on the sideline for use in the game you are currently playing.
Pretty big distinction there, since people change signals from week to week, so the taping of signals in game that can be analyzed at halftime can confer a huge advantage in that game. Saying it’s semantics between the stands and the sidelines is showing complete ignorance of the reason for the rule, and reason the Pats taped on the sidelines.
Trying to say that “you can’t prove they were doing it to analyze for that game” is ridiculous, since there are legal means to tape, Belicheck was warned, and yet he still sneaked a camera on the sidelines. Are you seriously saying that he just decided to do that for fun, in clear violation of league rules?
Comparing this to the headband of Jim McMahon is just silly…if the league didn’t think this was a serious violation they wouldn’t have stripped a first round draft pick and levied $750,000 in fines.
He isn’t; he made that point to debunk the ludicrous idea – asserted by a shameful number of people in this thread – that cheating is synonymous with breaking the rules.
While I have heard the theory of “quarterbacks and cornerbacks”, that’s not what Jaws preaches. He is steadfast in what he believes are the fundamentals of winning football: balance in the offense, and points come out of the passing game. He never advocates defense as a winning philosophy, but then again he’s a QB so it’s not that surprising.
Your idea that pass defense is integral to winning is something I simply haven’t heard espoused by really anybody*, though I’m not saying I agree or disagree with it as of right now.
To all the Giants fans: It looks like Spags will stick with the G-Men for another year. Talk about having your cake and eating it too!
- I don’t read much FO.
What changed? Where did you hear or read this? Did the Redskins hire someone else?
This is great news, I hope it is true. Go Giants!
John Clayton on Mike & Mike this morning. Basically, the Redskins job is now a shitty job because they already hired the whole staff. Since they did this with the input of Jim Fassel, it’s almost certainly going to be Fassel’s job this coming season.
Also, Spags was a position coach until this year, so one more year of seasoning is a reasonable career path. Next year will almost certainly be his last in NY – unless Coughlin retires* – after which he’ll no doubt be at the top of the list for several franchises. Plus he’ll be able to bring in his own staff.
That was Clayton’s take. I would toss in that in addition to being able to bring in his own staff, with another team Spags would actually have a couple draft picks to work with. Didn’t Washington trade away all their picks again this year?
- Clayton didn’t say this; just tossed it in myself.
Yeah, because there’s such a chasm of difference between “breaking rules to help your side win” and “cheating.” :rolleyes:
The MVP was Tuck, if I were pressed to pick one. After that, possibly Strahan. I don’t want to diminish what Osi did, though.
Yeah, Eli came out throwing darts and looked real good. Everything was right on the numbers. I thought he’d have made the leap, but then he slid back.
Honestly, I didn’t know that about Brady’s phantom shoulder.
Yes, the pressure they were getting without blitzing was incredible.
Ben didn’t get asked to carry the offense in the Super Bowl either. Ben has good games. He also has some bad ones. He’s inconsistent, just like Eli.
Also, with the overthrow, quarterbacks always blame the receivers. Dan Marino’s commentary is great for that. That still doesn’t change the other overthrows in the rest of the game either.
Christ, for a fan of the team that just won the Super Bowl, you’re awfully defensive.