Since the moment he was born, Eli Manning always came in 2nd place to his brother: Peyton went to a better football school, was drafted #1 for a team he wanted to go (while Eli had a demeaning and very public spat with the Chargers in order to go to the team he wanted), gets all the press, won the first Super Bowl among them, got laid first, was the fair-haired golden boy, etc.
And his dad is a Louisiana legend, the person who, more than any other person until Drew Brees came along, represented the New Orleans Saints. Didn’t win many games, but his talent was unquestioned.
But now… now Eli has the chance to be the Alpha dog in his family in a measurement that matters most to them: Championships. For the first time in his life, his brother and father will have to defer to him, and that’s gotta be worth as much to Eli as the ring itself.
There’s something weird about the Super Bowl being contested by two teams that don’t even play in major cities. A New Jersey suburb versus a little Massachusetts town.
Before that, it was (IIRC) last season. But you’re right, it is rare, because before that, it was in 2006, and the two consecutive losses in 2006 snapped a 57-game streak of not losing two in a row.
So they went 57 games not losing two in a row, then they went from the rest of the 2006 season to 2010 without losing two in a row. They also were on a 20-game regular season home game winning streak until this season.
And the bad part? The Giants game is what snapped both of those streaks (not that the two-game streak was that big of one, bit still.)
But that just adds fuel to the vengeance fire the Pats have going against the Giants. Their defense was good in the Ravens game. They made a lot of great plays, especially the line and Wilfork. There was also the interception, and before the kick was shanked, Sterling Moore was able to break up a TD play that would almost have certainly been the win. The secondary wasn’t making as many mistakes as they usually do, most of the completions was Flaco just being a lot better than anyone was expecting him to be…but everyone expects Manning and his receivers to be good, so I think with a couple weeks to analyze and practice, they can stop some big plays.
Well, not to whizz on your Cheerios, but if the 49er’s punt-returner wasn’t hurt, the Giants almost certainly would be in their off-season by now. Are you trying to show the amount of randomness and luck in the outcome of a typical football game (and therefore the meaningless of saying one team is better than another based on the outcome of a close game), or do you have another point?
Bouv, do you mean bad games for Brady, or losses for the Patriots? Because, as Sunday showed, they’re clearly not the same thing.
The point is, Evil Captor said: “I think the Patriots will win because they utterly demolished Tebow the God-botherer and Co. in their game, whereas the Giants just barely squeaked through to a win in their game.”
But that was a week removed. The Giants played a fantastic game against the Niners, and the week after the Pats squashed Tebow et al, they looked like ass on a platter against the Ravens; not exactly jibing with Evil Captor’s assesment.
To be fair, I said I didn’t have a GOOD reason for liking the Pats. Frankly, if I were a betting man, and I’m not, I wouldn’t want to bet on this game.
The Giants beat a 15-1 Packers team in Lambeau fairly comfortably and if not for a few calls by the refs the game would been even more comfortable (and I say this as a Packer fan), and that was the same week as the Pats demolishing the Broncos.
Were we watching the same game? I wouldn’t say the Giants looked “fantastic.” Their offense wasn’t in sync for much of the game, their running game went nowhere, and they didn’t have any notable special teams triumphs other than Kyle Williams screwing up. Of course, you can give a lot of credit to the 49ers defense on those counts, but I don’t see any way you can call a team’s performance “fantastic” when they scored 10 non-turnover-assisted points.
Probably not as I think I only caught the second half, and really only paid attention for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the game.
But at least the Giants looked like they could win the game all the way through. I was supremely confident that the Patriots were going to lose. Until they won. I say this as a die-hard Pats fan.
