David v. Goliath: Part II
The showdown is set for Super Bowl XLII and it could be one of the less sexy match ups.
This Super Bowl has the potential to be a dud, as the 18-0 Patriots will look to beat up on the somehow still alive Giants, and repeat their performance when they came out on top in Week 17, 38-35. My lack of enthusiasm could be rooted in the fact that I am sick of the love fest that is Patriots and Tom Brady. (Does every guy have a man crush on him? It must be his new cologne.) The only thing that would have made this Super Bowl worse would have been if the Packers and “I must hate Aaron Rodgers because I won’t retire” Favre were the NFC Champs. (By the way, nice job on throwing that interception to pretty much end the game and possibly your career.)
Honestly, the Pats seem like they are on a mission and won’t be stopped until they win it all. They want to go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest team in NFL history and become the next ‘72 Dolphins, especially after the whole “Spygate” scandal.
As for the Giants, they definitely took the hard route to the Super Bowl, having to beat the Bucs, Cowboys and Packers, all on the road. Plus they received the honor of playing in the third coldest game in playoff history (minus-3 degrees temperatures and wind-chill of minus-24), which was clearly evident based on Tom Coughlin’s frostbitten face.
Eli Manning has had to play his best football and he has done just that. In 85 pass attempts this post season, Manning has zero interceptions. No other post season quarterback this year can say that. And yes, we are talking about the right Manning. While Peyton does have a Super Bowl ring, it took him much long than his younger brother to have that chance. Eli is currently in his fourth year in the NFL. It took Peyton nine years to get to the Super Bowl.
And now Peyton is taking advice from Eli.
Lawrence Tynes should be thanking the stars that he made that 47-yard field goal because I’m pretty sure Coughlin would have cut him before he had even gotten back to the sideline. Tynes hit the game-winner, which was the longest made by a Packers’ opponent in their playoff history.
Hopefully this game turns out better than I think it will. The Giants did play some of their best football of the year against the Pats and had many opportunities to close them out and win the game. The Giants are yet again in charge of preventing the Patriots from reaching perfection, this time from 19-0.