Super Bowl Sunday is tomorrow, and in the span of thelast mnoth or so, I have written quite a bit about sports, including the playoff game that my son and I were privileged enough to go to early in January, and the France 1998 World Cup, which I wrote about yesterday. Those were perhaps my two favorite memories, but there have been others that I will write about, including now. Since tomorrow is the Super Bowl, and since it involves a rematch of the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, it seems appropriate if I write about that first Super Bowl meeting between these two clubs, almost four years ago to the day.
Unlike France in 1998, or the playoff game a month ago, that game came at a kind of a bad time in my life. The marriage was on the rocks, and I knew where it was heading. Also, I just was not as happy with the overall direction my life seemed to be heading in as I would have wanted to be. So, when I recall that time period, it is often not with relish.
Yet, the 2007 New England Patriots sparked my interest like no team had done in a very, very long time. Even if you are not a fan of football, learning about this team in particular might be intriguing. Tom Brady was the star quarterback, he with the model wife and the good looks, the ultimate success story. A handsome and rich guy who already had led his team to Super Bowl glory (three times in four years, in fact!), and as going for that fourth ring, which would place him in the same category of Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, the only other quarterbacks to have won four rings (no quarterback has yet won more Super Bowl championship rings than that). He was the face of the New England Patriots that year, and had a year of years, arguably the best year a quarterback has ever had, throwing more touchdown passes than any quarterback in history for a season, and throwing very few interceptions in the process. He had been considered one of two great quarterbacks in the league at that time, but that season catipulted him into immortal status.
It was going to be the same for the Patriots as a team, as well. Behind the coach who had gained the status as an evil genius (don't ask me why), New England put together the dream season. They scored more points than any other team in NFL history, and that's saying something! They also won by a larger average margin than any other team in history, and that is saying even more! And the ultimate thing to raise eyebrows, they had won every single game they played heading into the playoffs, following an epic regular season finale against the Giants (a game that itself could warrant an entry in this blog, but I will spare you), a back and forth struggle, more like a tug of war, that in the end, saw the Patriots finally manage to complete the perfect regular season, truly sports history in the making!
Yet, the Patriots had been slowing down after about the 10th game of the season. They were still a great team, but when you look at some of the scores (I am too lazy to look right now as I write this, but a 52-7 decision against Washington, and a 56-10 win at Buffalo resonate in my memory) illustrate just how dominant they were. They had ranked up there with the greatest teams ever, and probably could be compared favorably.
In short, everyone seemed to have penciled them in as the greatest team of all time, even before they reached the Super Bowl.
And reach the Super Bowl they did, with a perfect 18-0 record, a feat that had never been accomplished before, and still has not since. They did not roll over their oponents in the playoffs, however, beating Jacksonville 31-20, and then getting by San Diego, 21-12. Still, they were very heavily favored against the New York Giants, who had taken the momentum they had acquired with their late season loss to the Patriots (a game that they almost won, and which seemed to inject real confidence into them, and perhaps the will to test out just how good they really were), and converted it into three consecutive road playoff wins. They thoroughly beat the relatively weak Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card, 24-14, then frustrated the flashy Dallas Cowboys, 21-17, and finally eeked out a victory in the frigid, “frozen tundra” of Lambeau Field agains the mighty Green Bay Packers, which ended up being Favre's last game as the Packers' quaterback, winning in overtime, 23-20.
New England were the prohibitive favorites, and almost everyone assumed that they would win to finish the season with a perfect 19-0 record, thus completing only the second undefeated season in NFL history, and cementing their status as “greatest team ever”. The
Yet, the Giants had other plans. In the earlier match, the Giants defense had given the Patriots offense looks that they had never seen before, and had played a physical game that many of the defenders later said made the Patriots visibly uncomfortable. So, they came into the game with a high degree of confidence in their own right, and relished the underdog status, taking the “no respect” thing and using it to it's fullest.
The Giants scored first in the opening quarter with a field goal for a 3-0 lead, but the Patriots, the highest scoring team in NFL history, remember, answered back with a touchdown, and took a 7-3 lead. It was on, right? Just a matter of time before the points really started flowing.
Not exactly. The rest of the first half remained a defensive struggle, and the half ended at 7-3.
The third quarter remained the same, and so as the final quarter opened, the mighty Patriots had a pedestrian 7 points on the board. History will show that the Patriots had one opportunity in particular to kick a field goal, which would have given them a 10-3 lead, a cushion of a touchdown. Maybe football history would have been wildly different for them had they opted for it, but Belichek decided to go for it on 4th down, and los the gamble, giving the Giants possession of the ball, and seeing the record-shattering Patriots offense go back to the sidelines with only the one touchdown so late in the game, and a slim 4-point lead. It was a defenseive struggle, and the Patriots, who were really all about offense that year, were a bit out of their elements, but still holding strong, having kept the Giants to a mere 3 points themselves. This was old-fashioned, grinding, defensive football.
There were fireworks, however, and they seemed to all come in that fateful final quarter. The Giants struck first, getting a touchdown to take a 10-7 lead, and probably alarming New England 9and their fans) with the realization that there was a real possibilty that they could actually lose this game, and the unthinkable might just happen. Who goes undefeated all season, only to lose in the Super Bowl, right?
To their credit, New England took their time, and marched down the field. Tom Brady, who did not look himself all game, seemed to regain his compsure, and calmly led his team to scoring territory, then found star wide receiver Randy Moss in the corner of the end zone for the touchdown, earning back their 4-point lead. There were rouhly two minutes left in the game,a dn now the Giants, once again, had the ball, and the length of the field, to try and get a touchdown (a field goal simply would not be enough).
The Giants got the ball moving, and seemed to be giving it a real shot. Their was one play, however, when Manning, the Giants quarterback, threw it right to star Patriot's defender Assante Samuel, who dropped the sure interception that would have iced the game, and the perfect season, for New England. What could have been, right?
What happened next would itself be immortlaized in NFL history. Facing third down and long, Eli Manning dropped back to pass, and seemed almost manhandled by Patriots defneders that were closing all around him, grabbing him and almost forcing him for the sack, that would have forced a crucial and desperate fourth and long situation. But Manning broke free, itself a miracle of sorts, and then managed somehow to get a wobbly pass off, which found receiver Dave Tyree, who caught it one-handed off the side of his helmet, with a Patriot defender aggressively handling him, forcing him down. It was an awkward play, on many levels, yet watching the film shows the level of concentration that it must have taken to catch that thing, and hold onto it whie being tackled at an awkward angle. It was probably the greatest, and most memorable, even miraculous, play in Super Bowl history. A play that preserved a seson for the Giants, and a miracle that perhaps ended the Patriots dream season.
A few plays later, the Patriots, increasingly frustrated and getting desperate themselves, decided, inexplicably, to blitz. Manning, reading it correctly, tried to hurry, lest New England change their scheme, and was pounding his legs harder than usual to get the play off, then quickly got rid of the ball, completing it in the end zone to a wide open Plaxico Burress. Giants up, 17-14, with roughly half a minute to work with.
Desperation time for New England, who's hopes of completing that elusive perfect season were quickly vanishing.
The first pass attempt was irrelvant, and on second down, Tom Brady got drilled for a sack. He quickly called a timeout, and the stadium was now roaring with Giants fans eager to see their team pull off what would be the greatest Super Bowl upset in history since the 1968 New York Jets shocked the mighty Baltimore Colts.
Needless to say, the Patriots next two passes fell harmlessly incomplete, and the Giants pulled it out, ending New England's very real bid for the perfect season with a perfect ending of their own to win the surprise Super Bowl championship.
New England, meanwhile, were disgraced. The team walked off the field, looking stunned. Barely anyone said anything as they changed in the silen locker room, their bid at history now failed. In one game, the Patriots had gone from being considered the greatest team in NFL history, to the greatest choke artists in sports history.
All of that, and such memorable meetings now between these two team (includng one earlier this season that rivaled the prior two meetings in 2007 for intensity and fantastic finishes) makes this Super Bowl all the more intriguing. History proves that the Super Bowl rarely lives up to it's billing, yet these two teams probably have a real chance at making this one worth it. Maybe, like in Super Bowl XLII, it might even surpass the hype! We shall see tomorrow!
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