Red-Hot QB Eli Manning will lead the New York Giants versus the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. The Giants will be looking to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time in four years
The 2011-12 NFL season will finish its oh-too-fast season with Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, Indiana as the New England Patriots (15-3) and New York Giants (12-7) take center stage in a game that many are touting as “The Revenge Bowl”.
It will be interesting to see if Super Bowl XLVI ends the ’11 season with a bang or a blowout, which seems to have happened way too much in Super Bowl history. Hopefully the season will close with a good game like the last 4 Super Bowls. Since SB XXXVIII in 2003 (Patriots over Panthers, 32-29), five out of the last eight Super Bowls have had margin of 6 points or less including last year’s game, Packers over Steelers 31-25. All week, the Indianapolis region has had some chilly weather, but you can expect the temperatures around the country and inside Lucas Oil Stadium to be “hot” this Sunday.
“Super Bowl Sunday” is America’s unofficial holiday filled with fellowship, trash talk, and of course eating. Everywhere you turn, people are talking about the Patriots and Giants locking horns this Sunday. Even my 80-year old plus grandmother, who usually is not in front of the television on Sunday’s watching NFL gridiron action, will be attending a Super Bowl party.
She and an expected record television audience of 106 Million plus viewers will be watching this Sunday as the Giants and Patriots take center stage in the biggest game in sports. There has already been plenty of Brady-Manning, Coughlin-Belichick, and Rematch talk. But no matter how Super Bowl XLVI ends, the 2011 NFL Season should have been titled, “One Crazy Season” — seven of the NFL’s eight divisions featured different division champions than last season’s.
The actual official title of the 2011 NFL Season was “Back to Football” as related to the end of the league’s 136-Day lockout and the celebration of the return of America’s game without losing any regular season games. However, in the naming the NFL’s final game of the 2011 season, the moniker “Back to the Future” fits much better.
After 4 years, we are right back where we left off before Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix, Arizona with the NY Giants facing the New England Patiots. Osi Umenyiora recently said of the eery similarities of both Giants’ Super Bowl runs: “We win the NFC Championship in overtime with a field goal on the road four years ago and go on to the Super Bowl to face the Patriots. We win the NFC Championship in overtime tonight with a field goal on the road and go on to the Super Bowl to face the Patriots!”
Back in 2008, the Giants proved experts wrong by beating the heavily favored New England Patriots 17-14. The G-Men preserved the perfection honor of the 1972 Dolphins as they knocked the Patriots (18-1) championship “Perfection Express” off the tracks with a dominating defensive effort. The Giants were led by veteran defensive captain Michael Strahan (now retired) and defensive end Justin Tuck (still a dominating player) with then defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo (now with the New Orleans Saints) making all the right calls and producing 5 sacks. Patriots “Golden Boy” quarterback Tom Brady was hit again and again (16 hits in all) as his stable of all-star receivers could not get open fast enough.
Riding a wave of confidence from their tough 38-35 home loss to the Patriots in week 17, the disrespected Giants — the first NFC wildcard team to win Super Bowl – and their beleaguered duo of head coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning, answered the 88th NFL season’s moniker/question “Who Wants It More?” The upstart “road warrior” New York Giants won an NFL record 11 straight games including 4 playoff road victories as they personified the word “Hungry”.
In Super Bowl XLII, the Giants started with an opening drive that lasted 16 plays and took a Super Bowl record 9:59 minutes off the clock. They never looked back. Manning was gritty and never made the mistake that so many doubters had predicted. He truly showed his mettle in the fourth quarter, leading the Giants’ comeback from a 14-10 deficit and concluding a “white knuckle” drive with a perfect 13-yard touchdown fade route to his favorite target, Plaxico Burress (now with the NY Jets after serving time on a gun charge). This brought the score to 17-14.
On the drive, Manning was 5-9 for 79 yards with a huge touchdown and one big “shut up” for his haters. The magical game-winning 12-play, 83-yard drive was a test of will that the G-Men passed as they converted three third downs. The biggest play of the game-winning drive – if not the season – was provided by Manning and little-known receiver, David Tyree.
On the key play, Eli pulled away from Patriots defensive end Jarvis Green, who had two large handfuls of the Giants’ quarterback’s jersey, and threw up a prayer over the middle that was answered by Tyree, who earlier had caught the Giants’ first touchdown in the fourth quarter. The special-teamer-turned-receiving-star caught the 32-yard jump ball against his helmet as Rodney Harrison pulled and prodded unsuccessfully at the G-Men’s tough guy. The play ignited the Giants sideline and showed that the New Yorkers would not be denied.
Alright. Enough of strolling down “Memory Lane” and reviewing Super Bowl XLII because this Sunday’s game is an entirely different story even though many of the players and coaches are still the same. Thankfully this time around, no one will be talking about perfection or David vs. Goliath. Instead, the main storyline will be two evenly matched red-hot teams, who are riding long winning streaks into the game – Patriots (10), Giants (5).
The Patriots – who, ironically, have not lost since Week 9 to the Giants, 24-20 — are hoping to ride the “Myra Express,” named for the late wife (Myra) of team owner Bob Kraft — to another Super Bowl title (it would be the fourth overall for Patriots head coach bill Belichick and Brady to tie the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Chuck Noll/Terry Bradshaw combination) and also get revenge on the upstart Giants. The Giants have gotten to another Super Bowl under fiery head coach Tom Coughlin by staying the course and never getting too high or too low in a roller coaster season, where the G-Men were near elimination several times.
Sure, some will boast that their crystal ball registered this Super Bowl match-up way back in September (Hey… what do I know? I picked a match-up of the Steelers over the Eagles). But the majority of folks probably were second-guessing both the NFC and AFC representatives going into this season, especially their quarterbacks. Even though Brady and Manning will be the first two former Super Bowl MVP winning quarterbacks to square off in the big game, neither were “locks” to be playing in Indy when the season started.
Yes, Brady already is NFL royalty from his previous three Superbowl titles and two MVP’s, but he also had not led New England to a playoff win since the 2007 playoffs – a four-year Superbowl absence. And recently, in playoff losses to the Giants (2007), Ravens (2009), and NY Jets (2010); Brady sometimes looked skittish in the pocket, raising questions about whether he is the same player since knee surgery in September of 2008.
Even after a Super Bowl win and MVP award, Eli Manning is still considered by many a “ride along” winner of SB XLII, Trent Dilfer-style. Plus the long shadow of his older brother, Peyton, continued to cover the younger Manning in the ensuing 2008 (first round loss), 2009 (no playoffs), and 2010 (no playoffs) seasons, all of which were tough on the Giants and Eli.
Before the 2011 season, Manning and Giants had not won a playoff game since beating the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. Also there was the little matter of Eli agreeing to a six-year, $97 million contract extension — an average salary of roughly $15.3 million – before the 2010 season that made him the highest paid player in the NFL at the time.
The cries of “Eli isn’t Peyton” and “Coughlin must go” were growing louder and louder entering 2011, which definitely caused it to be a make-or-break season for the beleaguered pair. Manning put even more pressure on himself and added more fuel to the Brady/Manning feud by his comments to ESPN 1050 Radio on August 16, 2011. During his appearance, Manning was asked if he considered himself a top-five quarterback in the NFL, basically on the level of a Tom Brady. Which Eli strongly responded, “Yeah, I think I am… I definitely consider myself in that class.”
Once the Conference Championship games were completed with two 3-point wins (Patriots over the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 and Giants over the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in OT), all eyes turned to the words “Rematch” and “Revenge”. But since these two teams are actually meeting for the third time in four years – having already renewed their “friendly” rivalry in Week 9 of the 2011 NFL Regular Season – I like the term “Rubber Match” more. In that regular season game, the Giants were able to get the better of the Patriots again, this time in Foxboro by a score of 24-20.
As was the case in Super Bowl XLII, Eli Manning was gritty in leading his team from a come-from-behind win in a game that was another defensive struggle – the score of 0-0 at halftime being a great example of this. Amazingly, after Brady (28 for 49, 342 yds., two TDs, two INTs) threw a 14-yard scoring pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski with 1:36 minutes left to make the score 20-17, once again Eli showed that he is indeed in the former three-time Super Bowl winner’s league.
Manning (20 for 39, 250 yds., two TDs, one INT) then hit tight end Jake Ballard with one-yard touchdown pass to culminate an eight-play, 80-yard drive with 15 seconds left for the game’s final margin – was helped by a 20-yard pass interference penalty against New England. The odd thing about the Giants’ big Week 9 win over the Patriot was that afterwards, they then lost four consecutive games to really jeopardize their playoff hopes.
Whether you are calling this season’s Super Bowl “The Rematch,” “The Revenge Bowl,” “The Rivalry,” “Let’s Do it Again,” or “The Rubber Match,” there definitely is a buzz about these two teams meeting after having turned their seasons around to reach the NFL’s pinnacle game. At one time, the Patriots were 5-3 and had an embarrassing 34-31 loss in Week 3 to the lowly Buffalo Bills on their record. Similarly, the Giants were basically left for dead after losing five of six games between Weeks 10 and Week 15, including a terrible 23-10 home loss to the Redskins.
A testament to the excitement and anticipation of this Super Bowl is amount of attention it is getting, including the record numbers of press that are attending. More than 5,100 credentialed media members, including 116 international organizations, will be covering the big game.
I will post my keys and picks to the game soon, but you definitely have to think the team that can overcome their regular-season defensive woes to dominate will win. Both the Patriots and Giants have struggled at times with stopping their opposition this season, to say the least. In fact, the Patriots are the lowest-ranked defense of any team to ever play in the Super Bowl.
New England finished 31st in defense (yards) this season and allowed a league-leading 79 passes of 20 yards or more. While the Giants allowed more points (400) than they scored (394) in 2011 to rank 25th in points allowed. Things are so bad defensively for the Patriots that in the AFC Championship Game, receiver Julian Edelman played 25 snaps as a slot corner on defense and another 28 on offense.
So expected or unexpected, this is the game that the parity-laden National Football League has handed us for Super Bowl Sunday 2012 (February 5th). And I for one, am very excited to see this rematch from instant-classic Super Bowl XLII. A good portion of the country is also excited as Super Bowl hype is at an all-time high. ESPN Anlayst Tom Jackson said of this match-up, “We have two of the best teams in the league playing really good football, and we’re thinking that we’re ready to see a pretty darn good football game.”
However both teams will now need to do as Chuck D used to rap: “Don’t Believe the Hype.” Of course having played and beaten a team in the regular season may cause some “familiarity” and a psychological edge in game-planning along with dissecting tendencies. But following the tried-and-true playoff tenants of Strong Quarterback Play (i.e. Taking Care of the Football), a Good Attacking Defense, a Balanced Offensive Attack (based first in the Run), Sound Special Teams Play, Limiting Penalties/Turnovers; and just plain “Want-To” will be key for the team that leaves Super Bowl XLVI with the Lombardi Trophy.
Former Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams once told me how he dealt with the pressure and hype of being a starting quarterback on the NFL’s Grandest Stage. The former Grambling State star said, “Winning was the only thing on my mind and that I was the quarterback of the Washington Redskins first”.
These two remaining teams need to focus on their precious opportunity to attain the lifetime achievement of being called a “Super Bowl Champion.” They also need to forget everything that has transpired these past 20 weeks leading up to the big game as well as what happened four years ago… there are 30 other envious teams who are dying right now to be in their shoes.
Lloyd’s Leftovers for Super Bowl XLVI
• Being #1 Seed is not what it used to be – Remember when attaining the No. 1 seed in your conference and home field advantage used to mean something back in the day? Think of former Bully Teams: Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns of the ‘50s, Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers of the ‘60s, Chuck Knoll’s Pittsburgh Steelers of the ‘70s, Bill Walsh’s San Francisco 49ers of the ‘80s, Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys of the ‘90s, and Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots of the ‘00s. In today’s parity-laden NFL there are no guarantees to the Super Bowl. However, this year is a little different as the Patriots bucked the odds to become the first No. 1 seed to make it to the big dance since Super Bowl XLIV when top seeds Indianapolis and New Orleans, squared-off. Since 1990 only 21 of 42 number one seeds in the playoffs have made it to the Super Bowl with only nine of those teams winning it all.
• Still watch for everyone’s favorite Super Bowl Commercials – Every year one of the bigger events of the Super Bowl is watching the ads. Thirty-second spots during Super Bowl XLVI were sold for $2.8-$3 million. Already there has been news leaked of Honda putting out a “Ferris Bueller” ad for Super Bowl Sunday. Of course the king of the advertisers, Budweiser – exclusive beer advertiser for 24 years – will be all over your television. Last season Bud locked up its position as the only national beer advertiser in the Super Bowl through 2014. “We wouldn’t have done it if the payoff wasn’t there,” said Anheuser-Busch President Dave Peacock. For everything to do with Super Bowl XLVI’s Ads go to www.superbowl-ads.com
• Just in Case…. Brush up on the new Overtime Rules – Now a game cannot be won on the 1st drive of overtime by a field goal. In this scenario, if the first possession team scores a field goal, the other team would now get a chance to match it and the game would revert to sudden death. Or the second possession team can score a first touchdown for the win. But as always, if the team that wins the coin toss scores a touchdown on the opening drive, then the game would be over. The new system does not guarantee each team a possession. What it does guarantee is the “opportunity for possession” for the second team, if the first team scores a field goal. Also remember there are some other crazy factors – that you know will come into play this postseason – to consider. If a team kicks an onside kick and recovers the ball or gets the ball on a muff, that would be considered a “possession” and a field goal could win it.
• Belichick trying to climb the postseason wins board — New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has compiled a postseason record of 16 – 5 with five SB appearances and three wins (3-1 with a this one pending). With a win this Sunday, Belichick can join Chuck Noll as the only head coaches to have four Super Bowl titles. The Patriots’ sure-fire Pro Football Hall of Famer currently ranks fifth all-time with 16 playoff victories, trailing only Hall of Famers Tom Landry, Don Shula, Joe Gibbs, and Noll.
• Divas will be singing in full force on Super Bowl Sunday – Former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson will have the honor of singing the National Anthem while pop diva matriarch, Madonna, will be performing at halftime to the millions watching at home. Thank goodness this is the kinder, gentler 2012 version of the Material Girl because the network “censors” would have had their fingers right next to the “kill” button for any Janet Jackson type slip-ups if this was the ‘90s “Justify My Love” version of Madonna. It is rumored that she will be joined by hip-hop star Nicki Minaj, pop group LMFAO and rapper Cee Lo Green.
Key, Match-ups, and Pick will be up next….
New York Giants (12-7) vs. New England Patriots (15-3), Sunday February 5th, 6:30 PM ET on NBC
Broadcast Team: Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, and Michelle Tafoya
Lloyd Vance is the Editor for Taking It to the House , who is also an award-winning member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). He is also a contributor for the Sports Journey Broadcast Network. Lloyd can be reached on Twitter @lloydvance_nfl