I suppose a Super Bowl post-mortem would be appropriate, since I’ve done one every time the Patriots won.
First, I want to congratulate New York Giants fans. Yours was the better team last night. The Patriots were merely mortal and Tom Brady was not his usual stellar self, but that aside, the Giants defense was explosive and aggressive against a porous Pats offensive line and the Giants offense scored when it counted.
In the previous 18 games this season, the Patriots had some lucky breaks—last-minute penalties, lucky bounces, incredible catches—that they didn’t get on Sunday and thus they were denied a definitive statement of their uniqueness among football teams. Nevertheless, they still accomplished a lot this season. Among their superlatives is the only 18-win season and the best offense ever.
And there aren’t many footballs fans who can say that the first time they experience their team lose in a season happened in February.
It was a good season that I wished could have ended better. And, again, congratulations to the New York Giants and their fans.
P.S. It was mighty subdued in my office today.
What’s frustrating is that the game was over. Tom Brady drove down for another game-winning Super Bowl drive. The defense would get an interception or fumble, and they would run out the clock, like they always do. And they did get those lucky chances. Eli Manning threw an interception earlier in the game. He almost threw another one on his final drive, and he fumbled the ball. Unfortunately, the Patriots weren’t able to take advantage of those mistakes, and Manning made an amazing escape when they had him sacked. If Brady had a minute left instead of 30 seconds, they would have won the game.
Not to cause you anymore grief than I am sure you feel, the 1985 Bears had a 18-1 record. The main difference is, for the Bears, the 18th victory was the Super Bowl. Sorry. The Pats did have a stellar year, unfortunately the the best players on the team (the O-Line) had a bad day. That was the difference.
was pretty clear right after Manning’s Houdini act on the Giants’ last drive, ending w/ that supernatural catch over the middle, that God’s plan wasn’t going to jive w/ Pat’s Nation wishes; so I turned to my wife and said “If the Giants win this, the pain factor will absolutely rival that of the ‘86 Buckner Red Sox.” The circumstances were entirely different, of course, but the sheer, monumental historicity that the Pats desperately held in their grasp once Moss scored his TD made it so, and I was exactly, miserably correct.
The Patriots are now the Greatest Team to Not Win the Super Bowl! History will remember them well, but they will always have an asterisk because they didn’t win the Game.
Things were pretty subdued in my office too. I’m layout editor, our sports editor is a Pats fan, and the only cheerful thing he said during layout on Tuesday was, “Oh, good, my article’s on the top.” This being the article in which he mourns his heartbreak of Sunday.