New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, celebrating his second Super Bowl victory and second Super Bowl MVP[Ed. note: Apologies for this being nearly a week late. Unfortunately, I just couldn't find the time to post it until long after the Giants celebration parade was finished. Hopefully, the material isn't too outdated for it to be un-readable for you.]
SUPER BOWL XLVI
NEW YORK GIANTS: (21)
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: (17)
Like most Hollywood sequels, this year's Super Bowl rematch between the Patriots and Giants wasn't nearly as good as the match-up the two teams played together four years ago in Glendale, Arizona. Sure, the scoreboard ended up being slightly higher, and sure it had its many moment, with the game even going down to the final possible second with a Hail Mary shot into the endzone. But the game, as entertaining as it was, never had a moment as remarkable as the Tyree play (although NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth did all he could to hype the Mario Manningham 4th quarter sideline catch up into Tyree-level proportions). It also never had a storyline as big as "underdog defeats perfect 18-0 football team" like Super Bowl XLII. If anything else, it's also degraded by how awfully similar it was to that first Super Bowl the two teams first played together. Too similar, in fact (Patriots being the Vegas favorites, Manning outplaying Brady and winning the game's MVP, Coughlin out-coaching Belichick, key mistakes by New England at the end, a final drive by the Giants to take the lead and then winning it thanks to some clutch defense, etc.). If there was one phrase to describe New York's run to the championship, there is none better than "deja vu," because that's how the past month and a half has felt like watching this team reach the NFL's mountaintop.
Sunday's game began for the Giants the way that it ended, with the team catching almost all the break. Nearly every drive, every key play and every important call by the refs went in favor of New York that first quarter. It began after their first offensive drive failed to move farther into New England territory, with team punter Sam Weatherford kicking the football all the way down into the Patriots own six yard line. One play later, in one of his most unproffessional moments of his entire career, Brady threw the ball away deep down the middle to nobody while in the end zone and as Justin Tuck was trying to bring him down, a play in which referee John Parry ruled as a safety. Suddenly, the Giants had themselves a 2-0 lead, and by rule had their offense receive the ball right back immediately after. It was an impressive drive by the Giants, with Manning starting it out 5-for-5 in completions and Ahmad Bradshaw rushing for 28 yards. Then, on 3rd & 3 at the Patriots 11 yard line, New York caught themselves another break when the refs ruled a 12 men on the field penalty against the Patriots on a play in which Brandon Spikes stripped the ball caught by Victor Cruz. Two plays later, the team would capitalize on their lucky break with Manning throwing the football in very tight coverage to Cruz in the end zone for the touchdown. Now it was 9-0 G-men.
But as everyone who has seen the Patriots play football in the last decade know, just because the team started it badly doesn't mean that they're knocked down quickly. Not with Tom Brady, and not in as big of a stage as this game was. Immediately after the Giants scored, this veteran New England team came right back with a scoring drive of its own, driving down the field 70 yards for a Stephen Gostkowski field goal. Then, after a ten minute period in which nothing of importance happened outside of Giants tight end Travis Beckum being injured, the Patriots received the ball right back with four minutes remaining in the half down at their own 2 yd. line following another wonderful punt by Weatherford.
What followed was a nearly four minute drive which showed just why they were the AFC's top offense this season, driving down the field 98 yards and ending with a 3 yard score to give New England their first lead of the night. Brady, who threw for 5,236 yards in the regular season, went a perfect 10-for-10 on the drive to four different receivers, including tight end star Rob Gronkowski, who caught one of only two passes in a game that clearly showed the effect of his injured ankle on his performance.The scoring would continue immediately in the start of the second half, with the team receiving the football and driving down the field another 80 yards for yet another score, this time on a 12 yard TD pass from Brady to Aaron Hernandez. And just like that, the team which started the game off so poorly finished scoring 17 unanswered points to take an 8 point lead in this game. The momentum had been clearly shifted.
By the time the fourth quarter had begun, the Patriots were leading 17-15, thanks to two subsequent drives by the New York offenses that resulted in two field goals by kicker Lawrence Tynes, closening the gap on New England (one of those drives also featured another big break in favor of New York, with a 2nd and 9 that resulted in fullback Henry Hynoski recovering a ball that the Patriots' Jared Mayo stripped from Hakeem Nicks). Once again, the stage was set for what was sure to be yet another close finish between these two teams. On the second play of the quarter, Brady ran a play that could be best described as what would have happened had the famous David Tyree catch four years ago worked the other way around. He got out a tackle, moved out of the pocket and to the right, threw it deep downfield to Gronkowski, only to have that pass caught by linebacker Chase Blackburn, who made a great effort in chasing down the not-fully-health tight end and get into the correct position to catch the ball. Unfortunately for Blackburn, his team was unable to do anything with that interception outside of recovering one of their owen fumbles for the third time (this time the fumble came from Bradshaw), and the Patriots ended up receiving the football right back at their own 8 yard line.
That 4th quarter for the Patriots started out great. On a 3rd & 3 deep inside their own territory, Brady was able to connect with Woodhead for a 19 yard gain, continuing the drive. Two plays later, it was Brady, again, completing his pass to Welker, followed by two more passes to Gronkowski and Hernandez. Suddenly, the Patriots found themselves with five minutes left in Giants territory facing a defense that had only one timeout remaining (they had just spent their first two on the previous drive). It was New England's game for the taking. All they needed were just a few first downs and that would've clinched their fourth title in franchise history for good. But then Welker uncharacteristically dropped a pass as he was wide open on 2nd down, and then Deion Branch (a Super Bowl MVP himself a mere seven years before) missed his chance at catching a pass on 3rd and 11. The Giants offense were going to have the ball with 3:53 remaining on the clock and one final shot at taking the lead. The reaction from the Patriots defense during this point in the game pretty much says it all.
So now here was Eli Manning's chance to lead his offense to victory. He had a similar situation happen to him when these two teams played each other four years ago in the Super Bowl, and this past November in their regular season re-match. Both times, he successfully pulled it off. And from the first play of the drive, it was hard not to believe that it would happen again. On that play, Manning threw the ball in a pass down the sidelines to Mario Manningham (who in the previous drive stopped a big play from happening when he caught a catch out of bounds, erasing what would've been a 20+ yard game), and Manningham was able catch the ball and have both feet in bounds despite being closely covered by two Patriots defenders. The catch proved to be a very valuable play, both in that drive and in that entire game, and all Patriots coach Bill Belichick could do was watch it unfold right next to him while challenging the play to hopefully see if it could be somehow overturned (it didn't.)
The drive continued. After an incomplete pass, Manningham caught two more Manning passes to take the offense down to the Patriots own 32 yard line. The very next play: another completion, this time to Hakeem Nicks that sent the game to the two minute warning. And on and on that Giants offense marched, to the point where it was 2nd & 6 and the team was six yards away from scoring the game winning touchdown. At this point in the game, it seemed as if the Giants were probably going to rush it up the middle for a few more plays, stopping the clock just in time for Tynes to attempt the game winning field goal. If you watched the game you already knew what happened next: Bradshaw running with none of the Patriots defenders attempting to block him (as by the order of Belichick, who decided that he would rather have Brady throw the football in the final minute than rely on his special teams to stop what would have been a field goal from PAT range), realizing the situation, trying to make an effort to stop just short of the end zone, and then falling on his butt for a touchdown when he realized it was too late.
In my many years of watc
hing the Super Bowl, Bradshaw's TD was one of the strangest scores that I've ever seen. After all, the position that Bradshaw put himself is a moment that many dream of, the chance to charging into the end zone in the final minute and helping his team win the game, being celebrated as a hero by his team's fan in the process, like Terrell Davis in Super Bowl XXXII. And yet, he treated the end zone as if were hot lava, stopping just before he passed the mark and made one last second attempt to kneel down and give the Patriots offense less time to score before reluctantly deciding to go through with it just because his momentum was already too great. It was glory being overshadowed by selfishness, and it helped in making one of the most anticlimactic score in NFL history.After failing to convert a two-point conversion, the Patriots got the ball back with under 0:50 seconds left on the game clock. Brady was able to manage a drive that took his team all the way down to midfield with five seconds remaining for one throw-able Hail Mary attempt, but it was no use. New York's defense stopped the Patriots receivers from catching the football in the end zone, and that was the end of that. Once again, the Giants bested the Patriots in a close one. New York picked up its fourth Super Bowl title in franchise history, while the Patriots became the 4th team ever to lose four Super Bowl in franchise history and Tom Coughlin became the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl.
And as for Eli Manning? Well, let's just say that he deserves every bit of the MVP award that he won after going an impressive 30-for-40 with nearly 300 yards, along with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Back in August, he said that he saw himself in the same class of quarterbacks as Tom Brady. Seven months later, and now with his second Super Bowl victory in the record books, I'm pretty sure that more people agree with him on that statement that ever before.
So, yeah, not a bad game, and not a bad end to what has been a relatively entertaining post-lockout season. But what about all the other stuff that occurred during Super Bowl Sunday? Don't worry, I have my thoughts on all of these things too...
Kelly Clarkson Singing "The Star Spangled Banner": After Christina Aguilera's infamous performance of the national anthem at last year's Super Bowl, I would've considered Clarkson's performance to be a gem if she had just memorized all of the words correctly (and considering the fact that she sung the anthem numerous times before, I had no worries in that department). And memorize the lyrics she did, all while performing the anthem in a very respectable manner. She sang it with grace, she sang it without trying to over-do the whole thing, and she did it like a true professional, hardly showing her nervousness performing in front of over a combined 100 million people both in the stadium and at home. Overall, a solid effort by Clarkson, and further proof that female American Idol alums should just be the permanent singers of the national anthem every Super Bowl Sunday (I'm not even joking with this one. Has there ever been a time in the past five years where a former "American Idol" singer, whether Jordin Sparks or Jennifer Hudson or whoever, ever sang the anthem badly? I certainly can't remember.)
Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton singing "America the Beautiful": Ditto. I'm not that big of a country music fan, but both of them did an amicable job performing together. Not much else to say with this one.
Jake Ballard's Falling on the Giants Sidelines in the 4th Quarter: Good Lord, was this cringe-inducing to watch live! Here was Ballard, a few plays after he suffered an injury to his knee, trying to test it and see if he can ever return to the game or not (at the time, Ballard was the Giants' only available tight end at the time with Beckum's injury earlier in the game, so once he became injured himself they essentially had no one to play that position). Next thing you know, he looked like Barbaro at the Preakness, falling down trying to run straight and holding his knee in what looked to be even greater pain. Two days later on the same day that Ballard was supposed to be celebrating with his teammates it was announced by the Giants medical staff that he suffered an ACL tear, and who knows what will happen of his career in the future as a result of this. A bittersweet night for Ballard, indeed.
Rush Limbaugh Picking His Nose: Man, even when he has boogers in his nose, he goes to the right! Say what you will about Rush, but at least the guy is consistent.
Madonna Singing in the Halftime Show: Before we get down to the actual show itself, let's just get to the thing that I'm sure this halftime show will be remembered for the most in years to come: M.I.A., the self-consciously edgy female rapper/pop singer doing something self-consciously edgy by flipping the bird in the middle of the performance, and possibly receiving a fine from the FCC as a result. Not since Janet Jackson helped coined the term "wardrobe malfunction" in Super Bowl XXXVIII has there ever been a moment in the Super Bowl halftime show that has sparked such outrage by the Parents' Television Council and all the Helen Lovejoy types who were upset at the possibility of precious little children noticing a hand gesture that matched the lyrics she was singing. Personally, I really don't see what the big deal was, but maybe it's just that I was one of the many who were to distracted by the graphics to notice that one second gesture. Hell, it wasn't even among the top three raciest thing to happen during that performance! I just find it hard to believe that all these people would be so focused on this, while hardly paying attention to all the various vagina wavings and all the unbleeped words like "shit" and "nigga." If anything, you actually helped give M.I.A. what she wanted all along from this: additional publicity, and just in time for the upcoming release of her newest album this summer.
Now, as for the rest of the show: in itself, it wasn't all that great. Madonna was understandably nervous about singing in what turned out to be an audience of 114 million people, and it showed many times throughout the performance. Also, it had LMFAO, and my dislike of the band has reached "Whitney" levels of despising. On the other hand, it was still one of the finer halftime show that I've seen in years, better than the majority of the ones that we've seen given by aging rockers and terrible pop groups like the Black Eye Peas. Cee-Lo Green/Nicki Minaj/M.I.A. were fine in their supportive roles, and I rather enjoyed the fun, cheer leading themed middle portion. The last time I enjoyed a halftime show this much, Pink was singing "Purple Rain" on an electric guitar in actual rain. Besides, it had a man in a robe jumping on a wire! Doesn't get any better than that!
The NBC Broadcast: Throughout this past season, NBC has consistently given NFL fans some of the highest quality telecasts of the games from any network, and this past Sunday night was no exception. The additional cameras that were added specifically for this game proved to be money well spent, and their NBCEE-It technology, which gave fans the ability to see close-ups of every play in crystal-clear quality, was put to good use when the referees for this game had to review Mario Manningham's catch. Also, as Awful Announcing pointed out, I rather appreciated the reserved nature of their broadcast. In a two week period that made this game arguably the most hyped up in Super Bowl history, it was rather nice for them to cast almost all of the hype aside and focus on what mattered the most: the actual football game. No shots of Peyton Manning in the booth, no mention of Eli trying to win a Super Bowl in "the house his brother built" until after game, none of that. Sadly, if only they could have applied that same strategy to directing Tom Brady graphics.
I also rather enjoyed the announcing by both Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, up to a point. Michaels was Michaels, showing once again he's one of his proffession's most respected play-by-play man (he even had one of his patented "New Or-lee-uns" troll pronunciations, which I always enjoy). And Collinsworth...well, he wasn't perfect, that's for sure. I've already brought up his need to try to immediately hype of Manningham's 4th quarter catch to Tyree-level proportions, but let's also not forget his call after Welker's big drop when he said that Welker would normally make this catch "100 times out of 100." He also had this weird moment (also in the 4th, interesting enough) where he had one of the weirdest transitions I've ever seen, in which he used Michael's mentioning of how BenJarvus Green-Ellis never fumbled the football in his entire career to talk about the impact Hurricane Katrina had on Green-Ellis's family seemingly at random just so he could say something. In other words, a pretty hit-or-miss night for what is supposed to be one of the more tolerant NFL analysts during a game.
The Commercials: While watching the Super Bowl, my initial reaction of the commercials was the same that I've gotten every Super Bowl over the past few years: that of disappointment. On the one hand, there were pretty much zero ads this time around involving shots into the groin, a traditional staple of the lazy Super Bowl commercials in the previous years. Some companies (like "Bud Light," for instance) even decided to grow up and run ads that were more serious and more mature. Also, as with every year, I ended up liking more individual ads than I downright hated. On the other hand, outside of a few gems here and there, this year's class will probably go down in my mind as arguably the least memorable slate of Super Bowl ads to date (that is, until its inevitably succeeded by next year's ads). There were very few that I would have considered to be "instant classics" and far more that I would consider to be more hype than substance: safe, lacking creativity and just not fit of the "Super Bowl ads" mystique that seems to grow every year (along with the $3.5 million per 30 seconds price tag). In other words, they were "meh" at best.
But enough about this year's ads in general. Now let's talk about which individual ads worked and which ones were downright terrible. Here are the ads that I would consider to be the best and worst from Super Bowl XLVI:
The Best:
- Chrysler, "Halftime in America with Clint Eastwood"
Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the one that will go down for me as the crowning jewel of Sunday's Super Bowl commercials. Trying to capture the success and rave reviews from last year's "Imported From Detroit" ad featuring rapper Eminem (another Super Bowl gem in and of itself), the Detroit auto company decided to run an ad just after Madonna's halftime show that featured Clint Eastwood (whose last movie as an actor, "Gran Torino," was filmed in Michigan) making an inspiring speech about how, just like the game's still in halftime, America is in halftime, too. And even though America (or, more specifically, Detroit) has been beaten down quite a bit over the years, there's still another half for the country to pick itself by their boot straps and let the world "hear the roar of our engines," so to speak. The production of the ad was stupendous (and, I imagine, expensive) and so good that if Eastwood had announced right then and there that he was running for President, I would have given some serious thoughts to vote for him. I mean, it's hard not to consider it when the guy still looks like he can kick your ass at age 81.
- Volkswagen, "The Dog Strikes Back"
In another attempt to try to re-create the success of their ad from a year before, Volkswagen aired an ad of an overweight dog getting fit to the tune of James Brown in order to get past the doggy door and chase after their company's car. But just when you think the ad was over, lo and behold we are transported to the Cantina bar from the first "Star Wars" movie where we see two aliens argue over whether this ad, which they watched along with us, was better than last year's famous ad with the kid dressed as Darth Vader (you know the one). The one who said that this year's ad was better ended up being choked by what appears to have been Vader himself. While I thought the addition of the aliens were superfluous, the ad was still adorable enough for me to let it slide, and much better than the upcoming 3D re-release of the prequels. Should be interesting to see what the car company does next year to inevitably end its trilogy of "Star Wars" ads.
- Chevy Silverado, "2012'
So, apparently, using a Chevy Silverado during the apocalypse is the equivalent of being a cockroach. I'll buy that. In all seriousness, I liked how they were able to poke fun at the idea of the Mayan apocalypse, putting a sense of humor to the whole thing, all while taking a quick little shot at Ford (proving that even though they're both American car companies, the friendly competition between the two still lives on). Plus, it had Twinkies. Ads with Twinkies, to me, are always in favor.
- Sketchers, "Go Fun Mr. Quiggly!"
In this ad, we see a tiny little French bulldog competing in a dog racing event full of bigger, stronger greyhounds and winning it handily thanks to the help of his two pairs of Sketchers shoes. It was a simple ad with a simple premise, and it paid off well, largely because of the dog's adorableness. One of the few ads that night which made me smile. Also, "Mr. Quiggly"? Fantastic name for a dog.
- Bud Light, "Wego the Dog"
While I'm in the topic of discussing good ads involving dogs, another one that worked well was this ad from Bud Light that also included a message to save rescue dogs from animal shelters. In it, the company used it's tag line from the past year "Here We Go" and turn it into an ad in which there was a dog named "Wego" who confused people's mentioning of the slogan as a sign that they wanted a beer. It certainly put the company's other ads that night to shame (and I will get to some of those later).
- Kia, "A Dream Car. For Real Life"
A day of Super Bowl commercials would not be complete without some good ole' fashion sexism, and that was certainly the case this year. However, I did appreciate how some companies tried to be original in the manner which they tried to target products to men and using sex and masculinity. This Kia commercial is one example of this. Sure, the ad started out what you would expect, with a man dreaming of Adrianna Lima in a revealing outfit and driving 200 mph to Motley Crue music and babes in bikinis cheering him on. But how often do these ads usually end with the man deciding to go back to his wife? Not very often, that's for sure.
- Marvel, "The Avengers- Trailer"
Yeah, I don't think I'll be a rebel when I say that this was the best movie trailer of the many that aired on Sunday. And it was followed by a Victoria's Secret ad? Twelve year old me would have exploded!
-Budweiser, "Prohibition"
Did you know that there once was a time when Budweiser could not be legally bought and sold for 13 years? Well, Budweiser remembers, and they don't want you to forget the joy we felt when those first Clydesdales came rushing to St. Louis with the newest batches of cold brew just waiting for your consumption. Overall, much like the Chrysler ad with Eastwood, I appreciated the company for putting great effort into this ads. The production was gorgeous, although I didn't like how they essentially spoiled the ending of "Boardwalk Empire" to everybody.
- NFL, "NFL Safety Timeline"
It's goal was to convince viewers watching the game that the NFL has made an effort to continually improve player safety, and despite whatever former NFLPA players might play about that statement, it worked really well in its minute of air-time.
-Toyota Camry, "Reinvented."
One of the main themes of this year's Super Bowl ads were companies trying to throw as many jokes as possible in a short span of time in order to see which ones stick. This commercial, about Toyota continuing to reinvent life just like it reinvented its newest Camry, was one of those ads, yet it was probably one of the best in doing so. I particularly enjoyed the first thirty seconds, which featured a cop that does massages while arresting you, a couch made of both men and women (particularly the guy's "I'm fine with this" reaction), a baby that time travels for some reason, and a DMV that is just slightly nicer (notice that she still has that smile even while giving the customer ice cream).
- Best Buy, "Phone Innovators"
In a nice twist to the idea of bringing in celebrities to endorse a product, Best Buy decided to switch things up a bit by asking the people behind the creation of many notable inventions to the cell phone before announcing that they are the one-stop shop to helping you pick a phone that's just right for you. It's a really well done ad, and I especially enjoyed the ad poking fun at recent events, with the co-creators of Words With Friends being asked to stop playing it on the play, much like Alec Baldwin from a month ago.
- Audi, "Vampire Party"
I'm not sure why a car company would try to make an ad in which they advertised the bright lights of one of their most heavily promoted models, but I guess that's what Audi wanted. And you know what? They sent that message pretty clearly in this one, which featured vampires being blown up at the sight of light. When watching this commercial for the first time, my dad (mj50) hated it, and complained that it was $3.5 million spent terribly by the company. Me? Personally, the ad grew with me overtime.
- Chevy Sonic, "Stunt Anthem"
To me, this ad was one of the most inspired of this year's Super Bowl, with the company deciding to have fun with its new Sonic by having it flip, bungee jump, and fall from the sky with OK Go strapped in it. Overall, the ad did a great job in trying to brand the Sonic as an exciting car to have for young people, and the music playing in the background ("We Are Young" by Janelle Monae) was an excellent choice. Made all the other non-Chevy cars advertised that night look like Oldsmobiles by comparison.
- NBC, "Brotherhood of Man"
Technically, this wasn't a Super Bowl ad as this aired a couple of hours before kickoff. And yet, I still enjoyed this more than 95% of the other things which happened that night. It felt like an old-school promo that you would see by networks trying to sell their upcoming fall line-ups in the '80s and '90s, and it had some great moments, from Ron Swanson singing to the cast of "Law and Order: SVU" really trying to sell it to, of course, the fact that "Community" was one of the more prominently featured shows there. It's at least good to know that the network still knows of their existence, even if they still have that show on hiatus.
- Honorable Mentions: Acura NSX, "Seinfeld"; Pepsi Max, "Coke Zero Winner"; Doritos, "Man's Best Friend,"; Chevy, "Happy Grad,"; Honda, "Matthew's Day Off,"; Bridgestone, "Performance Basketball"; Fiat, "Seduction" (say what you will about its objectification, but it was probably one of the more effective ads in getting your attention).
The Worst:
5. Hyundai, "Rocky"
I'm not sure what the point of this ad was, but it was a poor waste of cash to advertise it. The only bright side to it was that I'm pretty sure that all those involved had a fun time doing it. Otherwise, it was a bad idea from the start for Hyundai to make this.
4. NBC Thursday Comedies, "Crank"
The channel that gave us one of the day's best ads also gave us one of the worst. Hey, NBC, way to show once again how bad your promo department is! It's one thing to spoil key moments of an episode while running an ad, but it's another thing entirely when you advertisement your shows without focusing on them at all.
3. Bud Light Platinum, "Work"
On the one hand, I appreciate Bud Light trying to mature its image and making it seem as if their new product was the elegant choice of any party. On the other hand, this ad and with the one that played Kanye West's "Runaway" in the background were two of the dullest to air that night, with absolutely no originality from all of the "classy beer" ads that have aired in the past and with seemingly no concrete ideology outside "Bud Light Platinum: Bud Light's older, less interesting older brother." And if there's anything that I hate more than commercials that are unfunny, it's commercials that are unfunny and just plain lazy...which is what this one is.
2. Samsung Galaxy, "Thing Called"
This is just an example of a company trying to hard to make their ad entertaining all while trying to separate themselves from the competition and failing. I mean, is a pen that can write on your phone really something that you would want to say makes you better than the iPhone? This was a commercial that was also a minute longer than it should have been. I don't know about you, but I thought they could've given their message just fine without the too-long musical number at the end. Overall, it's an ad that should've gone back to the drawing board when it was first pitched, and one that I hope the company responds next year with a much better one.
1. GoDaddy.com, "The Cloud"
The king of the terrible Super Bowl ads strikes again! After having the worst set of commercials in the past two Super Bowls, GoDaddy.com returned with yet another bad 30 second commercial whose sole purpose was to woo gullible men onto their website with the tease of something that's just too unrated for TV. Then, of course, you watch it and you find out that the ad is even more unwatchable than it's shortened version. But since the company has been repeating this same formula for years and doesn't appear to be stopping it anytime soon, I have to ask: who are these people that still fall for it & go onto their website to see the rest, and how are they all not 13 years old?
-Dishonorable Mention: Cars.com, "Confident You"; Dannon Oikos Yogurt, "Tease"; Career Builder, "The Business Trip" (another commercials with the monkeys? can't they think of something else to do?); Bud Light, "Welcome to Halftime."
Miscellaneous:
a. This Patriots team may not have won the Super Bowl, but at least they did something on Sunday that no other AFC team has done in 15 years: winning the coin toss. That's something, right?
b. This is the fourth time in five years that an NFC team has won a Super Bowl. Is it possible that we have now entered an all new era of conference domination, much like how the NFC dominated during the '80s to mid '90s and how the AFC dominated the game from the late '90s to mid '00s?
c. Looking over the box score for this game, it really amazing to see just how close these two teams played against each other in this game. The Giants only ended up having 4 more first downs, 9 more plays total, less than 50 more yards total (including only 12 more yards passing), and only 1 less penalty. They're only major area of dominance was in time possession, with the team holding the ball for over 37 minutes to the Patriots' 23 minutes. Not a surprise, considering how this game was only decided by four mere points and a few inches of separation on that final play between Gronkowski and the ball.
d. One other thing that I found interesting to see was seeing how badly the Patriots rushing defense played for most of the game. The pass rush has been criticized many times all throughout the season, and they should be criticized for failing to stop Eli Manning from completing 75% of his throws, but that was supposed to be expected of them. The Patriots defense, meanwhile, didn't come in with similar criticisms, yet ended up looking just as poor, allowing over 114 yards by both Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs.
e. The weirdest part about this Super Bowl is the fact that we now have to consider both Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning as two future Hall of Famers, even when the New York media were calling for their heads not too long ago. Also, the fact that Eli has officially more Super Bowl rings than his brother Peyton, who only has one. Let those two things sink in for a moment...
f. On the second to last play of the game, the Giants had twelve men on the field, giving them a penalty but also wasting seven seconds on the clock. If that was done on purpose by New York (and I have a good feeling that it was), then that was simply a brilliant move by Tom Coughlin, even if it was a little dirty. At that point of the game, the clock was all that mattered, and since a 12 men on the field penalty wouldn't allow the clock to go back to the time that it was before the play, it meant that the Giants would've been able to put in as much players as they wanted to stop Brady from making a big play all while costing New England those seven seconds that they lost forever. Since the NFL is known to be a copycat, I would not be surprised if this strategy were to repeat itself many more times in the future (that is, unless the NFL Rules Committee does something about it).
g. Around 111.3 million people tuned in to watch this game, making this Super Bowl the most watched TV show in U.S. television history, just beating out last year's Super Bowl, which had 111 million viewers. This is the third year in the row in which the Super Bowl became the most watched thing in TV history. I don't know about you guys, but I think that this sport of football may be catching on here in North America.
h. Do Southerners and rural residents actually enjoy NBC pandering to them with Faith Hill's theme song before every game?
i. You go, Rob Gronkowski! Dance the pain (both the loss and the ankle injury) away!
j. Bad sportswriting time! Here's the Boston Globe' Eric Wilbur trying to make Tom Brady the goat of this game in his column Monday morning:
"A performance as bad as Tom Brady's tonight in Super Bowl XLVI deserves a lead just as lame.
Sorry, Tommy Boy, this one's on you. Your hideous performance led to the Giants' 21-17 Super Bowl title win. How embarrassing for your coach, your teammates, and your fan."
First of all, the whole notion that Tom Brady played a terrible game is bogus. I don't think that I would ever a game performance in which the man threw 27 completions for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns "hideous." Furthermore, I don't think that the blame shouldn't be put so much on Brady as it should to the wide receivers making drops and the defense for failing to pick up loose balls by the Giants and for allowing Eli Manning to score 3 touchdowns on him. But perhaps that's just me making sense.
k. Speaking of bad sportswriter, what was up with Rick Reilly going on ESPN hours after the Super Bowl and saying that the Giants and Patriots should play in the Super Bowl every year? Does he know that by doing so it makes the entire regular season and postseason meaningless if these only these two teams get a shot at the title? I wonder how much ESPN paid him to think of that sentence. Whatever it is, it's too much.
l. What a night for Giants rookie Greg Jones. First, his team wins the Super Bowl, and then he gets to propose to his girlfriend.Basically, he was the anti-Jake Ballard on Sunday.
So, that's all that I have to say about this game (for now). Once again, congratulations to Giants fans on their team winning the Super Bowl. Sure, your team wasn't the best all throughout the season...or one of the five best..or even one of the ten best, but you got hot when it counted, and that's all that matters in the end. Also, I apologize for the long time that it took for me to finally finish writing it. Hopefully the fact that I accomplished it within the week helps you forgive me faster. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, and at least try to enjoy the six month break between this and the return of football
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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