Covenant of the Gridiron 02.04.08: NFL Super Bowl Breakdown

Posted by Derek Robbins on 02.04.2008

The 2007-2008 season finally wraps up, but who came out on top? Would we have the first ever 19-0 team? Would the Giants upset the Patriots creating possibly the greatest upset of all time? All that and more as 411's Derek Robbins breaks down Super Bowl XLII

Hello and welcome to this week's Covenant of the Gridiron! I don't really have a whole lot that I feel I need to hit on before I start, but there is one thing I wish to say before I continue

-I now have every track that is in the new Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Let me tell you, historically, this is probably the finest soundtrack in videogame history. Seriously, if ANY other game were to win Soundtrack of the Year next year…it'd be a complete farce. Excellent, excellent job Nintendo.

With that said, letsa' go.

Breakdown of the Super Bowl

New York Giants 17 vs.New England Patriots 14

Finally, the football season draws to a close as the New England Patriots wrap up a hard fought victory and clinched an un-defeated season for the first time sin…wait, what? Is that score accurate? Two hours after the game ended, I sit here asking myself: "Did this really happen? Did…the Giants just beat the Patriots?" This was shocking, shocking, shocking…and perhaps the biggest upset in National Football League history. Right now, it's looking like it ranks up there with Broadway Joe versus Johnny U. How did this happen though? How did the New York Giants unseat the behemoth Patriots?

Every week it seemed like the Giants were the underdogs. They weren't supposed to beat the Buccaneers, and yet they made the game look easy. Ahhh…but that was a fluke, right? They proceeded to win next week's game in Dallas. Dallas felt they had been robbed, and a lot of other people did as well…so surely Brett Favre would put an end to this. We'd have that Favra/Brady Super Bowl right? Wrong again! The Giants defensively pummeled the Packers and found themselves in the big game. This time, surely, the Patriots would end their success…but that wasn't the case again! Defensively the Giants outplayed New England and Offensively, they did as well. This isn't a case of New England "losing " the game…it's a case of New York winning it. Simply put, my point is that every single game in the post-season the Giants were supposed to lose, but here they are at the end. The last team standing.

At the start of the first quarter, the Giants came out looking rather fierce. They went for a long drive that stalled out at the very end resulting in a field goal. Eli looked good here, the running game looked good here. The Giants appeared to want to shut up their critics right away, but…before that could happen, the Patriots promptly answered by putting seven points of their own on the board. Though the points were scored by Lawrence Maroney, the majority of the drive was put together by the modern day Joe Montana, Tom Brady. This took us into the second quarter, where the score was 7-3. The Patriots were on top, where many figured they would stay.

The quarter dragged on and on, and it became quite the boring game. The defenses were battling each other fiercly, without either one really seeing an advantage. A trend started to develop though. The Giants pass rush was absolutely fierce throughout the entire game and Tom Brady could barely maintain his stance long enough to throw a bomb. Watching the Giants defense play was actually kind of exciting, and I'm a fairly offensive guy. Not much the Patriots could do though. With four guys rushing the quarterback, getting excellent penetration…they had seven guys to cover the various receivers, and even the best of them can't usually over-come those odds. The defense back-and-forth went into halftime now with the score 7-3 still.

Tom Petty put on a pretty good show (compared to the usual at least) at half time, but that wasn't what everyone was wondering. Could the Giants continue their impressive defense against New England? Usually in these sorts of games the Patriots get behind, but they find a way to win. Their tradition as far as the big game is concerned is to get down and then come back. Give the opposition a sniff of hope and then dash it away at the last second. Could this possibly happen again? With as good as the Giants defense had been playing…it was hard to believe that.

Quarter 3 was relatively hard to watch. More of the same we saw from quarter two with a back and forth defensive struggle. While it is fun to see a tight game, it seemed obvious that if things stayed like this the Patriots would win. If neither team scored again, the 7 would hold up over the 3 and all would be good. That said, the Giants Pass Rush was STILL phenomenal and they were holding the offensively high-charged Patriots to well below their season average. A lot of people theorized that if the Giants kept it a low scoring game that they would actually have a chance to win, but how would it turn out?

The 4th Quarter is make or break time. You either win or you don't. History suggests that there won't be over-time in the big game…so if the Giants were to win, they'd have to do it in this quarter. Boy did they answer. Eli Manning made a transformation in this quarter from "Stuck in the Shadow of Peyton" to "Playoff Hero". The start of this was an impressive drive that started with 14:52 left in the 4th and ended with 11:10 left in the quarter. Was this a long, time crushing drive? No! But it was impressive for what it was. It opened with Eli throwing a long 45 yard pass to Kevin Boss. After a couple of short runs from Ahmad Bradshaw, Eli threw another pass for 17 yards to Bruce Meriweather and shortly after that he iced the drive with a 5 yard touchdown to David Tyree. When Eli needed to make plays, he made them. If the defense could hold up, this game would be over. The Giants would upset the Patriots.

Sadly for New York, it wasn't that simple. They were playing New England after all. This team could be compared to many of the greatest dynasties in sports history. Tom Brady threw for 71 total yards on the Patriots next scoring drive (started at 7:54, ended at 2:45) and led New England to a 10-7 advantage. This drive was important because Randy Moss – who had been relatively ineffective on the day – netted a touchdown pass. The favorites were now ahead 14-10 and all hope appeared to be lost. These were the Patriots. They didn't blow leads like these…right?

Back in 2002, in Super Bowl XXXVI, The St. Louis Rams appeared to be taking the game into over-time against the surprising New England Patriots. Nobody gave New England a chance, as the Rams had been one of the best teams of all time that year. They were an offensive power-house. With 1:30 left in the fourth quarter, young Tom Brady led an improbably Patriots drive into Ram's territory. The Patriots were running out of time though, and with seven seconds left, Adam Vinatieri attempted a 48 yard field goal. The rest, is history. A dynasty was born on this day.

With 2:39 left in the fourth quarter, young Eli Manning was given quite a problem. He was three down against possibly the greatest team of all time and his team was deep in their own territory (the 17). Eli Manning threw for 77 yards on this drive (six more than Brady on his touchdown drive), but none of this would have happened if it weren't for one amazing play. On third down, Eli Manning evaded tremendous pressure – it appeared he was destined to get sacked – and launched a ball 32 yards to David Tyree. He leapt and made a fantastic catch. When this happened, it seemed as though it was destiny. The Giants were going to score. Eventually, they did just that as Eli found Plaxico Burress – who earlier in the week had made a guarantee that they would unseat the Patriots – on a thirteen yard touchdown pass. The score was now 17-14m, Eli had topped Tom's impressive drive in the 36th Super Bowl. Would this be enough to end the Patriots? There were 29 seconds left on the clock when Brady and the Pats got the ball back.

The defense, which had come up huge throughout the game was able to totally stump the Patriots here. They sacked Brady for 10 yards on the second play of the drive and they just couldn't bounce back from it. Brady proceeded to throw two incomplete passes, the ball was now officially back in the hands of Big Blue, and with one second left on the clock, history appeared to be made. The Giants had slain the monster.

Up until the fourth quarter, if the Giants won their MVP was to be Michael Strahan. With the impressive play of Eli in the fourth quarter, it seemed like the right move was to give it to the younger Manning. Back to back years, Peyton and Eli were Super Bowl MVPs. For the first time ever, two brothers won Super Bowls back to back, and looking at Peyton…he seemed to be happier than when even he won the big game.

This game will go down as the one in which the underdog toppled the potential dynasty. This could be a huge stepping stone for the Giants as it was for the Patriots when they beat the Rams in 2002. If it's not, it's okay…because the Giants have their ring. Though they weren't always the best team, they sure as hell played like they were and they made it here. The Patriots started their legacy against the Rams…and the Giants could very well start theirs against New England.

- Big Props to the Giants. They earned this. The Patriots did not lose this game. New York won it.

Super Bowl Awards

Losing Team MVP Wes Welker (WR) - Tom Brady didn't play his best game today – many attribute this to his ankle – but somebody on the Pats DID step up big. The Giants had Randy Moss covered all day long, but Welker was able to pick up the slack with 11 receptions – the most by either team – and 13 total yards in reception. In this game, he looked like a legitimate star and his play helped the Patriots score their second touchdown. Welker had proven to be such an asset that they actually double covered HIM instead of Randy Moss (who ended up scoring the touchdown thanks to that). Welker deserves a lot of praise for his performance tonight.

Best Defense of the Day New York Giants - If you had told me the Giants would win the Super Bowl, I could have seen it. After all, they had been hot. If you had told me that the Giants would win the Super Bowl AND that they out-played the Patriots I just wouldn't believe it. But here we are. The biggest reason for this would have to be the defense. The Giants defense didn't allow this dynamic Patriots offense to even garner 300 yards. Another big issue was the fact that the Patriots couldn't even muster up 50 yards on the ground. When you can't effectively run the ball, bad things happen. In all facets of the game, the Giants defense dominated and they deserve some credit.

Game MVP Eli Manning - I wouldn't have believed this was going to happen coming into the fourth quarter. If the Giants won, this would have gone to Strahan who was in the middle of every big defensive play it seemed…but…Eli put together two impressive drives – the final one was one of the best I have ever seen – and carried his team to a victory. Some people felt that Eli was simply along for the ride. He didn't make mistakes and the Giants simply won because he wasn't turning the ball over. Well tonight, Eli won the game with a couple of impressive drives. Just…amazing.

- Big Props to the younger Manning.
Wrap Up

Well, this is the last Covenant of the Gridiron of the season. I appreciate everyone who read what I had to write every week. I'll be back next year at the start of the '08 season…and I sincerely look forward to next year's season.

You can always e-mail me at [e-mail] or [e-mail] if you want to praise, criticize, etc. me. Or you can always comment below.

Hopefully I can land a gig writing about baseball here. I don't know if I can go 7 months without writing about sports, haha.

Thanks for sticking around, people.

Til' the Crossroads