Make no mistake, I'm a diehard Patriots fan. But I wasn't surprised by the result. My prediction for the game was 24-21 Giants. Why?
They beat us 4 years ago in the Super Bowl and they beat us this year at home. I didn't care what Vegas said about the odds or point favorite being the Pats — the Giants are a better team.
I told at least a dozen people over the last two weeks that I expected the Giants to win. That's not to say that I wasn't there rooting for the Pats on every play — I was. And when 10 big wigs from Maine predicted the score of the big game in Saturday's paper, only Stephen King astutely predicted a 24-17 Giants win. And he's an acknowledged New England fan just like I am!
So what happened?
The Giants got most of the breaks and New England's offense failed them at a critical time. Case in point: New Englad forced three fumbles and the Giants got back every one of them.
And when the Pats were ahead on the scoreboard and trying to run down the clock, Brady passed with about four minutes left to a wide open Wes Welker. This catch would have made a first down and allowed the Pats to run down the clock — perhaps after scoring and putting the game out of reach. Unfortuneately, Welker dropped the ball.
The result of that drop was that the Giants marched down the field and scored the winning touchdown, leaving less than a minute on the clock.
Then the Pats had the ball again — but the receivers couldn't hold onto the passes. In the final crutial set of downs, Branch couldn't come up with a ball that was only slightly tipped; Hernandez dropped the next pass as he was trying to get upfield before hauling the ball in; and then Brady was sacked.
The final play was a Hail Mary that every person playing and watching the game knew was coming. When it was batted down, the Pats once again went home empty handed.
Some fans will undoubtedly blame the defense. And sure, that was a heck of a pass Manning made to Mario Manningham during the Giant's final scoring drive. But it was a perfect pass followed by a fantastic catch.
The problem the Pats had was getting their own offense in gear. You can't expect to win the Super Bowl by scoring only 7 points in the last two quarters of the game. Brady had a solid game — there's not a lot he can do when his receivers are dropping balls. But the Patriots needed to take a few more chances to get into the end zone.
Manning has proven that when he gets the ball toward the end of the game with just a few minutes left, he's going to score. Everyone knows it. He got the ball with just over three minutes left in the game. He drove 88 yards in nine plays. He scored. The Pats couldn't stop him.
The Patriots had their opportunities but they missed them.
End of story. End of season.
