It’s been two weeks since the New York Giants, for the second time in five years, defeated the New England Patriots to win the NFL title. The game was pretty much just as exciting as the Giants’ huge upset in 2007 when New England came into the game undefeated, but the result was not as unexpected this time. Rather than rehash the game itself, here are some thoughts I’ve had resulting from it:
* In winning his second Super Bowl ring and game MVP award, Eli Manning has removed any doubt that he is an elite quarterback in the NFL. He may never be a record-breaking passer like the Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady types that dominate today’s game, but he’s a leader, a gamer, and has now outdueled Brady in both of their head-to-head meetings.
* This is now the second time the Giants have struggled through a good portion of the regular season, gotten hot at the right time and ridden that momentum to a Super Bowl title. Add to that the fact that Green Bay did the same thing last season, and it makes what Bill Parcells has always said look very prophetic. His philosophy is that the key is to continually try to get your team to improve each game, and do whatever it takes to get that team into what he calls “the tournament”. From there, anything is possible, as the Packers and Giants have proven the last two seasons.
* As passing records fell all year long this season, I’ve often wondered if the days of dominating defenses, like the old Steel Curtain and Miami “No Name” defense, are gone forever. But after seeing the Giants play a decent defensive game once again versus the Pats, I have a feeling that defense will be back in vogue next season.
* Speaking of the Giants’ good defensive showing late in the year, here’s hoping that late season improvement results in New York defensive coordinator Perry Fewell getting some serious consideration for a head coaching job in the future. Fewell did a good job in his short opportunity as interim head coach in Buffalo a few seasons back, and deserves another shot.
* Just like in 2007, the Giants again showed that the key to beating today’s elite passers is to get pressure up the middle on them, taking them out of their comfort zone in the pocket. Whereas the QBs are all adept at beating pressure off the edges by using subtle “step up” movement in the pocket to buy time, forcing them to vacate the pocket disrupts the timing of their precision passing games. So even though the hometown Buffalo Bills have a long way to go to improve their defense, they have two key pieces to their puzzle already in place in interior linemen Kyle Williams and Marcell Dareus.