Giants 34
Patriots 31

What a game! Just like the last time these teams met - 55 minutes of boredom, 5 minutes of max tension and awesomeness.

Congratulations Giants. It's too bad one of these teams had to lose - Brady was brilliant in this one, as was Manning. Gronk almost had that last pass off the deflection in the end zone.

It's got to be tough in New England tonight, but I suspect the Patriots have another run or two in them.

I was really impressed by Manning's 4th quarter clutch play.

Great game.

"55 minutes of boredom"

What game were you watching? That was a good battle all the way through. Otherwise, I kinda see your point that the 4th quarter dialed the excitment meter up a bit.

I thought Chris Collinsworth did a fantastic job explaining the finer points - added to the "chess game" these teams were playing.

I was cheering for the Giants but felt like the Patriot receivers gave the game away in the 4th quarter. Wes Welker should have caught that ball he dropped with 4 mins left - if he does, Pats probably win this game. Granted it was thrown a bit behind him but still catchable.

Otherwise, it was a nail biter and it kept me watching commercial's into the 4th quarter :)

The commercials were lame. I didn't even like Ferris Buehler one. Go Daddy, your commercials are so offensive as an IT manager I will "bash" you in my meetings every chance I get.

Madonna did a pretty good job IMO. 53 years old doing flips on steps and singing. It was better than black eyed peas anyway.

I got the winner and point spread right, but the teams only scored about half the points I predicted. Good game indeed. I agree the last 5 minutes were the most exciting but I found the whole game to be a pretty riveting combination of chess match, and opportunities seized or lost.

I agree w/ the comment by Tony that Chris Collinsworth did an excellent job of explaining the finer points. I loved his pointing out that the deep ball out of bounds was the fault of Manningham's route running not allowing enough cushion to the outside b/t him and the sideline rather than a simple case of Manning making a poor throw (what the average fan would think when a QB throws a pass like that a couple yards out of bounds).

Herm Edwards was on Mike and Mike (ESPN Radio) this morning and made another great point re. why the spectacular 4th quarter 37 yard Manning to Manningham pass/catch never should have happened if the CB had played the right technique for the coverage NE was in. Herm was exactly right, but I hadn't caught it as I watched the game and the replays. As a long time fan and former small-time football player myself, understanding and noticing those intricacies adds so much to my enjoyment of the game.

Tony,

Oh yes, those are all great examples of Collinsworth and the broadcast team doing a good job of pointing out the finer points. I thought Collinsworth did an especially good job of making his explanation accessible, at least to most even fairly casual football fans. He didn't overuse insider jargon (like A-gap, or inside technique) without explaining what it means, as some analysts are prone to do. But he didn't dumb it down so much for the once-a-year super bowl fan that no insight could be gained by a knowledgeable fan, either.

Dungy pointed out that on the big throw to Manningham in the game winning drive, New England was playing cover-2, which is a zone pass coverage that features (in its simplest terms) two safeties deep, each responsible for covering his half of the deep portion of the field, and two corners rolled up, each responsible for the outside shallow flats, with the LB's responsible for the middle portion of the field short and intermediate.

In that coverage there is a window right where Manning hit Manningham, deep behind the CB and on the sideline just before the safety can get over. In order to keep offenses from hitting passes in that window, the CB is supposed to line up on the outside shoulder of the WR (Manningham) and jam him to the inside, denying him an outside release, knocking him off stride to the indside, slowing him down and forcing him to work his way back to the sideline and up the field rather than giving him a direct route from the line of scrimmage up the sideline to that window. By doing this, a CB throws off the timing of the deep sideline pass, and allows the safety an extra half second to get over to help break the pass up. What the NE CB apparently did however, was misalign and give up a relatively easy outside release to Manningham so he was able to get to and up the sideline with little disruption. Herm Edwards, a former NFL CB (not to mention defensive minded coach), was beside himself regarding the NE CB's failure to execute the basic fundamentals of cover-2 technique in that situation. But what the casual fan sees is just a phenomenal play by Manningham and Manning. Which it was, a truely phenomenal throw and catch. But with proper pre-snap alignment and execution by the CB, the opportunity for that phenomenal play should never have even been there.

I love the games within the game...

It's a game of inches - you're right, one little mistake makes such a difference. It was an amazing throw (perfect, really) and catch, only made possible by the corner's slight misalignment.

How about Gisele's postgame comments:

Waiting for an elevator after the game with some other Patriots' wives, Gisele was videotaped saying, "I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times. My husband cannot f---ing throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time."

That kind of self centered public hissy fit is par for the course in the world of fashion divas and high strung designers. But it's anathema to the "we are family" atmosphere of a healthy NFL locker room, the kind of community Robert Kraft is trying to foster. It's more the New York Jets side of the NFL than the "now man is bigger than the team" NE Pat's. ESPN's Doug Gottleib was calling her "Yoko Ono" this afternoon. I wonder if there will be any fallout or if (most likely) the team will put it behind them this offseason. As long as there isn't a repeat performance.

The eyebrow raiser for me was that she said it to other Patriots players' wives, in a relatively public place with media members within hearing distance. One can only hope none of the other players wives she said it to were married to TE's or WR's. But I tend to agree with you Bill that she gets a cautionary pass and the Pats' locker room is plenty strong enough to withstand it, as long as this is an isolated incident and not a trend. But the media is ready to turn her into the wedge in that locker room (star QB's supermodel wife has become the Yoko Ono of the Pats) and she's going to be sought after for quotes re. her thoughts on the team, probably well into next fall. Probably a good thing there's an offseason cooling off period.

Just noting some records from this season:

Vince Young vs. the World Champions: 1-0
Brady vs. the World Champions: 0-2

;)

BTW - Hopefully, this is an obvious attempt at humor. No one with a rational brain would think Vince better than Brady. At least not yet.

nhe, you sound like Colin Cowherd; he said essentially the same thing this afternoon.

I agree that people such as Gisele will default to speaking their minds. Like I said, it would fit right in at a fashion show in Milan if a supermodel or fashion designer had a public "cameras-be-damned" snit, or even just said something catty with no regard for who was around. Par for the course in that world. But in the world of team sports, while it's far from unheard of it's also not considered kosher for a player let alone a player's wife or girlfriend, to make that kind of comment in public, no matter how true. Does it happen? Yeah. But it's uncool, and it's the sort of thing that tore apart the NY Jets locker room this season, and the sort of thing the absence of which usually separates the culture of the Pats and other healthy locker rooms, from the culture of train-wreck teams like this year's jets, the Oakland Raiders of the past decade, any team that has had TO on it in the last few years, etc.

Not the biggest thing in the world but not a total non-event either, IMO.

Andrew - you have a point - I've heard Gisele called "Gisoko Ono" a lot recently, some say she has ruined the band.

Karl - I think you hit on it - it's a clash of two worlds that was inevitably going to happen at some point........I find it amusing, but I think it gets far more press than it should.... I just wouldn't expect anything less from Gisele in that situation.

As they should, the Pats appear to be circling the wagons and keeping mum. But some of the Giants are willing to offer their take on Gisele:

Osi Umenyiora:
"I mean she's supposed to stay out of things like that," said the Giants defensive end."But at the end of the day that's their relationship and she has the right to say whatever she wants to."

Brandon Jacobs:
"She just needs to continue to be cute and shut up"

Well . . . I wonder what other supermodels or some fashion designer would say, if Tom showed up at a fashion show and said something snitty about other models or a designer, and how they were making his perfect wife look bad? "Tom should just continue to throw footballs and shut up about the fashion world"?

If you aren't in your own millieu, shut it and stick to your area of expertise. Which in Giselle's case isn't all that far from what Brandon said . . . thought "cute" may not be the adjective that most would first choose for Giselle on the catwalk.

I'm doing my best here, to prove to Bill that we aren't the same person . . .