My post-game thoughts on underrated aspects of the game:
1) That was a well played game on both sides. On the way home, I was listening to the radio and they acted as if Brady choked the game away. 27/41, 276 2 TDs and an INT isn't a bad performance. The Giants WON the game, not the other way around. I know that in the core of the letter the NE WRs took a lot of heat, but I called out the worst of the bad plays.
2) Not to take away from the Giants (see above) but in the playoffs they recovered 7/9 of the fumbles that occurred, including all 3 of their own vs SF and NE. This just goes to show that luck is such a big part of football. If any of those fumbles go the other way, or if New England doesn’t have 12 men on the field, the Giants aren’t the champs. It’s also crazy to think about how many little things were the difference between the Giants getting in and not getting in at all. In the Dallas game, if Miles Austin doesn’t drop that ball in the stadium lights or if Cutler doesn’t get hurt, or if Philadelphia had managed to win just one more game or….a billion other things happen and the Giants aren’t even in the playoffs. I spent way too much time thinking about this on the way home.
3) The Giants WRs were unreal throughout the season and stepped it up last night. I can't remember a single error on their part, while 2 late errors from Welker and Branch doomed the Pats.
4) In the modern NFL playoffs, it's fairly obvious that you only need to do two things well: Pass the ball and rush the passer. The rest of it really doesn't seem to matter. A small handful of teams have more effective passing attacks than the Giants and a small number of teams have a more effective pass rush than the Giants, but no one really seems to have a better combination of the two. You’d think that New England would address this given that this is the 3rd straight year they have had a weak pass rush.
5) To build on point 4, given that the Patriots seem to have a billion draft picks every year (including this one and the past one), their draft from last year is incredibly puzzling and makes you really question the logic of BB. Nate Solder was the only player from their top 5 picks last year that had an impact of any sort this year and I really question the logic of drafting two running backs and then keeping them on the bench for the vast majority of the year. The defense has serious question marks and the lack of a big outside receiver is significant; New England has two first rounders and two second rounders.
6 has been intentionally omitted.
7) This wasn’t really an underrated issue but Gronkowski wasn’t able to do much (figured you'd want to know). The injury was too serious. Brady only threw to him 3 times, two short completions and the game’s only interception. On the interception – Brady got killed for this, but it wasn’t a terrible play. New England was at midfield and he had Grownkowski 1 on 1 down the center of the field against the Giants’ weakest linebacker. Ordinarily Gronkowski makes the play 9 times out of 10, but his ankle ended up keeping him from making the play. The Giants intercepted the ball at their 45; it was a low risk, high reward play – if Gronkowski catches it, you score (New England would have been ahead 24-12 at that point), and if it gets picked, it’s like a punt since it advances the ball 45 yards. What’s more, on the next drive Bradshaw fumbled (one of those fumbles that I alluded to earlier) at his own 5 yard line, but it bounced off 3 Patriots and the Giants recovered. If that ball goes the other way, the Pats take over, ahead 17-12 at the Giants’ 5 yard line. At that point the probability of a New England victory is extremely high. Just shows how fine the line between being a hero and getting skewered in the national media (which the Pats have) is.
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