I watched the Super Bowl at home by myself in the dark yesterday for reasons I detailed on the SXM show. I was sober, and after a large meal at 1:30 pm PT, didn't eat anything. I didn't Tweet or blog during the game. Someone across the street had a party, and I found the cheering and noisy drunken idiocy emanating from their house increasingly infuriating.
After the Patriots took the lead at the end of the first half, one largely dominated by the Giants, I realized how much I hate the halftime show. I have nothing original to say about Madonna, and the insults about her age I saw on Twitter were fairly predictable. But I kept thinking "who gives a f|STAR||STAR||STAR| about this?" (I did find the dude in the dress bouncing up and down on the rope seemingly on his testicles to be disturbing.)
For most of the second half, I was nervously alternating between despair and faint hope. The commercials seemed to be more frequent, even more inane than usual and designed specifically to annoy me. When the Giants got the ball on the final drive, it was the first time in the second half I thought they might actually win.
Of course, I was ecstatic when they scored the go-ahead touchdown, even if it was a bad play. In 2007, I would have been beside myself as those Patriots were far scarier. Even so, the Pats 4th-and-16 conversion, and the hail mary getting tipped made it more stressful than it needed to be.
Most of the key plays have been discussed elsewhere, but there are a few that stood out to me:
Some other notes
The Giants defense held Brady to 6.7 YPA. They held Aaron Rodgers to 5.7 and Matt Ryan to 4.9. Somehow Alex Smith got 7.5.
I had Justin Tuck at 50:1 to win MVP. He had two sacks, three tackles and caused a safety. After the game, I knew Eli would be part of the equation, but thought they might be co-MVPs as a make-up call of sorts from 2007 when Tuck should have won.
I didn't understand how the Patriots were able to take away the deep throws AND double Victor Cruz. And even Hakeem Nicks wasn't running around wide open most of the time. Even the deep throw to Manningham was into perfect coverage.
I didn't like seeing Aaron Ross celebrate a tackle after an 11-yard gain, or Victor Cruz doing a salsa dance after a short completion. Focus on the war, not the minor skirmishes.
The Giants FG drive down 17 - 9 seemed futile at the time, but it was actually huge. The Pats offense had the Giants defense on its heels for two straight long drives, and it gave both sides just enough of a break to reset.
Eli Manning seemed less nervous than Tom Brady. In fact, Eli is as calm as any quarterback I've seen in the Super Bowl. (Aaron Rodgers is similar in demeanor).
The Giants are in good shape heading into next year with Manning in his prime, Nicks and Cruz returning and Jason Pierre-Paul and Tuck on the defensive line.