Joker

I agree...I feel NOTHING like I did four years ago...THAT was ridiculous 4 years ago...THIS was a good Super Bowl game between two pretty evenly matched teams...the Pats would have loved more possessions in the first half but that safety put a chokehold on their time of possession ...that throw by Manning to Manningham was THE play....you see a play like THAT, you tip your hat and congratulate the winning team. That is the play a winning Super bowl champion makes..they made it...Manning made it happen.

Kulko

my 2 cents.

I agree, that this game was ours to win, and we could not put it away. But while the Pats had a lot of concentration lapses in thsis one, so had the giants.

We lost because TFB had a very good midgame, but a few accuracy problems in the endgame. and because the Giants had all the luck to would need. 3 fumbles lost in the backfield and all recovered by the Giants.

1. Tha F*** safety. Totally unneccesary, there was plenty of space ahead of welker to throw the ball away too. and it were the two points missing in the end. (I like our chances of holdingh the giants to a FG in the end.

2. The Midgame: After the first drive we held the giants offense in check, stopping them at midfield, or to midrange field goals at least. To think they almost missed the first one (another 3 points which would have been enough)
And brady was roling for a while. putting up a SB record for straight completions. But when another FG would have been enough to put away the game, somehow we started missing the open guys when we reaxhed midfield.

3. The INT. Big autsch, biut brady needs tio step into these throws, and tehre was not enough time he before JPP arrived. Hard to fault anyone, as it was a sure TD when he throws 3 yds further.

4. The 4th Q. I was really impressed by our D which gave the Offense chance after chance to salt the game away. Of course people will now hit on the last drive, but its really hard in todays NFL to stop a copetent offense which is in full desperation mode.

5. The drops: The way I see it, both the 2nd and the 3rd down were inaccurate throws by Brady. he missed Welker by a yd left and Branch right, and therefore both balls become hard to catch.

6. The challenge: I know its a high leverage playx, but the evidence was just to clear and it burned a timeout which was missing in the end. Having to drive for a Winnign FG witj 30 secs kleft is a lot easier that needing a TD, when everybody knows exactly that only a Hail mary can save you.

7. the give away TD: Great coaching by BB, although in hindsight it came already 1 minute to late. Let them get their TD as soon as the reach the red zone.
I really wonder how clock management strategies will evolve in the next years, as this is one area of the game, where coaches are willing to learn from analyzing public.

8. The penalty: Well it should be immediately obvious that this needs fixing and fixing seems pretty easy too. In the last 5 minutes of the game the opposing team can choose whether to reset the game clock to the time at the snap, maybe instead of geeting yards or on top of it.

9. Getting over it. Well this one hurts not nearly as much as SB 42, although the giants win was much less earned this time around. The sad part is that this team was probably lucky in getting there first 3 SBs so easily but since then the wheel of fortune has gone full circle and by now I would guess, we should have had at least one more.

sambam94

chance after chance? Pats had the ball once after the Int which was the 2nd play of the 4th quarter.(not including last 57 seconds)

Kulko

After we went up 17-9 and Held them to a ff in the next Drive i believe, i was Sure, One Note Td will put the game away. A believe fully validated by the way the rest of the game played out. So counting that first FG, they stopped the Giants 3 or 4 times. And even one more FG might have been enough. Thats much more help than a top3 offense can expect from a below average defense.

SVN

We won only a single game this yr without creating a turnover. Thats how this D and team has thrived. Today zero turnovers + brady INT and the safety which really took 11 mins off our D forcing our offense not to use the no huddle as much and you have a loss.

DarrylS

There are many who claim that you make your own luck.

My initial concerns about the D somewhat waned up to and including last Sunday, but what we are missing on that side of the ball are playmakers. Need to find some ballhawking guys, who create turnovers, who can also cover.

The same holds true on the O side, need more playmakers, maybe Ridley is the answer, but need to find another outside threat for Brady.

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

ivanvamp

Guys, don't be ridiculous. If Brady noticed that they had 12 men on the field, he should have just spiked the ball. Lost 1 second, gained 5 free yards.

Rinse, repeat, until the Giants get that 12th guy off the field. If they don't, you can cover 60 yards in 12 seconds of game time. At some point the Giants would back off.

Brady has done this sort of thing before to get the penalty. Obviously he missed the 12th guy or, if he saw him, made a very bad decision to continue with the play.

ivanvamp

2001-02: Tuck Rule, 2 special teams TDs against Pittsburgh (seriously, when was the last time you've seen a blocked FG returned for a TD?)

2003-04: Kasay kicks the ball out of bounds following Carolina's tying TD, setting up the winning FG

2004-05: Eagles with the worst clock management and "hurry up" offense of all time

I mean, no doubt a lot of "luck" involved in the Pats winning their 3 SB, which were won by 3.0 points per game.

But think about the Giants too. Their last 3 SB wins:

1990-91: Norwood misses the FG that can win it for Buffalo

2007-08: Samuel drops the pick, the Tyree catch....nuff said

2011-12: Welker drops, Manningham catches, Giants fumble 3x but benefit every time

A lot of "luck" involved in their last 3 SB wins too, which were won by 2.7 points per game.

The margin of error in the NFL at the highest level is razor thin.

Patriots2001

I think it's easy to ipck a play or a series of plays that could of changed the outcome on Sunday and 4 years ago Asante Samual anyone.The botom line for me is this team lacks mental toughness when the pressure is on.Back when there winning games like this i think we can all agree they were mentally tougher teams at least i do...

Bella*chick

Please, the team was plenty mentally tough.

Any number of things, Gronk isn't hurt, Brady doesn't get that stupid safety....any number of things and the game was won.

They were hugely mentally tough all year, now suddenly they are not. Just because you are tough does not guarantee a win every time.

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