"Giants are the Patriots' Kryptonite!!!"

neuronet said:

With our team against theirs, our banged-up OLine, I think the teams will fall within 7 points of each other when the clock hits snakeyes.

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Bam. It was as it always is with the Giants, a tough hard-fought game that easily could have gone the other way. Would gladly trade this one for SB 42, get that completion to Moss.

Got one word to say, WRONG!

Off The Grid said:

For those who haven't heard: There is a Salary Cap.

The Salary Cap acts as a constant and relentless force of Erosion, robbing all 32 Teams of Depth every Year.

As such, forging a Dominating Force that will tower over the rest of the League ~ like the 1985 Bears or the 1989 Miners or the 1992 CowBoys ~ has become virtually impossible: Every Team, every Year, even the Elite, is but an Injury or two away from falling out of legitimate Championship Contention.

There is no Superman Team. This Kryptonite ******** suggests a Reality that doesn't exist.

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I stopped the quote there because it would cut off anyway, but the rest of your post is the opposite of the beginning. There is a Superman team, over the last 15 years, and it's us.

We got ahead of the league for 4 years - well 3 of them - while Tommy was still cheap. We made the most of it. We stayed relevant in the "down years" when we fell off the perch (and still made the playoffs.) We had a playoff-caliber year when Brady went down (how often do you win 11 and not make it?)

This team has been full of win since it was actually cool to say "full of win," before the Typhoid Mary of AIDS ruined every phrase about "winning" for everybody.

And that's despite the league conspiring to break up the Pats by off-the-field means.

Bottom line, I agree with you. People occasionally mention the Cap/Free Agency era. But by and large, the coverage is like it was pre-Patriots... they assume there will just be another dynasty when we're gone.

I don't see a combination like Belichick/Brady/(hate me if you want) The Krafts in my lifetime.

And this year Brady's made me a believer in his "I'll play until I collect social security" mindset. This year, at the age of 128 or something, he's decided to study how to extend plays with his feet. Last season he decided he'd get rid of the ball as fast as necessary if his line is having a bad day. He was raw talent in 08, by comparison. Now he's learning every trick in the book to extend his run of greatness, or dare we think it, improve... he's now had the advantage of watching his bete noire Manning fall off the cliff, and I wouldn't be surprised if lil Manning is out of the game before Brady at the rate things are going.

I really want that last ring for Brady this season... and then some. I can see a day in the future where I'm thinking "too bad about that Garapolo guy, he had promise, but the timing wasn't right."

Maybe, maybe not. An injury could make all of this bullcrap in short order. I'll say this for him though, he's worked like hell to be the best and I don't see him slowing that down. That's saying something.

neuronet said:

Bam. It was as it always is with the Giants, a tough hard-fought game that easily could have gone the other way. Would gladly trade this one for SB 42, get that completion to Moss.

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You know I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was kind of mentally out of it after the TD pass to Burress that I went out for a cigarette and accepted defeat.

I did not see the last series with the downfield attempts to Moss, and I certainly won't put myself through it now. I heard that at least one pass went off his hands though. I suppose they were hoping for DPI or some type of heroic grab, which certainly makes sense.

supafly said:

You know I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was kind of mentally out of it after the TD pass to Burress that I went out for a cigarette and accepted defeat.

I did not see the last series with the downfield attempts to Moss, and I certainly won't put myself through it now. I heard that at least one pass went off his hands though. I suppose they were hoping for DPI or some type of heroic grab, which certainly makes sense.

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after the burress TD, the game was sealed. with 39 seconds left there was nothing you could do.

a couple of things stand out - (1) if BB allows Ghost to kick that 49 yarder in the 3rd quarter OR (2) as the pats were driving down the field at the end of the first half pierre woods recovers that fumble after the strahan hit on brady then we likely kick a field goal. in either scenario we go into OT and it's anybody's game. fate was not on our side that day.

TommyBrady12 said:

after the burress TD, the game was sealed. with 39 seconds left there was nothing you could do.

a couple of things stand out - (1) if BB allows Ghost to kick that 49 yarder in the 3rd quarter OR (2) as the pats were driving down the field at the end of the first half pierre woods recovers that fumble after the strahan hit on brady then we likely kick a field goal. in either scenario we go into OT and it's anybody's game. fate was not on our side that day.

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How Pierre Woods failed to secure that fumble still baffles me, and yes--the choice to go for it on 4th and long instead of attempting the FG was another head scratcher.

Of course, leaving an already injured Hobbs on a much larger Burress on an island in the red zone during a blitz is a mystery as well. All in all, I feel good winning 4/6, but the losses to the Ny Giants still sting.

Off The Grid said:

For those who haven't heard: There is a Salary Cap.

The Salary Cap acts as a constant and relentless force of Erosion, robbing all 32 Teams of Depth every Year.

As such, forging a Dominating Force that will tower over the rest of the League ~ like the 1985 Bears or the 1989 Miners or the 1992 CowBoys ~ has become virtually impossible: Every Team, every Year, even the Elite, is but an Injury or two away from falling out of legitimate Championship Contention.

There is no Superman Team. This Kryptonite ******** suggests a Reality that doesn't exist.

Maybe in 50 Years or so ~ when Teams than win it all twice in a Decade are being called "Dynasties" ~ it'll finally dawn on the rest of the World how incredibly amazing our Run of Glory truly is.

Meanwhile: There is no Superman Team, therefore no Kryptonite.

There are only 32 Competing Teams, all with an Opportunity.

But you best believe that we are The Meanest Mother****ers In The Whole ****ing Valley.

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PatsFanInVa said:

I stopped the quote there because it would cut off anyway, but the rest of your post is the opposite of the beginning.

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Actually, the rest of my post both supported and was perfectly in synchronicity with the beginning of it.

You've got your SuperHeroes mixed up, it seems.

If I was going to compare this Epic Team to a SuperHero, it'd be Batman...with a large helping of Marine.

We Adapt. We Improvise. We Overcome.

We Invent. We Innovate.

We Win.

But we're 100% Flesh & Blood, human and perfectly vulnerable to Injury. Everything we have, we earned.

Put another way, my point is to appreciate the Glory we've shared over the last 15 Years.

A Fan imagining that we are somehow virtually invulnerable ~ a la Superman ~ and that it therefore takes "Kryptonite" to defeat us raises foolish Expectations and robs that Fan of truly savoring the Glory when we do somehow manage to overcome all the Injuries, all our Foes...and win it all, once again.

supafly said:

How Pierre Woods failed to secure that fumble still baffles me, and yes--the choice to go for it on 4th and long instead of attempting the FG was another head scratcher.

Of course, leaving an already injured Hobbs on a much larger Burress on an island in the red zone during a blitz is a mystery as well. All in all, I feel good winning 4/6, but the losses to the Ny Giants still sting.

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The Patriots got screwed on that play. Woods recovered the ball. As he had it, lying on the ground, a Giants player (Bradshaw?) dove on top of him. Given that Woods had possession, the *moment* the Giants' player touched him, it should have been down by contact, Patriots' football. But the refs allowed a clear recovery to turn into a scrum, and Woods got it ripped out of his hands.

That play still pisses me off.

As far as the OP goes, nobody is the Patriots' "kryptonite" because they don't have a losing record against ANYONE in the BB/TB era. But the Coughlin-coached Giants do always play the Patriots very tough.

2007 regular season: Pats win 38-35
2007 Super Bowl: Giants win 17-14
2011 regular season: Giants win 24-20
2011 Super Bowl: Giants win 21-17
2015 regular season: Pats win 27-26

Giants lead 3-2, average margin of victory 1.2 points. No game won by more than 4 points.

That's as close as it gets.

Off The Grid said:

Actually, the rest of my post both supported and was perfectly in synchronicity with the beginning of it.

You've got your SuperHeroes mixed up, it seems.

If I was going to compare this Epic Team to a SuperHero, it'd be Batman...with a large helping of Marine.

We Adapt. We Improvise. We Overcome.

We Invent. We Innovate.

We Win.

But we're 100% Flesh & Blood, human and perfectly vulnerable to Injury. Everything we have, we earned.

Put another way, my point is to appreciate the Glory we've shared over the last 15 Years.

A Fan imagining that we are somehow virtually invulnerable ~ a la Superman ~ and that it therefore takes "Kryptonite" to defeat us raises foolish Expectations and robs that Fan of truly savoring the Glory when we do somehow manage to overcome all the Injuries, all our Foes...and win it all, once again.

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Yet you still place us in the DC universe, simply replacing Superman with Batman, without consideration for a team of mutants led by a true genius. If anything we are the X-men.

This does, however, give us an opportunity to observe that Miami is and always has been the Aquaman of the NFL. Not Submariner, mind you. Aquaman.

Joker that play hurts just like the helmet catch. Moss could have jumped for the ball there, or draw a PI . We put our trust in him and he was not a fighter. Anybody doubt Dola would have gone up and caught that ball if only he had the fastness of Moss?

Edit: What hurts me the most is that the same play was used against Miami during the year. He came back, slowed down, jumped, with the two or three guys around, to get the ball and snag.
He was never the same in the playoffs. I don't know if he was nursing an injury or not.

PatsFanInVa said:

Yet you still place us in the DC universe, simply replacing Superman with Batman, without consideration for a team of mutants led by a true genius. If anything we are the X-men.

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I like that. I don't follow any'f those Stories closely, mind you, but yeah: I like that.

supafly said:

I heard that at least one pass went off his hands though.

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It didn't, it was knocked away. Moss could have easily earned DPI had he simply fought for the ball instead of hoping it would make it through, though.

We made it to 8 Superbowls and won 4. Malcolm Butler's INT erased all the pain of the last 2 superbowl losses for me.

If not for a few flukey plays, a hobbled Gronk, and Welker's butterfingers, that last Superbowl against the Giants would have had a happy ending.

If the refs did not allow Seymour to be egregiously choked out of a game ending sack of Eli by the Giants o-line, we would have had that perfect season.

Giants being our 'kryptonite' is just another stupid media narrative for morons.

vuudu said:

Joker that play hurts just like the helmet catch. Moss could have jumped for the ball there, or draw a PI . We put our trust in him and he was not a fighter. Anybody doubt Dola would have gone up and caught that ball if only he had the fastness of Moss?

Edit: What hurts me the most is that the same play was used against Miami during the year. He came back, slowed down, jumped, with the two or three guys around, to get the ball and snag.
He was never the same in the playoffs. I don't know if he was nursing an injury or not.

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I don't see how you can say Moss is not a fighter considering he would go up and fight for the ball all the time. Looking at the video it looks like Randy didn't have the time to stop and jump (the ball was thrown very accurately by Brady, hitting Moss in stride. Stopping and jumping would've messed up the timing) and also Corey Webster just made a good play on the ball.

And here's why Randy was different in the playoffs.

Randy Moss and Pacman Jones Victims of Extortion Attempts? | Larry Brown Sports

Joker said:

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I bet Dola catches both hail maries in SB 42 & 46. Oh what could have been.