I never look at the Super Bowl in a vacuum. The Super Bowl winner does a lot more than win the Super Bowl, but rather make the playoffs then win either 3 or 4 straight games against the league's best. Let's look at what the Giants did:
- Beat Tampa on the road. Playoff wins on the road are always impressive, but Tampa wasn't anyone's title favorite.
- Beat Dallas on the road. That was an impressive win. Romo was under seige the entire 2nd half (hmmm...sounds familiar).
- Beat Green Bay on the road. The Giants dominated that game, despite it going to OT. Also a very impressive win.
- Beat the 18-0 Pats in SB42. After doing a decent job on Justin Tuck 5 weeks earlier, Logan Mankins got abused by the guy in Arizona. The entire OL had a rough day. Yet despite the protection issues, there the Pats stood with a 4pt lead with under 3 minutes to go and the Giants 83 long yards from victory. The Pats had carried out their defensive gameplan very well all game, holding the running game in check and taking away Plaxico Burress. If Eli was to beat the Pats, he'd have to do it by throwing to guys like Steve Smith and no-names like David Tyree. Guess what...he did. Tip your hat to the guy, begrudgingly if you feel like it.
The Giants beating those last three teams gives them enough credit in my book. They don't need to win 2 of 3 against the Pats to validate their title. Three-and-oh against Dallas, Green Bay and New England was a damn good run.
Regards,
Chris