The Giants played a great game in the Super Bowl but let's call a spade a spade, please.
They beat a 9-7 Tampa Bay Bucs team that had a solid defense but truly struggled to do anything on offense. They then went into Dallas and beat Dallas - a team whose quarterback can cough up a game pretty easily, whose head coach thought the way to beat the Patriots was to take away their running game, and whose mercurial WR was coming off of an injury. A Dallas choke in the playoffs was the easiest thing to predict last season.
They then went into Green Bay and won because Brett Favre became the Brett Favre we had all come to expect the last four years. They played terribly in that game and Favre handed them the ball in field goal range in OT.
They then won against the Patriots because of a miracle catch. I give them all the credit in the world for keeping the game close up to that point and playing lights out defense until the fourth quarter, but they won because David Tyree caught a ball on his helmet after Eli Manning squirmed out of at least two tackles.
In the end, being the worst Super Bowl winner ever is better than the best Super Bowl loser, but there is a reason why the Giants winning is the biggest upset in NFL history. Paying your respects to them shouldn't blind you of that fact.
Don't do what Pats haters have done for years with the Pats by minimizing wins. How many times did people talk about the Patriots' competition over their 18 wins in a row? If we are going discount the Giants wins over Tampa and Green Bay, do we discount the Pats wins over the Dolphins, Jets, Ravens, Eagles, Bills, and Bengals because none of them were even nearly as good as the Bucs?
BTW, the Bucs were 9-7, but they could have very, very easily have been 11-5. Don't forget they purposely tanked the last two games by resting their starters because they were playing for nothing. Many of the starters didn't even play the last game of the season at all.
Also, the Packers were arguably the best team in the NFC last year. Maybe Favre became the Brett Favre we all have known the last few years because of the Giants' defense. The Giants made Brady look like the Brett Favre of the last few years because of their defense too.
Also, in the Super Bowl, the Giants played the Pats tougher than virtually anyone this past year even teams like the Chargers and Cowboys. Even without the miracle catch, the Giants played the Patriots very tough and would have only lost by 3 points.
Let's give these guys their due. Let's not turn into all those fans of other teams we have had to put up with over the years (most notably Raiders and Steelers fans) who label or wins as flukes, luck, or just the opponents had down games.
