It was in my face. There was no way to avoid it. I grabbed this week's Sports Illustrated from my mailbox and opened it to the front cover. And there it was, a picture of a football attached to the helmet of New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree.
It was a reminder of the greatest Super Bowl catch I ever saw live. It was humorous exaggeration of the key play the set up the game-winning touchdown pass. It was the catch that signaled the beginning of the end for the Patriots.
I remember when I saw that catch, the thought ran through my mind: "OK, it must be meant to be that the Giants are gonna win this." Based on what I had saw the previous three hours, including that Giants' final drive, destiny was on their side like it was during the 2001 season for the Patriots.
The SI cover was the second reminder of that incredible upset/disappointment. On Sunday I watched the NFL's condensed version of that Super Bowl loss. It was important to me to finally see exactly how it all went down. Almost seven months later, my opinion hasn't changed: 9 out of 10 times if the Patriots played the Giants, the Pats would win. It was just that one time New York wins, it was Super Bowl XLII.
It's not an insult because the Giants made plays and the Patriots didn't when they had the opportunities.
I didn't have this blog at the time of the Super Bowl so I never gave my thoughts on the result. With these two recent reminders of the game, I might as well get it out of my system and get over it.
Inside SI was a review of The Catch and how it happened moment by moment. Fair enough because it's the game's defining play. But the NFL Network's 90-minute Cliff Notes version show many of the plays New England left on the field, even though they cut out the dropped interception by safety Brandon Merriweather:
- Randall Gay had a would-be interception slip through his fingers. Sure his arm was in a brace after hurting it earlier in the game, when you get two hands on the ball, you're supposed to make the catch
- Pierre Woods landed on top of a Ahmad Bradshaw fumble but failed to secure it, allowing Bradshaw to roll Woods over and strip the ball away while under the scrum
- On the touchdown pass to Tyree, Asante Samuel went for the interception. Samuel looked in position to reach around with one arm to bat the ball away, forcing a third down
- But that pales in comparison to the pass that was thrown right at Samuel during the final drive. The pass was high, but Asante was all alone and should had come down with the ball
- Jarvis Green and Richard Seymour had Eli Manning in their grasp but failed to bring him down. Credit the Giants offensive linemen for not giving up and knocking Seymour and Green off their quarterback, but Eli will be their story of the one that got away
- As mentioned earlier, Merriweather had a chance at a game-winning pick, but like the other opportunities during the season, the rookie didn't catch the ball
This isn't an attempt to put the loss soley on the defense's shoulders. The record-setting offense sputtered all night. The offensive line couldn't hold water even if it was bottled. And I believe Wes Welker dropped a short pass that he could had turned into a first down.
So many opposing fans relish repeating, "18-1! 18-1!" I can care less about the perfect season. If the one loss was during the regular season and the Patriots won the championship, that would had made me happy. 18-1 with a Lombardi Trophy still would had meant sending a message to the rest of the league for calling into question the past accomplishment of the three previous Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams.
But that's all in the past now. I applaud the Giants for pulling off the upset and I will enjoy watching them stumble through the season and possibly fall short of the playoffs like the last time they followed a championship-winning season in 1991.
As for the Patriots, they have the easiest schedule in the league so 14-2 isn't out of the question. But it's very possible they could have a second consecutive 16-0 regular season. That would be nice, but I'm more interested in an undefeated post-season.
