The Ballad of Freddie Mercury

You can't write this stuff up.

Improbably, the Giants completed their miracle run on Sunday night with a 17-14 victory over the to-that-point undefeated New England Patriots. I don't know how they did it. I basically spent an hour after the game saying, "How the Hell did the Giants win this game?" Somehow, they did it. They're World Beaters and World Champions.

Give all credit and congratulations to the Giants, their fans and their downright nasty defense. Watching the game, in all honesty, I saw what was for the most part a hideous football game that was marred by two teams that played the game as if they were asleep for just about 53 minutes.

Yes, the Giants defense rose to the occasion of all occasions, keeping Tom Brady et al off balance and off the scoreboard for the entire game, save the Patriots next-to-last drive. But for the most part, both teams seemed to be rusty and ineffective, and both defenses feasted upon offenses that looked out of sorts. But the Giants were able to offset their own effectiveness well enough to hang around, and hang around, and hang around...until Eli Manning escaped from a sack and lofted a miracle 3rd down pass to David Tyree...until Manning lofted that last pass into Plaxico Burress' arms with :35 left...until Brady's final, desperation pass sailed incomplete and the Giants, somehow, someway came away with the upset of upsets, the victory of victories, keeping the Patriots from perfection and immortality. Two weeks ago, I called the Giants victory in Green Bay one for the Ages. But that win was outdone by their victory last night.

Yes, I had no vested rooting interest. Within, I wanted to see the History of an undefeated season. I never realistically thought the Giants had a shot to win, let alone keep it close. But here we are and here they are. 3rd Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets is basically a police state right now. The street is littered with confetti and tissue paper and whatever sort of debris was strewn about by people, many of whom I believe barely would know a Football if it hit them in the head, let alone be able to name 5 players on the Giants not named Eli, Plaxico or Amani. I was in a bar in the East Village briefly following the game, where a well-heeled circle of inebriated folk joined in a chorus of Queen's "We Are The Champions." The bartender, a Steelers fan, silently chuckled. I, in my Jerry Rice jersey, shook my head.

I hope to sing that same song sometime in Late October.

Upcoming soon: Back to Basics: 5 Key Mets for 2008, Spring Previews and Ruminations on the real King of New York: Baseball.

Waiting Game

ESTRAGON:

And if he doesn't come?

VLADIMIR:

We'll come back tomorrow.

ESTRAGON:

And then the day after tomorrow.

VLADIMIR:

Possibly.

ESTRAGON:

And so on.

From "Waiting for Godot," by Samuel Beckett

That selection basically sums up my afternoon. I woke up feeling eerily similar to the way I did the morning of Game 7 two years ago. Without the hangover headache from Game 6. An afternoon with Mike & the Mad Dog did nothing to provide any insight to progress between the Mets and Santana. But as the deadline came and went, bits and pieces trickled in, and it appears now, since the Mets have asked for and were granted a 2-hour extension, that a deal seems near. Currently, the distance is what sounds like a relatively manageable $10 million (relatively manageable, I say), and the guarantee of a 6th year.

The whole thing has made for a rather tense afternoon, and enough to make me cross reference Johan Santana with Samuel Beckett for a second time. I don't care. I'm making up nonsense words again and the Mets aren't even in the damn playoffs. Just get this thing done already!

Had things been a bit less hectic, I might have taken the opportunity earlier in the day to offer up my Super Bowl pick. Waiting for the Super Bowl is a similar game to waiting for the Johan news, however it's a much more tedious, air-filled, annoying wait that is finally just about over. We've heard all the stories, all the puff pieces, heard about Tom Brady's ankle and his girlfriend and his hair enough, we've broken down Plaxico Burress's mouth enough. Now, it's time to just shut up and play.

The Giants have had a memorable, magical ride through January, and rode their momentum all the way to this point, where they're facing off against a Patriots team that seemed to be predestined to reach this point. At 18-0, the Patriots are deservedly a huge favorite, having made history to get to this point, and need one victory to finish off the job. The Giants overcame huge odds and a media that seemed ready to bury them at any given moment, winning three Playoff games on the road. They come in with a world of confidence, and more people than I thought think that they can beat the Patriots after hanging close with them in December.

I suppose I could break things down a bit more in depth, but in reality, everyone has heard every angle. The Patriots offense is Great. The Giants defense is good. In a shootout, there's no way the Giants will be able to keep up. The Giants can try to contain Moss, but as we saw in the Patriots games against Jacksonville and San Diego, the Patriots can just pick you apart with their short passing game and Maroney. On the other side, the Giants can run a similar offense, but they lack the overall talent to keep that same pace as the Patriots can. It is a trademark of Belichick's winning teams to take away one facet of a team's offensive game, and force the opponent to beat him with the other. I believe the Pats will gang up on Bradshaw and Jacobs and force Eli Manning to beat them. Eli has proven that he is up to the task of managing the game, but has not, in this run, been forced to win the game on his own. He will, much like Favre in the Championship game, invariably be forced into a mistake, which is something that cannot be done against the Patriots. It has been a fabulous run to cap off a wonderful season that nobody expected out of the Giants. But I don't think they have enough to pull off the final Miracle. The Patriots are too good and they didn't come down here to lose this game.

My pick: Patriots 36, Giants 20. Close in the first half, but I think the Patriots will go on one of their 8-minute drives in the 3rd or early 4th Quarter, score a TD, and then pick off Manning on the next Giants possession, and that will be the dagger. The 4th Quarter will quickly turn into garbage time as the Patriots pull away. Tom Brady will cap off his landmark season with his 3rd Super Bowl MVP.

Enjoy your Turducken!

A Victory for the Ages

I know I picked the Giants to win in Green Bay last night. That doesn't necessarily mean I thought they would actually do it.

In a game that played out almost exactly as I thought it would, the Giants prevailed in the NFC Championship, in Green Bay last night, in a game that they could have won or lost 20 different ways.

The Giants won because their defense, which rose to the occasion in Dallas and Tampa Bay, came through with another outstanding effort, holding Ryan Grant to 29 yards rushing, forcing Brett Favre to beat them, and eventually forcing him to make a critical mistake.

The Giants won because Eli Manning, who proved himself about as steady as the Mets Bullpen in September 2007 throughout most of this season, continued his incredible turnaround, and conducted the Giants offense like it was he, and not Favre, bound for the Hall of Fame.

The Giants won because Plaxico Burress, who has played out the entire season on a crippled ankle, came through with a sterling performance equal to the magnitude of the game itself.

And the Giants won because, as a team, they were able to overcome a few individual mistakes that might have done in a lesser team (McQuarters' 2 fumbles, Madison's foolish Un-necessary roughness penalty, Tynes' 2 missed FGs) and never quit until Lawrence Tynes' 47-yard kick hooked through the uprights. They believe in each other, even when it seems like nobody else does.

I watched the game with a friend of mine, a Jets fan, and after the game, all we could do was look at each other and say, "Man. What a fucking game!" Watching the game, we were both reminded of past playoff failures by our own teams. He had flashbacks to a game 3 years ago, the Doug Brien game in Pittsburgh, when the Jets kicker missed a pair of Field Goals late in the game. I flashed way back to Matt Bahr in 1990, when these same Giants denied the 49ers of a Three-peat.

It seems so strange to think that the 2007 Giants are going to the Super Bowl. After an uneven season that didn't seem to inspire confidence in anybody, the Giants somehow righted themselves and caught fire at the most opportune time, riding a wave that will take them all the way down to Arizona for Super Bowl XLII.

You could tell that the Giants came to play an inspired game from the outset. With the temperature holding steady between -1°F and -4°F, the Giants looked warm and toasty, while the Packers, playing in their element, looked like the team that was cold. The Giants were able to move the ball at will on offense, and their defense was able to keep the Packers off balance. But for a few plays, specifically Driver's 90 yard TD, and a pair of Packers drives in the second half that were extended by bad penalties and a freak play, the Giants basically dominated the game.
But after running the ball and running down the clock to set up Tynes at the end of regulation, it didn't look good. I kept thinking that they needed to get closer, or take a shot at the End Zone. My friend was screaming about Doug Brien. Then, Tynes hooked the 36-yard FG as the clock ran out. And things really did not look good when the Packers won the coin toss before Overtime, following Tynes' second missed FG.

But as things have gone for the Giants this month, the Giants have been able to overcome the negative. And Favre's pass on the second play of Overtime was an underthrown flutterball that was easily intercepted by Corey Webster, setting up the final drive, and setting up Lawrence Tynes to charge past his coach, onto the field to make that last Field Goal to put the Giants into the Super Bowl.

3 straight on the road in the Postseason. 10 wins in a row on the road. Who the hell even plays 10 road games in a season?
The Giants did it. And they're absolutely where they deserve to be. This is a proud, proud day for the Giants and their fans, and they deserve all the congratulations they're getting right now. They earned it.
And they've earned another shot at the 18-0 New England Patriots, the prohibitive favorites right now. The Patriots basically did the absolute minimum they had to do to beat San Diego. But then, San Diego was pretty much hamstrung when Tomlinson had to go out of the game. The Chargers defense played inspired, picking off a shaky Tom Brady 3 times. But the offense failed to finish off drives, settling for Field Goals instead of Touchdowns, and that was the difference. The Patriots were able to hammer away and hammer away until there was no time left, holding the ball for the final 9 minutes of the game and knocking the Chargers off the dance floor.
It's a rematch of a most intriguing game that took place Week 17. Get ready to hear an awful lot about that, about the undefeated Patriots, about Eli Manning emerging from his brother's long shadow, and every other stupid human interest story that can be cooked up.

But you won't hear anything about Brett Favre this week.