 I Was Wrong
I've been working on this for a little bit... but I was wrong. At the beginning of the year I had little to no faith in the Giants. But can you blame me? Eli Manning was a streaky QB. Brandon Jacobs was the new starter after Tiki Barber left. Tom Coughlin's water was on boil. The defense looked sketchy after seemingly stretching to sign LB Kawika Mitchell and moving DE Mathias Kiwanuka to OLB(which subsequently worked quite well). I'd be lying if I said I was impressed with their Secondary. Strahan was threatening retirement. Spags was the new defensive coordinator.
As far as the season went I have to say in Week 2 (0-2) I was confident in my prediction. They played pretty awful in those weeks. And for the most part during the early goings of the season it seemed like their goose was cooked. Then lord knows what happened. They ended up fighting for and eventually claiming a wild card spot. And even then I was still thoroughly unimpressed(but if you know me I'm not easily impressed). I had my doubts heading into the playoffs, they did what my father so affectionately calls backed into the playoffs meaning they lost and made the playoffs, not much momentum.
They play Tampa Bay first. I pegged the Giants for a win even without momentum. Namely because I had no idea that Tampa Bay was even a playoff team. No surprise there. Then comes @Dallas. Giants fans so kindly reiterated the fact that they hadn't lost a road game since they lost in Dallas the first week of the season. Again impressive but not playoff impressive to me. Even being as Anti-Cowboys as I am I found it hard to pick the Giants. Pretty sure after looking at the stats you can see why. The Cowboys seemingly beat them in every category except the one that matters the most.... the score.
In the week leading up to the NFC Championship game I couldn't find it. There wasn't much there. I looked at tape after tape after tape. I saw no reason the Giants should've even beat the Cowboys nevertheless defeat the Packers. Again Giants fans were no strangers to their apparent road winning streak which became impressive after redeeming the first loss. However I couldn't see it. I couldn't viably see the Giants walking out of Lambeau field winning the game. I was there as most of you know, and I found it. This Giants team was just that, a team. Watching them even when they were sloppy just glancing over to the sidelines and you saw everyone helping each other. Something that couldn't be seen on the Packers sidelines. Alas, they allowed the Packers to stay put and packed their bags for Glendale, AZ.
Week 17 again. Two of Parcells finest, Coughlin and Belichick, meeting head to head for the second time this season. I'll spare the Patriots fans the excruciating details of the events leading up and during the game, to say the least they again played as a team and defeated what might've been the best team I'll see in my lifetime. Walking away from the University of Phoenix Stadium 17-14 victors over the now 18-1 Patriots, they had done what I thought was impossible. After picking them fourth in the NFC East they went on and won the Super Bowl. The only thing left to say is this... I was wrong. |