The 2012 Super Bowl is in the books and I’m finally finished writing. Took me long enough. (I was distracted by Puppy Bowl VIII.) So without further ado, here’s the season’s last edition of The Final Drive!
(13-7) New York Giants 21
(15-4) New England Patriots 17
This game started with almost as much drama as it finished with. The New England Patriots came out with strong defensive pressure, sacking Eli Manning twice on New York’s first drive and forcing a punt to give Brady the ball. Tom took that opening possession, dropped back to throw from his own endzone, and let a deep ball fly to absolutely no one while the Giants closed in for the hit. That correctly drew an intentional grounding flag, which from the endzone is grounds for a safety. So the Giants jumped to an early 2-0 lead and we were all flabbergasted.
In the first quarter the New England defense caused a fumble from Ahmad Bradshaw that was negated thanks to an ill-timed 12 men on the field penalty. The Patriots were bumbling on their defensive substitutions early on, unable to adapt to the Giant personnel. That mistake led to the Giants first touchdown, a pass to Victor Cruz over the middle behind linebacker Brandon Spikes. At 9-0, it looked like the Patriots were doomed to lose to these Giants again. But it wasn’t going that direction without a fight.
The Gronk finally made the stat sheet with a catch on the Patriots drive to end the half, as they absorbed clock before the break. The offensive line gave Brady plenty of time on the drive, especially at the goal line, where he zinged a pass to Danny Woodhead to make it a 10-9 game at the half. Brady went 10 for 10 on the drive and put the Patriots on top after being dominated by the Giants for nearly two quarters.
To come out of the lengthy halftime, the Patriots kept up the intensity as they marched down the field for 79 yards. Brady found Wes Welker on multiple routes across the middle, but ended the drive with a touchdown to Aaron Hernandez, who burned linebacker Chase Blackburn. Belichick began to exploit his match-ups, even without Gronkowski making an impact at any point during the game.
When the Giants got the ball back in the second half, the Patriots had obviously made adjustments to their run defense. Shaun Ellis got into the game on the right side of the defensive line where they had been burned so often in the first half. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Giants from getting into field goal range on their next possessions thanks to excellent grabs from Hakeem Nicks to make it 17-15 at the end of the third quarter. (Remember what I said about the Giants just wanting to keep it close?)
Soon after the fourth quarter got underway, Brady managed to nimbly escape the Giant pass rush pressure and heave it down the field to Gronkowski, only to see it picked off by a trailing Chase Blackburn. As much as Gronk could have come back to the ball, it was a pretty evident underthrow from Brady. That turnover would be the only one of the game and certainly cost the Patriots a chance to get more points on the board. (And as the Giants only won by four, any extra points would have helped.)
On what ended up being their penultimate possession, the Patriots looked poised to run out the clock when Brady misconnected with Welker on a wide open pass about 20 yards deep. The Giant coverage was out of place, leaving Welker all lone to make a tough (but makeable) grab. That drop ensured the Patriots would punt, giving Manning 3:46 to regain the lead. And Manning did not disappoint.
One of the strangest/most awesome plays of the game occurred on the final score, when Bradshaw was going to be let into the endzone by the Patriot defense. Instead of running it in as the defense wanted, Bradshaw tried to take a knee at the one-yard line, but ended up falling into across the goal line for the score. Not getting the knee down could have cost the Giants, as it left Brady 57 seconds to get down the field. Luckily for Bradshaw, the Pats’ next possession drive started with a two drops and a sack, leaving little time for New England to mount a comeback. A nice out to Deion Branch kept the chains moving, but it wasn’t to be this day. The Giants held on Brady’s Hail Mary attempt and walked away with their second Super Bowl win in five years.
The Patriots just made too many uncharacteristic mistakes to come out with the win. I was surprised to not see Julian Edelman anywhere on the field for New England’s defense. As I wrote in my previews, I thought we’d see him on Manningham for most of the game, but he was noticeably absent from New England’s defensive gameplan. That left Belichick’s less talented corners for Manningham, who ate them alive for 73 yards on five catches, including the tightly-defended 38 yarder to start the drive on their go-ahead score. And that was after he ran out of bounds to catch a fade route earlier in the game. When you consider that Hakeem Nicks racked up 109 yards on his ten catches, it’s clear the Patriots decided to focus their efforts on shutting down Victor Cruz. Along with their penalties and their lone turnover, the Patriots made too many negative plays to beat the Giants today.
After the confetti settled and Eli Manning was named the game’s MVP (by default), the Patriots were left without their revenge. As for the game itself, it was another highly entertaining Super Bowl that went right down to the wire. As football fans, could we ask for anything else?
My 2011-12 Playoff Prediction Results: 7-4I’ll take it.
Other Notes of Note:-These commercials absolutely sucked. SUCKED. Aside from the Avengers trailer and the Seinfeld car ad, I was nonplussed at nearly everything I saw. Bad form marketers. Bad form.
-Madonna didn’t look bad I suppose. I mean, not that I cared.
-Gronkowski was obviously not completely healthy. I’m sure he put up a valiant effort, but he was a non-factor. That hurt the Patriots more than they’ll ever admit.
-It has to be noted how much punter Steve Weatherford had an impact on this game. It was his corner punt that set-up the crappy field position that forced Brady to make a pass from his own endzone. Without that punt, there’s no safety.
-There’s already a glut of reaction to the Brady safety, but I can’t possible believe that a 2-point play in the first quarter decides the game. The Patriots had plenty of time to overcome that miscue (and they did). As soon as they took the lead, the blame for that play should be nearly lifted.
Alright everyone, I’m out for the night. (And probably the week.) It’s been another fantastic season and I am so grateful for your company. Thank you and Happy Super Bowl!
