Super Bowl 46 Breaksown

I thought I would give my breakdown of the Super Bowl 46 matchup featuring the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.  Now, I have a bit of a bias here as the Giants are my favorite team and like most of the free world, I really hate the Patriots.  But I am going to try and keep this as unbiased as possible, but it won't surprise anyone to see who I am favoring in this one...here's why:

QUARTERBACK:

A year ago this one would have been easy, but after the season Eli Manning has had and the 4th quarter records he has broken this year...the gap has shrunk.  Tom Brady is still Tom Brady, one of the greatest qb's to ever play the game...but is there anyone more clutch than Eli Manning?  Going back to Super Bowl 42 when Eli led the game winning drive with 2:42 left in the 4th quarter against the Patriots, Eli has been one of if not the best 4th quarter qb in the NFL.  5 times this season, Eli led his team down the field and scored late touchdowns to win games and came close 3 other times.  One of those wins was against these very same Patriots in week 9.  To decide this one, I'm looking at how both qb's have played this post season.  Eli has been near perfect in beating the Falcons, upsetting the Packers and outlasting the 49ers.  Brady looked perfect against the Broncos then dialed up one of his worst post season performances against the Ravens.

Advantage: Draw

RUNNING BACK:

Neither team has run the ball that well this year, although the Giants run game has improved now that it has Ahmad Bradshaw back splitting carries with Brandon Jacobs.  Benjarvis Green-Ellis isn't an every down back and teams dont have to account form him in the backfield like they do against the shifty Bradshaw and the punishing Jacobs.

Advantage: Giants

WIDE RECEIVER:

Biggest no brainer of the game...the Giants boast one of the best young receiving corps in the NFL.  Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham are far and away better than their New England counterparts.  Wes Welker is still a force and led the NFL in catches but after that you got an aging Deion Branch and Chad Ochocinco who has done absolutely nothing for the Patriots this year.


Advantage: Giants


TIGHT END:


Just as the Giants had a huge advantage at wideout, the Patriots enjoy an big advantage at tight end.  Rob Gronkowski is one of the best tight ends in football (when healthy) and Aaron Hernandez is a #1 tight end in his own right.  For the Giants, Jake Ballard has done a good job of helping Giants fans forget about Kevin Boss but he's been battling a knee injury for most of the second half of the season.  Bear Pasco is capable of catching a pass or two but neither Giants TE measures up to the 2 guys in New England.  The only good news here for the Giants is Gronkowski is nursing a high ankle sprain and will surely be limited in what he can do in the game, but the Giants still have to account for him on every play.


Advantage: Patriots


OFFENSIVE LINE:


Neither line has been overly impressive this season.  The Giants protect the quarterback better but the Patriots open more running lanes.


Advantage: Draw


DEFENSIVE LINE:


The Giants possess the best defensive line in football, the Patriots do not.  The G-Men can generate pressure just from their front four which boasts such sack machines as Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and Pro Bowler Jason Pierre-Paul.  They will employ the same defensive scheme that knock Brady on his ass over 20 times in Super Bowl 42.  For the Patriots, only Vince Wilfork has stood out but this whole line will have to really step it up to match the pressure the Giants are going to unleash.

Advantage: Giants

LINEBACKERS:

Both linebacker corps boast young, fast, sure tacklers.  Jacquian Williams and Michael Boley will have to have big games for the G-Men as they will be covering the New England TE's for most of the game.  Give the slight edge to the Pats as their backers have played better as a group than the Giants.

Advantage:Patriots

SECONDARY:

 The Patriots have given up more yards through the air than any other team this season.  Bottom line, they don't have anyone who can cover Nicks, Cruz or Manningham.  This is the matchup that very well could decide the game.  The Giants secondary hasn't been much better but they do matchup better with New Englands receivers.  Corey Webster is the best corner in this game and he'll be matched up with Welker for most of it.

Advantage: Giants

SPECIAL TEAMS:

Gostkowski > Tynes
Mesko < Weatherford
Edelman > Blackmon/Jerrinigan
Pats cover team < Giants cover team


Advantage: Draw


COACHING:


Tom Coughlin has gone from the hotseat to the hall of fame in just 6 weeks, but Little Bill's record speaks for itself.

Advantage: Patriots



Giants: 4, Patriots: 3, Draw: 3


Make The Final: Giants 28, Patriots 21

We Are The Kickers, We Kick Ball

Thinking about the Super Bowl Shuffle and my beloved Riders own feeble video (11 Years, That's Enough!) got me thinking about this classic Saturday Night Live Parody.  The late, great Walter Payton hosts "NFL Video Countdown" featuring this classic song by the league's most misunderstood players, the kickers.  Jon Lovitz in hs turban singing "please, please no Green Bay! Brrr" still cracks me up everytime.



We Are The Kickers

Why I Cheer For The Giants

We all have this story.  The day we chose our favorite team over all others, the day we became a fan of a certain franchise through thick and thin.  When I became a fan of my favorite teams or athletes I always strayed from what everyone else was cheering for.  When everyone I knew started cheering for the Edmonton Oilers and Wayne Gretzky, I started cheering for the Detroit Red Wings and Steve Yzerman.  When my whole school became obsessed with Hulk Hogan I started cheering for his arch nemisis, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.  And when the NFL exploded into Canada in 1985 and everybody and their dog started cheering for the Chicago Bears and "The Fridge"...I became a life long fan of the New York Giants.  It all started when my Dad and I were watching a Monday Night Football game where the Giants were taking on the Redskins...that's the game where the greatest defensive player to ever play the game Lawrence Taylor broke both of Joe Theismann's legs with one hit.  I thought, that is the strongest, fastest, baddest man on the damn planet and he's way cooler than Jim McMahon and his shades or the Fridge and his Super Bowl Shuffle...the Giants were my kind of team.  The Giants would lost the NFC Championship that year to the Bears 21-0 but they would come back the following year and whup the Denver Broncos 39-20 in Super Bowl 21. 4 years later, the Giants would upset the heavily favored Buffalo Bills 20-19 in Super Bowl 25.  They did it with their trademark defense, Bill Belichick's  gameplan for stopping the high flying Bills offense currently resides in the football hall of fame.  The next 10 years were horribly forgettable, through the Ray Handley (or He Who Shall Not Be Named to Giants fans) era to the Dan Reeves fiasco, the G-Men couldn't turn things around until the 2000 season.  With a rejuvinated Kerry Collins and a defense led by Michael Strahan, the Giants beat the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings (with Cris Carter and a young Randy Moss) 41-0 to earn a berth in Super Bowl 35.  Unfortunately for the G-Men, their opposition was the Baltimore Ravens and their juggernaught defense led by ferocious Ray Lewis.  Employing a defense that hadn't been seen since, well the 86 Giants...the Ravens stomped us to the tune of 34-7.

The Giants rebuild started in 2004 with the draft day trade for Eli Manning.  Little brother of Peyton, Eli was highly touted out of college and was the consensus #1 pick...unfortunately that picked belonged to the San Diego Chargers.  One of the biggest trades in NFL history would feature Manning going to the Giants in exchange for Philip Rivers (the Giants 4th overall pick), and picks that would end up being used for Shawn Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding.  For years Chargers fans bragged about getting the better of the deal...but the 2007 season would shut them up for good.  That's the year Eli Manning came into his own and led his wildcard Giants to 11 straight road wins, all the way to Super Bowl 42 and a game against the 18-0 New England Patriots.  The Giants stifled the Patriots all day with their trademark sack happy defense and Eli led a game winning drive in the final 2 minutes that would include the single greatest play in Super Bowl history.  Known by fans as the "Hail Manning", Eli escaped heavy pressure on a third and long play and hucked a hail mary pass to little known Giants wideout David Tyree who brought the ball down trapped against his helmet while a Patriots defender was draped all over him.  A few plays later, Manning found Plaxico Burress all alone in the end zone for the touchdown and the upset win, a win that Giants co-owner John Mara would call the greatest in franchise history.

After late season collapses in 08, 09 and 2010, I thought it would be a long time before I could celebrate my beloved Giants being in the big game again...but the 2011 Giants would have something to say about that.  Whipped by injuries and the league's toughest 2nd half schedule, the Giants were nobody's pick to win the NFC and go to the Super Bowl but after beating the Dallas Cowboys twice to get into the playoffs, dominating the Atlanta Falcons, upsetting the heavily favored 15-1 Green Bay Packers and outlasting the very tough San Fransisco 49er's, the Giants find themselves back on the grandest stage in a rematch with the Patriots.

For the past 26 years I have cheered on my G-Men through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  This is the team that originated the forward pass and the gatorade shower, they have played in some of the most memorable games in history like the Sneakers Game and The Greatest Game Ever Played.  They have employed some of the best coaches in NFL history, from Vince Lombardi and Tom Ladry to Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin. They are the only team to win Super Bowls in 3 consecutive decades and this year could win one in a 4th.  They have made the playoffs more than any other franchise and on Sunday, February 5 they have a shot at their 4th Super Bowl title.  I will have my preview of Super Bowl 46 up later, I just wanted to give a little insight into why I cheer for the Big Blue Wrecking Crew and always will...go Giants!

Let's try this again...

To the sure delight of my 1 follower (hi Mike!!!) I have decided to give this blog thing another go. To recap, I used to run a blog that actually gained a bit of noteriety when I posted that (at the time) provincial Liberal leader David Karwacki was hitting on my wife. She was a reporter for the radio staion then and he was running for MLA...it just seemed a bit suspicious that wherever she went he was there too. Obviously, this was a joke but it actually generated some buzz on the interweb and may have led to his ultimate downfall...come to think of it, Dustin Duncan and Brad Wall owe me a beer! So after that little brush with infamy I stopped blogging for quite a while, picking it up again last year with this little sports blog. After I started again, I began hosting "Locker Talk" in Weyburn more regularily as our old host Richy Roy became very busy with family, work and magic so I was able to get my sports rocks off there. Now Richy is back and I'm all backed up so I'm giving this thing one more go...follow along if you like and feel free to participate in the comments! Expect a lot of hockey, UFC and football...NFL, CFL and my own observations as a 3rd year coach with the Weyburn Bantam football team. Thanks for visiting and I hope you stick around!