The game was as entertaining as a low scoring game could be. The Patriots had the big time winners in Bill Belichik and Tom Brady. They had Randy moss and the statistics and history and records that all spoke to this game being a blowout. All the Giants had was each other.
When the Giants scored to go up 10 - 7, I noticed something on the Patriots sideline. The players all seemed to be looking for Tom to find a way. It's Brady time. He had done them very well every other time he's been in that situation and he stepped up and did it again. He got his team into the end zone and reclaimed the lead. Surely now Coach will seal this up now.
What were the Giants doing when they went down 14 - 10. The offense and the defense joined together. Michel Strahan had everyone chanting 17 - 14. This team found their strength not in their quarterback, not in their coach, but in their community. The whole team found an extra energy source in their camaraderie. That last drive's important plays did include Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer, and Brandon Jacobs. But the two big ones came from rookie Steve Smith extending himself to ensure a first down on a third and eleven. And of course, Mr Special-teamer, David Tyree being especially special in his half of THE play, "The Hail Mara", unbelievable pinning the ball to his helmet as one of the most physically disruptive defenders in the league applied every trick he knew to knock it away.
The Giants overcame the Patriots, the statistics, the predictions, and the general common belief that the Patriots were unbeatable because they were a better TEAM, a better community of excellence. They understood that they were all in this together, they all needed the courage to do the right thing, that everyone gets what they earn, that the best a teammate can give comes to the team on his own terms (see Eli Manning), and they included everyone, the stars, the kickers, the rookies, and the special-teamers, as equals partners in the whole.
I am a Giants fan, have been for 45 years. I waited to post this until the euphoria wore off some. I can appreciate how this game might bother some Patriots fans. This was as tough as it gets for you. But the unbeatable can be beaten if they can't match the excellence of a community that brings it's best on the particular day when every community member's soul, heart, mind, and body is focused on how WE can overcome all and be Excellent. I have no doubt that the team from new England saw this and will learn from this for they have been and are champions too.
Just not this year.
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