Soon after the 2007 NFL playoffs began, the New England Patriots copyrighted the phrase "19-0 The Perfect Season." And printed T-shirts and other memorabilia. And the Boston Globe created a book celebrating the Super Bowl win. After all, the Patriots needed just one more win, right? But a funny thing happened along the way to perfection.
So we created this site to look back at the almost perfect season that started with fans calling for the heads of coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning and ended with an unlikely and unforgettable Giants victory in Super Bowl XLII, leaving the Patriots with 18 wins and just one Giant loss.
So we created this site to look back at the almost perfect season that started with fans calling for the heads of coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning and ended with an unlikely and unforgettable Giants victory in Super Bowl XLII, leaving the Patriots with 18 wins and just one Giant loss.
Offseason (Comment)
Coughlin Should Be Through With Little BlueMaybe Coughlin wouldn't have sounded as if he were pleading to keep a job he deserves to lose when he started talking about how proud he was of the "fighters" who lost 23-20 to the Eagles when Little Blue could not stop David Akers from booting the 38-yard field goal as time expired. "Absolutely no quit," Coughlin said, as if that is the new gold standard for the football Giants.
Fire him now!!!
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
Wrong Answer: Keeping Coughlin May Land Big Blue in No-Man's LandWhat [the Giants’ owners] did, instead, was this: They went halfway. They curled up on top of the fence and stayed there. It is the worst possible thing they could have done, adding just one year to Coughlin's contract, hinting that the core of the team that exited 2006 will likely enter 2007 intact, keeping their coach a virtual lame duck for another 12 months and inviting the kind of chaos that ruined this season to explode into full-blown anarchy next season.
-- Source: Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
NBC Gives Barber the Ball, and He Runs With ItAnd, just like old times, he offered some criticisms of the Giants’ coach.
“Coach Coughlin was nothing but great for me as a player,” Barber said. “But the grind took its toll on me, and really forced me to start thinking about what I wanted to do next. That’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. At least for me it is. Maybe not for the Giants because they lose one of their great players, but for me it is.”
-- Source: John Branch, New York Times
Tiki Torched: Barber's a Fake, Coughlin's the Real DealNow that Barber is gone, look for the Giants to have more harmony in the locker room and more tolerance of Coughlin.
And you watch: Coughlin will turn that thing around. The Giants will be good in 2007, and The Big Fake Smile won't be a part of it.
-- Source: Pete Prisco, CBS
Giants’ Off-Season Has Been Work With No ProgressIt is only March, and the N.F.L. draft—April 28 and 29—is a month away. But for a team that talked openly last off-season about winning a championship, there is a sense that the Giants are in a slow rebuilding phase.
-- Source: John Branch, New York Times
Familiar Favorite: Patriots Will Be Driven to Handle Unfinished BusinessI've seen enough. No more calls, we have a winner. New England is officially the team to beat. Everybody in the league has made moves this offseason. The Patriots have just made better ones. Lots of them.
The Colts and Chargers should be there again come playoff time, standing between the Patriots and a trip to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz. And the NFC will again field a Super Bowl contestant for the AFC to beat up on. But even in the first week of May, I'm convinced I know how this is all going to turn out.
-- Source: Don Banks, Sports Illustrated
Some College Athletes are Getting Death Threats. See our Beyond the Headlines coverage of Violence Grows Among College Sports Fans.
Training Camp (Comment)
Wrong Way for a Giant Era to EndMessage to Michael: If it's a simple case of your heart not being in it all of a sudden, then go. If it's the fact you're not making $8 million, get over it, come back, break LT's sack record, and go out the way a Hall of Fame Giant is supposed to go out.
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
Tiki: Eli's Leadership 'Comical' at Times“Last year about Week 12 I turned over the offensive motivational speech to Eli and he was gung-ho to do it, but he was uncomfortable doing it. I think a lot of it had to do with vets being around---myself, Jeremy Shockey, Plaxico Burress. He didn’t feel like his voice was going to be strong enough and it showed. Sometimes it was almost comical the way that he would say things.”
-- Source: Ralph Vacchiano, Daily News
Manning Tosses Barber’s Words Back at Him“I’m not going to lose any sleep about what Tiki has to say,” Manning said between training camp practices Tuesday afternoon. “I guess I could have questioned his leadership skills last year about him calling out the coach and having articles about him retiring in the middle of the season, that he’s lost the heart. It’s tough as a quarterback to read that your running back’s lost the heart in playing the game and it’s the 10th week.”
With the slyest of smiles, Manning added, “I’m just happy for Tiki that he’s making a smooth transition to the media.”
-- Source: Lynn Zinser, New York Times
First Step to Being the ManIt hardly means that Eli Manning is ready to take the Giants to a Super Bowl, the way his older brother for the Colts did last February. But mark it down as the first baby step toward NFL manhood, and for all those who want their quarterback to stand for something, to rise up with clenched fist and stop taking garbage, to show some fire and brimstone, to stir the ghost of Johnny U, sing hallelujah!
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
The 2008 Summer Olympics are coming! Find out all you need to know with the findingDulcinea Olympics Web Guide.
Week 1 (Comment)
Defense Truly Rests for GiantsThis woeful night should best be remembered by four numbers, in ascending order of importance:
There is one (1), which is how many punts the Giants defense forced, which is almost hard to believe. There is 142, the number of yards the Cowboys gained on the ground, and 345, which is how much Tony Romo collected through the air. And, most shameful, there is 45. When you surrender 45 points on opening night, it doesn't often inspire happy harbingers of what's to come.
-- Source: Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
So many times in sports, a potential juggernaut gets built in the offseason and everyone goes overboard wondering about its invincibility... and then, the season starts and the team doesn't look like a juggernaut. But "Patriots 38, Jets 14" was one of those times when the potential juggernaut actually looked more unstoppable than it had on paper. This was a complete and total decimation. That's the best way to describe it: A decimation.
-- Source: Bill Simmons, ESPN
Time for baseball! Visit your team in Spring Training in person or virtually with help from the findingDulcinea Spring Training Web Guide.
Week 2 (Comment)
Giants collapse in all phases in blow out against PackersFor the second week in a row, it was the defense that doomed the Giants, as they dropped their home opener to the Green Bay Packers yesterday, 35-13. While getting off to their first 0-2 start since 1996, the Giants have given up 846 total yards, 621 passing yards and a ridiculous 80 points.
-- Source: Ralph Vacchiano, Daily News
Woeful Giants 'Pack' It InIt was a nice medical comeback for Manning, but it accounted for absolutely nothing in terms of tangible results. That's what happens when you put an incompetent defense on the field that stops no one and makes it impossible to have faith that the season can be anything more than 15 more weeks of drudgery.
-- Source: Paul Schwartz, New York Post
Defiant and DominantAnd the final score from Gillette Stadium: New England Patriots 38, San Diego Chargers 14 … karma 0.
In a three-hour thrashing that was sheer torture for anyone outside the New England area, expat Pats fans excepted, Bill Belichick and his defiant band of merry pranksters took down the team regarded as the NFL's most talented Sunday night and affirmed their status as the franchise to beat in 2007.
-- Source: Michael Silver, Yahoo!
Win One for the Cheater: Why the Enraged Patriots Will Go UndefeatedIf more sordid details come out, and Goodell feels obligated to suspend Belichick for a week, the New England players themselves might beat some team 100-0. The whole mishegas puts the 1972 Miami Dolphins' distinction as the only team to play an entire NFL season undefeated in serious jeopardy. Roger Goodell did the right thing last week, but he also created a situation in which, come February, when the Patriots win the Super Bowl, and he has to hand the trophy to Bill Belichick, it's perfectly plausible to wonder if it shouldn't be the other way around.
-- Source: Charles P. Pierce, Slate
Coughlin Cornered by 0-2 Start[Coughlin's] team is in trouble again and he is in trouble again.
He isn't Dead Man Walking yet, but if this keeps up, the plank will be waiting for him.
The worst possible way for Coughlin to open the 2007 season, given the way his dysfunctional Giants closed the 2006 season, was with The Worst Team In Football.
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
Week 3 (Comment)
Off-Broadway Melodrama: With Players Complaining and a Coach on the Hot Seat, 0-2 Giants Seem More Fit for Page Six Than the Back PageThey are 0-2 with a defense that can't stop anyone, and a loss this weekend would cement the feeling that the Giants' season soon could deteriorate into a long countdown to the firing of Coach Tom Coughlin.
-- Source: Mark Maske, Washington Post
Final Stand Gives Giants a Reason to BelieveAn 0-2 start to the season had built the foundation for a tedious, if not tortuous, march through the schedule and speculation about the franchise's next coach. That feeling was buttressed by a 17-3 halftime deficit.
But somewhere in the locker room, the Giants (1-2) found something they have been missing for most of a year: a string of consistency, well-timed doses of good luck and an unexpected defensive stand.
-- Source: John Branch, New York Times
No Points for Skins (Or Critics)If the Giants make the postseason (which is still a big if), they will point to this goal-line stand as the turning point.
-- Source: George Willis, New York Post
Week 4 (Comment)
Donovan McNabbed: Giants Defense Smothers Eagles QBAfter two weeks in which Big Blah surrendered 80 points and had the worst defense in the league, coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has morphed into Bill Belichick.
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
Giants' 12 Sacks, 6 by Umenyiora, Bury EaglesNow 2-1 in the division and working on a streak of six quarters without allowing a touchdown, the Giants' defense seems to just be getting started.
-- Source: Arthur Staple, Newsday
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Week 5 (Comment)
Michael Strahan's New Book Praises Tom Coughlin"I can tell you, (after) my first meeting (with Coughlin) I went home and said, 'I'm going to enjoy this year. I'm not going to play for him next year. I hate him,'" Strahan said on a conference call to promote the book, which was released yesterday. "And now I can see myself definitely ending my career with him as a coach."
-- Source: Ralph Vacchiano, Daily News
Week 6 (Comment)
Giants Can't Afford to Fumble Prosperity This TimeIt's only mid-October, but if the Giants can avoid the injuries and dissension that have sabotaged Tom Coughlin's first three seasons, then they are not going away so fast and will be fighting for elite playoff position in December. Ultimately, it all comes to back Eli Manning. Sure, Tony Romo has become a cult figure in Dallas, but once you cut past the Romo-Mania, I would rather have Manning.
-- Source: Gary Myers, Daily News
The Winning MachineThe Patriots are 6-0 for the first time since 2004, their last Super Bowl year, but they will tell you until your ears bleed that it's still early. "The season really starts after Thanksgiving," Brady coolly explained on Sunday in the belly of Texas Stadium. And they're right. Leaves are still clinging to the trees in much of New England, and there is ample time for the Patriots' fast start to be undone by injury or a few bad bounces. But if it is much too early to award the Lombardi Trophy, it is not too soon to conclude that the winner of the Nov. 4 Patriots-Colts game in Indianapolis will become the solid Super Bowl favorite and (if still unbeaten) a serious contender to be the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to finish a season without a loss.
-- Source: Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated
If the Giants' last drive gave you a heart attack, you're not alone. Read about the health risks of being a fan at findingDulcinea.com.
Week 7 (Comment)
Defense Comes Through Again for GiantsMaybe the Giants had not paused to notice the eerie parallels between this season and the ones before it, the similarities of their now-routine travels through September and October. But by now, they are too obvious to ignore.
-- Source: John Branch, New York Times
Move Over Miami: Patriots Bound For 19-0 and NFL Scoring RecordI believe these Patriots will go 16-0 in the regular season, and then march through the playoffs to become the first 19-0 team in NFL history. Write it down and underline it twice. They're that good, and they're that motivated.
I already picked them to win the Super Bowl last May, but now I'm going even further. Move over, Miami. After 35 years of solitude, you're going to have company in the perfect-season club. The Pats will beat the Colts in two weeks, and then everyone else in their path this season.
-- Source: Tony Banks, Sports Illustrated
For a roundup of the best coverage of Super Bowl XLII in the country, from pregame predictions to postgame analysis, read the findingDulcinea Super Bowl XLII Web Guide.
Week 8 (Comment)
Sorry, Brits, But Giants-Dolphins Was Typical NFLIf this game's goal was to take the temperature of European fans, then the NFL supplied a representative sample. What we saw is what the NFL is like nowadays. There are a lot of mediocre teams, and it's not always easy to tell the difference between the probable playoff teams (6-2 Giants) versus the 0-8 ones (Miami Dolphins).
-- Source: Seth Wickersham, ESPN
Running It Up: Belichick, Pats Take No PrisonersOn Sunday, Belichick kicked a Hall of Fame coach while he was down, running up the score on Joe Gibbs' Redskins in a 52-7 win. This comes a week after Belichick reinserted quarterback Tom Brady midway through the fourth quarter of a 49-28 win over the Dolphins.
What seemed cute three weeks when Kyle Eckel scored late on a 1-yard run during the Pats' 48-27 win in Dallas has turned ugly.
Welcome to Belichick's no-mercy policy.
-- Source: John Clayton, ESPN
Read about how the Giants' victory intensified the New York vs. Boston sports rivalry at findingDulcinea.com.
Week 9 (Comment)
Giants Scatter for Break, Promise No Second-Half Letdown"I think we are more realistic," receiver Amani Toomer said. "Six and two is a great start, but we're not totally enamored with it like before”… Toomer said the memory of last season's finish is a painful reminder of what can happen. He also said this year's team can play a lot better.
-- Source: Associated Press
Experiencing the Chill of 'Victory'After the legitimacy of the three Super Bowl titles was questioned, there was only one response: 19-0. The players keep saying they're taking it one game at a time; I say they're full of crap. They want to join the '72 Dolphins and destroy everyone along the way. Why? Because bleep everybody, that's why. After Welker clinched the Colts game with a crucial first-down catch, he defiantly hopped up and screamed at the poor cornerback covering him, "YOU F------ SUCK!" Unquestionably, it was the defining play of the season—not just that the Patriots converted the exact same situation that killed them last January (when they could have clinched a Super Bowl trip with one more completion on third-and-short), but that Welker displayed such arrogant disdain after finishing the Colts off.
-- Source: Bill Simmons, ESPN
New England ExpressThe prospect of an undefeated season, once so distant, suddenly seems very real. At 9-0 the Patriots still have conference dates remaining with the Baltimore Ravens (away) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (home); on Dec. 29 they travel to the Meadowlands to face the New York Giants. If they're still perfect, the Pats may have to decide whether to rest their starters for the playoffs or use them for the sake of history.
-- Source: Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated
Week 10 (Comment)
Giants Saddle Up but Don't Measure UpThe Giants squandered a second chance to make a strong impression and recast themselves as true title contenders.
"You focus on winning football games, and when you get to the playoffs, anything can happen," defensive end Michael Strahan said. "And who knows? Maybe we go to the playoffs and we play those guys again, and you have another shot at it."
But on the way to the final score, the Giants revealed their inadequacies: a solid but susceptible defense unlikely to carry the franchise's championship aspirations.
-- Source: John Branch, NY Times
Romo Rolls, Eli Folds In Giant MismatchOn a Star Wars stage where Eli Manning had his chance to make the kind of loud and definite statement Giant fans have been hungering for since he arrived four years ago as their franchise quarterback, it was Tony Romo who delivered the Gettysburg Address.
-- Source: Steve Serby, NY Post
Week 11 (Comment)
They're Good, But Not GiantBut 11 weeks are gone in this perfectly respectable season and you still always get the feeling they can do even better. The question is, what finally will coax it out of them? What keeps the Giants just a good but not great team, and something of an enigma?
-- Source: Johnette Howard, Newsday
The Fight for SecondThis NFL season is something altogether different now. Sometime in the middle of Sunday evening it ceased to be the annual carefully constructed exercise in athletic socialism—in which drafting, scheduling and free agency ensure that many teams, however flawed, can smell the Super Bowl in December—and devolved into a widely televised and very lucrative game of king of the hill. One team stands at the top, and other perfectly serviceable challengers struggle upward, fruitlessly. Laughably.
-- Source: Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated
Week 12 (Comment)
Snap Judgments: Manning's mediocrityAfter 50 regular-season starts and just more than three full years of watching his every move, can we just all agree that Eli Manning is what he is? He's never going to be Peyton Manning; and by now, it's our fault if we don't realize where he fits into the pecking order of NFL quarterbacks.
He's a Manning, so he'll never completely escape the comparison game. But he's not Peyton Manning, and it seems to be past time for us to stop expecting him to make that distinction disappear. To quote that noted bard from Foxboro, Eli is what he is. And maybe that's all he will ever be.
-- Source: Don Banks, SI
Perhaps It's Time To Let Eli Manning GoOK, let's all just get together and agree on this, so we don't have to unduly pick on the guy: Eli Manning isn't any good. Like, at all. Obviously, his last name has offered him "potential" status long past the expiration date, but we think all of us, along with Eli himself, would be a lot happier if all just accepted Eli's lousiness and moved along.
-- Source: Deadspin
Did Eagles finally expose New England's few flaws?Whether the defensive blueprint conjured up by Philadelphia coordinator Jim Johnson on Sunday night turns out to be a game plan adopted by the rest of New England's opponents, or becomes just another flawed strategy against the NFL's most lethal offense and its assault on the record book, remains to be seen.
-- Source: Len Pasquarelli, ESPN
Week 13 (Comment)
"Skittish? Not When It Counts: After Seven Miserable Quarters, Manning Shows Grit and Rallies Giants to Crucial Victory"All this on a miserable late afternoon at Soldier Field that threatened to turn the Giants' season and Manning's career into a tailspin from which both might never have recovered. Overstating the case? Perhaps. But who knows what happens if Manning doesn't rally from a 16-7 deficit in the final quarter?
-- Source: Bob Glauber, Newsday
Week 14 (Comment)
Tom Must Stay, a Year After Tom Must GoTom Coughlin is no longer the object of New York's scorn and wrath, because he's given New York a team built in his own snarling, fighting image. A tough team, for a tough town. A no-nonsense, together, 60-minute, Cardiac Coughlin team that may finally have learned how to honor the memory of the late Wellington Mara.
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
Tom Coughlin's Job Security a Giant Blessing For PlayersThis year, even co-owner John Mara said "there is a big difference" in how everyone feels. The Giants have just rolled off two dramatic, come-from-behind wins in a row and have a two-game cushion in the wild-card race. And while Coughlin's bosses are reluctant to discuss his fate until the season is over, they are pleased with everything from the team's record to his improved relations with both the players and the press.
-- Source: Ralph Vacchiano, Daily News
Week 15 (Comment)
Mann Overboard: Struggling Eli Gives Critics More FodderThis is beginning to feel like one of those late-season slumps that have plagued Manning throughout his career. He was awful in his last home game against the Vikings and barely pulled out a win after playing a bad three quarters at Chicago two weeks ago. Now this.
-- Source: George Willis, New York Post
Week 16 (Comment)
Only Eli Manning Can Save CoughlinI f the Giants blow a once insurmountable wild-card lead, they can call the Mets to commiserate. The Mets had a seven-game lead with 17 to play and didn't make the playoffs.
Just one week ago, the Giants were coming off tough road victories in Chicago and Philadelphia and were praised for their resiliency. Now, after an awful game against the Redskins, the sky is falling again. Coughlin needs Manning to save his job. But is he good enough to do it?
-- Source: Gary Myers, Daily News
Mann Overboard: Eli Can't Save Jints, Only Sink 'EmThe Giants don't need their quarterback to be a hero. They need him to stop being Typhoid Mary. They need him to stop sabotaging the defense, and the running game, with poor throws and poorer decisions.
Manning did as much as possible to keep the Bills in the game, did everything he could to make the Giants' plight an impossible one. Hell, you half expected him to run off the sideline and tackle Kawika Mitchell on his game-changing interception.
-- Source: Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
Week 17 (Comment)
Despite Pressures, Tom Coughlin Should Focus on Bucs, Not PatriotsThe Giants are not beating the Patriots even if Coughlin plays all his starters. Momentum for the playoffs? If the Giants scrubs lose by 25 points, it will have no bearing on the team's psyche. But if Coughlin plays his first team and the Giants get blasted, then that could destroy their confidence. This is not about running away from a challenge. It's being completely selfish. The Giants need to worry about the Giants. Forget about Belichick.
-- Source: Gary Myers, Daily News
Coughlin Exceeded ExpectationsIf Coughlin says it's in the Giants' best interest to put every healthy body on the field and go for broke in a game that means nothing to the Giants and everything to the Patriots' quest for immortality, then let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Coughlin deserves as much, after a gutsy coaching job this season, given the circumstances. It's the least we can do for the reformed curmudgeon, who did his darndest to reach the playoffs and show a soft side, two goals supposedly beyond his reach.
-- Source: Shaun Powell, Newsday
Give Tom Credit: He Went For ItHe lost the football game, 38-35, and he lost two starters early, linebacker Kawika Mitchell on defense, center Shaun O'Hara on offense, and cornerback Sam Madison late with an abdominal strain, status unknown on all.
But good for him for giving New York a show, for choosing to fight the Patriots, for shooting for The Perfect Upset.
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
Wild Card Playoffs (Comment)
Road Savvy Giants Believe They Can TravelBut the Giants are not saying they have a shot just because they are one of the 12 teams still alive. They believe Sunday's game in Tampa will be the first step toward becoming the first NFC team to win three on the road to get to the Super Bowl after they were 7-1 on the road during the regular season.
-- Source: Gary Myers, Daily News
Final-E! E-ffcient Eli Just Couldn’t Be HadThis was, in so many ways, the kid's E-MANNcipation Proclamation, the day Eli Manning Eli Manning stood up and announced: Why not me? Why can't I take my team to the Super Bowl?
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
Eli Grows UpAfter a herky-jerky start to his career, Eli is standing a little taller in the pocket these days. Though Tiki Barber, his retired backfieldmate, opened the season by calling Manning's attempts at leading his team "comical," Eli has warmed to his generalship this season. His voice has more heft, his throws more zip. He has taken to loosening up the locker room with practical jokes and is finally playing his best football in the Giants' biggest games. "It's not an easy thing to do, playing quarterback at this level," receiver Plaxico Burress says. "Everybody doesn't get it overnight."
-- Source: Damon Hack, Sports Illustrated
Divisional Playoffs (Comment)
It is a LOCK. There's no way the Giants are going to win this game against the Cowboys. The Giants are coming off a win against Tampa Bay and they're acting like they beat the Patriots. On top of that they're talking a whole lot of smack. Osi Umenyiora saying the Cowboys aren't better then the Giants. Uh Osi, yes they are and if you were better this game would be a Giants Stadium where by the way, you stink.
-- Source: Craig Carton, WFAN
-- Source: YouTube
Eli Manning Must Outplay Tony Romo for Giants to Beat CowboysManning, quite simply, is in the biggest game of his life. This is why the Giants gave up so much to get him. It wasn't to beat the Bucs---an offensively-challenged bunch of retreads---in the wild-card round. Kerry Collins or Kurt Warner could have done that. They traded up for Eli because they thought they were getting a big-time franchise quarterback.
-- Source: Gary Myers, Daily News
Regular Season Over, the Pressure BeginsThe difference is that if the Patriots, who are 13 1/2-point favorites against the Jaguars, had been upset in any of those games, they would have dealt with the loss and prepared to play again. A loss now and the season is over and all those records the Patriots set and their perfect regular season will become a football footnote.
-- Source: Christopher L. Gasper, Boston Globe
Nothing About This One Came EasyThe Jaguars punched the Patriots in the mouth—hard. But the Patriots are not a finesse team. They are a skilled team, sure, but they are not a finesse team. They are a skilled team that hits back. And though it often felt as if the Patriots had no visible means of getting the Jaguars off the field, the fact is New England was the more unstoppable team. The final score was 31-20, and it is now 17 down and two to go.
-- Source: Bob Ryan, Boston Globe
Mr. Right After AllThis time last year, a vote for Tom Coughlin was a vote for mean-spirited mediocrity. The Giants should have fired him, and yet they are one game away from the Super Bowl because they did not.
-- Source: Ian O'Connor, Bergen Record
WFAN Host Craig Carton's Long March After Losing Bet with Boomer EsiasonCouples strolling the Brooklyn Bridge got a few more sights than they bargained for Friday when they came face-to-face with radio host Craig Carton dressed in nothing but a Giants' jersey and speedos. The co-host of WFAN's morning show with Boomer Esiason walked from Brooklyn to Manhattan dressed in the skimpy blue outfit after losing an on air bet on last week's Giants-Cowboys game.
-- Source: Daily News
-- Source: YouTube
Conference Championship (Comment)
Giants Recall a Stinging Defeat and See How They’ve ChangedAfter the loss, which secured the Giants’ first 0-2 start since 1996, Coughlin said: “I think we’re a better football team than we’ve shown. Obviously, I don’t have any real ground for saying that. It’s just a belief.” Since then, the Giants commenced a revival that has landed them one game from the Super Bowl, proving Coughlin right. Along the way, however, they may have changed so much that they have taken the value out of their first meeting with the Packers.
-- Source: David Picker, New York Times
Patriots Are BeatableForgive me for pointing out the obvious, but the Patriots are leaking oil as they try to complete their amazing marathon.
Sunday afternoon in the AFC championship game, the injury-hampered San Diego Chargers took a good run at the unbeatable Patriots, falling 21-12 primarily because Norv Turner’s red-zone play-calling was atrocious, quarterback Philip Rivers played on one leg and LaDainian Tomlinson’s knee failed to hold up.
-- Source: Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star
Eli New Mann in NFCHis boy had done more than save himself. On the biggest stage of his life, in the biggest game of his career, Eli Manning had outplayed Brett Favre in Favre's own living room. He'd thrown for 254 yards and kept the ball away from the guys on the other side of the field for a third straight playoff game. By the end, Packers fans were holding their breath every time their guy reared back to throw, and a minute into overtime everyone understood why. Giants fans? There was no need to fret about their guy. Not now. Not anymore.
-- Source: Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
-- Source: YouTube
Super Bowl Week (Comment)
New England Fans Will Get a Trophy or a BustIf the Giants win the Super Bowl … the Patriots' near-perfect season will be recalculated as a big, fat zero.
-- Source: Kevin Sherrington, Dallas Morning News
Terry Bradshaw Does About-Face While Interviewing Tom CoughlinOr, as someone wrote four years ago: "If Coughlin should ever turn the Giants around, make them winners again, all the analysts will suddenly come down with a case of amnesia. And their 'jerk' will become a genius."
-- Source: Bob Raissman, Daily News
Rewriting Wrongs: Fire Coughlin? Well, It Sounded Good at the Time“The Giants need a new face, and they need a new voice. If they ever listened to Coughlin at all, they have stopped even pretending that they do any more."
Man, whoever wrote that must REALLY feel stupid today, right?
-- Source: Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
Mismatch of the CenturyWe’ve still yet to find a legitimate reason beyond “act of the Gridiron Gods” why the Giants should beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
What we did find, folks, is the greatest statistical mismatch in NFL championship game history. Not Super Bowl history, folks. All of NFL history.
Super Bowl XLII is literally the NFL's Mismatch of the Century ... and the league is only 88 years old.
-- Source: Cold Hard Football Facts
Parade for Pats is Issue in Vote: Victory Rally May be Super TuesdayMenino said he does not want to jinx the Patriots by talking about a celebration before it is warranted, but he said a victory parade would probably start on Dartmouth Street near Columbus Avenue in the South End.
"We have to have a plan," the mayor said. "I'm just thinking about it; I don't want to jinx anybody."
-- Source: Boston Globe
Brian Lewis, New York Post: "Do you have a prediction for the game?"Plaxico Burress: "23-17.”
Lewis: "23-17?"
Burress: "23-17."
-- Source: New York Post
Tom Brady: "We're only going to score 17 points? OK. Is Plax playing defense? I wish he had said 45-42 and gave us a little credit for scoring more points."
-- Source: Associated Press
There is just no way Eli Manning can beat Tom Brady in the biggest game in the history franchise. There is just no way Tom Coughlin can out coach Bill Belichick. There is just no way NY can beat Boston in anything anymore. The bottom-line is that the Pats are going to stomp on the Giants dick and there is nothing anybody can say or do to change that. In fact I’m so confident in a Pats victory that I already pre ordered thousands of dynasty shirts.
-- Source: Barstool Sports
Finish Them! Why The Patriots Have to Blow Out The Giants in the Super BowlForget the part about the Giants winning. That was a silly provocation. The Giants' whole gritty postseason run is based on the inspirational fact that, in a regular-season finale that meant nothing in the standings, they held their heads high and dared to try to ruin the Patriots' perfect season—and lost.
-- Source: Tom Scocca, Slate
Pat-ently Smug & SnootyThe arrogant New England team has already applied for trademarks on "19-0" and "19-0 The Perfect Season."
But the Pats have the wrong number.
The Post, ever confident that Eli Manning and company will squash the Pats on Sunday, spent $375 for its own trademark application yesterday—on "18-1."
-- Source: New York Post
1st Quarter (Comment)
Carl Banks, Giants color commentator, on the Giants’ first drive: It’s starting to feel like smash-mouth football from this offense, Bob. It’s not all finesse, Dick, it is little run, but we’re going continue to to punch you in the mouth and we’ll pass when we have to.
-- Source: NFL.com
2nd Quarter (Comment)
Giants’ defensive line coach Mike Waufle to the defensive line: “There’s no way they can block you if you keep being relentless. Relentless rush! Relentless rush!”
-- Source: NFL.com
:22: Tom Brady sacked by Justin Tuck at the Patriots' 49 yard line. Fumble recovered by Osi Umenyiora.
-- Source: Giants.com
3rd Quarter (Comment)
Gil Santos, Patriots’ play-by-play announcer: “The Patriots gambled on 4th and 13 and the play didn’t have a chance.”
-- Source: NFL.com
Patriots defensive line coach Pepper Johnson to the defense: “They’re going to stay happy until we can shut them down. They don’t score, we win.”
-- Source: NFL.com
4th Quarter (Comment)
Carl Banks, Giant's color commentator, on Kevin Boss: "Those are the unsung heroes, the unusual suspects that can make a play in this game because they’re going to give the big guys attention."
-- Source: NFL.com
Gil Santos, Patriots’ play-by-play announcer: “So the Giants are marching and the Patriots are giving ground.”Gino Cappelletti, color commentator: “They’re reeling a little bit.”
Santos: “Yes they are.”
-- Source: NFL.com
Before the Patriots kickoff, Michael Strahan to the offense: 17-14 is the final, okay? 17-14. One touchdown, we are world champions. Believe it and it will happen.
-- Source: NFL.com
Amani Toomer: "Seymour said 'You guys get ready to go home.' They had their book out and they were inviting us to their after-parties."
-- Source: LoHud.com
Gino Cappelletti, Patriots’ color commentator: "How did he get away from that?"Gil Santos, play-by-play announcer: “I have no idea. I thought they had him sacked for sure.”
Cappelletti: I am still flabbergasted with what Eli Manning was able to do with that kind of pressure. And it’s amazing how he didn’t go down. What a job he did.”
-- Source: NFL.com
Jared Lorenzen to David Tyree: That’s all because of you, right there. That’s all because of you, all of it.Tyree: This is unbelievable. Hey, this is fairytale stuff. Only God kind of stuff.
Strahan to Tyree: You saved the season.
Tyree: Only God.
Strahan: I thought you were only in for running plays.
Tyree: I told you: God is great.
-- Source: NFL.com
Gil Santos, Patriots’ play-by-play announcer: We were all hoping that this would not happen at 18-0, to lose the final game. But right now, with 35 seconds left to play, things do not look good for the Patriots. Let’s see if Tom Brady can do it one more time.
-- Source: NFL.com
Bob Papa, Giants' play-by-play announcer: "And that is it, as Tom Coughlin gets a Gatorade bath. They get a final stand on the great Tom Brady. And the Giants, with the most improbable win in recent memory, have won Super Bowl XLII."
-- Source: NFL.com
Post-Game Quotes (Comment)
Michael Strahan: "We were trying not to make this another feel-good story or another Patriots dynasty story. We were trying to start our own dynasty. A New York Giants dynasty."
-- Source: Daily News
Eli Manning: “I’m thinking this is where you want to be. This is the position you want to be in. You like being down four points, at end of the game, you gotta score a touchdown to win. If you’re down three points, you might settle for a field goal, you’re not as aggressive. It’s kinda more … makes it a little better, you couldn’t write a better script. As a quarterback, you want a shot to win the game at the end and we got that shot and we made it happen.”
-- Source: NFL.com
Tom Coughlin: "The best part of it for me is the idea that this group of young men, who came together and believed in themselves, bought the team concept completely, took the names off the back of the jerseys, checked the egos at the door. The reinforcement for team is the greatest source of satisfaction for me."
-- Source: USA Today
-- Source: YouTube
After the Game (Comment)
Giants 17, Patriots 14. They DO have a word for that. The Mets used to own the patent on it. No longer: Amazing.
-- Source: Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
There'll be no Hub parade on Super Tuesday. No commemorative books about "Path to Perfection." In New England, the church bells all are broken.
-- Source: Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe
A few weeks ago, Manning was a mess. On the last Sunday in November, he had four interceptions against the Vikings, three returned for touchdowns. In the middle of December, he had 35 incompletions against the Redskins. The next week in Buffalo, he fumbled five times and threw two interceptions. Could anybody at that time possibly have predicted he would be a better quarterback in the Super Bowl than Tom Brady?
-- Source: Gary Myers, Daily News
Much analysis will be made over the coming weeks as to why exactly the Pats lost. Overconfidence? Jinx by the Globe's already produced book, a la "Dewey Defeats Truman"? My guess is they simply were outplayed. If anybody says it's the Giselle jinx, like the Jessica Simpson jinx, then they're dumb. We, as Patriots fans, should simply acknowledge that on this night, the New York Giants were the better team.
-- Source: Jamie Pacheco, Patriot Act
It may, perhaps, be the worst loss in profesional football history, this 18-0 powerhouse, favored by two touchdowns, losing to the lowest seed of the allegedly inferior NFC in the only game that really matters when real history is written.
-- Source: Scott Benson, Patriots Daily
Tip your cap today to Tom Coughlin, the architect of two of the biggest upsets of the last two decades. Back in 1993, his Boston College team beat No. 1 Notre Dame. College football's greatest dynasty has never recovered. Super Bowl XLII could prove to be the same dynasty-crushing defeat for New England.
-- Source: Cold Hard Football Facts
No doubt it was a total team effort. But the Giants defense, maligned early in the season, authored a performance that will rank as one of the best in the history of the franchise. Owner John Mara called it the 'greatest win in Giants history.' It may well have been the greatest defensive performance in Giants history considering the opposition and the setting.
-- Source: George Willis, New York Post
And so New England's 18-0 mark is for naught, just as each and every Patriot player warned it would be if they could not win the Super Bowl. This seemingly magical season has gone up in smoke. The quest for perfection turned out to be a hollow, meaningless pursuit.
-- Source: Jackie MacMullen, Boston Globe
Eli Manning will never be more perfect for New York than he was last night, when he was SuperMann, when he stood eyeball-to-eyeball with the great Tom Brady and shot him dead with the whole world watching.
-- Source: Steve Serby, New York Post
What had been expected to be a coronation turned into devastation.
-- Source: Jim Donaldson, Providence Journal
No coach and quarterback in the NFL had ever been ridiculed more than Coughlin and Manning. That's what made it even sweeter Monday that they were at the day-after news conference for the winning coach and Super Bowl MVP with a championship over the imperfect Patriots. The struggles were just part of the process.
-- Source: Gary Myers, Daily News
They lost 19-0 and a chance at immortality because in the biggest moment they strayed from the Patriot way. Instead of intensity, there was cockiness. Instead of humility, there was foolish bragging. No Bill Belichick team has ever been full of itself but these Patriots were.
-- Source: Mike Freeman, CBS Sportsline
-- Source: YouTube
-- Source: MSG Interactive
-- Source: YouTube
-- Source: YouTube
That's when I decided that there was a way this Moss jersey—this evil, unlucky, possibly-possessed-by-the-devil jersey that I never want to see again—could actually do some good. I'm putting it up for auction, and instead of the money going to me, I'm going to have the winner of the auction donate the winning bid to The Jimmy Fund.
-- Source: EBay
The following drive took the Giants a total of 52 seconds on the game clock from the point that six seconds were added to the clock. However if the time was managed the way it was supposed to be there would have been no time left on the clock after Eli Manning was tackled at :50 seconds on the game clock. This irrefutable proof demands that Super Bowl XLII be reviewed from the point of the first illegal stoppage.
-- Source: Yahoo!
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