Belichick: Outcoached, and a sore loser
FROM THE PHOENIX AIRPORT — Some final comments on Super Bowl 42:
– No surprise that Bill Belichick walked off the field with one second remaining in the game. Belichick is a known cheater, which means he doesn’t respect the game or the spirit of competition. So of course he would be a sore loser. Of course he would disrespect the game once more. Of course he lacked the guts to stand with his team until the end, to watch it all go down.
– That said, it was pathetic the way Belichick ran off on his team, to leave the old guys on the defense to go out there and stand for one final snap. Whatever happened to the idea of a coach and players being in it together, win or lose? Not Belichick. They lost and he was outta there.
– Belichick’s aging defense couldn’t stop Eli Manning and the Giants on two crucial fourth-quarter possessions. They didn’t have the legs to keep up. I can’t help but think that all the blowouts., all the times that Belichick ran up the score, played a role in this. So many times this season, the Patriots kept their starters on the field much longer than they needed to, as Belichick tried to humiliate other coaches in some bizarre act of revenge for being fined for his cheating. Well, on Sunday night in the Valley, the age and the arrogance finally caught up to Belichick and his defense.
– Belichick and staff were outcoached. The Giants had better tactics on both sides of the ball. The Pats never adjusted to the Giants’ decision to go after Tom Brady, who was sacked five times and smacked around all night. And the Patriots were surprisingly flat, considering that they had a perfect season and a another Super Bowl championship on the line. “The Giants had a better game plan than we did, they came ready to play four quarters,” Patriots wideout Randy Moss said. “I think their intensity from the beginning to the end was higher than ours. It surprised me, because of all the work we put in the last two weeks.“It’s hard to explain. I don’t really have words for it.”
– The New York media is already mythologizing the Giants victory. Here’s the truth: it wasn’t the best Super Bowl ever. It was a clunky, sluggish game for three quarters. It was a tremendous fourth quarter, as good as any. But overall, this wasn’t a great game. Just a great, scintillating finish.
– Eli wasn’t Joe Namath in Super Bowl 3. He was better than Namath. The New York media keeps framing this as Manning shocked the world the way Namath shocked the world. No, this isn’t so. Yeah, Namath guaranteed a Jets win over the Colts, who were favored by 17. And that was shockling. But Namath did not play a major role in the game. The Jets won because their defense feasted on turnovers, and they won on the strength of Matt Snell and Emerson Boozer and a bruising running game. Eli Manning did something that Joe Willie didn’t do in Super Bowl 3: Manning brought his team back twice in the fourth quarter to win the biggest game of his life.
– That Manning scramble and the pass to David Tyree … Yeah, it realy was one of the great plays, and most memorable plays, in Super Bowl history. We’ll be talking about that one forever.
– I know they are overexposed with the commercials and nonstop interviews and everything, but the Mannings really are nice people, and gracious people. I am happy for their success.
– I dont know if the Giants put on the best defensive performance in Supe history; I tend to doubt it, given that all of those unbelievably intimidating Steelers defenses won four of these games. But for one night only, what the Giants did to the Patriots - who scored a record 589 points in the regular season - ranks right near the top.
– Rams coach Scott Linehan can learn something from Giants coach Tom Coughlin. Give Coughlin credit for improving his player relations by empowering the players to state their views and have a voice in how the team was being run. Coughlin’s “Player Council” was a good idea and Linny should do the same.
– Patriots fans, including ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons, are saying now they know how Rams fans felt after Super Bowl 36. NO YOU DON’T. The Rams may have been cheated out of that win. I don’t think the Giants cheated to beat the Patriots. So spare me this nonsense.
That’s all for now. Time to fly and make my way back to the STL …
Thanks for reading.
-B
I agree with most of the article’s points, but I thought it was a pretty entertaining game. I was expecting the Pats to blow out the gints, and so seeing them blast through the o-line over and over was entertaining.
Seems the Rams loss to the Pats was due more to the reffing and the coaching than cheating. I don’t mind them trying to get to the bottom of it, but I don’t think it makes much difference in the result, how I feel about it, and why it happened.