A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
The MVP of Super Bowl XLVI is, predictably, Eli Manning.
Eli was terrific: 30-40, 296 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, and he led the 4th quarter comeback drive that gave the Giants their 21-17 victory.
Tom Brady also had a very good game, but he wasn’t quite Eli, as he never seems to be in the Super Bowl.
Congrats Eli. What a game, what a season.
You’re elite. Debate over.
When the Giants and Patriots meet up in the Super Bowl, just assume that someone on the Giants will make an epic catch that is a difference-maker in the game.
In Super Bowl 42, it was David Tyree with his hands and helmet. In Super Bowl 46, it was Mario Manningham with his hands and feet, making a ridiculously awesome sideline catch that extended the game-winning drive for the Giants.
Sound familiar?
The Super Bowl is finally here!
The Giants and Patriots are preparing to face off in Indianapolis, and it may surprise many to find out that Peyton Manning is not taking part in the game. He has been talked about so much this week that is may seem like he is preparing to play. It is his home stadium, for now, but Eli of course will be the only Manning taking part in the game.
By now, you’ve had a couple of weeks to watch the point spread for Super Bowl XLVI fluctuate a bit. After opening with the Patriots as a four-point favorite, the line dropped to 3.5 before eventually settling at Patriots -3.
Two weeks between the NFC and AFC Championship games and the Super Bowl seems like way too long.
I’m a Packers fan, so I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum. Last season, I could not wait for the Super Bowl to come, the anticipation building each and every day.
This season? I can’t wait for it to be over.
Leading up to Super Bowl XLVI, much has been made of some New England Patriots and New York Giants players competing more intensely than others because they feel slighted, overlooked, underappreciated, and of course, as is exceedingly common in sports, disrespected.
Obviously, some players feel the need to create motivation for themselves, especially given the already heightened competitiveness that professional athletes possess.
Watching football is good for three things: drinking, gambling, and having something to do on Sunday nights.
Thankfully, Super Bowl Sunday is the perfect combination of all three.
And what fun is it to just sit around and drink casually on your own terms? Why not have a little fun with it?
When the New England Patriots take the field versus the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, several of the same names, players, and stars from their first Super Bowl encounter, Super Bowl XLII, will be back.
But perhaps not as many as you think.
The NFC Championship game was supposed to feature the high-powered offenses of the Packers and the Saints, but the Giants and 49ers thought otherwise.
The Giants embarrassed the Packers in Green Bay last week in a 37-20 win, and the 49ers beat the Saints, 36-32, in one of the greatest playoff games in recent memory.
Both teams feature tough defenses, but the offenses have come alive in the past few weeks for both teams.
There have not been many Super Bowls to be hotly contested for a second time. The last one was the Dallas Cowboys versus the Buffalo Bills in 1994, won by Dallas 30-13.
The Bills were seeking revenge, but they didn’t get it as the Cowboys rolled over them in another lopsided big win. It was basically a repeat of the previous year, 1993, that the Cowboys won, 52-17.
Unfortunately, both Super Bowls were not close and provided very little drama.
This past weekend featured two highly anticipated quarterback matchups – Brady v Tebow and Manning v Rodgers – and a third that unexpectedly ended up being the most thrilling of the weekend – Brees v Smith. And as quarterbacks are wont to do after competing on the field of football battle, these duos all met at midfield after the game for quick makeout sessions in front of the leering press.
Wait…what?
The 15-1 Green Bay Packers (who peaked in September-November) have indeed been exited from the NFL Playoffs by the New York Giants (who are peaking now), and Hakeem Nicks was indeed wide open on an end-of-half Hail Mary.
So much for the Green Bay dynasty; as former GM Ron Wolf would say, the 2011 Packers proved to be just a fart in the wind.
Deal with it.
In this afternoon’s late game, the surging New York Giants travel to frigid Green Bay to take on the defending champion Packers.
New York’s furious late-season finish and dominance in the Wild Card Round against Atlanta is generating comparisons to the unlikely Super Bowl winner from a few year’s back. Meanwhile, Green Bay’s dominance over the last calendar year is being somewhat taken for granted, overshadowed by the Giants, Tebow Mania, Tom Brady’s ruthless record-setting, and the perfect football game.
Here is all the basic info you need to know, what MSF’s writers have said about the game this week, and a poll so you can take your pick.
In Green Bay’s run to the Super Bowl last season, it traveled from Philadelphia to Atlanta to Chicago before heading to Dallas. If the Packers are going to head to the Super Bowl this season, the only field they’ll have to play on is the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field.
As you’ve no doubt been told by dozens of Facebook friends, people you follow on Twitter, co-workers, and bloggers, Tim Tebow threw for exactly 316 yards in the Broncos’ overtime playoff win over the Steelers on Sunday evening.
316 yards is a career high for Tebow, besting the 308 yards he passed for in a late-season win over Houston last year. And it’s fitting that America’s most popular Christian athlete, in the biggest win of his professional career so far, threw for 316 yards, bringing to mind John 3:16, perhaps the best known Bible verse and a verse Tebow referenced in his eyeblack during the 2009 BCS Championship Game.
