What A Shocking Super Bowl Outcome
February 3, 2008 – 10:48 pmWell, as seen in my previous post, I had no idea the Giants were going to beat the Patriots. Soon after the conference championship games, I thought the Giants might have a chance, but then it became the chic pick to take the Giants over the Patriots. I came to my senses and picked one of the top two or three teams to ever play the game, or so I thought, to win in a romp.
More than anything, I listened to a Bill Simmons podcast on Friday, and he and his guest had me convinced this was a replay of Super Bowl XX between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots. This year’s version had the Patriots in the role of the Bears and the Giants were more like the 1985 Patriots, a team that peaked at the right time but was woefully unprepared to compete against a team of the ages. Well, that turned out to be bunk, but I was sold.
I’ve had a chance to watch a little bit of the post game coverage on the NFL Network and ESPN. My favorite quote so far came from Emmitt Smith on ESPN: “The strength of the Patriots team got debacled.” What? Did Emmitt Smith really turn the noun “debacle” into a verb? Priceless.
The guy could run the football like very few people ever have, but it’s painful to listen to him speak. It’s kind of like Marshall Faulk on the NFL Network. Marshall was a great football player, but he struggles mightily trying to improv through highlights or just simple pre- or post-game analysis. At least I get the occasional “debacled” gem. That’s what keeps me going.
3 Responses to “What A Shocking Super Bowl Outcome”
What happened? Was it just the continuously blitzing Brady shutdown? Was it really strategic of the Giants to favor long, time consuming drives, or do they always play that way? It certainly kept the score low, and that’s what they needed to be able to pull out a lucky play or two and the end for a win.
By gv on Feb 3, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Debacled! Fantastic! I love it when nouns get unexpectedly verbified. I mean, sure, there’s the occasional “Xerox” which becomes “to copy”, or “Google” which becomes “to search for online via a search engine.” But debacle becoming “to collapse under the might of a supposedly inferior team”… priceless.
By Adam on Feb 4, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I think it was pretty much the pressure the Giants got on Tom Brady. That was the only part of the game that was so different compared to what the Patriots had faced the rest of the season.
Certainly the Giants weren’t putting any offensive fireworks on display. I mean, they only scored 17 points. But I think they harassed Tom Brady just enough to get the whole Patriots offense out of sync, and thus the Patriots “got debacled”, as Emmitt Smith would say.
By jjk on Feb 4, 2008 at 11:17 pm