The Patriots Got Beat

I've pretty much avoided writing about the Patriots this year on purpose. Other than some early stuff about the Spygate scandal, I haven't touched them. For the most part, I've been busy (getting married will do that) and I really didn't want to repeat everything that people have been saying. I mean, if you could go back over the season and read the columns writers put out, they just repeated themselves all year. I can't tell you how many "Bill Belichick is a jerk, but he's a great coach" and "The Patriots are the team you love to hate" columns that I ran across. Seriously, if I were a sports editor and one of my columnists turned something like that in, I'd throw it back in their face and tell them to go cover high school sports until they can be at least slightly original. Anyway, I digress...

I actually think last night's game is a very simple one to analyze. You can't really blame the Patriots defense, though it did cave a bit at the end. But, if you told anyone before the game that the Giants would score 17 points, 99% would have said the Pats would win. Other than Ellis Hobbs playing Plaxico Burress in single coverage near the endzone for the game winning TD, there weren't too many bad defensive calls (it just so happened that that decision was costly, I still don't understand it).

Some will point to Belichick's decision not to kick the 48-yard field goal in the 3rd quarter on 4th and 13 as a huge mistake. Obviously in hindsight, when you lose by 3 points, you wish you could have had a field goal in there. But people neglect 2 points: 1) Belichick has never followed conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom leads to punting rather than aggressive play calling, running on 1st down and so on. Much of the Pats success has been due to the coach's refusal to follow conventional wisdom. 2) Has anyone considered that Belichick didn't think Gostkowski could make that kick? Everyone considers it a gimme, but the Pats have never had that much faith in him (and sometimes justifiably). Again, conventional wisdom says go for the kick, but conventional wisdom doesn't take into account a shaky kicker vs the greatest offense ever.

No, the real analysis of this game boils down to one simple point: the Giants defensive line outplayed the Patriots offensive line. It's as simple as that. Some may try to claim Brady didn't play well, but I can't think of one quarterback in Super Bowl history who got hit that many times (not to speak of how often he was forced to throw off his back foot) and still played as well as he did. The Patriots line, revered all season long, looked overmatched.

I knew going in that the Giants had something the Patriots struggled against: speed. Stick him opposite a 310lb monster, and Matt Light could block him with one arm. Line him up against a speedy rusher like Osi Umenyiora, and he struggles. But I don't think anyone expected him to struggle that much. Even more surprising, in my opinion, was watching Logan Mankins get beat by Justin Tuck on the inside. I've maintained all year that Mankins is the best guard in football. But he absolutely did not look like it last night.

So, you really don't have to waste your time reading a bazillion articles written by the "experts" who have been in autopilot all season dribbling out the same crap every week. Nope, you've got all your analysis right here. The Giants defensive line beat up the Patriots offensive line, which always leads to beating up the quarterback. They deserved to win.