Things to consider while it sinks in they fell short by one Hail Myra:
*Yo soy suicidio.
*There aren’t enough u’s in the word “suck” to describe how badly this sucks. You can’t add cherry flavoring to this and make it easier to choke down. There’s no polishing this turd. And yet the really bizarre thing is… we’ve had worse.
*That’s the curse of pulling for a team that’s in the hunt every year. You don’t get the luxury of “Oh well, it wasn’t meant to be but that’s still a helluva good year and they’ll be better next season” losses like, say, Denver or Houston had. Every loss for a contender is excruciating and feels like that dream where you’re at work naked and everyone’s laughing at how small your junk is and you can’t get out of there.
*The ’07 team blew the chance at immortality that will never come again. This time the stakes were that they could’ve vindicated everything they’ve ever done but now they have to go through life with “The Giants, Coughlin & Eli Are Our Daddies” tattooed on their necks. What’s amazing is that’s not as bad as four years ago.
*It’s hard to find anything good to say about this other than Betty White put on one of the better halftime shows.
*It’s not like I’m feeling sorry for myself. Oh wait. Feeling sorry for myself is exactly what I’m doing. It’s times like this when I think that besides the organization and their families, these soul-crushing losses are worst on us fanboy bloggers. Legit journalists just want a story to write about. Casual fans just turn the page and go on with their lives. All they lose are chance to buy a championship hat and daydrink at the parade.
*For instance, by the time you read this, I’ll be into my second big hour of my day job and the mouth-breathing morons I work with… the ones who every month or so ask me “So what’s the name of your blog again?” because they don’t know how a computer works and haven’t the first fucking clue what my life is all about… will be talking about how much the Patriots suck and yukking it up about the Seinfeld commercial and going back to their lives of quiet despair. In a way, I admire the simpletons. It would so much easier not to care at a time like this.
* Shaughnessy’s already started working on his next book “Curse of the Tiquan.”
*I’m not sure I have it in me to look close at what went on. Who won the battles in the trenches and who blew assignments and all that. I’m sure I will in the next few days but by the time I do the world will have moved onto the NBA regular season and Beanpot hockey. (Kill me now.)
*I will state the obvious though that there were dozens of plays that were missed by the narrowest possible margins. The Welker drop, obviously. The miss by Branch that would’ve gone for about 20 YAC. And another by Hernandez. Welker picking up 7.9 on 3rd & 8. Ninkovich was offsides by a mayfly’s heartbeat, but he was offsides. Brandon Spikes missed batting down a crucial pass by the length of a manicure. The Giants put the ball on the ground twice but pounced on it. But New York made those plays and New England didn’t and that’s why Eli Manning is America’s Sweetheart now.
*The bottom line is that this was a flawed team that made it to within a few plays of a very unlikely championship, but didn’t make them. You don’t get credit for that. But the media guys who have a hair across their ass for the Patriots the size of a battleship chain will spin this like it repudiates their whole organization and that’s flat out wrong. I’ll concede this team needs to get more talented (Who doesn’t?). And they can. But this season just confirms the way they go about their business works.
*A lot will be made of the Mare Winningham catch, and well it should be. But I honestly felt like with or without that play, the Giants were going to score at least 3. Drives like that were what the Pats were giving up all season and the Giants were putting on. If he didn’t hold onto that ball, I’m convinced they would’ve come back on the next play and picked up a first.
*One of the things I specifically want to see again is how the Giants moved their front four around and who they matched them up with. My post-traumatic first impression is that the Pats’ neutralized them most of the night with good reads, a lot of play actions, hikes to Brady’s right so he can roll the pocket and chips from the tight ends. Then in the 4th when they needed 1st downs, the Giants tore through the line like they were Seal Team 6.
*I honestly thought the Patriots could get the Giants into favorable boxes and run on them. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. Just credit the Giants line for not exactly shutting down the ground game, but at least throwing the stop sticks in front of it.
*If Vince Wilfork faced a 1-on-1 block all night, I missed it. They might have doubled him coming out of his hotel room and all the way to the airport.
*Every time I was asked for a prediction I said this would be one of those games where if you gave me the box score and covered up every line except “Turnovers,” I could tell you who won. “Turnovers: NEP: 1, NYG: 0.” Next time I’m just going to say “My prediction? Paaaain…” and leave it at that.
*Who am I kidding? For the rest of my life my prediction for the Giants games will always be “an agonizingly close one where they make an incredible catch late in the game and win on the final drive.” Three games is a trend.
*This team needs to draft some impact players for that defense, fast. But Sterling Moore, Brandon Spikes and Pat Chung can drink from my canteen anytime.
*Ten years ago this week, the Patriots were the plucky underdogs with the team-first, can-do attitude that inspired a nation scarred by tragedy. Today they’re the wrestling heel America loves to despise.
*I’m semi-serious about wishing I didn’t care so much. That I wasn’t so emotionally invested in this team, and the last thing I feel like doing is talking about it. My brother Jack, who admins PatriotsPlanet.com and is the sharpest football mind I’ve ever known, has to go on NPR and get interviewed about it. And I’m sitting in my basement in the middle of the night drinking straight bourbon, writing about a game I’d rather not think about and reevaluating my life. It would so much easier to just be one of those guys who spends Sundays in the Fall apple-picking or doing little projects around the house and saying “Who won the football game?” Right now that sounds like an option for next year.
*This is all I got on this one. I know it’s not much. But now I’m off to bed and hope I get the Inception kick that wakes me up from the nightmare.
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I did 19 of these KJRs this year. Which meant a lot of days getting up four hours before work on the morning after a night game to rewatch the same play ten times and write about it. I put in the effort because I like doing it. Before I came to the Stool seven years ago I used to do these on a message board, just for fun. But it’s great to have guys… and women, and sportswriters… tell me they look forward to reading them every week. So thanks to all who did. It makes the effort well worth it.
@JerryThornton1
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