2007-2008 NFL season discussion thread (2 Viewers)

[Chris]

Commercial airing on NFL Network tonight:

It shows Mercury Morris living in the town of Perfectville. He gets a gift.

He opens up the box. Inside the box is a note that says "Enjoy it for another year" courtesy of the Giants.

Mercury Morris smiles.

The camera pans on the Town of Perfectville Sign

Population 1

 

[Jan H]

Looks like Mercury smoked my crack pipe.

 

[JohnRice]

You know, it's funny. All these comments seeming to bitch about that one play by Manning, seeming to be saying they shouldn't have won because that was such a miracle play, and won the game.

How many times has Brady been running for his life, blindly chucked the ball up and Moss (most likely pushing off and not getting called) brought it down for a TD?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Sorry, Jan, but I agree with most of the others here. A team cannot be considered as the "greatest ever" if they cannot even win the championship. History is littered with forgotten sports teams that had great regular seasons only to lose in the playoffs. Along with UNLV and USC, a few others that come to mind are a couple of Minnesota Vikings teams, last year's Dallas Mavericks, and one or two recent Detroit Red Wings teams.

The Giants played a fine game, and their defense was the real MVP of the game. They put pressure on Brady the entire game, and the offense got some breaks on that last drive (Manning escaping, Tyrell hanging onto that pass, Samuel just missing an interception). It sure was an entertaining game for someone like me who wasn't a fan of either side. I found myself pulling for the Giants to pull off the upset as they kept it close.

While I do not think the '72 Dolphins are the best NFL team of all time, they do still stand alone this morning in their accomplishment.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

So nice of the Patriots to invite Giants players to their post-game victory parties during the game

I agree with the majority, New England isn't in the greatest team of all-time discussion because they lost the championship. I mean unless you're also going to include the Giants in that discussion.


Great teams win the games that matter most, this team won all but the game that mattered most. A few teams went through an NFL season with 1 loss...only this team picked the worst possible game to lose.


I think of the Patriots like this. The Patriots would be the 1992 U.S. Men's basketball team at the Olympics if that team had gone home with silver not gold.

 

[Walter C]

With the way the Giants have been playing this postseason, it did not surprise me too much that they ended up winning. Plus the fact that the Patriots played like crap not only against the Giants, but they barely got by the Chargers, who didn't have LT.

As much as it pains me to say this, being an Eagles fan, the Giants deserved this game more. I guess that regular season finale loss just fired them up more, and not playing a home playoff game turned out to be an advantage, especially to Eli Manning.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

The Pats are now probably the greatest team ever to not win a Super Bowl. Just like the 2000 Vikes (also with Moss) are the greatest team to not make a Super Bowl.

But there are 42 World Champs (since the start of the SB) that can lay claim to being better than the Pats. The Pats can easily lay claim to best regular season ever (because it was). But they won't, because they know that the post-season is what matters.

I don't like that "breaks" discussion. The Pats won 3 Super Bowls getting the same "breaks" the Giants did yesterday. But none of their fans talked about how the other team lost the game on those occasions. I know it's psychology, but it's still lame (even when I have done it - even lamer then). I can point at plays where the Cowboys should have beaten the Giants in the playoffs. But that is just hot air. Because they didn't make the plays, and the other team WON.

 

[Holadem]

Guess not. But even better, under the heading "What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing Items Like This?", you have:

Amazon.com: Lost - The Complete Third Season [Blu-ray]: Movies & TV: Matthew Fox,Evangeline Lilly,Josh Holloway,Terry O'Quinn,Elizabeth Mitchell,Michael Emerson,Dominic Monaghan,Jorge Garcia

Hilarious

Not really actually, but a fun party nonetheless.

--
H

 

[Robert Crawford]

Scott,
A very good post that I agree with in its entirety.






Crawdaddy

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Ditto. I said earlier that the Patriots couldn't be considered the best unless they won their last game. They didn't . . . and they aren't. Simple as that.

 

[RobertR]

Is any father more proud of his sons than Archie Manning? Two sons, two Lombardi trophies, two MVPs. What a family celebration they must be having.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

That's why there's a playoff system, instead of choosing a champion based on record. The Giants are the better team according to the NFL, and no one who knows football and watched the two head-to-head games could find evidence to the contrary. Personal opinion will differ, but is irrelevant to the determination of "best". The pats got out-prepared and out-muscled.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's sure better than those beatings he took while the starting QB for the Saints back in the early 1970s.

 

[RobertR]

That's one of the reasons why I prefer the NFL to college football. It never ceases to irk me that the NCAA won't adopt a true playoff system.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Hmmm. The comments I've been reading have about how amazing the play was, I didn't think they were bitching about the play. If my team had lost because of that play, I'm sure I'd be having some "if only" thoughts right now.

The person having some "if only" thoughts right now is Samuel. If he makes that very doable interception it's all moot. If he does NE wins and Eli cost NY the game and he's no MVP. Any good sport is like that, just a few inches and you're the hero and not the goat.

 

[Johnny Angell]

The article linked to above has an interested point:Does this mean someone in a far off land will be wearing NE SB 42 championship ball caps?

 

[Chuck Mayer]

That's exactly what it means.

And you can't point at "what if" plays and act like your team was "this close". Every play in a close game is like that. On Eli's first major scramble, if Burress keeps his upfield momentum (and catchs a BIG pass), the Giants don't punt to the Pats so soon. Maybe their rested D stops the Pats from scoring a second TD. And so on and so forth. The Pats won three Super Bowls on plays like that, and lost one. 3-1 is a fair trade.

 

[JohnRice]

OK, maybe not "bitching" but plenty of others have commented on all the "breaks" remarks. The fact is, teams who win just seem to somehow have those things fall their way. The Pats have had so many remarkable "breaks" through the season, but they weren't cast off like is being done with the Giants.

They just beat them. Plain and simple. Plus, if so many Giants receivers hadn't had a hopeless case of the "dropsies" in the first game, they would have won that as well. But, on that particular day they did, so they lost.

 

[Trey Fletcher]

There was an article written about this several years ago (complete with pictures). It referenced NFL and MLB apparel, and what happened to the losers gear. Rather than destroy brand new garments, the clothing is donated to charity. However, extreme measures are taken to make sure the articles make it as far away from the states as possible.

 

[ZacharyTait]

About those Red Wings, I'm thinking specifically the 1995-1996 team that set the NHL record with 62 wins, 132 points, the President's Cup and promptly wasted it in a Conference Finals loss to the Colorado Avalanche, who went on to win the Stanley Cup.