Tony Massarotti: Greatness Takes a Beating

Giants give Pats shot of history

Monday, February 4, 2008

Boston Herald

Photo by Matthew West

GLENDALE, Ariz. - So this is how it ends, in the barrenness of the Arizona desert, with the once greatest team in history getting bullied, battered, outplayed and outcoached.

Please, no excuses.

The simple truth is that the New York Giants beat the Patriots [team stats] and beat them up.

So this must be how the St. Louis Rams felt six years ago, the game that started this extraordinary run in the history of a Patriots franchise that once was the laughingstock of professional sports. The Patriots now have won one Super Bowl they should have lost and lost a Super Bowl they should have won, the latter coming in last night’s 17-14 loss to the underdog New York Giants that killed the dream of a perfect season.

One thing: “There’s no quarterback that likes to be on his back every time he throws the ball,” said Michael Strahan, who was a part of a Giants defense that dominated the line of scrimmage.
“We respect the Patriots and we respect Tom Brady [stats], but this was our time.”

As for the Pats, they now go back to the drawing board for the third year in a row as possessors of the most disappointing 18-1 record in NFL history.

Of course, we knew this was possible. We just did not think it was likely. The Patriots have won most all of the close games in the last seven years, especially the big ones, always the Super Bowl. Then the Pats came out last night and got exposed by a Giants team that exploited every potential weakness for all it was worth.

Brady got sacked five times, but that was just the beginning. The Pro Bowl left side of the offensive line was completely manhandled by the jail-breaking Giants pass rush, the mighty Patriots offense suffocated and silenced.

A complete lack of confidence in the kicking game resulted in the Pats going for it on fourth-and-13 from the Giants 31-yard line when they might have attempted a 49-yard field goal that, if good, would have given them a 10-3 lead.

And then there was Ellis Hobbs [stats], the corner who was a perpetual cause for concern, biting on a Plaxico Burress fake and being beaten for a game-winning, 13-yard touchdown pass just 35 seconds short of immortality.

“He thought I was going to run a slant,” Burress said of how he beat Hobbs, who also surrendered a 38-yard completion to Amani Toomer earlier in the game. “I gave him a slant move and he stopped his feet. Once he stopped his feet, I knew I had him.”

So now Bill Belichick has to answer questions the way Mike Martz did six years ago when the Pats beat up the Rams’ Marshall Faulk and made all of the plays at the end. It’s funny how life works, eh? In February 2002, the Pats won their first Super Bowl with a 48-yard field goal as time expired. Now the Pats aren’t even willing to try a 49-yarder midway through the third quarter, indoors, on a night when they had fewer than 40 yards of total offense before their final drive of the first half.

This time, it was the Pats who were forced to do the things they were uncomfortable doing. New York coach Tom Coughlin and the rest of the Giants had the Patriots backpedaling all night, which is usually the best way to beat a bully.

You strike first.

“They had a very good plan and they executed it well,” Brady said of the Giants. “They just put a lot of pressure on our offensive scheme. Sometimes we handled it and sometimes we didn’t.”
Mostly, they didn’t.

As for the final three minutes of this game, the Patriots had one chance after the next to change history forever. They couldn’t step up once. Cornerback Asante Samuel [stats] let a potential interception deflect off his hands, and the Pats somehow let Eli Manning escape after trapping the Giants quarterback in a phone booth.

Then David Tyree made a circus catch on the play, and Burress toasted Hobbs.

Just like that, the Patriots went from the greatest team in history to maybe the greatest disappointment, a positively stunning journey across a very fine line.

The other guys made all the plays this time. The other guys were smarter, tougher and better.

The Patriots might beat the Giants by three touchdowns if the teams played again today, but the only game that mattered was played last night with an entire world watching.

You live by the sword, you usually die by it, too.

Article URL: http://bh.heraldinteractive.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1071140