noble Knights

I just came from Southington girls basketball senior night and it was really a special night. The game was very exciting, with senior Sam DeFeo hitting a second-chance buzzer beater as the clock expired for the win. Southington 42, Glastonbury 40.
First off, it was a big win for the Knights, hoping to secure a good playoff seed and having roadies against New Britain and Manchester remaining.
But I wanted to give a little extra mention to the four seniors, who have always struck me as very good people off the court in my time dealing with them. Coach Jim DiNello talked about the group, Allie Munson, DeFeo, Jen Crowley and Charlene DaSilva, and was obviously moved by their character and the win.
"This one is extremely special," he said of the graduating class. "These four seniors have given me and this program every ounce of energy that they have. Their spirit, dedication, and support of each other, and I’m talking about all four of them. From Jen Crowley being a role player, knowing what her job is to Charlene not even being able to play, but being there for practice and being in those huddles, and talking to the kids, and keeping them up, and making sure everybody stays even keel. And then of course the two best captains I’ve ever had in my life in Allie and Sam. If I’m ever fortunate enough to have captains like them again I will truly be blessed."
DaSilva has missed the entire season due to an injury suffered early in the soccer season. Crowley was given a chance to start the game tonight, along with the other two who are normal starters. Many of you may know that Munson is headed to Cornell to play Division I basketball, and has truly turned into a star player this season. And DeFeo is one of those players who gets by with grit and determination, and a streaky ability to shoot the ball.
It may not be the most talented class ever, but talking to people around the team, it is a special one.

one more Super Bowl note

A friend reminded me, and I've been hearing some other talk today, about a key moment in the first half yesterday. At the time I had fully taken notice of it, but I forgot about it in the excitement of the fourth quarter and afterglow.
It was the 4th-and-13 play the Patriots faced at the New York 31-yard line late in the half. Obviously, the 48-yard potential field goal attempt was within kicker Stephen Gostkowski's range. His career long is 52 yards as FOX noted. But in that moment it was apparent that the Patriots felt more confident going for fourth-and-long in a close game (7-3 lead at the time) rather than trying to kick the field goal indoors. Now, I would guess that Belichick in part wanted to put a stranglehold on the game, go into the half with a lot of momentum and be able to put the game away early in the second half (along the lines of my last blog about past champs). But if he had an automatic guy like Adam Vinatieri there still, my guess is he takes the guaranteed points.
Looking at Gostkowski's stats (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/stats?statsId=7867) for the season, he made 21 of 24 field goal attempts for 87 percent. That's a great number. But a closer look reveals that he attempted only 5 from forty yards or more and is 6-0f-10 in his career. He had none over 50 yards this year and made his only 50-plus attempt in his career last season. Gostkowski only had nine field goal attempts all year of 30-39 yards, kicking ten of shorter distances than that.
Clearly, the Pats, often choosing to run up scores even late in the game, did not use Gostkowski much during the regular season and perhaps did not trust him to kick beyond 40 yards. 48 would have been a very long attempt for him, even indoors. And at a key moment in the game, without even being there, Vinatieri's legend grows.

an upset for the ages

Wow. I have a lot to say about Super Bowl XLII. So let's get right to it.
First of all, I felt that midway through the third quarter the debate as to whether these Pats were the best team ever was already decided... and they clearly were not. Consider the playoff and Super Bowl results of all the other teams in the discussion (excepting the 72 Dolphins who most football analysts would agree were not the greatest team either). The best teams of all time have not only won the Super Bowl, but put the games out of reach before halftime for the most part.
The '85 Bears, with inarguably the best defense ever, dominated the Patriots 46-10. The '89 49ers, the best of their dynasty teams, overpowered the Broncos 55-10. The '92 Cowboys put away the Bills, in their third straight Super Bowl, in the first half and went on to score 21 points in the fourth quarter and win 52-17. The team in the year after, which I would argue is the best team ever, outscored the Bills 24-0 in the second half to put away a 30-14 victory. The '94 Niners, maybe the best squad that franchise ever had, coasted to a 49-26 victory over the Chargers.
Flash forward to the Patriots, struggling to put away an upstart Giants team, which had to pull off three legitimate upsets just to get to the game, which had numerous glaring weaknesses such as its defensive secondary, which had next to no playoff experience, and which was a 12-point underdog. And ultimately the Patriots paid the price for not getting the job done early. They left an opening and Eli took it.
Not to take anything away from the way the Giants have played of late, but they were not nearly the team the Pats were. Shouldn't the best team ever win the biggest game of its season? Shouldn't the best offense ever score more than 14 points against a defense with a gaping hole?
Enough said. Let this argument die now. These Patriots simply were not the best team ever.

Nonetheless, with that perfect record on the line, I would consider this the second biggest Super Bowl upset of all time, behind only Broadway Joe's infamous guaranteed win in SB III. Many fans nowadays forget or never realized how big it was for the AFL, arguably the equivalent of a minor league, defeating the top NFL team. Imagine the Canadian football champion beating the Giants, or Patriots, next week. That game insured that the merger would work, would last, and gave the league a chance to exist as it does now. It also was a 17-point spread, so the linemakers at the time saw it as a bigger upset than this one too.
I would consider this one of the five best SB's of all time on the field as well. There may not have been a lot of offensive flash, but there were certainly defensive plays galore, and when crunchtime came both teams made plays with the ball in their hands.
I still like the Titans-Rams game more, if only for the fact that there was more offense, and that the game came down to one unforgettable play as time expired, with defense ruling in that moment.
After that I think I would put the Patriots-Panthers game of a few years ago. Poorly played defensively, but constant excitement down to the wire.
This one gets lost in that jumble of Niners-Bengals, Giants-Bills, and Patriots-Rams. But I'd definitely put it top five with the upset implications added on.
NOTE: I was not alive for the early SB's, so I can't really speak for them. It's entirely possible that there were some thrilling games there which have sadly been lost from the public consciousness, and my own.

Moving on, how about Eli Manning? The guy goes from New York pariah to Super Bowl MVP in about a month. He was the better quarterback on the field Sunday night, making countless plays, pinpointing difficult throws and remaining calm in the closing minutes.
Meanwhile, Tom Brady ends up the goat for the Pats. Despite the phenomenal stats he put up, the Golden Boy left numerous throws short, high, long and wobbly. He looked, for the first time in his NFL career, like a sixth-round draft pick. And don't just blame the offensive line for this. Yes, Brady was rushed, but he missed on a lot of wide open opportunities without any pressure. He just didn't bring it tonight. Maybe the pressure finally got to him. I honestly never thought I would see, or say, that.

I watched the game in a crowded, small room with mostly people I don't know at all. Several of them were personally acquainted with Giants wide receiver David Tyree, who made a ridiculous drive-saving catch in the final minutes on a play in which Eli had no right to still be on his feet. These guys come from the same hometown as Tyree and could hardly contain themselves with each big play he made.
I would honestly rate that play, from Eli's elusive scrambling, to the throw, to the on-the-helmet catch setting up the winning touchdown, as the greatest play in Super Bowl history. And I can't really think of another that stands out in terms of scope, difficulty, shock factor, or significance.
Congrats, Eli/Tyree.

Finally, I want to take a stab at comparing this game to another great sporting event of recent years, which would not escape my thoughts as the final quarter ticked down. This game, in my opinion, was the football equivalent of Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, in which Arizona improbably beat the Yankees. Forget for a second the fact that Arizona was quite arguably the superior team and there is no question this win was an upset. Forget that the Yankees were not their most dominant. There are clearly differences.
But, look at it this way. There was a team that had been a dynasty in recent years, trying to close out another championship. The Yanks had won four of five Series, while the Pats had won three bowls in four years not too long ago. And in the final game it came down to that dynastic team merely needing to hold a lead, which, coincidentally, is what each of them do best. The Pats simply don't lose close games in the fourth quarter. The Yankees, and Mariano Rivera, were lights out in the ninth inning.
And then, weird things started happening. Rivera gave up a hit, and afterwards made a rare fielding mistake, throwing wide of second base instead of getting the easy out at first. Asante Samuel drops a game-clinching interception, one that he makes any other time. Eli slips away from a sure sack (how did he get away?). And an unknown player makes an improbable catch to keep the drive alive, and set up the win.
And in the end, it wasn't a flashy play that won it. Luis Gonzalez bloops it over the drawn-in infield. Plaxico Burress slips away from Ellis Hobbs to catch a floating ball all alone when all he must have been thinking was "please don't drop this".
Of course, the Yankees haven't been quite the same since. Though they've made the playoffs in every season, they have not won a championship and have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs four times in six years. Is this the end of the Patriots dynasty? Who can say, but despite the overwhelming talent they have and should continue to have, the NFL is a strange beast, and winning a title in any league is clearly never a guarantee. For that matter, Spygate will not seem to disappear, and it is not inconceivable to see drastic things happening in the coming weeks and months.

Congratulations, Giants fans. Your team, which looked like the worst in the league after two weeks, is now the NFL champs. Sorry, Boston. Not this time.


"We're only going to score 17 points. Is Plax going to play defense?"
- Tom Brady, Super Bowl media day, on Plaxico Burress' prediction of a 23-17 Giants win