If this weekend’s games didn’t live up to your expectations as a football fan, I don’t know what will. An unbelievable pair of conference championship games both decided by the kicker’s foot, leads to a New England Patriot and New York Giant Super Bowl rematch.
The outstanding Harbaugh brothers end their seasons in heartbreaking fashion, and the Super Bowl stage is set.
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots will face Eli Manning and the New York Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII.
The 2008 Super Bowl was an unforgettable game when the Giants upset the Patriots 17-14, ending the Patriots undefeated season.
This year, the Giants will be riding all their momentum into the Super Bowl as they are coming off of a five-game win streak. All but one of those wins came on the road, including their last win this weekend in San Francisco, beating the 49ers 20-17 in overtime on a 31-yard game-winning kick.
The Giants faced a win or go home situation starting in week 16 and were able to beat the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys to advance to the playoffs. Once in the playoffs, the Giants remarkably beat the Atlanta Falcons at home, and continued on the road to beat the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, who were the top-ranked teams in the NFC (National Football Conference). Similar to the Super Bowl winning Giants team four years ago, they’re the underdog and have stunned football fans and even more importantly, the top ranked teams in the NFC.
There is a strong resemblance between this year’s Giants and the Giants who were Super Bowl champions in 2008. They have gotten hot at just the right time, in the post season.
However, beating the Patriots will not come easy by any means. The Patriots still have the bitter taste of letting their perfect season slip in Super Bowl XLII. A historic season by the Patriots was ruined by the relentless Giants who just made enough big plays to pull it off.
The Patriots are coming fresh off a nail-biting win at home over the Ravens. They were just able to survive as the Ravens’ Lee Evans dropped a touchdown pass with 22 seconds left in the game. The Ravens went on to miss the potential game-tying kick from 32 yards away to send it to overtime.
The veteran quarterback, Tom Brady, will be ready to get his revenge against a very talented Eli Manning in an exciting match up. Both teams have experience in these high-pressure situations and have quarterbacks who have already led their teams to a Super Bowl victory.
Regardless of all the talk about the Patriots defense not being good enough and the inconsistency of the Giants run game and play of Eli Manning, Super Bowl XLVI will be decided by the efficiency at the quarterback position.
Which quarterback will be able to control and lead their team to the ultimate goal of the Lombardi Trophy?
