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| A collection of the NFL's mightiest teams battled it out in this season's playoffs. |
Sports Editor
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
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.
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. An
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?
