That Was Unexpected

Like a lot of you this morning, I woke up this morning with a bit of a headache, and still unsure whether or not the Giants and Eli Manning really beat the Patriots yesterday. It had to have been a dream, right?

Eli Manning?

The Giants?

Come on.

The Patriots aren't supposed to lose, they're supposed to be the greatest team ever.

Eli Manning beat the greatest team ever? He beat Tom Brady!?

The game was pretty boring for the most part, but the end of the game was probably one of the greatest in Super Bowl history. Right up there with the Patriots first win in Super Bowl 36, or when Kevin Dyson came up a yard short against the Rams.

After Corey Webster fell down and Tom Brady found Randy Moss for the wide open touchdown that made it 14-10 New England, I thought the game was over. I was proud of the Giants for giving New England a game, but as I said to my friends around me, we had arrived at the time for Eli's patented Back-Breaking Interception.

It's something we Chicago fans are used to thanks to one Rex Grossman, but not even Rex has perfected the art form that is the Back-Breaking Interception like Eli has in his career.

It never came, though there were a few close calls, but instead we ended up with this.

Did you ever, in your life, expect to see Eli Manning do something like that? David Tyree made an absolutely amazing catch, but I was too shocked by Eli's escape to really appreciate it at first.

Afterwards I immediately turned to my friend Bill, and the look on his face mirrored my thoughts exactly.

"Holy shit. The Giants are going to pull this off."

A few plays later Eli was floating a pass to a wide open Plaxico Burress in the end zone, and the Giants were taking a 17-14 lead with 35 seconds left. The same Plaxico Burress who caught crap from bored members of the media all week for his prediction that the Giants would win this game. (Seriously, what the hell is he supposed to say when asked that question? "Oh, I think we're gonna lose by at least 30. Just happy to be here!")

Of course, if Eli Manning could lead the Giants 80 yards to a Super Bowl, surely Tom Brady could get the Patriots in field goal range with 35 seconds and three timeouts. He never did though, as a Giants pass rush that had overwhelmed the Patriots offensive line all night, kept right on plugging along.

I don't care how good of a quarterback you are, you can't throw with a 280-lineman planted firmly in your chest.

The New York Giants are Super Bowl champions, and the Patriots are 18-1 wondering what could have been.

Talk about the ultimate kick in the stomach for Patriots fans. Not only did they see their dream season fade away in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday, but their team fell to a Manning. A Manning that plays for a team in New York.

And somehow all of this makes me want to kick Rex Grossman in the face.

Foul Balls

Sucks To Be You, Tiki - My immediate thought after the game, well right after the "Holy shit, the Giants just won" feeling, was "How much does it suck to be Tiki Barber right now?"

I think it's safe to assume that Tiki probably felt he was the biggest reason behind any success the Giants have had the last few years, and for the most part, he's right. Then in his first year after an early retirement he has to watch the team he left, then ripped on, not only get to the Super Bowl but pull off one of the greatest upsets ever.

That's gotta hurt. Maybe Tiki and Jeremy Shockey can meet up and cry together.

The Commercials - I know a lot of people love watching the Super Bowl for the commercials, but I'm not one of them. I used to enjoy them, but frankly, they've sucked for the last few years. Each commercial you see during the game has been picked apart by different people for so long that by the time it airs, anything that was creative or original behind it has been swapped out with safe and unoffensive.

That said, there were still a few commercials that amused me a little, and here are some of them.