I know he thinks he’s being funny, but still: Terry Bradshaw just picked the Giants because Eli Manning has the same TD/INT ratio as Rex Grossman did a year ago.
And we’re, uh, off…
This morning it was 18 degrees and windy as I walked from a building to my car. Actually ran. It took maybe 20 horrible seconds. And it was 19 degrees warmer than what the Packers and Giants are dealing with right now.
I can’t imagine being outside in that for three minutes, much less three hours, much less functioning in any qualitative way. Say what you want about pro football. To play it well, you’ve got to be at the top of the food chain in terms of mental and physical toughness. People who call Eli (for example) a sissy while laying on their couch guzzing Coors Light and packing cheese curls into their head are beyond clueless…
While we’re waiting to get started, wasn’t that an odd, uninspired performance by the Pats earlier? All day, Tom Brady looked like a grumpy teenager. You wonder if they aren’t starting to be weighed down by everything. I see Belichick beating a cameraman senseless in Arizona next week…
The most interesting moment in that game came at the end, when the Pats probably could have scored and covered the point spread. When Brady took a knee, how much of that roar was joy and how much was anguish?…
The NFC game, between two teams thrilled to have gotten to this stage, will have a much, much different feel…
Has there ever been a coach who more consistently wore the “What the %$#! is going on here?” face than Tom Coughlin? I mean, even when things are going well, as they are right now…
We’ve now seen the camping out under the stars commercial for the Toyota SUV three times, and we’re six minutes into the game. It is possible that this more of an issue on Fox than anywhere else?
I have an HD TV, but we’ve really only had the full HD thing since we installed the Tivo I got my wife for Christmas. This won’t be news to many of you, but it really is amazing.
It’s better for football than for hoops. The playing areas in basketball arenas are flooded with light….
(Oops- Favre just hit Donald Driver for a 90-yard TD. Three Giants were in position to make a tackle, but the play reminded me of the legendary Manheim Central-Pine Richland 2003 state championship game, when there was one huge offensive play after another because defenders would get next to a ballcarrier but then apparently not be able to sort of push off and make a tackle. Of course, it isn’t snowing in Green Bay, and it was snowing like hell in Hershey that night.)
How rude of the football game to intrude on me bragging about my TV… Anyway, hoops on HD is almost too bright. People in the stands, from far away, look like tinsel or something. Here I’m seeing every blade of grass at Lambeau, every bead of sweat, every blood vessel bursting under Coughlin’s face. Very cool…
Amazing how a QB “having all day,” to throw actually means he has about five seconds…. Remember when Plaxico Burress had a goofy, soft rep? Ditto Eli. Don’t be too quick to write off people, people…
Fox seems to be consciously avoiding the term “Frozen Tundra.” The folks in Green Bay reportedly dislike the term because it’s a misnomer- the field is heated from underneath. Also it’s redundant- tundra is by definition frozen…
Coughlin now looks like a horror-movie extra, but everybody else seems to be holding up. It’s really been a terrific football game. The Giants have actually outplayed the Pack except for one play. Both sides look like they’re having more fun that the Chargers and Pats did…
Plax just made a clean catch inside the Green Bay 5, had possession for a beat or two, then hit the ground and fumbled, and Aikman and Buck are acting like it’s nuts that anyone could think that was anything other than an incompete pass. Am I missing something?…
Halftime, 10-7 Packers. Break for pot pie and Heineken. No kidding.
At the half I checked in a Pro Football Outsiders, where as expected (and unlike in the Fox booth) there’s a raging argument abour the Burress call. I can’t believe I forgot to use the Tivo replay on that. This powerful technology in the hands of the likes of me is probably not a good thing…
Now the Giants are putting together a zebra-aided drive that’s driving the fans nuts. I thought the only questionable call was the roughing the passer. The truth is the Giants have utterly dominated the game except for one play.
The Pack comes back with a TD drive, helped by an apparently-legit unnecessary roughness call. Both teams are now getting ornery, tired of banging on each other in the cold.
I expected at least one shirtless drunk. Did not expect female shirtless drunks, however. Let’s hope they’re drunk. Good to be American.
After two great grabs by Well-Dressed Amani, the Giants score and take the lead. There’s a long way to go, but the Giants’ WRs are killing the highly-regarded Green Bay corners. Maybe now people will stop quasi-disparagingly calling Eli a “game manager,” since he’s been much more than that…
I thought all along that Favre was as likely as Eli to implode, and he just nearly did, throwing an awful fluttering pick that the Giants promptly fumbled back to the Packers. Wild stuff.
While the Packers deal with an injury, something I wanted to mention earlier: ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” did a story on super-cold football this morning. They recalled that during the famous Packers-Cowboys Ice Bowl in 1967, one of the refs put his whistle in his mouth and it froze to his lips, and tore off a chunk of his mouth.
That I had heard before. What I didn’t know is as a result, they played the game without whistles. Without whistles. Think about that…
It’s been an amazing night, but both sides and running out of gas, mentally and emotionally. It’s 20-20, 2:48 left, Packers with the rock (which is almost literally a rock by now) at their own 17…..
Anybody remember Micharl Strahan’s number being called?… Can I turn the HD off when it’s giving me incredibly lifelike images of stuff coming out of people’s noses?…
The Giants hold easily, the Packers’ three downs taking just 18 seconds and gaining four yards. After a fumble and crazy scramble, the Giants take over with more than two minutes left and good field position. It jyst feels like something ridiculous is going to happen…
Did anyone else recognize the voice on the Cadillac NFL-montage commercial? It’s Scott Graham, mysteriously fired about two years ago as a Phillies play-by-play man…
Who is Ahmad Bradshaw? Just askin’.
Former Penn State DE Jay Alford is the Giants’ field goal snapper, and he almost just messed up big-time. The G-men have a history with snapping in the playoffs- recall the insane 39-38 game with the 49ers in 2002. The missed FG with :04 wasn’t about the snap or the hold, though. The kicker just snap-hooked it.
Both QBs have made bad throws down the stretch- who knows what role the conditions are playing - and Farve might have just made the suicidal one. Corey Webster’s pick gives the Giants the ball in Green Bay territory….
…and now the Giants are running the ball up the middle twice (Coughlin!), then a tough throw incomplete, and they’re putting it on the kicker again…
… and of course he drills it. From 47. The Giants are dancin’. The freakin Giants. Player of the game has to be Plaxico, 11 catches for 154 yards.
And finally, allow me to humbly point out BPR’s prediction for this one:
Giants 23, Packers 20.
