An interesting question was raised for the panel on “Daily News Live,” Monday: Are the Eagles close to the Giants in terms of talent?
Before Sunday I would have said the Eagles were equal to or maybe superior to the Giants talent-wise. But based on Sunday the Giants D-line is the best position-group in the history of sports, so…
Obviously I’m still trying, unsuccessfully, to wrap my mind around the Super Bowl. There’s no question that the baggage that came with being undefeated had a lot to do with what happened to the Pats, but that doesn’t explain how their O-line got whipped so badly. Neither does any scheming by genius of the moment Steve Spagnuolo (although it’s safe to say Spagnuolo aced the job interview). I didn’t see much in the way of stunts or blitzes. I just saw Pats’ linemen, some of them Pro Bowlers and as a group considered perhaps the best in the sport, getting beat like rented mules.
The impulse is to say it’s impossible to overstate the importance of pass rush in the NFL, but if that’s the case, how did the Giants lose six games?
If Tom Brady had the Manning brothers’ career arc- knock on the door a few times, fail, then get to the big game - and played the way he did Sunday, he’d have the can’t-handle-the-pressure, can’t-win-the-big-one stink all over him. On the other hand, Eli’s performance the last month - playing the best four games of his life in the biggest four games of his life - should show people how idiotic such labels are. It won’t, but it should.
In other news:
I’ve always thought having mini-concerts at halftime of football games makes exactly the same amount of sense as have a scrimmage on stage before Springsteen goes on. Having said that, Tom Petty was very, surprisingly good. In Supe annals, only U2’s done better, and U2 had 9/11 to play off.
By far the best commercial I saw is one nobody’s talking about, the baby investor for E-trade. Good idea, well-executed, made sense as advertising, funny. Whatever.
Amidst the joy in New York there is this.
Terrelle Pryor still hasn’t made up his mind. Reportedly Pryor’s dad is pushing Penn State. Tom Bradley and dad have apparently become pals.
Also at today’s much-ado-about-not-much press conference at Jeanette High School, Pryor said Oregon is also still in it, along with Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan.
It’s a given that people love to overreact to recruiting, but why does everyone think it’s so imperative Penn State recruit a quarterback in this class? They have a QB for this year. They have one for next year. Pryor seems like a roll-the-dice thing for the Nits. If they get him, huge bonus (assuming Joe doesn’t want to make him a linebacker). If not, no biggie.
Speaking of Penn State and the Super Bowl, how bout that Jay Alford?
Duke-Carolina tonight, kids. It’s Dicky V’s first game back. More blogging then.
