Geno's Super Bowl hangover

Ahhh… it’s Geno’s Super Bowl hangover—although if I can be completely honest with you, it was a very laid back super Sunday as I sat around with the old lady watching the game and tweeting my fellow gamblers about how daddy not only gave you both the Giants and the under in his Geno’s Picks video, but if you’ve become part of the growing fan base of Geno’s weekly podcast right here in the forum threads every Friday, you were also treated to my third straight winning NCAA Basketball pick with my picking of Princeton -7 over Brown. No worries if you kids are slow to the cotton to the technology—that’s right-political correctness be damned, I just used the words cotton, picking and Brown in the same paragraph.    

More college basketball betting tomorrow, but today let’s take one last look at yesterdays big game as—in purely Geno fashion—I will once again make you the hit of the water-cooler as I break down the games three most pivotal plays with sports insight and a nifty little joke to leave ‘em laughing.

Oh and by pivotal, I mean to the actual game, not my gambling, because if that were the case the most pivotal play was Ahmad Bradshaw’s final TD which I thought hit my bizarre 2-7 combination in my box pool, only to have Coughlin go for two thereby squelching my shot at an extra 500 bills.

If you look closely enough, you can see Ahmad Bradshaw squatting over my pool on that final TD taking an actual dump on it. Still, for the fifth straight year the Super Bowl did not fail to disappoint, as it went down to the wire with these three plays making it all the more memorable.

Giants lead Pats 9-3 with 15 seconds left in the first half

While the Giants seemingly dominated the entire first half in both time of possession and by the fact that they were leading the whole way, Tom Brady will always be Tom Brady and even while pinned back at his own four-yard line with four minutes left, he proceeded to go a perfect 10 for 10 passing on the final drive of the first half to score a TD with 15 seconds left on the clock. This sent the Pats into the locker room with not only a 10-9 lead, but possession to open the second half as well.

What amazed me most on this drive was that Coughlin failed to be aggressive and gave Brady all the time in the world to find a receiver in the pocket knowing if they stop them on this play, New England is forced to go for three. Instead, Brady literally had five-plus seconds to dance around the pocket before finding Danny Woodhead for the four-yard score. This wasn’t surprising anyone, as Tom Brady is like any other man; once you get them that excited then tell them they only have five seconds to score, they’ll opt for just about any kind of head. 

Pats lead G-men 17-15 with 3:46 in game

You are going to hear it ad infinitum over the next few weeks that Eli Manning’s pass to Mario Manningham was the equivalent of his pass to David Tyree in SB XLII but it wasn’t even close and I will tell you why. Manning’s pass four years earlier was a desperate heave to the heavens after Eli escaped the grasp of three different Patriot lineman and then, at the first sign of daylight, he let the ball fly. Anyone who believes he walked into the huddle of that game and said “this is your play David,” is crazy. The first time he even spoke of Tyree in that game was the following play when he said “if what’s-his-face could catch that one, you better not miss this next one” to Plaxico Burress.

But last night, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, daring him to repeat both four years ago and even earlier this year against Brady, and starting a drive from his own 12-yard line, Manning saw Manningham streaking down the sideline and perfectly laid the ball into his target who made an amazing catch for a 38-yard completion and just like that the G-men had the ball at midfield and the.

The only similarity to that play was the fact that it was again a catch that was not to be believed, as this time Mario Manningham somehow cradled the ball as he kicked six toes down in bounds. The last time I was that excited to see any Mario jump, I was playing Donkey Kong, only I had a lot more than a quarter invested this time. 

G-men lead 21-17 and Brady throws a Hail Mary
Did I mention Tom Brady is Tom Brady? Exactly, this game was over it seemed as the Pats faced 4^th and 16 at their own 14 with 48 seconds and no timeouts after Brady was forced to use his final one after a Justin Tuck sack. So what does Brady do? He finds Deion Branch for 19 yards, and Aaron Hernandez for 11 and now, with 5 ticks left on the clock, he gets a heave from midfield.

Everyone saw the play as the ball was deflected into the air dangling seemingly forever in front of Gronkowski and his one good ankle, and I dare say this was the only play where his ankle really came into play because—if you look at that play—it makes no sense that he couldn’t get to it until you realize this. Rather than instinctively dive for the ball with his basically 10-foot reach from where he was standing the moment it was batted into the air he literally had to gingerly leave his left foot and plant all his weight on his right before diving. Even though he lost a second, a good leap may have gotten him to the ball. Ironically, Gronk’s right foot landed firmly on the right ankle of Giants Kenny Phillips, and he got no power behind his leap and never made it to the ball. So, believe it or not, this game wasn’t lost because of Gronk’s left ankle, it was won because of Kenny Phillips right one. Don’t believe me, take a look at the link I set up in the forum as I would absolutely love your thoughts on this one. 

There you go kids… kiss the NFL goodbye for now as we head into some come college hoops tomorrow.