My thoughts on the game:

Neither team looks very fired up.

Jordin Sparks’ singing of the anthem was very good. Man, she’s got some pipes.

Jesus, do we have to put with the dancing robot for the entire game?

The opening drive was an example of how NY has been winning. They have gotten much better performance on 3rd down than any other. As Football Outsiders has demonstrated, that’s not sustainable. But it only has to last three more quarters.

Nice solid answer by New England. But a rare lapse with that kickoff. Doh!

A couple of generous referee calls (on Buress’ drop and Toomer’s shove) are wiped out by a pick. The difference in Eli Manning, Superbowl Hero is not that he’s suddenly a great QB — his passer rating is not too hot. It’s that he’s getting good protection and not fucking up. You can go far with that. Just ask Trent Dilfer.

An ugly series for the Giants with a sack and fumble. I don’t understand something, however. It was clear on replay that the New England player (a) had the ball and (b) was down before the ball was ripped away by Bradshaw. Why is this allowed?

The dancing lizards spot wasn’t bad.

Neither offense is playing very well.

That peanut monobrow ad was cute.

The Giants line is having a monster game. They’re just about the only ones who are. This is the first time all year that Brady has been harassed like this.

That was an odd first half. The defenses are controlling it. New England is controlling the run and forcing Manning to step up. The Giants line is playing out of their mind. I have to expect that the holes in the NY secondary will be exploited in the second half. Randy Moss has been awfully quiet this post-season.

Dumb challenge by Belichick. No way are the officials going to give them the ball back — even with clear evidence that there were 12 men on. Oops. I was wrong (in my defense, they showed a lousy angle before the call). I was also wrong as I thought Belichick would immediately follow the call with a homerun ball to Moss.

Fuck. Can’t even Belichick figure out what Green Bay did? Screen plays don’t work well against the Giants.

God, I really don’t want to see Eli Manning win the Superbowl. The Patriots defense is breaking.

Here’s a prediction: if the Giants win, Eli Manning will join a long list of undeserving Super Bowl MVPs.

Giants defenders are getting away with quite a bit of rough-housing.

With 8 minutes left, if the Patriots don’t score here, it’s over. The defense did their job.

The story on that drive will be Brady (assuming Manning doesn’t pull off a Drive of his own). But the *real* story was that the Giant DL suddenly stopped getting to Brady. Given time, he tore the secondary apart.

4th and 1. Eli up the middle?

Here’s a question: 1 minute left. 3 times out. Do you let the Giants score if they get close enough so that you have some clock left?

How the fuck do you leave Buress uncovered?

Oh God, the ’72 Dolphins are going to be intolerable now.

I’ll go ahead and say it: the Patriots were the better team but the Giants had a great game. The MVP will go to Manning who can now join his brother as an undeserving Super Bowl MVP. The real MVP was the Giants D-line.