Mexico Medical Student |

You know, throughout the Chargers/NE game, I always felt the Chargers were going to lose even while they were up by 3 then never trailed by more than 7-10 points. Why? Because you could see the inconsistency in their playing, the fly-by-your-pants style that won them big plays, but couldn’t deliver when it counted (like 4 trips to the red zone that resulted in 4 FGs only).

That’s NOT what I expected to see from Green Bay. As I saw Plaxico Burress saw through GB’s secondary like a hot knife through butter, the GB cornerbacks suckered on the simplest jukes, I had to wonder what all the fuss was about how awesome our cornerbacks Al Harris and Woodson were. When the secondary adjusted to get more “physical,” all that came of it was pass interference calls. Burress was visibly taunting Harris, and excuse my French, Harris did turn out to be the little bitch today.

I lost count of the missed tackles by ALL of the defense, but especially Woodson and Harris. Everybody was so flatfooted, lacking any fire, like the only thing on their mind was to get back to that warm bench. Well guess what? You got several months to sit your warm ass on the couch, because the season is over.

New York missed two field goals and had a touchdown called back because of a holding call. That’s 12 potential points that would have removed the need for an overtime in the first place–plays and opportunities allowed by the GB defense that should have never been.

But enough ragging on the defense, the offense didn’t exactly shine either. Favre in his press conference on Friday said he would like to sleep in on Sunday morning for a change, leaving the pre-game nerves to the younger guys. I think he slept past noon, because he hasn’t played that craptacular since Chicago’s loss. I don’t know if receivers were slowed down by the conditions on their routes and Favre didn’t adjust or what, but so many balls were overthrown (on the right route) or simply badly thrown (at the feet). Favre never looked comfortable and was constantly fiddling with his chinstrap. He too looked like he wanted off the field ASAP.

After throwing a pick while three defenders were chasing Favre to the sideline (throw it away already!), you’d think there would be restraint later when faced with similar circumstances. The interception on the very first possession in overtime was classically the worst of Favre. When the pressure is on, he feels the need to make the “big play,” and more often than not, he makes it for the other team. Manning threw his fair share of airballs and grounders to be sure, but other than one time, he didn’t cough up a pick under pressure, and certainly not at a pivotal point in the game. The stats of the two QBs were actually very, very similar; the difference was 1) the defenses, 2) penalties, and 3) the timing of the mistakes.

Nobody likes to lose, but losing because you were bested is respectable; losing because you didn’t achieve your standards (let alone excellence) sucks. Bart Starr was selected to present the NFC trophy to the winner: imagine the circle of history as Favre would have taken the stand to share the reception from GB’s legendary QB of yore. Imagine the Super Bowl matchup of Favre and Brady as GB and NE meet once again (in 1997, Bledsoe was the NE QB).

Now the only thing most of us can hope for to not have to endure more crap from New England fans than we’ve already had to deal with over the last few years is for the G-men to kick some ass against the Patriots. They showed in the final week of the regular season that they had a significant chance of toppling the Pats; now, with three more wins and all the confidence in the world combined with the lessons recently learned from 3 weeks ago, the Giants have an ever greater chance of getting the job done.