Pats suffer Giant letdown

ShareThis

So it ended. What would have been the New England Patriots' fourth Super Bowl title in seven years. The chance to be the first team in NFL history to finish a season 19-0. The chance to achieve perfection. The chance to go down in history as arguably the best team in history. So it all ended last night, ended in a loss to the Giants, ended in one of the big upsets in Super Bowl history. Bang the drum slowly. It ended in one of the worst ways possible, of course, the Giants getting the ball back with just 2:39 left to play and down four, having to go the length of the field for the go-ahead touchdown. The Giants doing what we've come to expect the Patriots to do. And the slice of irony? Just a few minutes earlier it appeared that Tom Brady had pulled out another miracle. Isn't that what we'd come to expect? As if Brady and the Patriots had become like some great fictional story, defying the odds, doing what wasn't supposed to be possible, making it all seem almost too easy? As if Brady and his Patriots were once again going to dance with kings. It was going to happen again Sunday night. Once again, Brady and the Patriots did what they always do, down in the fourth quarter on a night when nothing seemed to be in rhythm. And when Brady hit Randy Moss for the go-ahead score in the game's dying minutes, it appeared that the Patriots really were going to win. This was going to be a game that, many years from now, long after the specifics had been lost to the passage of time, we would be telling people about. We would explain to them how much it meant. We would be telling people how we were fortunate enough to see the Pats make history, one of those moments that was going to be frozen in time, the night New England did what no other team in NFL history had ever done. One of those games we were going to remember forever. That was what was on the table, history staring the Patriots across the line of scrimmage, right there with the Giants. For the Patriots. For us. For everyone. "It's the biggest game of all our lives," Brady had said during the week. "My life, the entire team, all the coaches. We are going to be remembering this game for as long as we live, win or lose." No question. A team wins the Super Bowl every year. But they don't get a chance at NFL immortality every year. Midway through the first quarter, though, it became evident that this wasn't going to be any cakewalk for the 12-point favorite Patriots. The Giants scored on their first possession with a field goal, and the Patriots then countered with a touchdown drive. The Pats were quickly up 7-3. Then it stopped. The Giants weren't about to become just another opponent on the Pats road to perfection, destined to be little more than an asterisk in the Patriots story. The Giants were able to put pressure on Brady, sacking him three times in the first half alone. This was the Patriots' offense we had seen all year? Not really. On the other side of the ball, the Giants were able to run the ball, and, if not for self-destructing several times in Patriots territory, they could have been leading at halftime. Instead, the Patriots led 7-3. This was not the kind of game most people had predicted. It was becoming a game out of the Giants' playbook, not the Patriots'. It was a harbinger of things to come.All year the Patriots had lived off their offense, the most prolific in NFL history. It was what came to define this team, making up for a defense that had gotten old, a defense that could be run against. Whatever else happened, even when it seemed late in the year that this team was not as overpowering as it had been the first two months, it was as if we knew Brady and the offense would find a way to win. And so it seemed Sunday night. When the Patriots finally went ahead, it seemed they had done it again. A fourth Super Bowl title in seven years, another MVP award for Brady even on a night when the offense had been mostly out of sync. Indeed, this Patriots team was going to be immortal forever. Until Eli Manning did a Brady imitation and took the Giants into the end zone and into one of the great upsets in Super Bowl history. "No one gave us a shot," said Giants' receiver Plaxico Burress, the same Plaxico Burress who had guaranteed a Giants' win, the same Plaxico Burress who caught the game-winning pass. "It came down to one play and we made it." So give the Giants credit. They did what no one thought they could do. They defied all the experts. They went on the road and won three games in the playoffs, then upset what many considered to be one of the best teams in NFL history. In short, they became the 2001 Patriots, a great story, even if it came at these Patriots' expense. And so it ended. The chance to be the first team in NFL history to finish a season 19-0. The chance to achieve perfection. The chance to go down in history as arguably the best team in history. A chance squandered, a game that got away in the last few minutes, the kind of game that will haunt this team and everyone who rooted for it for a long time. Bang the drum slowly. (Contact Bill Reynolds at breynold@projo.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)