Sorry, been terribly busy lately, so not much time to play/hop on TS, let alone watch todays match ups on TV. Thank god for livestreams and smartphones 8)
To satisfy mikey first: ...dary! ;D
Which brings me directly into a short assesment of the 49ers today and a little in retrospect of last weeks game.
First off, I have to say it's easy to agree with your father's assesment Anguis -Â a brief analysis after the game is found in my last post above - as it's really late over here I can go into more detail tomorrow if you're still interested and rather focus on tonight's matchupsÂ
After tonight's 49ers - Giants game, one can definately say that that was not the 49ers from last sunday though. The 49ers were largely a defense oriented team throughout the season, however the offense was there until today to capitalize on the huge victories achieved by their defense and when the roof was on fire (read - last weekendÂ
) also capable of shelling out bigplays.
The defense held up well today, just as well as in the Saints game - however if you don't want to leave it all on the field at the present day in the offense, there will most likely be no games left to achieve championship, let alone the Lombardi trophy. I hate to say it, but from a Receiver's perspective, the 49er's pass-game performance was p*ss poor today.
A deserved win for the Giants? Disputable as the haven't shown that "fire" to win either, however they now represent the NFC in the Superbowl and they have to put their minds forward to that. If they do not step up their defense and special team performance, they will stand little to no chance against the Pats. Even then, Manning has been notorious imo throught the season (and his carreer for that matter) in perfoming poorer and poorer as the pressure rises and we shall see if he can finally get a handle on his nerves. After all, you can't put the stakes higher than a Superbowl, can you?
Don't get me wrong, he is a great QB when he is on top of his game and the Superbowl ring, dated 2008 absolutely shows it - but it seems as if he needs to fight his demons each and every time he sets foot onto the gridiron.
In the end, what really won that game for the Giants tonight, was the 49ers special team as each of their two mistakes led to a crucial score for the Giants - two unexcusable mistakes if I may add.
All in all, the 49ers are still very young team when it comes to the offense and can defintely be a force to be reckoned with for the next season - the Giants not so much in their current stage. Being lucky may get you through this one but they really will have to step up their game. After all, it's football and at this top level anything can happen so we'll enjoy a very interesting superbowl.
Now off to the second game:
As pleasant as it was to see the Ravens fight back the Patriots steamroller, in the end the result is a deserved win for the Patriots. A lucky one maybe - how often do you see kickers missing goals like that in a vital situation - but overall, they prooved to be the more creative team when it came down to finding a way to overcome the very strong Raven defense, which is a joy to watch each time.
Interestingly, the NFL asked the question if the Ravens can re-establish their fame of being a NFL dynasty in this game and despite the loss they performed well. Frankly speaking better than most people out there might have excpected. If they can keep the drive that brough them into this game and improve on their offensive capabilities (especially in the passing game) - we'll see them again next year in the playoffs for sure. So overall, very similar to the 49ers however the road is by far not as rocky as on the other side of the states.
It may even include swapping Joe Flacco for Tyrod Tayler who performed outstandingly as a QBÂ throughout his career at Virginia Tech.
The Patriots have definately mastered their opponent today, although the score doesn't reflect that really, largely due to the very strong Raven's defense. They ran the ball when they had to, they made the passes count when they had to and Tom brady stepped up and did rise to the moment when he had to - that is after performing outstandingly in the short passing game. Couple that with a defense that did their job in key moments with fewer and fewer mistakes now every game and you found the recipe to go to the Superbowl.
Overall, we got a very interesting Superbowl coming up and if the Giants step up their game and finally show that championship drive, it won't be a walk in the park after all for the guys from Boston. Thus, the true winners will once again be us, the fans , especially since we don't have to endure Steven Tyler singing the national anthem ;D
