The Game: Top Stories: Tuesday, February 5

Post-Game Reaction: The Day After

We've collected the best stories from the morning after the Giants shocked the Patriots.

The New York times' Bill Pennington: "They conceded that Brady was the top player in the N.F.L. But all the other attention directed at Brady, the pop culture icon with the supermodel girlfriend, was starting to grate on some Giants."

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The New York Post's George Willis: "No doubt it was a total team effort. But the Giants defense, maligned early in the season, authored a performance that will rank as one of the best in the history of the franchise. Owner John Mara called it the 'greatest win in Giants history.' It may well have been the greatest defensive performance in Giants history considering the opposition and the setting."

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The New York Post's Steve Serby: "Eli Manning will never be more perfect for New York than he was last night, when he was SuperMann, when he stood eyeball-to-eyeball with the great Tom Brady and shot him dead with the whole world watching."

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The Daily News' Mike Lupica: "There will be other teams in New York, because there always are. There is always another team. This team goes with Namath's Jets now and the '69 Mets and Willis Reed, with anything the city has ever seen or will ever see. Never a bigger day than this, never a better Super Bowl than this."

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The Daily News' Gary Myers: "A few weeks ago, Manning was a mess. On the last Sunday in November, he had four interceptions against the Vikings, three returned for touchdowns. In the middle of December, he had 35 incompletions against the Redskins. The next week in Buffalo, he fumbled five times and threw two interceptions. Could anybody at that time possibly have predicted he would be a better quarterback in the Super Bowl than Tom Brady?"

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New England sources ...

The Boston Globe's Jackie MacMullan: "And so New England's 18-0 mark is for naught, just as each and every Patriot player warned it would be if they could not win the Super Bowl. This seemingly magical season has gone up in smoke. The quest for perfection turned out to be a hollow, meaningless pursuit."

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The Boston Herald's Michael Felger: "In other words, the loss may have shocked the world, but it should not have shocked you."

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The Boston Herald's Tony Massarotti: "So this is how it ends, in the barrenness of the Arizona desert, with the once greatest team in history getting bullied, battered, outplayed and outcoached."

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The Providence Journal's Jim Donaldson: "What had been expected to be a coronation turned into devastation."

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National sources ...

Sports Illustrated's Peter King: "As Mike Tyson would say, 'Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.'"

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ESPN's Bill Simmons: "Finally, can you guess the last thing we heard as we were walking (OK, hustling) out of the stadium right after the final play? That's right, it was the sound of euphoric Giants fans chanting, 'Eighteen and one! Eighteen and one! Eighteen and one!' Yes, it's safe to say the Boston-New York rivalry has been taken to new heights. As a tennis umpire would say, 'Advantage, New York.'"

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Sports Illustrated's Don Banks: "To quote the NFL's rather lame Super Bowl XLII catch-phrase, they wanted it more. They out-hit the Patriots, they out-hustled them, they out-played them at every key moment of the game."

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ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski: "The Patriots' season is history, but not historic. They didn't choke, but they definitely suffered from a lack of oxygen. Pinching the air tube shut was a New York Giants team with just enough nerve, just enough composure to leave this Jiffy Pop-looking stadium with a 17-14 win and the Vince Lombardi Trophy."

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CBS Sportsline's Mike Freeman: "They lost 19-0 and a chance at immortality because in the biggest moment they strayed from the Patriot way. Instead of intensity, there was cockiness. Instead of humility, there was foolish bragging. No Bill Belichick team has ever been full of itself but these Patriots were."

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Post-Game Reaction

We've collected the initial reactions of the Giants' shocking win.

Dulcinea's Insight

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The New York Post's Mike Vaccaro: "Giants 17, Patriots 14. They DO have a word for that. The Mets used to own the patent on it. No longer: Amazing."

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The New York Post's Paul Schwartz: "What was supposed to be the coronation of the Patriots immaculate 19-0 season instead became one of the most unexpected defeats in this game's storied history. The Pats sought to copyright the 19-0 trademark; instead, they'd better get busy printing up those "18-1" shirts."

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The Daily News' Ralph Vacchiano: "And the finale was a 13-yard pass to Plaxico Burress, who had been the center of a firestorm all week long after he guaranteed the Giants' would win. He backed up his words by backing off Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs and catching the touchdown pass that finally put the Patriots' dynasty to rest."

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The New York Times' Judy Battista: "It was, fittingly, a brutal sack of Brady with 20 seconds remaining that seemed to end the Patriots' final chance of saving their unblemished record."

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Big Blue View: "I know I am biased, but this will have to go down not only as one of the greatest Super Bowl upsets ever, but as one of the best of the 42 Super Bowls ever played."

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The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy: "There'll be no Hub parade on Super Tuesday. No commemorative books about "Path to Perfection." In New England, the church bells all are broken."

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The Boston Globe's Eric Wilbur: "Never has 18-1 looked so lame a mark."

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The Patriot Act: "Much analysis will be made over the coming weeks as to why exactly the Pats lost. Overconfidence? Jinx by the Globe's already produced book, a la "Dewey Defeats Truman"? My guess is they simply were outplayed. If anybody says it's the Giselle jinx, like the Jessica Simpson jinx, then they're dumb. We, as Patriots fans, should simply acknowledge that on this night, the New York Giants were the better team."

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Patriots Daily: " It may, perhaps, be the worst loss in profesional football history, this 18-0 powerhouse, favored by two touchdowns, losing to the lowest seed of the allegedly inferior NFC in the only game that really matters when real history is written."

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Patsfans.com: "It will go down as a game which will leave New Englanders dumbfounded for many years to come. If the Patriots ever come this close to a 19-0 season ever again, you'll always remember this game. For all of Patriot Nation, it was a night of angst, shame, disgust, and most of all, disappointment."

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Eye on Foxborough: "This wasn't supposed to happen."

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Sports Illustated's Don Banks: "David Tyree? David Tyree? Name me one person in America who predicted that David Tyree would turn in the game's most important and amazing play? That 32-yard Eli Manning to Tyree completion -- which he secured one-handed, with the ball trapped against his own helmet -- will be replayed as long as there's sports in New York."

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ESPN's Jeffri Chadiha: "While all the talk leading up to Super Bowl XLII centered on perfection, on how the New England Patriots were one of the best teams ever, we forgot to acknowledge one simple fact: The New York Giants were playing better at this time of the year than their opponents."

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The Chicago Tribune's Mike Downey "Brady finally lost a Super Bowl. He lost to a 12-point underdog. He lost to Eli, the other Manning brother. He lost a chance to tie Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw with a fourth Super Bowl ring."

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The Sporting Blog's Will Leitch: “In the span of 15 minutes, everything we knew about the world of the NFL was obliterated. Eli Manning is a heroic Greek figure. Bill Belichick is a blundering fool whose “screw it, I’m going for it” alpha male act finally came back and bit him. David Tyree is a circus acrobat. Tiki Barber was put on this earth to make omelets in front of millions of bored homemakers. Plaxico Burress is a soothsayer. Tom Coughlin possesses the ability to smile. Black is white, and white is black. Up is down. Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria.”

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Cold Hard Football Facts: "Tip your cap today to Tom Coughlin, the architect of two of the biggest upsets of the last two decades. Back in 1993, his Boston College team beat No. 1 Notre Dame. College football's greatest dynasty has never recovered. Super Bowl XLII could prove to be the same dynasty-crushing defeat for New England."

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Deadspin: "OK, we could watch football for the next 20 years, and we're not sure we'd ever see a play as amazing and improbable and insane and ridiculous and surreal and let's-face-it-gang batshit crazy as watching Eli Manning escape that sack and David Tyree make that catch."

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Dan Shanoff: "I think we will look back—tomorrow, next week and years from now—and wonder if this is as great as a Super Bowl can ever get. I think that's quite possible."

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Super Bowl History

Since the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs to win the first Super Bowl, the game has provided extraordinary performances, unforgettable moments, and even some mind-numbingly dull blowouts. Learn the history of the game's creation and find recaps, stats, and video from every Super Bowl at the Web sites below.

Dulcinea's Insight

Although Super Bowl XLII is being played in 2008, it is considered the 2007 Super Bowl. The same convention applies to all previous Super Bowls.

The first two Super Bowls were called the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game." The first game to be called the "Super Bowl" was Super Bowl III, when Joe Namath and the New York Jets pulled a stunning upset of the Baltimore Colts.

Dulcinea's Picks

NFL.com has a section dedicated to Super Bowl XLII, with information about the University of Phoenix Stadium, Super Bowl week events, and Tom Petty's halftime show. Fans more interested in the game itself can scroll down to the bottom of the page for Super Bowl history, including video highlights of each game.

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Pro Football Reference is the Web's best source for NFL stats. Click on any team's name to find game logs, team stats, rosters, and player stats. Click on NFL or AFL to get the league standings, league leaders, and the result of every game played that year. There is also a list of NFL Championship games, linking to stats about the season and the winning and losing teams.

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USA Today has play-by-play data for every Super Bowl.

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The Pro Football Hall of Fame brings the past alive with photos and video of Hall of Famers and classic moments, along with player profiles and articles covering the game's history. This is a site dedicated to the overall history of the game and there few pages dedicated specifically to the Super Bowl, but you can still learn about the players and teams that excelled in the big game.

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NFL News and Analysis

For the next two weeks, there will be an overwhelming amount of news and analysis on the Super Bowl. This section will point you to the best sources of information, from mainstream media outlets, news aggregators, and blogs.

Dulcinea's Insight

For links to more blogs, look in the side menu of a blog for a list of recommended blogs.

Dulcinea's Picks

For mainstream media …

SI.com is home to Peter King, whose “Monday Morning Quarterback” is one of the most-read football columns in the country. SI.com also features Dr. Z, who watches and studies the game as much as any other writer out there.

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ESPN features columns from many of its television personalities, including John Clayton, Michael Smith, and Len Pasquarelli. There is also Tuesday Morning Quarterback, a lengthy column covering a wide variety of football and non-football-related topics. And if you don’t mind coverage with a Patriots bias, check out The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. ESPN also offers a large selection of podcasts, many of which will be covering the NFL in the next few weeks (particularly, Football Today, The Mike Tirico Show , and the B.S. Report.)

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The Sporting News has a good radio section, featuring audio commentary from former NFL players and coaches. It also has a large blog community, but the quality of the blogs can differ widely.

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For news aggregators …

Pro Sports Daily is a centralized source for sports stories from media outlets around the country. Articles are selected to reflect local perspectives, so you won’t have to settle for generic Associated Press stories.

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SportsSpyder allows you to register and customize the news stories you receive based on team, news source, and players.

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For blogs …

Cold Hard Football Facts offers in-depth analysis of the game with a humorous slant. As their name suggests, they like to stick to the facts, and make point-by-point refutations of commonly-held beliefs.

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Football Outsiders examines the game through statistical analysis, including the creation their own statistics. It you’re looking for an angle that has been over-looked by the mainstream media, this is the site to visit.

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For blog networks …

AOL Sports’ FanHouse brings together blog writers from across the country to write about their favorite sports and teams. The NFL front page features the latest entries from the network of writers. You can also go to a team-specific page, which includes all the articles written about the team (even if it’s written by a blogger from another team).

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The Most Valuable Network is the oldest network of sports blogs, including the Patriot Act and Giants 101. Each team has a blog with a collection of writers, whose profiles are listed on the right-hand side of the page. You can also find links to their favorite blogs by clicking “Friends.”

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SB Nation is a network of independent blogs, including Pats Pulpit and Big Blue View. Look for some cooperation between the two blogs in assessing the teams, similar to the way Big Blue View and Acme Packing Company answered five questions on their team.

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Patriots History

With three Super Bowl wins and an undefeated regular season in the last seven years, it’s easy to forget that, for much of their existence, the Patriots were one the NFL’s worst teams. This section will help you trace the history of the Pats, from their founding as the Boston Patriots to their transformation into one of the league’s great dynasties.

Dulcinea's Insight

For historical team records and stats, see the Patriots page on Pro-Football-Reference.

Dulcinea's Picks

Patriots.com has a good article explaining the history of the team, and also features profiles of Patriots Hall of Famers, historic dates, and coverage of the Pats’ three Super Bowl victories.

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The Pro Football Hall of Fame has a list of “Facts and Firsts” for the Patriots, and profiles of Mike Haynes, John Hannah and Nick Buonicinti, the three Patriots in the Hall of Fame.

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Remember the AFL features biographies and photos of the Boston Patriots.

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Patriots News and Analysis

Boston is known for its fanatical coverage of local teams, and this extends to the Patriots. This section will link to local papers, radio, and blogs.

Dulcinea's Insight

For team news, game reports, rosters, and multimedia, visit the Patriots’ official Web site.

Each newspaper listed has a blog, which features posts by the paper’s beat writers and columnists.

There are good Patriots’ blogs in the blog networks listed in the NFL News and Analysis section, including the Patriot Act and Pats Pulpit.

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For newspapers …

The Boston Globe not only features nationally prominent writers like Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy, but also a very insightful blog from beat writer Mike Reiss called Reiss’s Pieces.

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The Boston Herald has a team of writers covering the Pats, most notably beat writer John Tomase, who also writes a blog on the team.

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The Providence Journal features analysis from Jim Donaldson and Shalise Manza Young, an easy-to-search year in review, and interviews of Patriots players. Some of the site requires free registration.

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For radio …

WEEI is Boston’s most popular sports talk radio station. On its site you can listen live to all the Pats talk over the next two weeks, or search the Audio Vault. In the Vault, you can search by show, or find a large selection of Pats material in the Patriots Monday section.

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For blogs …

Patsfans.com is part blog, part community, and part Patriots news aggregator. It has links to the latest Patriots-related headlines in the Globe, Herald, and Providence Journal, a massive and intense message board, original columns, and more.

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Patriots Daily has a nine-man staff writing daily blog entries. Every Friday, they hold a Patriots Roundtable, in which the staff discusses the biggest questions heading into the week’s game. There are also weekly columns from a Football Outsiders writer who applies statistical analysis to issues surrounding the Patriots.

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Land of Patriots takes a close look at the on-field action, with great previews and reviews of games.

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Eye on Foxborough is written by Dan Lamothe of Springfield’s The Republican.

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Giants History

The Giants have a long and storied history, with six NFL championships and 15 Hall of Famers. Now in their 83rd season, the Giants have a chance for their 3rd Super Bowl victory and their first since a man named Bill Belichick was their defensive coordinator. This section will show you the best sites for learning the history of the New York Football Giants.

Dulcinea's Insight

For historical team records and stats, see the Giants page on Pro-Football-Reference.

Dulcinea's Picks

Giants.com has a brief article on the history of the team, as well as game recaps of every championship game they’ve played in and profiles of Giants Hall of Famers.

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The Pro Football Hall of Fame has a list of Giants’ “Facts and Firsts” and profiles of all 15 Giants enshrined in the Hall. There is also an article on the Greatest Game Ever Played, the 1958 NFL Championship game lost by the Giants in overtime to Baltimore Colts.

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Giants News and Analysis

With the Jets season long over, the New York sports media has turned its attention to the Giants and produced a considerable amount of content. This section will show you the best places to find local coverage of the Giants.

Dulcinea's Insight

For team news, game reports, rosters, and multimedia, visit the Giants’ official Web site.

Each newspaper listed has a blog, which features posts by the paper’s beat writers and columnists.

There are good Patriots’ blogs in the blog networks listed in the NFL News and Analysis section, including the Giants 101 and Big Blue View.

Dulcinea's Picks

For newspapers …

The Daily News is home to “Sports Reporters” regular Mike Lupica, but the best place to find coverage of the Giants is at The Blue Screen, a blog written by Ralph Vacchiano.

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The New York Post offers more than just Jessica Simpson look-alikes. There’s news and insight from beat reporter Paul Schwartz and commentary from Mike Vaccaro and the enthusiastic Steve Serby.

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The New Yorks Times takes a more measured look at the Giants than the tabloids do, and the Inside the Playbook section is particularly good. The Fifth Down blog includes links to Giants stories from around the Web.

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Newsday is a Long Island newspaper with good coverage of the Giants, including videos and Arthur Staple’s blog, Inside the Giants.

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For radio …

WFAN created the sports talk radio format and they remain the most popular station for talking New York sports. You can download podcasts of Giants-related content or just listen to one of the FAN’s popular shows, like Mike & the Mad Dog and Boomer & Carton (featuring former NFL QB Boomer Esiason).

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For blogs …

Big Blue Interactive is a blog featuring game commentary and lots of great links to articles about the Giants.

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Giants 101 is heavy on game analysis, with five writers scrutinizing the action and telling you what to look for in the big game.

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Giants Bits offers detailed game previews and reviews, but little else during the week. Be sure to visit here on Saturday and Sunday before the game for a thorough preview.

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Super Bowl XLII: Patriots vs. Giants

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