I enjoyed this years Super Bowl, it was one in which the team the talking heads said was supposed to win, actually lost.
Thats right, the 18–0 New England Patriots lost to underdog New York Giants by a score of 17–14!
The irony is sweeter, the Patriots lost a Super Bowl by the same point margin that marked their prior 3 victories, yes by 3 points.
This Super Bowl wasn’t marked by tremendous point production, but rather defensive struggles.
The Patriots season should not be dismissed, its hard to have played 16 regular season games, and harder to have played 2 playoff games without a single loss, but in the end, all that is technically moot if you cant get the one lone victory that matters.
The talent of the Patriots team and coaches should not go un-noticed, perfect team cohesion and consistent focus are hard goals to reach, this years Patriots team achieved that. I believe they had this, but I also believed they took it too far.
After the spygate scandal that plagued them early in the season in which they were caught spying on the New York Jets, a stupid act because they handily defeated them anyway, I believe the team felt they had something to prove. So they were going to prove to the world that they couldn’t be stopped by defeating opponents handily one week at a time.
As the season went on, I do believe this bold determination to silence their critics, led the team to believe they were unstoppable, invincible. When you believe what your ego tells you, it is called arrogance. They nearly got tripped up by lesser teams in the regular season, almost losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens.
But in the Super Bowl, who were they playing, oh its only the New York Giants, heck we beat them once already, piece of cake..
This is why the Patriots lost the Super Bowl, they believed their own egos by thinking that they are supposed to win, therefore they will.
On the other hand, The New York Giants faced much more adversity than the Patriots. Over the course of a season, its easier to overcome adversity like the Giants did, as opposed to the Patriots not having had to face it, then encounter it and not know what to do.
I am not without bias, I got tired of AFC teams winning the Super Bowl and got tired of it being the Patriots.
Congratulations New York Giants!