by Jay Yim

Created on: February 09, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Dear Bill Belicheck,

Wow. No one expected Super Bowl XLII to end like that. After all your team-the New England Patriots-were about to capture its fourth Super Bowl title in seven years. Your team was about to go 19-0 and reach football immorality. Your team was about to shut Mercury Morris up for good.

But those pesky New York Giants flipped the script on you. They came away with a 17-14 victory which completely ruined everything your team had worked so hard for. It had to remind you of how your 2001 squad took down the Greatest Show on Turf (a.k.a. St. Louis Rams) in Super Bowl XXXVI. But never the less you're probably still in shock that your uber-offense, which piled up points this season at such a phenomenal pace it set the record for most points in the regular season, got held to just two measly touchdowns.

You probably thought after Plaxico Burress proclaimed the Giants would post a 23-17 victory, your squad would come out and blow the G-Men out of the water since your club seems to hit an extra gear after hearing such bold predictions as Anthony Smith of the Pittsburgh Steelers discovered.

But the Giants defense- (mainly due to its incredible defensive line-most notably Justin Tuck, who could've easily been named the game's MVP-which dominated your offensive line even though it featured three bowlers) backed up Burress prediction thanks to their defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, who designed the right pass rush schemes. So that kept pressure on Tom Brady all day, resulting in him getting swallowed up five times and placing him flat on his back too many other times. They also bottled up your starting running back Laurence Maroney-who had been on a roll since the end of the regular season during the playoffs- holding him to 36 yards rushing.

The performance of the Giants D (along with the their offense's opening drive where they erased 9:59 off the clock) had to remind you of Super Bowl XXV. That's when you held the Buffalo Bills high-octane offense in check because of the game plan you designed as the then-G-Men's defensive coordinator-ironic, huh? But despite all that you were only trailing 10-7 and you had the ball back with 7:54 left in the game and Giselle's boyfriend this came through as he always does. He marched your offense down the field and found a wide-open Randy Moss (Corey Webster had slipped on the play) in the end zone. You were up 14-10 and
2:42 away from becoming the greatest NFL team ever.

So you probably thought you had the game

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