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Saturday, December 27, 2008

The Immaculate Reception



December 23, 1972. This game cemented my love of football. I was 9 years old. The Giants teams of the 1970s were horrible, and the playoffs meant the Steelers and the Raiders. What games, what rivalries! I looked forward to the divisional round of the playoffs with such anticipation, because all 4 games were going to be feasts. I was only 9, but something told me that the single elimination of football made the playoffs different and special. This one was a classic. Listening and watching it again, I am not sure what is better, the play itself or The Voice of God (aka John Facenda). Long live football.

2 comments:

Mitch said...

I must confess. My 2nd favorite team has always been the Pittsburgh Steelers. Those 4 championship teams in the '70's were just something to marvel at. My Giants were pitiful and my allegiance never wavered because of John Mendenhall my favorite player on those awful teams. I guess the Giants and Steelers are related anyway ( Chris Mara having married Kathleen Rooney )so it is somewhat of poetic justice. Last year we even have our own "immaculate reception" so it does come full circle after all.

some Giant thoughts...

It never made sense to me why the Pats waited 52 minutes to spread the field, switch to shotgun to buy Brady more time and attack the Giants with five receivers. The more I thought about it, I think they never imagined that the Giants's defensive line would whup them like that. Just look at the first offensive play they ran -- a play-action fake reverse that needed five seconds to unfold so Brady could deliver a deep pass to Moss -- when Brady got swallowed up and had to rush his throw. Obviously, they decided on that play well in advance of the game. Did they underestimate New York's front four? Sure seems like it. Why am I talking about it now? Because the Pats never thought the they would see the Giants again after week 17. That's why I hope the Giants do not reveal too much tomorrow. They very well may see the Vikings again in a couple of weeks.

Andy F. said...

Well, after the game was over in W17, the pats quietly noted that the Giants were the best team they had faced that season.

Belichick was outcoached in that game. Here it is, 7-3 in Q3, the game is obvly a defensive battle, and they do not kick the FG. And Brady took a sack the play before, hubris to think that they were above such a colossal mistake? And in the Patriots' penultimate possession (where they scored 7 to take the lead 14-10), all of a sudden they used Moss underneath and he moved the chains for them... where was that the first 50 mins.. your deep threat is getting two of our guys attention but the underneath stuff was important to mix us up. That hurt them a lot not to be using more of that.

Don't worry about revelaing "too much" vs the Vikes, that is when you outthink yourself. If you win, they might be knocked out of the playoffs, so just win the game once and don't worry about facing them again. (They'd have to win 2 more playoff games before you see them, not to mention the ONE playoff we play before that... that should be the Giants' biggest problem.. facing the Vikings in the Conf championship and having revealed too much!)

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