Giants Triumphant

I didn’t really have a dog in this fight, but I was rather happy to see the NY Giants defeat the NE Patriots in the Super Bowl. As much as Mrs. X and I dislike Eli Manning’s audacity and presumption (“Shut up, Eli”), I was more tired of the arrogance of the Patriots. Amazon even posted a listing a book for two hours earlier in the week called “19-0,” to say nothing of Tom Brady’s look of insult when Plexico Burress stated that the Patriots were only going to score 17 points.

It was an entertaining game at the end, but not so much at the beginning. One was left with the feeling that a breakout was possible, but a good defensive struggle does not capture the imagination that well. It got really good when both teams finally managed to stand up to tired defenses and run down the field to score touchdowns. So the fourth quarter made up for a lack luster first three. Although one did get a sense that things were coming apart for the Patriots when Belichick made the stupid call to go for it on a 4th and 13 when it was a makeable 49-yard field goal kick. At the time I remember thinking that the Patriots were starting to panic a little in their offensive frustration.

I have no real problem with Eli being named MVP if only for that great escape and throw (although the receiver deserved equal credit for the play). However, I think one could easily have made an argument that someone on the defensive line should have won it. But since you can’t split the MVP into 4 parts (or at least three between Strahan, Uminyoura, and Tuck), the writers fell back to the old quarterback standby, which is fine.

Now, on to the commercials. Mrs. X and I both think that the ads have jumped the shark as none of them showed any depth of imagination and some were just outright bad (Planters, Careerbuilder and Sales Genie: Pandas were particularly bad). Very few were worth mentioning, but I will say that I liked the balloon Coke ad best. Simple, good music and a mildly amusing concept. I didn’t see all of the Garmin commercial, but based on the descriptions, I think I would have liked it as “Napoleon is short” jokes are always amusing to me (but I like to make fun of the French). I also liked the NFL oboe player one. Budweiser didn't do very well as only the end joke of the Caveman ad was funny (I thought the Rocky ad was a bit tired and predictable). I missed one or two others, but reading the brief review of each ad on Time this morning, leads me to believe that I didn’t miss much. Maybe advertisers will clue in a little next year.