Super Bowl XLII Review & Early Off-Season Thoughts

SUPER BOWL XLII REVIEW (NY GIANTS 17, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS 14)


Ok, it's over. Congratulations to The New York football Giants on their upset of the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII (42.) In the end, Eli Manning led his team over 80 yards for the winning Touchdown with under 2 minutes left in the game. They entered the playoffs as a wild card team, they started the season 0-2, and they came into this match-up as 12 point underdogs.

The Giants proved that underdogs have big bites. The defense was incredible and the Eli Manning led offense made the plays when it mattered most, converting crucial 3rd downs and capitalizing when in the Red Zone. The Patriots' undefeated season ends, and The Giants win their 3rd Super Bowl Championship Title.

LOOKING AHEAD

So what does this mean for my Dallas Cowboys for the 2008 season?

Well, not much. Dallas will of course play The Giants twice, and both games will be important because they are divisional match-ups. After this loss in the playoffs, it may hopefully give The Boys more incentive for revenge. We shall see.

Other than The Giants and the rest of the NFC East, there's a whole slew of rivals to worry about. The competition this year is going to be the AFC North (Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh,) and the NFC West (San Fransisco, Seattle, Arizona and St. Louis.) Tampa Bay and Green Bay will also be added to the schedule being the next two highest seeds going into the playoffs.

There are also some internal problems, which include a few coaches leaving, and a few rumors floating. Tony Sparano and a few assistant coaches left for Miami, Jason Garrett got promoted to Assistant Head Coach and Dave Campo came back to town to coach the 'sometimes struggling' secondary.

The rumor that floated was that Jerry Jones was interested in a trade with Miami. The deal would give The Dolphins, Marion Barber and at least one first round draft pick for their overall first round pick, enabling Dallas to snatch up RB Darren McFadden. This was proven untrue by Jerry Jones himself.

Thankfully, some things about the team are extremely impressive and need only fine tuning. Tony Romo for example is resilient enough to come back strong in '08, as well as Terrell Owens, Jason Witten, the entire Offensive Line, Marion Barber, Greg Ellis, Bradie James, DeMarcus Ware, Terence Newman, and of course, Nick Folk.

Players I think could use some work are Sam Hurd, Miles Austin, Isaiah Stanback, Anthony Spencer, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Fasano. To a lesser degree, Patrick Crayton could use some lessons in humility, Tank Johnson needs to get back his spark and Terry Glenn has to get back in sync. To a higher degree, Jacques Reeves, Julius Jones and Roy Williams can either step it up or get the stepping (If you ask me.)

The pieces are there, this team is a work in progress that's almost complete. It's hard to say what will happen in the off-season since it's only a few hours since the Super Bowl ended, but if Dallas continues on this path, success can only follow. With heartbreaking disappointment comes experience, and this team has 2 years full of experience to build on, let's hope the best in the 2008 season.