Good game. I was struck yet again by the razor thin margins in the NFL. I thought both QB's were excellent. The difference, IMO, was the supporting casts. Eli is blessed with more playmakers on the outside. His guys made the plays, Brady's didn't. Welker drops it, Manningham doesn't. That was the difference.

 

That pass to Manningham was a thing of beauty. Certainly it wasn't an easy catch, but the throw was tremendous. As good as you'll see.

 

My only criticism was of Belichick. He ultimately made the correct decision by letting the Giants score a TD. The problem is that he made it at least a minute and one timeout too late, and IMO, it cost hist team and his clutch HOF QB a great chance to win the game. The Pats could have got the ball back with about 2 minutes and two timeouts had he had the stones to make that decision when he should have. Then it would have been really interesting.

 

Where does this put Eli in the current QB rankings? At the least, I've moved him above Big Ben. Of course, I think we're splitting hairs with these guys.

 

Brady, Rogers, Manning, Roethlisberger, Brees - All of these guys can carry their teams and get it done in the clutch. Can't go wrong with any of them and they're fun to watch.

Just saw on twitter that Gisele's comments were secretly recorded by someone who was waiting on the elevator with her.

 

They were not on the elevator when she said them. She was waiting for it with a lot of microphones around her.

If it hits your hands......then you should catch it. It wasn't the greatest throw but Welker got both hands on the ball. Big players step up to make big plays in big games. Manningham's reception was tougher than Welker's and he isn't nearly as good as WR as Welker but Manningham stepped up and made a play. Welker had to make that catch. It hit his hands.

 

Was Manningham's catch tougher? It hit him in the hands in stride. Getting his feet down was the tough part of that catch. As far as catching the ball, I think Welker's was tougher.

 

I agree not a good pass VOR, but I think it was a catchable ball. He was SO open.

 

And that is why it was a bad throw. Welker was so open there was plenty of room to get it to him on target.

 

Any more the back shoulder catch is pretty routine. Welker should have caught it. For one, I'm glad he didn't.

 

But it wasn't just a back shoulder throw. The ball was thrown so far to his back shoulder that Welker had to make a hard stop, turn 180 degrees, jump as he was turning, reach as high as he could and then try to bring it in. Yes, the ball hit him in the hands after he was athletic enough to get his hands on it. Yes, it was catchable. But it wasn't a back shoulder throw. It was a bad pass.

 

I think Brady taking the safety and under throwing Gronk for the INT were bigger blunders by him than the throw. There was a safety on the inside of the throw to Welker so he threw it to his back shoulder. If anything the throw was a tad high. My guess is Welker in a private moment would admit all the blame lies on him for that play. It really is a routine catch for NFL receivers now. Perfect throw? No. Very, very catch-able ball? No doubt.

 

That is not a routine catch. It was not a back shoulder throw. It was a bad pass. It was so high that it took all the athleticism Welker has to get his hands on the ball. And because he is such a great athlete that he was able to get his hands on the ball, now he gets blamed because he wasn't able to pull it in. The Hernandez pass was a drop. The Welker pass was a bad throw.

 

I agree that the safety and the Gronk underthrown pass were bigger blunders, especially the safety.

Was Manningham's catch tougher? It hit him in the hands in stride. Getting his feet down was the tough part of that catch. As far as catching the ball, I think Welker's was tougher.

 

Except that Manningham had a corner grabbing his shoulder and Chung popping him when he caught, plus hit the ground hard maintaining the catch with one hand. Guess I disagree.

Was Manningham's catch tougher? It hit him in the hands in stride. Getting his feet down was the tough part of that catch. As far as catching the ball, I think Welker's was tougher.

 

 

 

And that is why it was a bad throw. Welker was so open there was plenty of room to get it to him on target.

 

 

 

But it wasn't just a back shoulder throw. The ball was thrown so far to his back shoulder that Welker had to make a hard stop, turn 180 degrees, jump as he was turning, reach as high as he could and then try to bring it in. Yes, the ball hit him in the hands after he was athletic enough to get his hands on it. Yes, it was catchable. But it wasn't a back shoulder throw. It was a bad pass.

 

 

 

That is not a routine catch. It was not a back shoulder throw. It was a bad pass. It was so high that it took all the athleticism Welker has to get his hands on the ball. And because he is such a great athlete that he was able to get his hands on the ball, now he gets blamed because he wasn't able to pull it in. The Hernandez pass was a drop. The Welker pass was a bad throw.

 

I agree that the safety and the Gronk underthrown pass were bigger blunders, especially the safety.

 

You're going to really struggle to find anyone who agrees with you on the Welker play. If he doesn't throw it to the back shoulder, it's either picked by the safety or they're still scraping Welker's body off the field at Lucas Oil. Fact is Brady put the ball exactly where he needed to place it, and Welker dropped it. Was it an easy catch? Absolutely not, but it's one that a guy like Welker makes 99 out of 100 times.

You're going to really struggle to find anyone who agrees with you on the Welker play. If he doesn't throw it to the back shoulder, it's either picked by the safety or their still scraping Welker's body off the field at Lucas Oil. Fact is Brady put the ball exactly where he needed to place it, and Welker dropped it. Was it an easy catch? Absolutely not, but it's one that a guy like Welker makes 99 out of 100 times.

:thumb: I think Welker would be the first to tell you that. Sadly that 1% came at that moment.

Pretty sure it was Nicks who went out and he was forced out while gettig a first down, which at the time was more important than keeping the clock running since the next play would have been 3rd down and the Pats had 2 timeouts.

 

As for the touchdown, give me a 4 point lead over a 1 point lead with about 20 seconds left any day. Tony Romo made the giants defense look stupid once a year or so ago and drive down the field in about 20 seconds for a game winnin FG. Rodgers did the same thing earlier this season. At least up 4 Brady HAS to score a TD...

 

Not sure who the receiver was, but NE did a good job of forcing him out. He got the first down by 3 yards or so I thought. I'm more mad b/c I would have had a pretty good pay day on a block jackpot if it fell on 18-17. If the receiver went down in bounds they would have probably won 18-17

You're going to really struggle to find anyone who agrees with you on the Welker play. If he doesn't throw it to the back shoulder, it's either picked by the safety or they're still scraping Welker's body off the field at Lucas Oil. Fact is Brady put the ball exactly where he needed to place it, and Welker dropped it. Was it an easy catch? Absolutely not, but it's one that a guy like Welker makes 99 out of 100 times.

 

Back shoulder is one thing. Underthrown to where the receiver needs to do a leaping 180, full extension to get his hands on the ball is another. I watched the play several times today and if Brady throws the ball to Welker or leads him a little instead of high and behind him, it may go for a TD. If the ball is thrown better, the safety would be lucky to make the tackle, let alone deliver a big hit.

Back shoulder is one thing. Underthrown to where the receiver needs to do a leaping 180, full extension to get his hands on the ball is another. I watched the play several times today and if Brady throws the ball to Welker or leads him a little instead of high and behind him, it may go for a TD. If the ball is thrown better, the safety would be lucky to make the tackle, let alone deliver a big hit.

 

You couldn't be more wrong on the bolded.

You're going to really struggle to find anyone who agrees with you on the Welker play. If he doesn't throw it to the back shoulder, it's either picked by the safety or they're still scraping Welker's body off the field at Lucas Oil. Fact is Brady put the ball exactly where he needed to place it, and Welker dropped it. Was it an easy catch? Absolutely not, but it's one that a guy like Welker makes 99 out of 100 times.

 

I agree that Brady made a good throw. Welker dropped a pass...big deal. It's not the play that lost the game for the Patriots because I believe they had one more down after that. Was it big? Yes...but there were a lot of big plays.

I agree that Brady made a good throw. Welker dropped a pass...big deal. It's not the play that lost the game for the Patriots because I believe they had one more down after that. Was it big? Yes...but there were a lot of big plays.

 

Agreed.

BTW, here are Eli's numbers from his last 6 games. All of which were pretty much elimination games for the Giants:

 

1790 Yards passing (298 per game)

13 Touchdowns

2 Interceptions

Coughlin and Flavor Flav hug. :lol:

 

Not a Giants fan, but if there's one guy I'm happy for it is Tom Coughlin. I like the guy, think he's a great coach and I'm always amazed that he's on the chopping block every time the Giants lose back-to-back games.

 

He'll probably get a pass next year, but as soon as they lose two in a row in 2013, there will be talk about Bill Cowher or Jon Gruden.