Friday 17 February 2012

Superbowl XLVI

Firstly I would like to offer my apologies for the late posting. I have been working some crazy shifts at work these last two weeks and not had the time to write.

Superbowl Sunday, like most of you out there this is one of the highlights of my year. It normally involves a big sleep in, lots of mouching waiting for the big game. This last Superbowl was a little different however as Mickey 'Big Dog' Hogg had been lucky enough to get us tickets to the Superbash!

Mickey 'Big Dog' Hogg





















For those outside the UK this is the big event held in London organised by sky sports and nfluk.com. I'm sure I've mentioned it before but it is definitely the place to be if you can't get to the big game itself. This years party was hosted by @NatCoombs and @arlowhite and we were joined by the Da Bears Drumming band, Rams cheerleaders, Ndamakong Suh and a band by the name of Soul Symphony.
















Oh and I nearly forgot to mention there was free beer, food and soft drinks all night as well :) The night started off well with a performance from the drumming band and was followed by the hot Rams cheerleaders. After this the fun began where 5 lucky people got to show off their TD celebration skills.


















A couple to note were the Joe Horn fusion and the dirty mac guy's swan dive with happy ending lol I feel that's enough about the Superbash for now.

Let's move raging on to the game itself now and what better place to start than the first quarter. Although the Giants offence started off slow in this one, the defence wasted little time in getting pressure on Brady.

On his first play from scrimmage Brady is forced to run about in the end zone before throwing a deep incomplete pass. This was swiftly followed by a flag and a safety to the Giants as Brady was in the tackle box when he threw it away.

The atmosphere at the Superbash just kept growing from there and it seemed the Giants fans outweighed the Pats by at least 2 to 1. Uncharacteristically the mistakes kept coming for the Pats as on the following drive from the safety punt, the Giants fumbled a completed pass into a defenders arms only for it to be called back by a 12 men on the field penalty. The Giants meanwhile ceased their opportunity and quickly fired into the endzone to Victor Cruz going up 9-0.



















New England were able to muster up a field goal and that was the scoring done for most of the rest of the first half. With a few minutes remaining in the half, Brady did what he does best and marched the Pats the length of the field before scoring a TD with 18 seconds left on the clock.

Somehow after what was a dire first half for them the Patriots went in to halftime with a 10-9 lead! I will be honest I didn’t catch most of the halftime show as we were on the hunt for food and cheerleaders :)


















With the score as close as it was I knew we were in for a tense and emotional second half and it would be a case of which team could hold there nerve at the end. I couldn’t believe my eyes with what happened on the first play from scrimmage in the second half.

Ochocinco decided to turn up and caught a lovely 20YD pass from Brady. It ended up being his only play of the game but at least he was on the stat sheet! This was followed up be a big run from Green-Ellis and a tidy catch and run by Hernandez taking it in for the score. The Patriots had now scored 17 unanswered points and at this point the mood had changed for the sour with Giants fans starting to fill their pants lol.

On their next drive the Giants started making some progress into the redzone until a big hit on Hakeem Nicks forced them to settle for a field goal. BRADY SACKED are two words you don't hear very often but Justin Tuck managed to sneak through the line and get Brady to the ground forcing the Pats to punt away with time running down in the third quarter.
















Despite how the half started things were slowly starting to come the Giants way as on their next possession Nicks fumbled after a big completion only for a Giant to fall on the ball. Although the game was slowly going their way they had to settle for a field goal after Manning was sacked making the score 17-15 going into the fourth and final quarter. This is otherwise known by the fans as squeaky bum time.

The fourth quarter starts with a big turnover from Brady as he tries to find the Gronk deep down field only to be picked off by Chase Blackburn. This is where the commentators really got onto the fact the Gronk was nowhere near fit and personally with the little time he got I don't think should have been playing! Bradshaw fumbles the next play but again the football God's are smiling on the Giants as they recover it again.

Manning showed his class by making a couple of key third down conversions but finally the drive stalls after they have taken several minutes of the clock. Brady then returns the favour moving the ball most of the field eating up lots of clock but failing to score thanks to a huge drop from Welker.

Que the Manning magic, 4 minutes left of the game and the length of field to go, 1st and 10 and Manningham makes the most amazing catch, remember this beauty:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkP8qeJZzDE

Manning manages to drive the Giants to the 3YD line with just a minute to go and then the Patriots decide to just let Bradshaw through, he tries to stop but falls backwards into the endzone. A good gamble to take when you have Brady but even this one turned out to be too much with a few dropped passes and last second unsuccessful hail mary the Giants are champions again.
























This was an amazing game and I don’t think I have done it justice to be honest, I recommend checking out the highlights on nfl.com. I hope you have all enjoyed my take on this seasons action and myself and EJ will be bringing you our season review at some point in the next week. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know you favourite moments from this season or even something you want to see in next years edition. Anyway thanks again folks and I will leave you with some more pics / vids from the Superbash.



































'Thanks for Stopping By'