As the Patriots stumble . . .

. . . the jackals close in:

Somewhere in South America, a village is getting a shipment of "19-0" T-shirts. Giants upset Patriots 17-14 to win Super Bowl

impaler: Brady really played like the 6th round draft that he is.

Mediocre-Photoshops-Incorporated:

rally_monkey_must_die: Cheaters never win.

rfronk: Bill leaving the field before the game was over was the best thing I've seen all day.

Electriclectic: Underdogs everywhere rejoice at this one. I don't even like pro ball, and this was a great game.

RomeoJr: Dogs and cats I tell you. Best time I ever had cheering for NY.

/Only time I ever cheered for NY.

yvmnoc: And across America, the sound of a million wives getting backhanded rings out...

inconnu: On one hand, I am happy the underdogs won. But seeing the old Dolphins geezers crow about it and drink champagne, while their team went like 1-16 this year, is going to kill me.

I was cheering for the Giants, but I didn't really expect them to win. And since when is it the default for the winning QB to get the MVP award? Eli didn't lose this game, but he certainly wasn't the most valuable player out there: the Giants' defensive line deserved the award more than anyone else, and the Patriots' Wes Welker was also more valuable than either QB (although on the losing side, I admit).

It's perhaps unkind to link back to some comments from earlier in the season at Brett Singer's Mostly Giants blog:

- Fred Robbins with another sack. The pass rush is good, especially against sub-par teams.

- Wow, Jackson just took off for a 19-yard run there. The entire Giant D was nowhere to be found.

- This supposedly spectacular Giant defense is showing that they aren't really all that good. I mean, they're good, but they aren't a legendary shut-down group. As if to prove it, Strahan allows Tavaris Jackson to get away and run for another first down.

[. . .]

- So what do you do? Do you bench Eli? Of course not. Do you fire Coughlin? You should but they won't. They seem to like him. Here's an idea: start penalizing teams financially for losing. Is that why the owner's never seem to care that much? I mean, of course they care. But it never seems like they care as much as they could. Or should.

Amazing how you can call for benching the QB and firing the coach in week 12, and then be cheering them as Superbowl champions just a few months later, isn't it?

Update, 4 February: The five stages of Patriots grief.

Update, 5 February: Gregg Easterbrook sings the praises for the Giants' defensive front:

Television cameras focus on the quarterback and running backs, but 90 percent of football action occurs away from the ball. Tuesday Morning Quarterback has long contended that line play is a bigger determinant of football victory than "skill player" performance, and never was this on better display than in Super Bowl XLII. Jersey/A's front seven simply ate the lunch of the league's best offensive line. Michael Strahan, Fred Robbins, Barry Cofield, Osi Umenyiora, Reggie Torbor, Antonio Pierce and Kawika Mitchell as starters, Justin Tuck and Jay Alford off the bench — this group turned in one of the top performances in sports history. The Giants' defensive front recorded five sacks of Tom Brady, who had been sacked only 21 times during the regular season. Giants defenders also knocked Brady down hard five times — Brady went through entire games in the regular season without getting his jersey dirty — and forced him into several inaccurate throws when receivers were open, while holding New England to an anemic 45 yards rushing. In successive postseason contests, the Giants' front seven ate the lunch of the league's third-best offensive line (Dallas), then the second-best (Green Bay), and finally, in the Super Bowl, the best. What a performance! The Giants' front seven should, as a group, have been named MVP.