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| Another beastly performance sadly fell short |
As of now it is 10:36pm, The Giants just beat the 49ers and went to the SuperBowl. I am choosing to write this now versus breaking everything in sight or going for a run in the frigid cold (seriously, that is how mad I am right now and this might be a better way to deal with this then the others). If you are expecting an objective, insightful, or thought provoking analysis of the game then you might as well stop reading this right now. In fact, I cant even promise that this will be well written. My goal at this point is to type this out as fast as possible and go to sleep, hopefully avoiding nightmares about Kyle Williams. Look, I am not an NFL player, I have no idea how hard it is to be a return man, but I'm pretty sure that even I could call a fair catch and then just stay the fuck away from the ball! The worst part? Williams did not fuck up once, he did it twice! The first screw-up allowed the Giants to take a precious 17-14 lead, in a game where Manning struggled to move the ball even 3 yards and was getting punished by a ruthless San Francisco pass-rush. So naturally, Williams gave the ball to the Giants at the 30, and I don't care how good your defense is the fact remains, if you give a great QB any sort of advantage he will use it. Eli did and instead of shutting them down and going to the Superbowl in regulation, the Niners had to settle for overtime.
Yes I said settle, I don't care if you are the biggest Giants fan in the world, you can not look anyone in the eyes and claim that this win was deserved (or at least lost by the 49ers NOT won by the Giants). In overtime it became pretty clear that the defenses were having none of it and that it was literally a battle of wills. It was mesmerizing to watch, in a season full of offensive records, here were two old-school teams just beating the shit out of each other (all within the rules of the game) and refusing to lose. Sadly, the team that lost also happened to be the one that beat itself. I really am struggling to come up with a plausible explanation as to how the 49ers dropped two brutal throws by Manning by basically defending themselves from making the catch. Hell, it even led to one player being basically knocked out (Brown). I sure as hell would love to find a quicker instance of a 'forward progress stopped' rule that negated a forced and recovered fumble by San Francisco that would have won them the game. I kind of want to know why Frank Gore (who torched the Giants) started getting the ball less and less, and on 2nd and 10 instead of 1st and 10. But lastly, I don't even want to know what Kyle Williams was thinking when he lost the game, or how every single one of his teammates (including Lee, who had the best possible game a punter could) can even look that man in the eye anymore. Nothing was more telling then when poor Williams was pacing the sideline and everyone was avoiding him trying not to look at him.
But! and this is a huge BUT! I know that Williams did not lose the game on purpose and that he tried his absolute best, just like all of his teammates did tonight, so I am going to be the first guy to forgive him. What I said on Twitter and what I said above are literally 'heat of the moment' reactions. Kyle Williams was part of a team that gave us, the 49er fans a really nice post-season run, and several very exciting wins this year. Scapegoating people and athletes (especially when NO ONE feels worse about it then them) is wrong, so you can be mad at the guy or you can just accept the fact that the law of averages (San Francisco rarely turned the ball over this year) caught up to San Francisco, and just because it happened at the worst possible time, does not mean that Williams should shoulder this incredible burden by himself. So Kyle, I am with you. Congrats to Eli and the Giants, as much as I dislike him, and still think the helmet catch was one of the luckiest plays in the history of the world, not even I am blind enough to sit here and not dish out praise when someone earns it. Eli is incredibly tough, he did not get rattled one bit by the Niners defense which treated him like a chew toy, he might be the best player in football at buying time in the pocket and he did absolutely everything to will his team to a victory (him, Tuck, Osi, Pierre-paul) so props Eli, see you next year where hopefully we will celebrate instead of you. Believe me, as a fan of the 49ers this one hurts like hell, but as a fan of football I cant wait to watch the Superbowl, I sure as hell know who I'm going to be cheering for (hint: not the Giants). Ill end of by thanking the entire 49ers team for an incredible season and hoping they bring it all back and try again next year.
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