Super Rematch In The Circle City

On February 3rd, 2008, the New England Patriots met the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona.  The two teams played at University of Phoenix Stadium in what I’ve ranked as one of the top three best football games ever played in that dome, the other two being the Chicago Bears’ rally to beat the Arizona Cardinals in 2006, and the 2007 Fiesta Bowl between the Oklahoma University Sooners and Boise State Broncos.

In that season, the Patriots entered the Super Bowl as the first team to go 16-0 in the regular season, and were looking to become the first team to go 19-0 over the entire season with a win in the Superbowl.  The Giants were able to ruin New England’s plans with help from an exhilarating third and long play late in the fourth quarter that had Eli Manning spinning out of the grasp of multiple Patriot defenders and heaving a pass downfield that was caught by (now former Giant) David Tyree.  That play in turn set up the game winning touchdown pass from Manning to Plaxico Burress with 39 seconds left, leaving the Patriots’ hopes of a perfect season dashed.

Four years later, the same teams will meet again in Indianapolis in America’s biggest game, and while a lot of changes have been made to the squads, the core players from 2008 remain, and most importantly, the quarterbacks are the same.

NFL Review: Flipping the Script (For Now)

So far through this season, we’ve seen a minor shift.  We’ve seen a shift to the rookie quarterbacks taking the helm (Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, and Christian Ponder surely soon to follow), we’ve seen the Colts fall to the back due to Manning’s injury, and we’ve seen the… Buffalo Bills rise to the top?  We’re talking about a team that went 4-12 last season!  We’re talking about a team that had the 25^th ranked offense and 24^thranked defense in the league last season!  But this year, we’re talking about a team that leads the league in points scored (37.7 ppg) and is 3^rd in total yards (431.0 ypg).