Last night I couldn't fall asleep for about a half hour because I kept envisioning alternate endings to that final OT drive (a 6 yard pass, say, to Lee, then, a 5 yard slant pass to Jennings for the first first down, followed by a 15? 20? yard pass to Jones along the right sideline, or no, maybe, finally, a 15 yard cutback run by Grant, followed by a screen pass, just to keep the momentu--). I was still blaming Favre, exclusively. Why couldn't he have just told himself before this drive to play it safe? To Remember Hasselback? To Remember Philly? Why couldn't he have just not thrown that pass? I mean, when will our guy ever learn? Fuucking FAAAAAVRE!!! And then I mentally pounded a sofa and mentally went out to have a cigarette.
But this morning, the other part of me--the calmer, more brain-related part--has been thinking back over that entire game. Taking the long view and all. And you know what? We didn't really deserve to win that game. The Giants had 380 yards to our 264, which, minus that one big play, adds to up chump change. Plaxico was unstoppable. Manning was great. We went 1 for 10 on third downs--1 for 10! What highlights were there offensively, really, besides that 90 yard orgasm? What happened to our vaunted running attack? Why couldn't we even muster a first down on the two possessions before my Lawrence Tynes voodoo doll finally kicked in? The Giants D was a force, but there should have been some way to deal with it better. And we just didn't. Our offense flat out failed the entire fourth quarter, got lucky twice, and then failed again.
Losing hurts your heart a little. This was maybe Favre's last chance to be the Platonic Favre everyone wishes he could be, and he just didn't have it when it counted. Again. We poured so much love and hope into this team, but let's face it, most of that love and hope went into this one guy. So when that guy disappoints you, again, and offers up more evidence that he's not quite in the same league as Montana or Elway or Brady or Aikman, at least when it comes to rising to the occasion and winning the big game, you just don't want to believe it. You want to rub your eyes and have another do-over. And, hey, maybe this is still possible, maybe he'll come back, but if I were Favre, I'd wonder at this point if I could really handle another great season only to have it fizzle out like this again, because I just couldn't finish. I don't know. Maybe Aaron Rodgers should be our 4th quarter playoff quarterback next year, if he's not the full-time guy. Sort of like a relief pitcher. I think I'd take my chances.
Anyway. We lost a rough one. The season's over. But, probably like you, I enjoyed this particular one more than maybe any season before, maybe even more than the Golden Years. We were supposed to be 9-7 and get creamed in our first wild-card game. We weren't supposed to even be here. Also good this year? In Dallas we got a peek at a future beyond Favre and it (Rodgers) looked pretty good. 13-3 and the youngest team in the league? If we weren't us, we'd be jealous.
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