Once again, it was the Giants over the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Once again, it was Eli Manning leading a last-minute go-ahead score to win the game. Once again, the Patriots couldn't make a play when they needed it most. The better and more complete team won the Super Bowl. It's amazing to think that the Giants made a Super Bowl run after what we Redskins fans saw in mid-December.

A few more thoughts.

1. 12-men on the field. The Pats got caught with 12-men on the field on a crucial early third down. A forced fumble and huge turnover was negated by a penalty that was very un-Belichick like.

2. 3rd and 1 holding on the Giants. If not for that penalty, the Giants may have been in control of the game at halftime. Up 9-3 and driving again into scoring range, Brandon Jacobs' first down run on 3rd and 1 was called back because of holding. The Pats got the next 3rd down stop then got the ball back and drove it 96 yards for a touchdown that ended the first half. Instead of being down two scores at the break, the Pats were up 10-9.

3. New England had two good drives. Last drive of the first half, first drive of the 2nd half. Other than that, Brady and company made too many mistakes.

4. New England's costly 4th quarter mistakes. Brady's pick when they were on the move early in the 4th was a throw similar to the one he threw midway threw the 4th against Baltimore. It ruined good momentum and great field position. The 3rd and 7 offsides against Ninkovich cost the Pats a chance to get the Giants off the field early in the 4th and gain good field position. Welker's drop with 4 minutes left was a killer. The Pats could've run more clock and at the very least kicked a field goal to extend their lead to 5 with little time left.

5. Manningham catch. Another potential iconic Giant catch in the 4th quarter of a Super Bowl. Tyree and Manningham.

6. Giants didn't have one third down on final drive. The Pats needed a stop but couldn't even get close to a pressure-packed third down play.

7. Let em score! Belichick played it the right way. The choice was simple. Get the ball back with :57 seconds left with one timeout but in need of a touchdown versus getting the ball back with roughly 20 seconds left and no timeouts in need of a field goal. His only mistake was probably deciding on that strategy a play too late. If he had done it one play earlier, they would've gotten the ball back with over a minute left and two timeouts.

8. Another no-bye Super Bowl winner. The Giants' win means five of the last seven Super Bowl winners have come from the wildcard weekend. The average seed of the last 7 Super Bowl winners is a 4-seed.

9. Eli is elite. No more questioning Eli Manning's NFL QB-status.

10. Coughlan is nearing Hall of Fame territory. He may not be there quite yet but he's damn close. He's won two Super Bowls in New York to go with two AFC Championship game appearances in Jacksonville. He's won more road playoff games than any coach in NFL history and he's only got one losing season in his 8 years in New York.

11. The Giants won't be NFC favorites next year. Look for Green Bay and New Orleans to top the list of NFC favorites next season. The Giants will likely be the conference's thrid choice.

12. Commericals and Madonna disappoint. The tv ads and halftime show were forgettable. Just bring back U2 and let them do it every year. 

Super Sunday is only super if your team is in it. My team isn't. It's been twenty years since my last Super Sunday. Only two NFC fan bases, Detroit and Minnesota, have had to wait longer. Detroit doesn't really count because their fans don't know what they're missing. They've never had a Super Sunday.

The Redskins of twenty years ago put together one of the most impressive seasons in NFL history. Few teams have ever dominated the competition the way that team did. They outscored their opponents during the regular season 30-14. That's a bigger margin of victory than the '85 Bears. They lost two games by a total of five points and one of those losses was a meaningless season-closing game in Philadelphia where the starters sat. The offensive line allowed nine total sacks on the season. That's even more amazing considering they were protecting an immobile quarterback. They ran it well and threw it well. Mark Rypien is sometimes regarded as a flash-in-the-pan beneficiary of great talent around him but nobody threw a better deep ball than Ryp and he was as coach Joe always said, "super smart". That '91 Super Bowl team never seems to get enough recognition as perhaps the greatest Super Bowl winner of all-time.

So today is actually more depressing than uplifting. Not just because my team isn't in it but because it marks the end of the season. No more football until August. No more of the weekend routine that provides so much stability. Football season is the best. Count me in for the 18-week regular season.

Pats/Giants Prediction:

I really liked the Giants two weeks ago but I've come around to the Pats. Believe it or not, they have a lot to prove. Even though they are favored, they feel like the underdog. Many believe the Giants are the better team. Many are saying the Pats are lucky to be here. Many are reminding that the Pats haven't won a Super Bowl since Spygate. Many are questioning whether Brady can have a big game in a big spot because it's been so long. All of this along with the added inspiration of Myra Kraft's memory has me believing that Brady, Belichick, and all of Patriot Nation are chomping at the bit.

The key to this game is Brady and the New England offense's ability to keep up. The Giants are going to score against that Patriot defense. I don't see Belichick coming up with a shut-down plan. Brady is going to have to keep pace and I think he will. Gronkowski's health is huge but even without him at full strength, Hernandez, Welker, and others will step up.

Final score....

Patriots 35, Giants 30. 

WHAT'S THE FRIDAY FOOTBALL SMELL TEST?

It's been a given that when you talk NFL "teams of the decade", you talk '60s Packers, '70s Steelers, '80s 49ers, '90s Cowboys, and '00s Patriots. They all deserve their labels but these three teams were damn close to being labled similarly.

1970's Cowboys:

The Cowboys of the 1970's actually went to more Super Bowls than the Steelers. From 1970 to 1978, Dallas went to five Super Bowls and won two. Of course, two of the three losses were to Pittsburgh but Dallas was dominant over the entire decade going to the playoffs every year but one. You could argue that the Cowboys of the 1970's were better than the Cowboys of the 1990's.

1970's Dolphins:

The '70s were one of the NFL's greatest decades. There were great teams and great games. One of the great teams was Miami. In fact, the Dolphins were clearly the team of the first half of the 1970's. During the period from 1970 to 1974, Miami went to three consecutive Super Bowls ('71, '72, and '73) and won two of them. In their two non-Super Bowl years, they made the playoffs. Additionally, they played in two of the most memorable NFL games of all time. On Christmas Day/1971, Miami beat Kansas City in the longest game in NFL history. In 1974, they were defeated by the Raiders in the "Sea of Hands" game in what some say was the highest-level playoff game of all time.

1980's Redskins:

If the Redskins had beaten the Raiders in Super Bowl 18, they too would have been labeled the 80's Team of the Decade. But they didn't. With that said, what a run Joe Gibbs' teams had. From 1982 to 1991, the Redskins went to four Super Bowls and won three of them. They were in the playoffs seven times in ten years and two of the seasons they missed the playoffs, they finished 10-6. Over their 10 year run, they played in as many playoff games (19) as the 49ers played in their 1981-1990 run.  

Gary Williams deserves the Comcast Court but Lefty Driesell deserves a little more than a month of free cable. Lefty is upset that the Comcast Center court was named for Gary and he came on our show Friday to talk about it. The interview can be summarized this way. Lefty is hurt because he doesn't think we remember him anymore. Not true.

Charles Grice "Lefty" Driesell is the man responsible for bringing big-time college basketball to the area. When he arrived in town back in 1969, there was no NBA and high school basketball was the most popular brand of hoops in the area. DeMatha, Archbishop Carroll, and St. Anthony's got sports section headlines while Maryland games were relegated to the back pages. Nobody cared about Maryland, Georgetown, or anybody else. Lefty changed that.

His bold "I'm going to make Maryland the UCLA of the East" got everyone's attention. His early recruiting got everyone to show up. Tom McMillan was the nation's top player. Lefty got him. Len Elmore was part of the great Power Memorial program in New York. The Lefthander got him too. John Lucas came from North Carolina and Mo Howard from Philly. Lefty put seats on the floor at Cole Field House and introduced Midnight Madness. Yes, it was Lefty who created Midnight Madness. It wasn't what it is today but Lefty knew how to market and being the first team in the country to practice by doing it at 12:01am got everyone's attention.

But more than anything else, Lefty won and did with a style that made us smile.  He didn't win a national championship and he didn't get to a Final Four but Lefty put Maryland on the map. The Terps became a top 10-15 program for 17 years under Driesell. His early and mid 1970's teams were consistently in the top 2-8 in the country. He got to two Elite 8's in eight NCAA appearances. He won an NIT when the NIT meant something. He coached a slew off all-americans and had Moses Malone stayed in school he would've coached another.  And can't you still hear him talking about Moses as if Moses actually played games at Maryland.  "Well, you know, I donna know...", god was Lefty entertaining.  In the early days, they played "Hail to the Chief" when Lefty walked onto the court.  His postgame pressers were must-listen.  His stalking of the sideline, pumping his left fist while hitching up his pants in the process was a show.  As much as he won and entertained and as many of his teams that looked national-championship caliber, he never got over the hump.  But he was close. 

His 1974 team may be the best Maryland team of all-time. Better than the 2002 national championship team? I think so. Unfortunately, only the ACC Tournament champion could go to the NCAA's. That Terp team led by McMillan, Elmore, Lucas, Howard, etc. lost to the great David Thompson's N.C. State team in the finals 103-100 in overtime in what many still believe is the greatest college basketball game ever played. That '74 team was at the very least the third-best team in the land behind the Wolfpack and UCLA but couldn't go to the tournament. That changed the next year when the NCAA created the "Maryland rule" allowing more than one team per league to dance in March.

Under Lefty, Maryland sold out Cole Field House on a regular basis. The Bullets arrived in 1973 but Maryland regularly outdrew the pro team. Maryland basketball was the biggest deal in town other than the Redskins and the success the Terps had under Lefty made others in town think it was possible. John Thompson Jr. has said many times, "without Lefty, there would've been no Georgetown". Big John left St. Anthony's for the hilltop knowing that there was an appetite for big-time college hoops. An appetite created by Lefty.

Lefty deserves something from Maryland and he's never gotten it even on the night when it made the most sense. In the final season of Cole Field House back in 2002, Driesell should've been honored. That was the right time. For some reason however, he wasn't even invited to the building's final game even though they paraded out most of his former players in a halftime ceremony. That's still a head scratcher. Maybe his invitation got lost in the mail. Maybe, like everything else for a decade after it happened, it had something to do with Len Bias' death. A tragedy for sure but one that Lefty was a part of, not the creator of. I digress. Bottom line, he needs something to honor what he built. A statue or a big banner, just something that lets him know that what he did was appreciated and won't be forgotten by future Maryland basketball fans.

Now, with all of the above said, Lefty's wrong when he says the Comcast floor shouldn't be named for Gary. While Lefty made Maryland basketball relevant, Gary made it a champion. I heard Al Galdi make a very good comparison yesterday on his Saturday morning show on ESPN 980. It went like this. Lefty is to George Allen what Gary is to Joe Gibbs. Allen made the Redskins the biggest show in town while winning everything but Super Bowls. Joe Gibbs took it too much greater heights by winning it all. Building it gets remebered and maybe a banner. Winning it all lands your name on the court. 

Often wrong but always confident is the way most of us are when we try to predict NFL games.  But is anyone confident about either game today? 

If you told me Baltimore wins in a low-scoring game...okay.  Or New England wins in a high-scoring game....I could see that.  What about Baltimore winning in a high-scoring game....sure, why not.  San Francisco winning by 3 or the Giants winning by 10...both and so many more scenarios seem possible. 

Bottom line, both of these games present so many pregame possiblities but none of them are obvious.  There's no real public bias on either game.  There's no real expert bias on either game.  Vegas says the Pats by 7 and the Niners by 2 but that's really nothing more than a reflection of recency.  The Pats rolled last week, the Ravens didn't.  The 49ers won a classic over a juggernaut Saint team, the Giants beat a 1-seed.  

No result today should surprise.  My no-confidence guesses are....Baltimore 31-29 and San Francisco 20-13.