Flawed vision

My big game 46 premises generally were correct, but my conclusion was pretty far off. It wasn't Patriots and over (41-31 was my prediction), but of course Giants and under.
I surmised that the game would come down to a big stop or a turnover leading to a score. That wasn't really the case, unless you consider that New England couldn't come up with a stop on the Giants' final, game-winning possession.
In the fourth quarter, it wasn't so much that New York stopped the Pats, but that they stopped themselves. In part, Gisele was correct. The Pats' receivers let them down. It seemed as if they dropped as many passes in the fourth quarter as they had all season. However, it wasn't all on the receivers -- Wes Welker, Aaron Hernandez and Deon Branch could share the blame with Mr. Bundchen himself. Sure, they were dropping passes, but that might not have been used to having to reach for passes from Tom Brady.
The difference between an elite passer and the next couple of tiers down is that the elite guy can put the ball exactly where he wants it, to arrive precisely over the correct shoulder, away from defenders and into the receiver's hands. Kind of like the ball Eli Manning threw to Mario Manningham to launch the winning drive. In fact, Brady's passes weren't that accurate in either of the last two playoff games. One reason I expected the Patriots would win was that Brady wouldn't have two games in a row below his lofty standards. For three quarters, he didn't.
Which reminded me of the one nugget of precious information that I heard among the pile of manure that spewed out over the airwaves during the previous 2 weeks. I don't remember who said it, but the comment was that even if the pass rush isn't sacking the quarterback, its repeated pressure could cause the QB to crack late in the game when he was tired. That scenario seemed to fit Brady's situation.
He still passed for 276 yards and two TDs, with a costly interception, so he pretty much fit in with my key performers. If the fourth-quarter passes/catches had connected, Brady would have been over 300 yards and possibly with a third TD. Eli Manning was the game MVP with his 296 yards, a TD and no picks. It did take the QBs at least 40 passes each to reach that yardage, and they didn't move their teams well enough to come close to my 72-point prediction or even the 53-ish over/under. The QBs' fantasy points were 17 for Brady, 15 for Manning.
I didn't pick any running backs to shine. Ahmad Bradshaw did get up to 13 fantasy points by leaning back into the end zone on his final carry, but passing was the name of both offensive games.
Look at how the top receivers matched my three predicted top-performing pass-catchers. Hernandez for the Patriots. 8 catches, 67 yards, a TD, 12 points. Check. Hakeem Nicks for the Giants. 10 catches, 109 yards, 10 points. Check. Manningham. 5 catches, 73 yards, 7 points. Pretty much check. I didn't expect a big game from Victor Cruz, but his TD catch combined with 4 catches for 25 yards gave him 8 points.
My last point: The two substandard games by Brady to finish the season could portend a decrease in production going forward to next season, and the beginning of a career decline. That will give us something to watch for in September. In April, watch to see if New England drafts a quarterback.

Super vision

I probably will watch at least some of big game 46.
It's on TV, and not much else is.
Can't get very excited about it, especially with my one fantasy football team that runs through the NFL playoffs, in the Andy Memorial Football League, was relegated early to the WhoCares.com Toilet Bowl this season.
That had something to do with having Chris Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald as my two keepers in a scoring-only league. I thought about dropping both of them, but it became easier in a league with very few top choices still available and with the thought that I'd have to draft just 14 players instead of 16, just to hang on to them.
I really didn't want to buy into the Kevin Kolb hype, but I did. And I didn't foresee the playing-for-a-contract aspect of Chris Johnson's 2010 season. Chris Johnson? Who's that? He's dead to me.
He'll go down with a first-round Randy Moss back in the '05 Rochester Championship of Fantasy Football as my worst picks ever. If you have the stomach, check out Moss' stats for that year. He more than negated one of my most brilliant picks ever, Willie Parker in the 15th round.
Anyway, everybody who is in any kind of postseason fantasy league no doubt already has made his/her picks. Just for the record, here are my thoughts.
The game will go over. The offenses are just too good, and the defenses aside from a few shiny players are pretty porous.
I also like the Patriots, for the two usual reasons: Tom Brady, Bill Belichick. New England's coach rarely fails when he has an extra week to prepare, and I don't expect anyone to catch a pass with his helmet this time.
For key individual performers, I give you Brady and, because Rob Gronkowski is a question mark (but one who still will step up bigger than most TES), Aaron Hernandez from the Pats. Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham are just too good not to have big games if New England focuses on shutting down Victor Cruz. Eli Manning should have a good game.
The key of course, will be which team will get a big, key stop or a turnover leading to a score. Possibly both. I think that team will be New England, something like 41-31.