A response to a friend:
It is commonly accepted that a running game is necessary in bad weather, and I respectfully disagree unless the weather is what it was in the second Packer-bear game, which made passing almost impossible. The Giant game was not this situation, and a high-percentage passing game can work in the cold. You said the Giants concentrated on stopping Grant and the short passes. Had they done this, it would have left longer passes wide open. I don’t believe they tried to stop the short passes at all. Favre completed the first two to wide-open receivers, and then they rarely tried them again with the exception of the sideways passes that were not the 7-10 yards downfield I am talking about. If you believe the Giants were playing defense to take away slants (which I’m not sure is possible), then all a receiver has to do is slant 3 yards, Favre pumps, and then he slants the other way and would be wide open. I firmly believe you can’t stop a short/medium passing game, and it was the fact that the Packers didn’t try it that hurt them. It was not that the Giants stopped them.
We agree there was a “feel” during the game that the Giants could win. As I told you, 5 minutes into the game I said that if the Packers stayed in press coverage and didn’t throw the short and medium passes, they were in trouble. This is what gave the Giants confidence, prolonged drives, etc. That’s why I keep referring to the Miami-bear game. Gameplans make all the difference. The Packers’ gameplans might have been fine to start the game, but should have been changed midway through the first quarter. Had they been changed, the Packers would almost assuredly have won easily. Favre looked bad not because of the weather, but because of the gameplan that was not going to be successful. How good did he look in the opener against Philly when they were running all game? Their offense went nowhere, and he didn’t look very good. It’s not his fault that the gameplan was designed to make him look bad, and I said this early in the game. The Giants defense shut down a horrible gameplan, and would have been dominated by a good one. Al Harris, despite what everyone says, was not dominated by Burress. It is physically impossible for a human being, including Deion Sanders, to cover anyone when they are in press coverage and the other team runs the patterns Burress ran. The fact that Harris was so close to him on most passes was incredible. Again, I’ve said every Packer game for 3 years that eventually a team would figure out that they could easily attack press coverage. The key is to play it until the other team figures this out, and then back off of it. If you don’t, you’re in trouble and the other team has a huge advantage.
The reason the Giants dominated was strictly because of the Packer gameplans, not because of the Giants’ play. Yes, the Giants had good gameplans against the Packer defense, but all they had to do was back off the corners 2 yards, and the Giants are shut down. Burress has a bad ankle and wasn’t going to beat anyone deep. Defensively, you can give the Giants credit for stopping the run, but if the Packers throw smartly, they score a lot.
You can say that Favre made a living this year with his receivers getting yards after the catch, but that’s what the short and medium passing game with slants will do. That’s what it’s designed to do. You have a hard time believing McCarthy left this out of the gameplan? Did you have a hard time believing he could switch to the running game in the second half of the first Packer-bear game, or stay in the press coverage when it was being beaten time and again? Even the national press, which came down hard on him after the first bear game and called him a coward, talked about the stupidity of staying in the press coverage. This is something I caught early in the game, but he didn’t, so why does it surprise you that after the first two short passes work, he starts running and throwing long?
The Giants might be better than appeared at first glance, but they weren’t better than a very hot Packer team that had scored TDs on 9 of 11 possessions and have better talent. With a bad gameplan, Miami loses to the bears by 30; with a good gameplan, despite probably being double-digit underdogs, they easily beat the bears 31-13. Same here. The Packers’ gameplan made themselves look bad and the Giants good. I’ve watched enough games to understand this 5 minutes into the game. I won’t argue with you that the way the game went, the Giants dominated. I’m just explaining why, and how the Packers could have dominated with a common-sense gameplan. Had the Packers changed to the gameplans I told you they should have had, the Giants would not have been able to be successful.
Favre’s body language didn’t look bad because of the weather, that’s how he looks in games when they have bad gameplans. After the 2002 season when he was so frustrated with the offensive coordinator, people were also saying he looked sluggish, etc. The weather in the Giant game had nothing to do with how he looked–it was the gameplan that makes him and the offense look bad.
We also disagree on the 49ers, Cowboys, and Broncos. So, because they won on the field, cheating to keep their good players which allowed them to win is okay? That makes no sense. If they didn’t skirt the salary cap, they would have lost some of those players and might not have won. I’m sick of the after-the-fact slap on the wrists these teams get. And, yes, if the Patriots videotaped a lot as they are now accused of, again, this could have been an advantage. Why do people say steroid-taking homerun hitters should lose their records, but not teams that cheat to keep good players? Sosa and McGwire hit their homeruns on the field the same way the 49ers, Cowboys, and Broncos won on the field. Sports today is ridiculous. Players cheat, coaches cheat, and managements cheat. And all anybody ever gets is a slap on the wrist.
You don’t think the Packers with Moss would be a better offense than the Patriots with Moss? The Patriots offense was the reason they lost last year. Brady’s previous high for TD passes was 28, and Favre had 8 seasons of 30 or more. This would have been the 9th, but the two TD passes stolen from him in the Redskin game kept him at 28. Moss opened up the entire Patriot offense. Once teams started triple-teaming him, then the Patriots could run. All summer, I predicted the 50-60 TD passes with Moss, the QB winning the MVP, and the single-season scoring record. I guarantee you with Moss, Driver, and Jennings, the Packers would have had a better offense than the Patriots and would have equaled or exceeded everything the Patriots did.
All summer I read and heard that the Moss deal was likely to happen, that Moss said he wanted to go to Green Bay, and I believe I read he had even told that to Favre. Moss says he hung up the phone, but everything I’ve read is that the Packers had the deal on the table, and walked away. If Packer management did do things to frustrate him, it just shows how stupid they were in this case. You can get the best or second-best receiver ever for a 4th-round pick and $3 million, and he would make their offense unstoppable, and you don’t do it? After the second game of the season, Packer GM Ted Thompson came out publicly and said he made a mistake. This seems to confirm everything I read all summer that said the Packers had the deal for the taking. Thompson didn’t say Moss didn’t want to play for Green Bay, he said he made the mistake by not agreeing to the deal. When the Packers did turn the deal down, Favre was very upset and went public with it. I read he even stopped talking to Thompson. Again, this wouldn’t make sense if Moss had said he wouldn’t play for them. However, even if Moss is right in what he says, it’s still Packer management blowing this deal that would have resulted in an undefeated season, 50+ TD passes and another MVP for Favre, an NFL single-season record for points scored, and Favre’s 9th Super Bowl win. I predicted all this during the summer if they signed Moss, and the Patriots did all these things. The Packers with Moss are a better offense than the Patriots with Moss.