Pats deserved the win if it the clock didn't stop to late.

I counted 19 seconds in the last minute in which time should have been stopped but kept running.

Those 19 seconds could have been the difference between victory and defeat.

Yes, they definitely did a good job of managing the time as they should have, unfortunately several things didn't quite work out. I would have to blame the difference in ability between the two teams' defenses. The fact that the Giants' defense stopped nearly every run made by the Patriots, constantly got to Brady and forced him into unwanted situations, compared to the Patriot's defense which literally let the Giants' Offense walk right up and score a touchdown, made all the difference.

And yes, Airborne, Madonna did the halftime show.

Yeah, I know and I'm surprised that out of every bloody enterainer out ther they had her. Gits.

Up with People was busy.

@KA- the Defense really LET the Giants score that touchdown, it was a strategy to get the ball back with some time to hope Brady pulled it out of his ass. unfortunately the defense did not play as well as they usually do and the offense was killed off by the superior Giants defense and an injured Gronkowski. all in all, both teams played excellent football and it was probably one of the most exciting Superbowls in recent years. unfortunately now we have an entire summer of no football :(

@KA---Cee Lo Green singing one of Prince's best pop songs and a Toni Basil homage, what more could you ask for from a Super Bowl half time show?

BTW, my office window looks out on Prince's boyhood home.

@butterhead: That's what I was trying to say. They let them score, and that cost them the game. And it was, indeed, one of the most exciting Superbowls that I have seen in the past decade.

@KA: did we watch the same game?
Brady averaged more yards per play then Eli.
Brady threw perfect passes almost every single play, and it was the lack of quality receivers that caused the drops.

And as butterhead said, that last touchdown the Pats let them score cause they didn't want to giants to kill time. Other then the first quater (which I didn't watch) the pats defense was just as good as the giants.

@Butterhead: Two wide open recievers dropping passes, thats hardly superior defense, thats called recievers who such shit.

*suck

Belichick does that remarkably often. In the last five years or so, I know that I've seen him basically call off the defense in the last 2 minutes at least three times.

@Gopher: Give me the London Symphony Orchestra and I think I could write a decent halftime show. Hell, give me a mic and Baby Grand, and I think I could work something out.
Take me back to the days when Bruce Springsteen and The Who would perform....those are the halftime shows I remember.

@fasces---try that line of whine on anyone on Earth who is a Ravens fan.

@fasces: The Patriots did indeed have poor receivers, but they had two who they relied upon the entire game. Those two were decent, but I don't think they were able to handle that burden. I'm not going to sit here and have a football argument here, of all things, so I'll just leave it at that.

The Golden Age of three years ago? I'm not a Prince fan, but I recognize that he is a genius within the pop genre. He proved in the late 80s, when he was writing for pretty much ever female vocalist on Earth, that he could almost effortlessly shake classic pop songs out of his sleeve. I believe that he wrote the top selling pop single in America three years in a row.

What I took away from the Super Bowl:

Damn, Madonna sure is hot for being 52.

That is all.

*53

"try that line of whine on anyone on Earth who is a Ravens fan."
Oh true, similar shit happened 2 weeks ago...

But still, any of those drop catches been catches OR that flag didn't waste 14 seconds of time.

@KA: And what makes it worse is one of those 2 guys was injured. He couldn't jump due to his broken ankle, but still played because his team needed him...

Again, Belichick does that all of the time too. Every star player on the Pats is "injured" and "questionable" before every major game.

It used to be a running joke about how Brady would be "questionable" before every major game back in their hey day.

@Fasces: Yes, the Golden Age of three years ago...when I started to take any form of interest in Football. Also, something that my father pointed out was that that broken ankle guy may have been able to make it to the last throw and to catch the ball right before it hit the ground. He had already begun to dive for it, if it had made it there the slightest bit earlier, the Patriots may have won the game. Not that I want to blame him or anything, it's great that some people have that level of dedication.

Also....
Who watched the Puppy Bowl?

That was me, not fasces. I still remember the ice skating halftime show from the Bills-Redskins Super Bowl.

I liked Madonna's half-time show. *shrug* She knows how to put on a show whether you like her or not, and that's pretty much the important part after having, say, whatever the hell the Black Eyed Peas were trying to do.

Sorry, gopher...

@Gopher: its not like they wanted to be injured, and you saw the game, Gronk was injured, he wasn't playing as well as usual.

And besides, he missed the Ravens game due to his injury, so don't give me the bullshit of his injury wasn't real.

@KA: That hail mary wouldn't have been needed if guys on new england knew how to catch. But in any case yeah, you have to feel bad for him, that his injury prevented him from winning the super bowl.

The real heartbreak for New England was Welker's one drop, because he never drops a ball. If he'd caught that, they'd have been in business.

which drop was that again? was that the first one or second?

+1 SD. That show was visually about as amazing as anything I've ever seen. I dunno how one can bash the overall show - maybe the musical performance itself, but everything else that went into it was just outstanding.

Welker only had one credited as a drop.

@fasces---R. Gronkowski REC 5 YARDS 87 AVG 17.4 TD 0
impressive stats line for a game you claim he did not play in. In fact, it looks exactly like his season averages (with fewer catches but higher per catch average). So the Ravens were probably doing a good job defending the short routes and ended up giving up a few slightly longer receptions.

@everyone---don't you understand? This was the PATs divine punishment at the hands of the Football Gods for whatever deal they made with Satan to steal the game from the Ravens. Them losing the Super Bowl on dropped passes is the only thing that reaffirms my belief in the basic goodness of football.

@gopher: my bad, sorry I thought he didn't play...

GO PATRIOTS!!!

I enjoyed the halftime show! much more interesting than some of the ones I've seen...
either way both teams played impressively. the Giants dominated the first half with the exception of the last say, 4 minutes of it where the Pats took the lead... then the Pats came out strong after halftime and then the Giants bounced back. I dislike both teams greatly, and I was hoping the Pats would pull it off, but both teams would have been a deserving team to win it... and I think the Giants "may" have deserved it more actually...
anyone who can come in, beat the team that was leading there division TWICE, make it to the playoffs, beat a wildcard team, then beat the 15-1 Packers AND the 13-3 49ers and then take on the Pats in the Superbowl, that's a deserving team(and this is coming from a die-hard Cowboys fan who HATES the Giants)

2012-18=1994.....you were 2 the last time the Cowboys were good enough to steal a Super Bowl? They've been more or less terrible your entire conscious life. And you're from Virginia. This must be displaced Redskins hatred from down state VA. Am I right?

Wait, did you actually watch the game if you thought Gronk didn't play? The very last play he just missed grabbing the winning score. He was pretty significant.

Fasces claimed he missed the Ravens game, not the Super Bowl.

@gopher- I am 19 almost, so your math is just "slightly" off, It was 93, but I was only 3 the last time they were decent enough to WIN a Superbowl... and yes I am from Virginia... BUT: they haven't been "terrible" my entire conscious life, just not good enough... AND my entire family is from Texas so I was raised in a pro-Dallas house, and I lived in Texas for a few years... so I'm naturally a Dallas fan. but YES I am from down-state VA haha!

Actually I WAS two, it was JUST before my third birthday...

Why people freakin' hate Boston sports fans:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7547184/searching-silver-linings-indianapolis

I'm not a Texans fan, but they almost beat the Ravens after losing their All-Pro QB, his back up, his back up, their future HoF WR and their two best defensive players. And Simmons whines about his team that absolutely stole the AFC Championship losing to a team that totally out played them.

And BTW, Bud Adams killed my team and stole my memories from me and destroyed the part of my soul that is capable of enjoying the NFL. Then he took a giant crap in the wound by going to a Super Bowl on a non-called illegal forward pass almost immediately. Unless you are a North Stars fan, you don't have a freakin' clue. That is freakin' pain you loudmouthed spoiled brats. The Red Socks lost game 7 all on their own after Buckner. My first memory of life is the Mike Renfro out of bounds call in the endzone that led to the first instant replay era in the '80s and handed the Steelers their fourth Super Bowl.

Cowboys suck. End discussion.

I'd imagine Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts fans also feel your pain, gopher.

Two words: "Daaaa Bears."

The Browns got their team back and Baltimore got to watch the Elway-less Irsay Colts embarrass themselves for a decade.

And of course, Baltimore stole the Texans in the first place and Cleveland fired their namesake, so they deserved karmic punishment. We were pure. We founded the AFL and repeatedly struck blows for racial justice. We hosted the anti-segregation protest All-Star game in the '60s on our own dime after black players were mistreated in New Orleans the week leading up to the game.