Super Bowl 2012: 4 Reasons Giants Aren't the Best Team in NFL

The New York Giants just won Super Bowl XLVI over the New England Patriots to become the world champions, despite the fact that they aren't the best team in the NFL.

Before you go off on me in the comments section below, please hear me out.

There is no debating the fact that the Giants were the hottest team in the NFL, peaking at just the right time to lay claim to their second Lombardi Trophy in four years. 

I'm not trying to say that the Giants didn't deserve the championship. Heck, they earned it. They pulled off another miraculous final push to do it.

What I am saying is that winning a championship does not make them the best team, and I will prove it to you.

Single Elimination Tournament

First off, let me say this: I love the way the NFL does the postseason, and I don't want it to change.

Single elimination tournaments are funny, though. Teams can get submarined by the weirdest things sometimes. When you only get one shot, people sometimes make uncharacteristic mistakes that cost their entire team the game.

Just ask Kyle Williams.

If not for his two fumbles, the 49ers would have easily won the NFC championship game, despite their obvious weakness on offense. Those two turnovers cost the 49ers 10 points in the second half and overtime. 

The same thing happened to the Baltimore Ravens against the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game. Lee Evans and then Billy Cundiff straight up choked away what should have been a earned victory. They soundly outplayed the Patriots, but two mistakes cost them their chance.

Super Bowl XLVI could have easily been "Harbowl 2.0," but it wasn't.

The Giants deserve all the credit in the world for being the team with the best composure and discipline in the NFL in 2011. They turned the ball over only once in four games in the postseason, which is one of the main reasons they are the last team standing.

Winning in the NFL doesn't always prove which team is the best; rather, it usually proves which team has the most guts.

Giants Overcame Some Serious Shortcomings

The Giants won the Super Bowl in 2012 even though they are extremely weak in some aspects. 

Their offensive line resembles Swiss cheese in pass protection, but it's ok because Eli Manning is a magician.

Their linebackers are below average, but that's also OK because their front four are all-world studs that don't need no stinking linebackers.

Their secondary is also below average, but they can get away with it for the same reasons that the linebackers got away with it. 

Their running backs aren't super-effective either, but they don't need to be for the Giants to succeed. All they have to do is just keep the defense on it's toes so they can't key in on what Manning and his receivers are doing.

The Giants relied on a couple of extremely strong groups to win them the Super Bowl this year. 

They didn't have the best team, though.

Luck Has Something to Do with It

The Giants had some help along the way to their championship.

Let's start with the Green Bay Packers. Their offense was on fire the entire 2011 regular season, and then right before the divisional round a tragedy struck at the heart of the organization. 

Joe Philbin, who is the current head coach of the Miami Dolphins, was the offensive coordinator of the Packers in 2011. His son, Michael Philbin, was pulled from the Fox River in Wisconsin on January 10 after drowning, only five days before the Packers were to face the Giants. 

The results were obvious. The Packers offense looked completely out of sync. Much credit is due to the Giants for their strong play, but there was something else at work, too.

Then, the Giants got lucky again as the 49ers lost Ted Ginn to a knee injury in the 49ers Week 17 win in St. Louis. His injury is the reason Kyle Williams was in for the 49ers on kickoff and punt returns. We all know how that turned out. 

Additionally, in that game the 49ers lost cornerback Tarell Brown on a freak play when Dashon Goldson crashed into him. Almost worse than the injury was the fact that Manning had thrown a bad ball that should have easily been an interception. 

Instead, what the 49ers got was backup cornerback Tramaine Brock covering Mario Manningham one-on-one on the post route that gave the Giants the go-ahead after Williams' first fumble.

Finally, the New England Patriots showed up to the Super Bowl with one of their chief weapons playing on a gimpy ankle.

Rob Gronkowski was largely ineffective in the championship game. He couldn't hardly move out on the field. To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen an ankle taped up as much as Gronk's was.

Another piece of good luck that fell on the Giants was the two fumbles by Ahmad Bradshaw that were fortunately recovered by teammates Chris Snee and Henry Hynoski.

I'm not trying to sound like a hater. I'm happy for the Giants and for all of their fans. They finished the 2011 NFL season with a flourish that was gorgeous to those with eyes to see.

It doesn't make them the best team, though.

Eli Manning

The Giants wouldn't have even been a part of the playoff picture without the numerous exploits of Eli Manning in 2011. 

They almost weren't even with Manning. 

Think about how many times Manning deftly side-stepped the incoming pass-rush throughout the Giants playoff run. He was under fire on a constant basis, but he showed that he's the coolest kid on the block completing perfectly thrown pass after perfectly thrown pass in the tightest windows known to mankind.

No other quarterback in the NFL right now can do what Manning did throughout the playoff run. His poise reminds me of when I was young watching Joe Montana calmly direct his team to the game-winning touchdown, as if all he was doing was taking the trash out to the curb.

Eli is the Giants offense.

Yeah, I know. He's got great receivers, right? Of course they're great, but you have to understand the reason for their greatness. 

In the same way that his elder brother drove the Indianapolis Colts to their Super Bowl appearances, the younger brother is the driving force behind the success of the Giants. Take him out of the equation and all you have is a sub-standard team that is lucky to win six games.

I guess nobody's snickering any more about Eli's preseason declaration about being in the same class as Tom Brady.

The point is this: The Giants are extremely one-dimensional. They have relied almost completely on the amazing talents of Manning and his sniper rifle of an arm to get them to this point. If he goes down, so do they.

There are a few teams in the league that can handle a loss like that and still keep ticking. Look at the Houston Texans. They lost their first and second-string quarterbacks and still got into the playoffs, due to their strong team. 

Conclusion

Eli Manning did for the Giants in 2011 what Aaron Rodgers did for the Packers in 2010. He was simply too good to be stopped. There was an air of invincibility about him that permeated throughout the entire locker room, and he led his team to the pinnacle of professional sports.

Yes, he had help. The Giants defensive front, which had been afflicted by various injuries throughout the year, got healthy towards the end and played a major role in the team's championship run. Their strong play was enough to balance out the struggles of the linebackers and secondary, and the entire defense played well.

Make no mistake about it, though. This team is all about Manning. 

The Houston Texans, San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers were all better teams than the New York Giants, but in the end it doesn't really matter. 

None of them put it all together when it counted. The Giants did.