Eli Manning Gets the MVP

On Sunday the forty sixth Super Bowl took place with the New York Giants facing off against the New England Patriots. This was a much hyped game (like all Super Bowls) featuring two star QB from two of the biggest sports crazed cities in the United States. After four quarters of play Giants ended up prevailing 21-17 in a hard fought and closely contested game. The game MVP Award was given to Giants QB Eli Manning. However, I feel like this was basically by default. No one player stood out during the game and somebody had to win the award.

The game featured several great players (Eli Manning, Justin Tuck, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker, etc). Because of this there was a potential for someone explode on a national stage, but no one played a stand out game. There were definitely stand out moments, like Mario Manningham's 38 yard catch in the fourth quarter, but no one player did something amazing more than once. If anything you could probably give the MVP to the Giants defense. They did manage to keep the electric Patriots offense to just 17 points. However, they were definitely helped by drops and penalties by the Patriots and most importantly an injury to Rob Gronkowski. This general lack of spectacular individual performances, left MVP voters with no clear choice. So, they fell back on the default and just gave the award to the winning QB.

This isn't to say Manning played poorly. In fact he played very well. He threw for 296 yd and a TD and completed 75% of his passes, which any team would take from their QB. It is just that he didn't really stand out while compiling these stats. None of his passes were spectacular and he didn't make me feel like his performance was what made the team win. His play did make much of an impression on me at all. He didnt provide any of the amazing pin point accuracy passes where the QB threads the needle and hits a streaking receiver for big yards. He never had to scramble around and buy time until coverage broke down and he could bomb one down field. He just played passably.

 This lack of a stand out player detracted from the game's ability to stand next to the all time great games No clear cut MVP left me wanting more from my NFL Championship experience.  Eli Manning winning the MVP with a solid but not great performance felt boring.