After Victory

Obviously, Eli Manning won the Super Bowl on Sunday and nobody can take that away from him. That said, efforts to crown him the hero of the city seem to me to founder on the fact that scoring 17 points isn't an especially impressive performance for an NFL offense. Patriots opponents scored more than 17 points eight times during the course of the past season, but all of those teams lost.

The difference-maker was that the Giants defense held New England to just 14 points. Teams that score 14 points tend to lose games whether or not the opposition musters a great quarterback to face off against them.