Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Superfan: Giants vs. Vikings UNCUT (11/27/07)

Losses in Mirror May Seem Larger than They Appear
By Blue-Blooded

Maybe it’s because I’m a realist, maybe it’s because I’m a bitter Giants fan, but bottom line, any football fan can tell you that much more energy gets exhausted from a loss than from a win.
No one wants to believe the human spirit works that way, but if you think rationally, it makes perfect sense. When your team wins, that means for the most part, everybody on the team did their job at their position. You give high fives to your buddies, smile, have a laugh, and breathe a sigh of relief knowing that you won’t have to be burdened with losing highlights on Sportscenter and NFL Live for the next week.
See, there’s a primary obstacle at work that all fans possess which makes losing that much more of a burden. That obstacle comes in the form of pride, that sense of being a part of the team that actually plays a legitimate role (either superstitiously or cheering-based) in the outcome of one of your team’s games. Because of this, when your team loses, you not only feel bad that they lost, but also because you might have been able to do something differently that might have led to a win (worn a certain hat instead, actually stood up to cheer on third down).
Another thing going against Giants fans this week is that, well, they play football. It isn’t like baseball or basketball, where your team can have a really bad game and then make up for with a solid win the next day. No, we get a week. And just when we’ve begun to move on in the middle of it, Inside the NFL has to come on and replay for us the misery, while analysts count on that horrible effort to make predictions for the next match-up.
But I’m not too worried. Sure, I’m extremely upset, extremely frustrated, and very let down, but I’m not worried. We play in the NFC, fans. All we have to do is make it to the playoffs and we’ll have a legitimate shot (to get to the Super Bowl…don’t get me started on thinking about whatever AFC team might be there waiting). And last I checked, we’re 7-4, recently beat the Lions, and are atop the wild card standings.
So, we had a bad game. A very bad game. Nothing went right. But you have to look at the situation from a wider perspective. Eli is usually fairly accurate, and you can’t think (no matter how cynical you may be) that he’ll be that off-target from now on. Strahan and Osi are both still healthy and that much hungrier. And look out for Ahmad Bradshaw in the backfield.
Hopefully, come January, Sunday’s travesty will mean nothing more than a regular-season loss on a playoff team’s schedule.

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