Sorry for the wait, Tony's home office has experienced some technical difficulties the past week. I have gone 8-2 during the playoffs this season.
First of all, I hate the 2 weeks off between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.
Here we go, the "Perfect Team" (I don't think the Pats trademarked that one yet?) vs. the "Road Warriors" (10 consecutive road wins.) Everyone knows the Patriots are heavily favored (12 pts) and have a chance to become the first team in history to go 19-0 (Impressive to everyone except 72 Dolphin, Mercury Morris) in fact the Patriots are so confidant, they applied for trademarks for "19-0" and "Perfect Season" before the Chargers game, which is surprising, the NFL hadn't already done so. Also, this week we saw the return of "spygate" a former, possibly disgruntled Patriots employee came forward, asking why he hadn't been contacted by the NFL to discuss his role in taping for the Patriots in the past, Senator Specter questioned Commisioner Goodell as to why the evidence siezed by the league was destroyed? (Does Congress really have nothing better to do then to worry about some of a Belichick's home videos?) Then we heard that the Patriots illegally recorded the Rams walk through before limiting the Rams in the first half of their Super Bowl matchup. Does anybody remember what happened after the last round of "spygate" allegations? I know some Redskins fans do, the Patriots started blowing people out/running up the score according to some. This is the 12th time the Super Bowl has been a rematch from the regular season, the regular season winner has gone 5-6 in these matchups. The last such matchup was the Patriots beating the Rams after losing in the regular season.
I think the gameplan for the Patriots is pretty simple, if they can come out and spread the offense they can take advantage of the Giants secondary. There has been a lot of talk about how improved the G-men secondary has been despite all their injuries, but take a look at the playoffs, they beat a weak Bucs recieving unit, that saw Joey Galloway injured early, they played ok against the Cowboys who dropped a number of passes and had an injured and limited T.O., then in the Green Bay, the passing game was limited due to the extreme cold. The Giants have no anwer for Moss and Welker, which was evident in the Week 17 matchup. If the Patriots mix in some draw plays they can neutralize the Giants pass rush. If the Patriots do this and jump out to a early 17-21 point lead, this will force the Giants out of their game plan (running the ball) and force Eli Manning to lead this team from behind, which I'm not sure he can do, Yes, he hasn't turned over the ball in the playoffs, but he hasn't been asked to throw the ball downfield, more than 10 yards, the TD pass to Toomer in the Dallas game was a 10 yard pass, in which he ran the other 61. On the flipside for the Giants to win this game, they need to play 4 nearly perfect quarters unlike the 3 they played in week 17. The Giants will need to keep the game close, so they can run the ball with Jacobs and Bradshaw, running on the Patriots this season has not been hard but scoring TDs has, and that will be the difference. Another argument I heard this weak was that the Patriots were able to shut down the Jaguars powerful rushing game, yes but instead of playing to their strength Jacksonville came out looking to pass in that game and abandoned the run. Also, the Giants will need a big play; INT for a TD, kick return for a TD or a trick play (I can see either Bradshaw or Steve Smith throwing a pass) So, I have established the Patriots are the far superior team, if they hadn't played in the regular season I don't think many would expect this game to be close, but the Giants have some confidence that they can hang with the Pats. I had said awhile back, after watching the Patriots go for TDs on two 4th down plays instead of kicking FGs with large leads would bring them bad karma. I'm not even sure that karma can stop Belichick with 2 weeks to prepare for a team. I have a feeling the Patriots win in blowout. As a Giants fan, I hope I'm wrong.
PICK: Patriots
First of all, I hate the 2 weeks off between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.
Here we go, the "Perfect Team" (I don't think the Pats trademarked that one yet?) vs. the "Road Warriors" (10 consecutive road wins.) Everyone knows the Patriots are heavily favored (12 pts) and have a chance to become the first team in history to go 19-0 (Impressive to everyone except 72 Dolphin, Mercury Morris) in fact the Patriots are so confidant, they applied for trademarks for "19-0" and "Perfect Season" before the Chargers game, which is surprising, the NFL hadn't already done so. Also, this week we saw the return of "spygate" a former, possibly disgruntled Patriots employee came forward, asking why he hadn't been contacted by the NFL to discuss his role in taping for the Patriots in the past, Senator Specter questioned Commisioner Goodell as to why the evidence siezed by the league was destroyed? (Does Congress really have nothing better to do then to worry about some of a Belichick's home videos?) Then we heard that the Patriots illegally recorded the Rams walk through before limiting the Rams in the first half of their Super Bowl matchup. Does anybody remember what happened after the last round of "spygate" allegations? I know some Redskins fans do, the Patriots started blowing people out/running up the score according to some. This is the 12th time the Super Bowl has been a rematch from the regular season, the regular season winner has gone 5-6 in these matchups. The last such matchup was the Patriots beating the Rams after losing in the regular season.
I think the gameplan for the Patriots is pretty simple, if they can come out and spread the offense they can take advantage of the Giants secondary. There has been a lot of talk about how improved the G-men secondary has been despite all their injuries, but take a look at the playoffs, they beat a weak Bucs recieving unit, that saw Joey Galloway injured early, they played ok against the Cowboys who dropped a number of passes and had an injured and limited T.O., then in the Green Bay, the passing game was limited due to the extreme cold. The Giants have no anwer for Moss and Welker, which was evident in the Week 17 matchup. If the Patriots mix in some draw plays they can neutralize the Giants pass rush. If the Patriots do this and jump out to a early 17-21 point lead, this will force the Giants out of their game plan (running the ball) and force Eli Manning to lead this team from behind, which I'm not sure he can do, Yes, he hasn't turned over the ball in the playoffs, but he hasn't been asked to throw the ball downfield, more than 10 yards, the TD pass to Toomer in the Dallas game was a 10 yard pass, in which he ran the other 61. On the flipside for the Giants to win this game, they need to play 4 nearly perfect quarters unlike the 3 they played in week 17. The Giants will need to keep the game close, so they can run the ball with Jacobs and Bradshaw, running on the Patriots this season has not been hard but scoring TDs has, and that will be the difference. Another argument I heard this weak was that the Patriots were able to shut down the Jaguars powerful rushing game, yes but instead of playing to their strength Jacksonville came out looking to pass in that game and abandoned the run. Also, the Giants will need a big play; INT for a TD, kick return for a TD or a trick play (I can see either Bradshaw or Steve Smith throwing a pass) So, I have established the Patriots are the far superior team, if they hadn't played in the regular season I don't think many would expect this game to be close, but the Giants have some confidence that they can hang with the Pats. I had said awhile back, after watching the Patriots go for TDs on two 4th down plays instead of kicking FGs with large leads would bring them bad karma. I'm not even sure that karma can stop Belichick with 2 weeks to prepare for a team. I have a feeling the Patriots win in blowout. As a Giants fan, I hope I'm wrong.
PICK: Patriots
