The New England Patriots enter this Super Bowl trying to become the first team in NFL history to go 19-0 in a season. They are aiming to win their fourth Super Bowl of the decade. The Patriots have set numerous records this season, most on the offensive side of the ball. With a win, it would be hard to argue that they weren't the best team in the long history of the NFL.
Despite this, the Patriots face a lot of questions. The most pertinent referring to their cheating scandal from the first week of the season. Things are unraveling and their previous success has recently been subject to suspicion. Former football great Earl Campbell has suggested that Pats head man Bill Belichick should be thrown out of the NFL, and this was before recent developments. Belichick has long been the boogie man of the NFL, despised by anyone not associated with the Patriots constant winning. It would be hard to imagine many people rooting for Patriot perfection tonight. It's sad that such greatness has a dark cloud hovering over it.
Before the playoffs started I said, "The Giants are a team that could go on a roll all the way to the Super Bowl or they could fall flat in the first game. I'm predicting somewhere in between." The New York Giants went on that roll and here they are. It reminds me of the end of the movie Glory, the Giants have heroically defeated their enemies up the hill and have entered the fort. They might have triumphed right into an ambush. One past game to keep in mind is Super Bowl XXIV, where the 49ers beat the Broncos 55-10 to set the record for largest margin of victory in the league's final game.
The Giants are counting on a performance closer to the year before. The upstart Bengals went up against the mighty 49ers and only a last-second TD pass from Joe Montana to John Taylor prevented the upset. They'd rather not relive their Super Bowl XXXV showing against the Ravens, which ended in a thrashing.
To begin the year, New York looked terrible, giving up 80 points in their first two games. As it turned out, those two losses were an anomaly, defeats to two clubs who would finish first and second in the NFC. New York hasn't lost a road game since and nearly took down the Patriots in the final week of the regular season. Only a clumsy finish halted an upset the first time around.
While the Giants could always fall flat and we could have a blowout of historic proportions, I don't think that will happen. Eli Manning is playing the best ball of his short career, reaching the high expectations that met him when he entered the league. New York has an effective one-two punch behind the QB. Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw provide contrasting styles of running, but both need to have the game of their lives. The Giants must keep the Patriot offensive attack off of the field. To do that, the threat of the big play needs to be real and, to win the game, occasionally realized. That's where Plaxico Burress comes in. He has had health concerns but must pull a Terrell Owens against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX and have a big game despite injury.
Defensively, the Giants face a seemingly impossible task. How do you stop the Earth from rotating? How do you reverse gravity? How do you prevent tomorrow from coming? The Patriots will score.
New York must pressure the best QB in the league, Tom Brady. He will ruin the Giants' dreams if he's given time in the pocket. He's too good. His receivers are too good. The problem is that his offensive line is also too good. That assignment belongs to Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora. Even if Randy Moss, the best receiver in the game, is shut down and even if Wes Welker and Dante Stallworth are taken out of the game, the Pats can run the ball.
So what will happen? I don't know; who am I Carnac the Magnificent? But keep in mind that the Patriots previous three Super Bowl victories all ended in three-point margins. I think it'll be a close game. The Patriots will win 31-28. Brady will be the MVP. But for the first time in years, I'll be pulling hard for one of the teams. Which one? I don't cheer for cheaters.
1 comment:
Good post. I think you were pretty accurate about what it would take for the Giants to pull off an upset or at least keep it tight. I thought it would come down to a lot of the same things.
I'll admit I don't know shit about football history, or all the key players in the league, or strategy, but I definitely followed the Giants all season and especially the last 8 or 9 games of the season. And I've been following the Pats for at least the last 2/3 of the season - it was hard not to with all the "best team ever" hype and the not-so-good allegations in the sports media.
The big question everyone around my neck of the woods was asking wasn't "who do you think will win?" or "how will the game go?", but was actually something like "assuming that it's possible, what do the Giants have to do to win?". For any other team I've been following this season this question would seem pessimistic. It makes beating the Pats sound like only an abstract possibility. But understanding the way New York has played this season, I didn't feel bad about these types of questions. Every time the Giants played as the team favored to lose, to me they always had a 50-50 shot.
It's just the way they play. There are a dozen things that can go wrong with there playing on both sides of the ball, but especially on offense. But when they get everything going right overall, I know they had at least a decent shot at beating any team no matter how good they were. Including the probable "best team in NFL history".
In short I believed the key aspects they would need to win or to even come close were:
-Keeping as much pressure on Brady as possible (they did way better than I even thought possible at this)
-Eli had to play like he's been playing since the post season or preferably better (he pretty much did this, his numbers weren't astonishing but he's playing against the New England defense)
-NY needed to find away to get the ball to Buress so he might get some big plays (he barely touched the ball but he came through when they needed it most)
and finally...
-Keep the possession time for New England as low as possible (they did maybe as well as possible, but I would've prefered more. I think I shat my pants every time they touched the ball.
Suck it New England!
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