Super Bowl Sunday is rapidly approaching, and the hype for this game as been pretty big. The Giants and the Patriots have a lot of storylines and juicy aspects heading into this matchup. To me that is what the Super Bowl week is about. It is about breaking down the storylines, looking at the legacy of the matchup, and dissecting what this game will mean from a historical perspective years from now. This game has all of that and then some. When your team is not in the Super Bowl, all you want from a NFL fan perspective is to get a great matchup in the Super Bowl with a load of storylines. Also, if the game is good, then you really don't mind the bye week between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl. In past years, when the game is not as sexy of a matchup (Think Pittsburgh-Arizona Super Bowl XLIII) the bye week really feels like the end of the season. You start thinking about the draft, free agency, and the wait until next season seems like an eternity. When you have a great game-like this year- the bye week feels like the calm before the storm, and it feels like the season is still coming to a final conclusion. You have the Patriots back in the Super Bowl. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are going for their 4th Super Bowl championship which will put them in a very rare class in NFL lore. Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin are both going for their 2nd Super Bowl together. A win in Super Bowl XLVI would put Eli into iconic status forever in New York, and he vault himself into a real chance for a Hall of Fame ending to his career. The same could be said for Coughlin if he wins this game. He could make the claim as the greatest Giants coach ever next to Bill Parcells. Coughlin could also advance his candidacy as a Hall of Fame coach. The best storyline in this game is the fact that these two franchises met in a classic Super Bowl just four years ago. The Giants were the big underdogs as they knocked off the 18-0 Pats, who were on their way to immortality. It was one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time, and it was one of the most important games in NFL history. The Patriots haven't been back to the Super Bowl until this year, and they lost their next two playoff games after that game. The Giants are looking to justify that victory and claim a 4th Super Bowl Championship for their storied franchise. Sprinkle in the fact that both teams are big-market franchises, led by great owners, and have tremendous fanbases. Also, you can't discount the Boston-New York rivalry and the crowd for this Super Bowl should be as non-corporate as you can get for a Super Bowl crowd. The atmosphere will be electric, the hype has been tremendous, and the anticipation of this game is rivaled by only a few games in the past 10 years.
Onto the pick for Super Bowl XLVI....
Last Week's Record: 1-1
Overall Playoff Record: 3-6-1
New York Giants vs. New England Patriots-Super Bowl XLVI
A Case for the Giants: The Giants are the hot team heading into the playoffs, and pound for pound they are probably the better team. The Giants are healthy, their defense is playing great, and they do things that on paper should give the Patriots fits. The Giants pass rush with Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyora, and Chris Canty can get to Tom Brady without a blitz, and you could end up with that look on Brady's face that screams a deer in headlights. Eli Manning is playing the best football of his career, and we know how Manning plays in big games. He has the look of a quarterback who is officially ready to take the leap to the next level of NFL QBs. Another factor in the Giants favor is that the Giants are very well coached under Tom Coughlin. He has already beaten Bill Belichick in a Super Bowl, and Coughlin and his staff do a great job making adjustments the second time they play a team. Look at the Green Bay and San Francisco playoff games. Coughlin and his staff made adjustments and the Giants were able to do things to those teams that they didn't do in the first matchup in the regular season. Also, the crowd in that stadium will be a pro-Giants crowd. No one outside of the Boston fans that travel to the game will be rooting for the Pats. Every marginal or neutral fan will be rooting for the Giants, and they will feel that when that enter Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday. Finally, maybe the Giants, Eli, and Coughlin just have the Pats' number. They played them tough in the finale of the 2007 season, upset them in Super Bowl XLII, and they beat them in the regular season in Foxboro in November. Perhaps they just match up well with the Patriots. Maybe Coughlin can match Belichick in a big game, and maybe Brady gets rattled by this Giants team because of that vaunted pass rush.
A Case for the Patriots: The Patriots have Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. No combination is more effective, steady, and great. If you have a big game, there is no doubt I would take Brady and Belichick as my QB and Head Coach. Could they really lose another Super Bowl and their second Super Bowl in four years? Could Brady actually play two bad games in a row in the biggest games of the season? When you break down the game, it is hard to see that the Patriots is great, and they will be hard to stop. If Rob Gronkowski is close to 100%, and that is a big if, then this Pats offense should be able to move the ball on this Giants secondary and put up points. Everyone points to the Patriots defense as their weakness and it is not a good unit, but they are getting healthy at the right time. Their defense may give up yards, but they get big stops and turnovers at the right time. Forget about yards against because turnovers and red zone defense is more important, and the Pats defense can make the play at the right time. Also, it gets scary when the majority of people are picking one team overwhelmingly to win a game. Everyone seems to favor the Giants in this game. That is a dangerous pick when you have Brady and Belichick standing on the other sideline. You just get the feeling that everyone is going to pick the Giants, but after the game is over everyone is going to say: How the hell did we underestimate the Brady and the Pats? Finally, sometimes you just can't mess with karma and fate. The fact that the Patriots dedicated their season to the late Myra Kraft, the wife of Patriots owner Bob Kraft. Myra passed away after a battle with cancer in late July, and her death has loomed as a motivating factor for the Patriots 2011 season. I don't want to get cheesy like Bob Costas here, but isn't it just fitting that the Pats can cap this season off with a Super Bowl win for their beloved owner who lost his wife before the season started.
The Pick: New England (-2.5) over New York Giants:
I am rooting hard for the Giants in this game, and I would love to see the G-Men beat the Pats again. The Giants are probably the better team right now, but everytime I thought about picking the Giants this week, the same thought came to my mind: I just can't see Brady and Belichick losing this game. I can't see Brady and Belichick lose to Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning again in a Super Bowl for the second time in four years. Can you imagine the dent in the legacy of Brady and Belichick if they lose this game? The Patriots haven't won a Super Bowl since the 2004 season. Think about that for a moment. With all the success they have had since 2004, the Pats have not won a Super Bowl in seven seasons. With all due respect to the Giants, this is going to be the Patriots day. Look for a close game and great game throughout. This might be one of the best Super Bowls of all time (Nothing will ever top Denver-Green Bay Super Bowl XXXII), and this game will come down to the wire. One thing to remember: In recent years when a Super Bowl is in a dome, the came gets very frantic and crazy in the fourth quarter. The teams get worn down and fatigued, and the temperature in the stadium gets cranked up a ton with all the people down on the sidelines, the pyros in the stadium, and the bloated halftime show. This fourth quarter will be frantic and wild, and the Pats and Brady will make the plays to win the game late. The Patriots will outlast the Giants, Belichick and Brady will get their fourth Super Bowl Championship, and they will cement their legacy in the annals of NFL history. Enjoy the game because it is the last NFL game until Week 1 in September.
Final Score: Patriots-29 Giants-23
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