Sports Review

         The Greatest (football) Story Ever Told (or one of them at least) Analysis and prediction of this years Super Bowl Contenders
By Michael Kitz      January 25th, 2007

This year has been one of the most remarkable in NFL history.  All the desires of a football fan has been answered with this years twists, turns, freak plays, lucky breaks, accusations of unfair play, adversity and the most heart-wrought competition possible.  The stage is set for one of the most memorable games of all times as Super Bowl XLIV looms.  But can reality actually live up to the deepest hopes of our sports wishes? 
The New England Patriots started the season as accused cheaters, fined and reprimanded for video-taping the other teams defensive signals.  Was that the secret to their success? Was it all unfair advantage (as suspected by Raiders fans for years) that regaled Coach Belicheck as a genius and lofted sixth round draft choice of the Bill Parcells era, Tom Brady, into the upper echelons of quarterback royalty?  With a renewed sense of hunger the Patriots sought to prove that theory false.  Week after week, they schemed, fought, and willed themselves to victory after victory, completing a feat not achieved in over 35 years: a perfect regular season.  Already they have outdone those historic 1972 Miami Dolphins in that the NFL has since then extended its season from 14 to 17 games, increasing the length of the road to a perfect season by 3 games, almost 20%, and in football measurements a near impossible feat.  If it were 1972 rules the Patriots would now be winners of the Super bowl and it would all be over, but no, the Patriots entered the playoffs the clear favorite but without a ring, with the spirit of the underdog against them and the level of play raised to its spilling point. 
Even with a target on their back and every coach, analyst, and fan in the country studying their every move, they rolled off two more victories to be the only team in NFL history to go 19-0.  But now they have the Superbowl to contend with: and as they know so well from 2002, there are no favorites.  Nothing is given that isn’t earned, and their foe couldn’t be more hungry or more worthy.
The New York Giants began the season rather poorly sparking rumors of firings, trades, and discontent.  They weren’t cheaters but they were hardly winners with an inexperienced quarterback that might not be all his last name suggests, and a coach that was just “out of touch” with his angry beady eyes and scowl, his fists perched a little too high on his old hips. Only Osi Umenyiora made the pro-bowl, and no super bowl team has had fewer than three pro-bowlers on their side. They started putting things together mid-season, lost a couple games they should have won, won a couple they should have lost.  Their heart glowing more fiercly on the road then at home.  Yet by seasons end had the lonely notion that there was no one they could not defeat, even the Great Patriots against whom they played the final game of the season against. 
Michael Strahan made it clear: not only weren’t the Giants afraid of the Patriots, they were doubtless they could beat them.  They would end their perfect season, the Patriots were not Gods but men, and they had flaws, they had holes; Holes big enough to run through and be sacked; Holes big enough to throw through and score.
But the Giants lost that game, 38-35, as everyone expected they would, but in that lost they proved something:  They could go toe-to-toe with the team with the perfect season.  They could run on them, they could throw on them, they could stop them too.  They left that game with the feeling that they gave one away.  They weren’t beaten but had beat themselves.  In every play-off game since they would be the underdog, the away team, and in every playoff game they would win.  They won against the odds; they won on good old fashioned grit and determination.  As Chris Colinsworth put it, “I think the Giants just became America’s team.”  --Because Americans love the underdog, just like we loved the 2001-02 Patriots who couldn’t have picked a better year (or name) to win it all; now the Patriots are the favorites, the unbeatables, the chosen.   
After a 17 week regular season and three more weeks of postseason play the entire NFL season has all come down to this – it will be the New York Giants and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42 Sunday, February 3rd, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The Patriots continued their trek as the team of destiny with a solid, but unspectacular 21-12 victory over the San Diego Chargers in the AFC Championship game last Sunday. Quarterback Tom Brady actually looked human for the first time all season, throwing three interceptions against an inspired Charger defense. But the Patriots running back combo of Laurence Maroney (122 yards, TD) and Kevin Faulk (8 catches, 82 yards) bailed Brady out of a bad day (he still threw for 209 yards and 2 TDs) as the Pats remained undefeated and moved one game closer to perfection. With that win they proved even when their golden boy was struggling this team finds a way to win.
New York is also starting to have the look of a team with a higher purpose. The Giants won their 10th straight game on the road, and their third in the playoffs, knocking off the Green Bay Packers, 23-20, in overtime to win the NFC Championship. Despite the nay-sayers claiming he couldn't perform in the cold, quarterback Eli Manning had a solid performance (21-of-40, 254 yards) in leading the Giants into field goal range three times late in the game. Kicker Lawrence Tynes finally made a 47-yarder in overtime to send the Giants into a rematch game with the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Football Sportsbooks wasted no time in immediately pegging the Patriots as 14-point favorites, with a total of 55.
Not only have the Patriots gone undefeated, but their offenses have become one of the most potent the game has ever seen, with Charlie Weiss calling the plays and Brady breaking Peyton Manning’s touchdown record almost before the ink was dry in the record books. A large part of that success comes with Brady finally having an elite receiver in Randy Moss to make the big plays happen and Moss himself has made his way into the record books with his touchdown catches on the year.  Wes Welker taking full advantage of all the opportunities that double teaming Moss allows. A nice balancing of running attack headed by Laurence Maroney and an offensive line that deserves most of the accolades but, hey, its an offensive line. 
But for the first time in three weeks Brady and Co. were held well below their season average of 36.8 points per game, with only 21 points versus the Chargers. Brady struggled at times with the wind and if the Chargers weren’t so depleted on offense, the Pats may have been had last week. Maroney and the Pats offensive line stepped up big time versus the Bolts.
The Giants offense actually looked like they handled the minus-degree weather at Lambeau Field better then the Packers. Receiver Plaxico Burress was nearly unstoppable, Manning did an excellent job of taking what the defense gave, and both Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw gained just enough yardage on the ground to balance the offensive attack.
While the Giant offense has yet to score more than 24 points in a single playoff game, they have shown the consistency and capability of a team willing to play all four quarters and grind it out when they need to at clutch time.
It truly is hard to gauge how well the Patriots defense played in the AFC title game because the Chargers offense was depleted and not nearly at full power, which is a pity and a clear flaw in the story of this season. That said though, they did limit the Bolts to just field goals once they did get into the red zone. Both the Chargers and Jaguars have compiled over 300 yards of total offense in the two playoff games, so it is by no means a stretch to say they are not as good as the 4th-best (scoring and yardage) unit in football, where they ended the regular season ranked.
The Giants on the other hand have gone on this incredible run through the playoffs almost entirely on the strength of the defense, which has improved each week and is now just scary. Their front seven completely shut down the running game of the Packers (only 28 yards), and with the exception of the first half of the Dallas game, they have shut down the running attack in all three games in the playoffs. Their banged-up secondary played well in the NFC title game, and should benefit the most from the two-week layoff before the Super Bowl kickoff.
Ironically, it was the Patriots 38-35 victory over the Giants in the final week of the regular season that has sparked the Giants into the rematch for the Super Bowl title. The offense has rallied around Eli Manning, Manning has played with supreme confidence since that game, and the defense that put it on the line to try and beat the undefeated Pats has since started to heal and regain the swagger it was missing early in the season.
While the smart-money is on the Patriots (12.5 point favorites) this will be no blow out.  If the Patriots win it will be by skin of their teeth as the winning team of the previous game is at a disadvantage if that game was close, which it certainly was.  This is because the Winners usually stick to what let them win, while the loser makes adjustments.  This and knowing that Steve Spagnolo, Giants Defensive coach, is clever and farsighted enough to hold some things back in that final season game as well as set the Patriots awesome offensive line up for some big plays to be made by a few of the lesser known iants defensive fronts.  Expect to see a lot of pulls and blitzing on Brady, as the key to stopping the offensive juggernaut is to get to Brady fast and hard while cutting off the hot reads with odd players.  If the Giants are to prevail, it will be on the shoulders of their defensive front, but the corners have to cut off the big play if nothing else.  The Patriots will score, but not as much as last time, that much is near certain.
Though the defense bears most of the burden, Belichecks defensive wizardry is bound to keep Plaxico Buress from being the unstoppable beast he has become.  Though a great player, he is no Randy Moss, and can be stopped somewhat.  This means that in order for this Giants offense to succeed, it must continue to control the clock with great running.  And if the Giants are to win, someone other than Burress is going to have to step up and make a big play or two.
I am choosing the Giants to win this one.  They seem to be getting better and the Patriots appear to be grinding down.  Add in the fact that the Giants have been better as underdogs and better on-the-road (though technically they are both on the road, I have a feeling that the crowd is going to be much more Patriots oriented); add in the fact that the Patriots have already had printed up “20-0 Super Bowl champs Perfect Season” t-shirts, hats etc, and we all know pride cometh before the fall; add to the equation that the story of the season could have no better ending then to have the exposed cheaters denied their spot in history as the undisputed best ever beaten by a group of rag-tag blue-bloods that no one gave a chance in hell.  24-23 Giants over Patriots.