Yes, the game’s nine days away. But you’re better off making a pick before being bombarded with the annual nonsense. If anything, this should have come earlier, especially since it was promised yesterday.
My bad.
My read on the Patriots’ season goes something like this: They stomped out of the gate, whip-cracked by their coach, enraged by Spygate and still pissed about last year’s AFC championship game, in which they blew a double-figure, second-half lead to the Colts.
That anger-soaked high lasted for about 10 weeks, during which they dominated the NFL as no one ever has. But you can’t stomp people into the dirt on sheer, belligerent adrenaline for an entire season in modern pro team sports. Tiger Woods can do it. No way you can sell it to 53 humans, some of whom aren’t getting to play.
The inevitable (relative) crash came, and the Pats got through the last month or so of the regular season on fumes. It took guts, and some luck, to grind out wins against the Eagles, Ravens and Giants. Some people think those games proved the Pats are vulnerable. I think they proved them less so.
The two playoff games, though, were played in the massive shadow of what the Pats had done, and what they still could. There was a playing-not-to-lose feel, especially to last week’s desultory slog with the Chargers. That was probably Brady’s worst game in two-plus seasons. Maybe that was because he was a little injured. Maybe it was because he had the Dad-took-away-my-car-privileges look all day.
It’s been a phenomenal thing for the Giants to get this far, but if all 32 NFL teams are at their best, the Giants aren’t one of the best five. And the opponent is undeniably No. 1. I don’t see nearly enough underdog psychology here to make up for that. The Pats have done history’s penance and endured, so the zero in the loss column isn’t a burden any more. It’s a good thing.
There is actually a solid X-and-O argument for the G-men: Any way of beating the Pats surely features pressuring and disrupting Brady, and the Giants have the best pass rush in the sport.
But that just probably means Belichick holds some people in to (football geek term alert) max-protect, and makes the game about the New England receivers (best in the sport) against the New York d-backs (not even close). Look for Randy Moss to break out.
Patriots 41, Giants 20.
