I caught a lot of grief for wearing my Tedy Bruschi replica jersey to work today. Man, no one likes the Patriots these days.
Some thoughts on the upcoming game:
-I was rooting for the Packers to beat the Giants, mainly because the Packers had almost zero chance of beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Though their defense is decent, they would have not been able to get quick pressure on Brady without blitzing, and their running game was a little suspect.
-The Giants have a
better chance (not to be confused with a
good chance), because they can get quick edge pressure on Brady with Osi, Strahan, and Tuck. Though I remember this being problematic during their week 17 meeting, perhaps it wasn't as bad as I thought, since the Patriots scored on 7 of their 9 possessions and scored 38 points. Even though the Patriots defense is quite suspect, I have a hard time seeing them give up 35 points again. Giants will likely score somewhere in the low 20s, while the Patriots likely score 30+ points and cap off the perfect season.
-How about Brady's ankle? I'm less concerned about the actual ankle than I am about Brady crossing over from sports figure to tabloid fodder. I don't feel THAT sorry for him--after all, he is younger, richer, and better looking than I am--but dealing with tabloid photogs must be an incredibly frustrating experience.
-Speaking of frustrating, how about Senator Arlen Specter
making news today by promising to bring NFL commissioner Roger Goodell before Congress to explain why he destroyed the Patriots illegal videotapes? I thought the steroid hearings were completely unnecessary, but this SO dwarfs that in the "waste of time" category. I can think of a few things our Congressmen should be more concerned about: war in Iraq, stability in the Middle East, crappy monetary policy, looming recession, global warming, dependence on foreign energy supply, Britney Spears' mental health, the list goes on and on. This smells like an empty threat, because I can't see many other senators attaching themselves to something SO stupid. Please let me be right. Please.
-One thing working in my favor here--Specter's stupid threat is likely to generate some bad press for him, especially from the sports media. Already, the negative reaction has begun from
ESPN and
SI.com.
-Maybe we should wait until his career is over before we start asking whether Brady is the greatest QB of all time.
-Bengals WR Chad Johnson made some (very) small waves this week when he said he would love to play for the Patriots. Despite Belichick's affection for him, I doubt this would happen anytime soon, but I like imagining that it could. I've always liked Chad Johnson's game, and watching him run around with Moss would be totally sick.
-I recently rewatched Super Bowl XXXVI (thanks to the NFL network), and regained some appreciation as to how great the Patriots upset of the Rams was. If that game is played 20 times, the Rams would have won 19 of them. So many things had to happen for them to barely win--the Pats defense had to play nearly perfect, the Rams had to turn the ball over 3 times, Mike Martz had to be slow to adjust to the Pats' gameplan, the refs had to miss several calls...and they still barely won. Perhaps my worst fear this weekend is that the 2007 Patriots find themselves on the other side of that experience. This game isn't about which team is better--clearly, the Patriots are--it's about which team can win this one game.
-I think it's clear from the past few weeks that both offenses will be able to move the ball down the field. I think red zone play is going to be what decides this game.
-Is there anything funnier than Giants fans rallying behind Eli Manning after throwing him under the bus all year long?
-The over/under on the number of swear words uttered by the Wacky Chinacouple on Sunday afternoon: 56. I'm really going to miss football when it's over.
