Oscar Gamble Society

The Pats are 12-point favorites over the Giants, and the Pats are trying to cement their status as one of the “best teams of all-time” (at least for a single season).  I’ve heard some suggest that the Giants will win - and they certainly could.  But folks point to SB III, Jets-Colts - or more recently, SB XXXVI, Pats-Rams… moreso the latter, given that the Rams (like the Pats) had a high-powered offense and the Pats (like the Giants) were given no chance of slowing down or stopping that offense.

Some folks are insisting SB XLII will be deja vu, harkening back to that SB XXXVI - as the Giants will upset the mighty offensive juggernaut and shock the world.  I disagree.  I do see deja vu, but relative to another Super Bowl which involved the Patriots:

Super Bowl XX:  Bears 46, Patriots 10.

The Bears are in the discussion for greatest single-season team of all-time, and some actually have them #1.  They had an all-time great defense, and a good-enough offense (including some RB who *was* the franchise before they got good, but who ceded a goal-line TD to a buffoon D-Lineman… and even as a Pats fan, I thought that was abhorrant that Ditka couldn’t get Payton a TD in that game - heaven knows there were plenty of opps - and indeed subsequently, Ditka has manned up and admitted that his is biggest regret and most egregious error… but I digress).

Those 1985-86 Pats (including HoFer, Andre Tippett, fwiw) were a wild card team that won three playoff road games to get to the Super Bowl.  They were heavy underdogs, but with a young QB that had proven some people wrong, felt like they could shock the world.  Heck - the Pats even had an early lead in the game.

And then… reality set in.

I see the same scenario tonight.  The Giants are a very good team with some very talented players, and a good head coach.  They’ve had a terrific run, led by their young QB, and should honestly believe they can win this game.  They can’t.

The 2007-08 Patriots are an all-time great team, and they’re going to prove it on the biggest stage tonight.  This is no knock on the Giants.  It’s merely an observation that for this season, this Pats team has an all-time great offense and a good-enough defense.  Specifically, they have an all-time great QB and an all-time great coach who will prepare and then execute a gameplan that will simply overwhelm the game Giants over 60 minutes.

I won’t be surprised if the Pats open up a big halftime lead - but more likely, I expect a relatively close game in the first half.  I’ll be surprised if there’s more than a 10-pt spread at the half.  But then Belicheck, Brady, et al, will make their halftime adjustments and will win going away in the second half.

That’s how I see it.  Course, who knows, maybe I’m wrong.  I think that’s why they play the games, right?

Game on.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 am and is filed under Sports, Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.