One man’s voice

Championship Sunday - the day after

Posted on January 21st, 2008 in Football, Rants

So the participants of Super Bowl XLII have stepped up and declared themselves. Congratulations to the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. They have won their respective conferences and have a date to face of with each other in just under two weeks.

Yesterday’s games were sort of odd. For the record:

AFC Championship

Actual Scores
San Diego Chargers: 12
New England Patriots: 21

My Prediction
San Diego Chargers: 10
New England Patriots: 35

NFC Championship

Actual Scores
New York Giants: 23
Green Bay Packers: 20 OT

My Prediction
New York Giants: 14
Green Bay Packers: 28

Wow! There is not much else to say about this week’s games except the two front runners, the Patriots and the Packers, did not at all play up to the level they were supposed to (or could have) played up to. Tom Brady stunk worse then a sweating skunk on a Brooklyn Summer day. He threw three interceptions, was totally out of sync with his receivers and seemed to not be able to conduct his offense at all.

On the other hand, the Chargers made one of the most critically and spectacularly stupid decisions ever made in championship football. They sat future hall of fame running back LaDanian Tomlinson for most of this game with no real reason for doing so. In the end, the Patriots horrid offense was still good enough to beat a Chargers team that was minus one great player. This says a lot about the Patriots.

In the eventing game Brett Favre decided that his game was only two and half quarters long and packed his stuff up midway through the third quarter. Yes, I know the temperature was a mild -4 degree Fahrenheit with a wind chill factor of -24 degrees. But the Packers live in the cold. They invented football on ice. Brett Favre should have had this game in the bag.

Instead he handed to game, literally, to the totally outmatched New York Giants. They couldn’t muster up nothing. So rather than putting a kife in them, in overtime, the Packers decided to give them the ball in Packer territory. Yeah, ok. Any quarterback could have won the game in that circumstance. In the end, the Packers showed they are not nearly as good as the Patriots, who, despite playing as bad you can on offense, can still win a football game.

Super Bowl XLII Prediction

New York Giants: 17
New England Patriots: 21

New England needs one more win to make history all over again this year. They beat the Giants a month ago and they will beat them again. The Giants, coming off a huge win at Green Bay, know they did not play a great game against a great team. They played an OK game against a garbage team. New England, at its worst, is better than anyone else at their best.

Look for New England to be just a tad conservative early but to put this one out of reach early. New York will make a charge toward the end, but the Patriot defense will do what it always does: win this game and break history.