411's NFL Super Bowl Weekend Roundtable

Posted by Sat on 02.01.2008

Will the Giants play the spoiler, or will the Patriots attain perfection? Come on into see what the 411 staff thinks!

Welcome to the 411 Staff Roundtable for the NFL 2008 Super Bowl. Let's get right into the action.

The participants…

Ken Schmidt (1-3 in the Wild Card Round, 2-2 in the Divisional Round, 1-1 in the Championship Round, 4-6 Overall), writer of the Sports Kid Ranking NBA and the Sports Kid Ranking NHL.

Jerome Cusson (2-2 in the Divisional Round, 2-2 Overall), writer of Freakin' Sweet Forum, Hanging Out With Friends, Goin' Down to South Park, and Going to the World of Tomorrow

Larry Csonka (1-3 in the Wild Card Round, 3-1 in the Divisional Round, 1-1 in the Championship Round, 5-5 Overall), the boss, who writes 4Rs, Fact or Fiction, My Take On, ECW on Sci-Fi Report, 4Rs: PPV Edition, Your News, My Views, RAW report, and Wrestler of the Week

John Meehan (2-2 in the Wild Card round, 3-1 in the Divisional Round, 2-0 in the Championship Round, 7-3 Overall), writer of the MeeThinks Friday FreeThinks

Ian Smart (3-1 in the Wild Card Round, 1-3 in the Divisional Round, 1-1 in the Championship Round, 5-5 Overall), writer of High and In Tight

Sat (2-2 in the Wild Card Round, 2-2 in the Divisional Round, 1-1 in the Championship Round, 5-5 Overall), writer of the High Road/Low Road, which should be up sometime Friday.

February 3, 2008
The New York Giants (13-6) versus the New England Patriots (18-0)

Ken Schmidt: Patriots - Ok this is not going to be a big surprise to anyone because I picked against the Giants, always, and I am not changing here. As a matter of fact I doubt anyone in America, besides the really naive diehard Giants fans believe they have a chance at this one, so I am going to go as far as to say they will cover the double digit spread. The only strong point of the Giants, other than an offense that is not making mistakes, would be the best defensive line in football. Well, they might get to Brady a couple times but no where close to what they need to do to win. The Pats protect their quarterback and they are going to make sure that happens this weekend. Have fun watching the game because it shouldn't be a very close one; just make sure to tip your delivery drivers if you order pizza.

Jerome Cusson: Patriots - If this was anyone except the Patriots, I would take the Giants. The little team that could is on an incredible roll and for one of the rare times in sports, a loss may have helped more than hurt a team. A great deal of credit should be given to Eli Manning for stepping up to the plate and proving that he is a good NFL quarterback. The Giants defense has played incredibly well, particularly in shutting down the Green Bay Packers' running game. Meanwhile, the Patriots defense struggled mightily against the Jaguars and Chargers at times. Not to mention the injury to Tom Brady as well as Randy Moss' own distractions. However, after going 16-0 and with a guy like Belichick coaching the game, I can't see the Patriots losing now. They've come too far and it's time for this incredible journey to come to an end. I think any double-digit spread is outrageous and disrespectful to what the Giants have accomplished these last three weeks. Patriots win this game, but not until the fourth quarter. Final score: 28-24.

Larry Csonka: The New York Football Giants - So here we have it, the New York Giants (13-6) versus New England Patriots (18-0) in the biggest game of the year. It is no secret that I have been down on Eli, and while I admit that he has done well in the playoffs (I am still not convinced) I do have to laugh at the people on his nuts as of late. Stuff like, "Eli holds onto the ball too long" has magically transitioned into "Look at the poise Eli has in the pocket." Make up your mind people. But the Giants are on a run; to me this reminds me of the Steelers like run from their last Super Bowl year. They have looked very good with wins of 24-14, 21-17 and 23-20. All of these wins on the road and all of these games were hard fought victories that were won because the Giants played for 60-minutes. There is no doubt that they have earned their way to the Super Bowl. You see, that is why the Patriots have racked up the 18-0 record thus far, every game they have gone into and they have played for 60-minutes. Top that off with the cult like mentality that Bill Belichick installs into all of his payers and it is a recipe for success. They ended the regular season with a hard fought win over the Giants (38-35) and then defeated the Jaguars and Chargers, 31-20 and 21-12 respectively. While the Patriots have continued to win, I feel that their dominance has slid from earlier in the season. And now we have the "ankle injury" situation with Brady. He did well enough to beat the Chargers and his line gives him the time he needs. He has Moss as the big weapon, although he hasn't performed that well in the playoffs, but he always has the chance break out at anytime. But if he isn't 100%, which he won't be he'll have to check down a lot, which isn't that bad a thing and Welker could have a huge game in that role. While everyone and their mother seems to be on the 19-0 bandwagon, and they have every right to be, I am going to go with the Giants here. I think the Defense will be out for blood and if Brady gets rocked early, that could be the game.

John Meehan: Pats - Shameless self promotion factoid #11068: See how -->this guy<-- has the site's best playoff prediction record? Well if I've learned anything in this postseason, it's that best way to predict the outcomes of playoff matchups is simply to pick the *opposite* teams that Boss Larry chooses. Partly for spite (but largely for simple and unavoidable fact), I'm not going to break from that trend here. But let's talk football here for a second. The Giants are a much better team than any of my fellow New England superfans will admit, and their defensive front in guys like Osi and Strahan could easily put the pressure on and make a game out of it (after all, "defense wins championships," no?). That said, their secondary is simply too shallow and too beat up to fend off the star-studded receiving corps that the Pats are gonna' throw at them in guys like Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, and -- oh yeah -- Randy Moss. And in good weather (with a healthy ankle)? Tom Brady is simply not the guy you wanna' go betting against this late in the postseason. On the other side of the ball, though the Pats defense is undeniably "veteran" (NFL's dirty code word for "aging"), "old timers" like Mike Vrabel, Teddy Bruschi, and (yup, even) Junior Seau are still playing some of the best football of their careers (not to mention Asante Samuel!), and Eli is going to need a lot of help from Plaxico (& Co.) if he's going to stand a chance of moving the ball downfield now that the Pats have had their "wake-up-call" and seen what the G-Men could do in week 17. Bottom line? I'm calling this one a closer game than most, so if I'm betting on who walks away with the spread? It's New York all the way. But if we're betting on who walks away with the Vince Lombardi Trophy? Hands down, it's the New England Patriots.

Ian Smart: New England Patriots - The New York Giants have come a long way, but their run is going to stop in Glendale when they meet the juggernaut Patriots. There is a long way and a short way to make my point about this game. The long way includes looking at the matchups, chronicling how the Patriots are better under center, at wide-receiver, on the offensive line, and in the defensive secondary. It includes speaking to how the Patriots' bookend tackles will be able to slow down Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora and how the Giants cannot cover the Patriots in four-wide receiver sets or stop the Patriots' pass-rush. The explanation will concede that Plaxico Burress has a size advantage on Asante Samuel, so he could have a game similar to the one he had against Al Harris, but we all know that Bill Belichick has been watching game tapes for two weeks, and is capable of making the mid-game adjustments that Mike McCarthy failed to put in place. Normally I would point to statistical variances that show that throughout the season the Patriots have been the best team and that the Giants have succeeded because their opponents have performed poorly. The longer reasoning will point to the effectiveness of the Patriots to win in high scoring games, which Sunday's game will most certainly be. But all the explanations in the world end at a single point. The Patriots are 18-0 for a reason. They are the very best football team in the league, and it can be argued that they are the best team ever. Top to bottom, they are the superior team and the only way that they will not win on Sunday is if they fail to execute the way that they have done all season. And when you come to recognize that fact- that this game is the Patriots' to lose- the prediction is simple: Patriots win the Super Bowl and finish 19-0.

Sat: New England Patriots - I have picked the Giants to lose in each of the rounds so far and it hasn't happened. Well, I am very confident that it will happen this time. First, the Patriots are 18-0 for a reason and that is because they are a good team. The Giants and the Patriots played during the last game of the regular season and it was a close game. The game was at Giant Stadium and the Patriots won. Now, we all know that the Giants play much better on the road, so they should win this game. But, there are a few things that are making me lean towards the Patriots. First, I think that the Patriots are too good on offense for the Giants. Second, Belichick and the coaches have had two weeks to prepare for the Giants and I don't see Belichick losing with two weeks to prepare. I see the Giants keeping it close for awhile, but midway in the third quarter I see the Patriots pulling away.

The 411: Patriots 5 Giants 1