Patriots Giants Super Bowl Picks
Written January 29, 2008 by Jack Jones
In one of the most hyped Super Bowls in recent years, the undefeated New England Patriots (18-0) will face the surging New York Giants (13-6). This is a rematch of the final game of the regular season when the Patriots were able to sneak out a 3-point victory at stadium. The Patriots will try and be the first team to finish the regular and post-season undefeated since the Dolphins went 14-0 back in ’72, but this will mark the first time a team has done it going 19-0. The Giants will get their second chance to stop the Patriots from making history, and one key element for the Giants could be that the game will not be played at home. The Giants are an amazing 10-0 on the road this year, and look to be the second team to win the Super Bowl by winning all four games on the road.
While the teams themselves should make one hell of a game, there are some interesting things to watch take place during the game. One is which quarterback will play better? If you were to ask this question just a few weeks back the unanimous decision would be Tom Brady, but Eli Manning has recently got into a rhythm that has him looking like he is ready to be an elite quarterback in the league. Brady is coming in what many say as a minor injury to his ankle, but that could play a huge role if the Giants d-line is able to put a big hit on him early. Who would of guessed that Eli would be the one who has yet to throw an interception this post-season? His last pick came late in the 4th quarter against the Patriots in the final regular season game.
Another story that has everyone talking is, what has happened to Randy Moss? He isn’t getting many catches and simply just isn’t even getting the ball thrown to him. A big part of this is the great amount of attention that defenses put on him, they figure if they can stop Moss then they can take away the biggest threat on the Pats offense. The cold weather has also hurts Moss’s impact on the game, the Patriots have went more to running the ball and short passes to Welker. With the weather set to be a lot warmer in Arizona, we look for Moss to have a big game.
The spread is 11.5 favoring the Patriots. The line started out at 14, but with a lot of action on the Gants the line has continued to drop. We really like the Patriots to come away with a big win here and put the critics to rest. You might wonder how the Patriots are going to go from beating the Giants by 3 to winning by almost two touchdown, we have a few reasons to back up our prediction. 1) The Patriots (Belichick) get an extra week to prepare a game plan to prevent what happened in week 17, when the Giants were able to put up 35 points. 2) The weather is going to play a huge role, think back to the beginning of the season when the Patriots were killing teams winning by margins well over the 11.5 spread. 3) Experience and star players will also play a big role. The Patriots are full of veterans who have been to the big game before and those who haven’t are players who know the magnitude of this game. On the other side of the field the Giants are full of young players who haven’t played on this big of stage. So take it for what its worth, we are predicting the Patriots to cover, and don’t be surprised if it gets ugly.
Our Pick: PATRIOTS -11