Super Bowl Time! (Casey)

Well on Sunday Febuary 5th 2012 the annual unofficial holiday known as the Super Bowl will take place in Indianapois Indiana and it will feature the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Now in a previous post I couldn't have been further off for my predicted Super Bowl teams (Saints vs Ravens) but I began thinking about it and this game should be pretty exciting. I know we have already seen this game once before (17-14 Giants in Super Bowl XLII) but these two teams are different and they should put up alot of points.

• First off in there last meeting in 2008 Eli Manning had some late game heroics that ended up helping them win the game. I think this year it may come down to that again but this time Eli is more seasoned and has an amazing group of recivers around him (Victor Cruz, Mario Manningham, Hakeem Nicks, Jake Ballard) and 2 bruising running backs (Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw) to help move the ball up and down on this Patriots D that has played well in the playoffs but statistically during the year has been horrible. The Giants Defense is awesome. The Front 4 with Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora, and Chris Canty are in my opinion better than the D-line from there last Super Bowl team. There Linebackers are good but are going to be tested this game as well as there secondary. If the Giants can get pressure on Tom Brady they will be able to control this game but if they don't look out.
• Now for the Patriots. Bill Belichick is an evil genious and when you give him and Tom Brady time they can pick apart the other team and impose there will. Brady threw for over 5000 yard this year and this offense is really good IF Brady is on. During the AFC championship he admited to being off so dont expect that to happen again. The big thing in my mind that the Patriots have over the Giants is the matchup between the TE's and the Linebackers. Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez are beasts and will line up anywhere on the field.They are so big, strong and fast that Linebackers have a real hard time staying with them so look for Brady to continue to target them. But also because all the focus will be on those two look for "The Sneeky One" Wes Welker to have a big game. The Patriots Offensive line will be tested all day and I would imagine we can look forward to seeing little dink and dunk passes as well as some screens thrown to neutralize the Giants agressive defense.  The Patriots D is somewhat of a mystery. During the regular season they ranked at the botttom of the league in total defense but during the playoffs they have held there opponents to a total of 30 points. Vince Wilfork has been a stud in the middle of the D line and Brandon Spikes and Jerod Mayo have been playing well. But that secondary will have its hands full with the Giants WR's.

So with all that said I will take you back to week 9 where the New York Giants went into Foxboro and beat the Patriots 24-20. This is going to be about the same outcome. Look for the Giants to get pressure in Tom Bradys face and look for the Giants to finally establish a run game and control the clock and keep the ball out of Bradys hands. The 2008 Super Bowl between these 2 was a classic and this one should not disappoint. I have the Giants winning again late 23-20 with a Tynes FG.