Well, when the playoffs began, I said that the Super Bowl would be contested between New England and New Orleans. I have a chance to be half right. Carrying my 5-3 playoff record with me into Championship Sunday, I make the following predictions:
AFC, Ravens at Patriots. I know that the Ravens play good defense, and defense wins championships, blah blah blah. I also know that New England has yet to beat a team this season that finished with an above-.500 record. And I know that Baltimore beat the Patriots in the playoffs at Foxboro last season. I also know what I saw last week when the Patriots completely dismantled Denver, another team that plays pretty good defense. I just think that New England is peaking at the perfect time and that even if the Ravens can somehow exploit a suspect New England defense, there is no way that Tom Brady loses in a shootout with Joe Flacco. PATRIOTS to win.
NFC, Giants at 49'ers. Talking about a team that is peaking at the exact right time, the New York Giants fit that description to a tee. Two very good defensive teams going against each other in this one, so I think the quarterbacks will decide this one. While Alex Smith surprised most everyone with that outstanding game against the Saints last week, I think that Eli Manning is playing at an elite level this season. In what will probably be the better game of the two, the GIANTS win at Candlestick.
This avoids the Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh Super Bowl for which the media hype machine is no doubt praying, but a rematch of the Pats-Giants Super Bowl of four years ago should be able to feed the Media Beast well enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment