I’m finally ready to talk about the Super Bowl. What a disappointing game. I’m not sure which loss was worse, this one or the AFC Championship game to the Colts the year before. To think we were just a few plays from being 19-0, the greatest team in history, etc. So awful.  To go from winning every single game during the regular season, a crazy comeback against the Colts, dominating 40 point wins to losing the Super Bowl like this is just terrible.
This game left me with lots of questions:

• Why couldn’t the Patriots make the adjustments to block the Giants’ pass rush?
• Was Brady’s injury slowing him from ducking their rush?
• Why couldn’t we get any pressure on Peyton Manning?
• And the one that really bothers me - Why did we pass the ball three straight times when were on the goal line trying to take the lead with a little over 2 minutes to play? I know that our team was pass-happy this year, but still thats a situation where you should ALWAYS run the ball. If you have the chance to give the ball back to the other team with an extra minute and a half off the clock, you do it. In addition to running be safer, etc. Why, why, why did we pass three times?

The day is finally here. Patriots vs Giants. A rematch of an incredible game from 5 weeks ago. A chance for the Patriots to make history and go 19-0. The Super Bowl. Let’s take a look at the matchup.

Lets look at the Patriots offense vs the Giants defense. In the Patriots last two playoff games, the opposing teams have kept Randy Moss well covered and forced the Patriots to run the ball or throw short to Wes Welker and Kevin Faulk. The Giants, however, are more of a team that will blitz more in an attempt to get to Tom Brady. These blitzes will leave some of the wide receivers open downfield if Brady has time to throw. In the first matchup, Brady was only sacked once and hit a long TD pass to Moss on a blitz. This time around, the Patriots have two more starting offensive linemen back that they didn’t have in the last matchup. I expect to see the Patriots hold the Giants blitz off enough for Brady to make some long throws. I expect the Patriots to score touchdowns on the majority of their drives (6 of 8 maybe?).

On the other side of the ball, the Patriots defense didn’t play too well last time. The Giants scored touchdowns on all four of their trips into the redzone. That will have been a point of emphasis in the Patriots practices this week. The key things the Patriots defense has to do are to pressure Eli Manning, stop Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, and cover Plaxico Burress. In the last matchup, Manning looked great against the Pats defense until they started blitzing, the pressure forced him into some bad throws, including an interception. With the pressure the Patriots offense puts on the Giants offense as well, forcing them to try to score on nearly every drive, I expect Manning to be pressured into some bad throws again. I also expect to see some more frequent blitzes from the Patriots defense early in the game.

On special teams, the Giants scored a touchdown on a kickoff return in the last matchup. I don’t expect that to happen again. The Patriots I’m sure have studied that and the special teams will ensure that doesn’t happen again. Especially with Kelley Washington playing as well as he has lately.

My prediction: Patriots 42, Giants 24.

Predicted stars of the game:

• Offensive line - gives Brady the time he needs to hit some big throws against the blitz
• Randy Moss - catches 1 or 2 long passes
• Kevin Faulk - comes up huge again, making some nice blocks and catching short passes
• Tom Brady - nearly perfect in the pursuit of perfection
• Mike Vrabel - will be big in pressuring Eli Manning
• Ty Warren - same, also a force against the running game
• Junior Seau - will play like a madman, with some big hits and maybe a turnover
• Kelley Washington - some big special teams stops

With Brady struggling and unable to throw accurately, the Patriots found yet another way to win, with great running by Laurence Maroney and great red zone defense. Brady looked like hwas off the entire night. Even the passes that he completed were more often due to great catches by the receivers on poor throws than by accurate throws. Brady also threw 3 interceptions in the game, including one in the endzone. So what do the Patriots do? They go with the ground game with Laurence Maroney as well as the short screen passes to Faulk, Maroney, and Stallworth. The Patriots most impressive drive was at the end of the game, when the Patriots got the ball with 9:13 left and kept the ball until the clock hit 0:00.

What a game by the defense! The Chargers had the ball inside the 20 yard line 3 times and the Patriots held them to a field goal all three times. There were some great individual defensive plays in the red zone, including a defensed pass by Tedy Bruschi, a backfield tackle by Junior Seau, and a great tackle in the flat by Ellis Hobbs. Add in two interceptions, and thats a very impressive performance.

Who were the stars of this game?

• Kevin Faulk - He made some incredible catches on the last drive to keep it alive a few times, including a diving catch followed by a catch of a ball that was quite a bit behind him.
• Laurence Maroney - 25 carries for 122 yards and a TD - nuff said.
• The O-line - Great once again, giving Brady time and opening some big holes for Maroney.
• Junior Seau - Some great plays, including the defensed pass in the endzone.
• Tedy Bruschi - Bruschi was disruptive and making some plays all over the field today.
• Ellis Hobbs - Some good defensive play, a good tackle in the endzone, and an interception.
• Rodney Harrison - No penalties for once, and he hit on his blitzes, forcing Rivers into some bad throws.
• Kelley Washington - More great special teams play by Washington, including downing a punt inside the 5 yard line.

And on the bad side?

• Tom Brady - He was more inaccurate than I’ve ever seen. His final stats were 22/33 for 209 yards, 2 TD’s and 3 INT’s. But I think the stats make him look better than he was, as a lot of the completions were great catches of bad passes, and some other passes were only incompletions because the wide receiver batted the ball away from the defender.

Another big win for the Patriots.  The big story of this game was the performance of Tom Brady.  Brady was nearly perfect, going 26 of 28 (with both incompletions being dropped passes).  The Jaguars worked hard to make sure nothing got open deep and covered Moss well, leaving Brady to take the short passes in the middle.  The Patriots drove down the field to score touchdowns on their first two drives of each half.  Their third drive of the first half was stalled by a 15 yard chop block penalty, and their third drive in the second half was stalled by Wes Welker’s dropped pass.  But they still scored on 5 of the 6 drives where they tried to score.  Another big part of this offensive performance was Laurence Maroney, who ran for 122 yards on 22 carries.  With the Jags playing back off the line to stop the deep pass, Maroney was able to run well.

Defensively, it didn’t look pretty, as the Jaguars easily drove down the field to score on their first drive.  They also made some long drives when starting inside their own 10 yard line.  While it didn’t look good appearance wise, the defensive performance was actually pretty good statistically.  They held Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew to a combined 66 yards rushing.  They held the Jaguars, the second highest scoring team over the 2nd half of the season, to 20 points.  The forced two turnovers from Garrard.  The Jaguars had scored at 24 points in each of their last 11 games.

The Good:

• Tom Brady: 26 of 28 for 262 yards and 3 TDs.
• Wes Welker: 9 catches for 54 yards and 1 TD.
• Dante Stallworth: 3 catches for 68 yards, including some clutch catches down the stretch.
• Laurence Maroney: 22 rushes for 122 yards and 1 TD, plus 2 catches for 40 yards.

The Bad:

• Rodney Harrison: 2 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for 30 yards
• Chad Jackson: possibly the worst kick returning of the season, instead of hitting the holes, he ran for the sidelines

The playoffs are here!!!  The Jacksonville Jaguars are coming to Foxboro this Saturday night to play the New England Patriots.  I’ve been telling people for weeks that the Jaguars are the team that scares me the most in the playoffs.  Especially in bad weather, the Jags run game and run defense could make it a tough game.  Thankfully the weather is supposed to be clear, about 35 degrees and little wind.  While the Jags would do well in bad weather with their great run defense, their pass defense can’t match up with the Patriots wide receivers.  I expect the Patriots to come out in the shotgun and 4 or 5 wide and pass all day.  On the other side of the ball, the Jaguars have one of the best rushing games in the league with Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew.  The Patriots will probably stack 8 men in the box and dare the Jaguars to beat them through the air.  Garrard has been great at protecting the ball and not turning it over, but he’s not a QB who’s going to beat you through the air, either.  Special teams is another big concern as the Patriots have to stop Jones-Drew from breaking any big returns there either.  My prediction: Patriots 42, Jaguars 17.

The Patriots moved to 16-0 with this 38-35 win over the Giants.  Another exciting game from the Patriots.  It’s scary how easy the Patriots make these comebacks look now.  When the Giants took that 12 point lead in the third quarter, I thought to myself, now they’ll drive down and score, hold the Giants, and score again for the lead.  And they did just that, then followed it by an interception and another touchdown.

With this 16th win, the Patriots just completed the greatest regular season in the history of the NFL.  While the Dolphins only played two teams with winning records and NO playoff teams during their undefeated season in 1972, the Patriots have played 6 playoff teams including four division winners (Indy, San Diego, Pittsburgh, and Dallas).  And the Patriots beat these 6 playoff teams by an average of 19.67 points.  Crazy.

It was a tale of two halves.  A great first half followed by one of the worst offensive halves I’ve seen the Patriots play.  In the first half, we saw some huge runs by Maroney (his two longest of his career) and some good passing by Tom Brady (14 of 18 for 3 TD’s).  That left Brady and Moss both just one TD shy of tying the records for most TD passes and most TD receptions.  Everyone in the crowd was excited to see it happen.  Then Brady came out and had one of the worst halves I’ve seen him play.  In the second half he was 4 of 15 with 2 interceptions and a fumble.  Awful.  But we’re 15-0!!!

This was a pretty ugly game in this weather.  It didn’t ever seem to be really in doubt, but is was pretty ugly.  I was pretty unhappy with the offensive play calling, I think you can at least try to throw some of those short slant passes still.  The play calling seemed very predictable.  It was good to see Maroney get some yards and show that he can run it if we need it.  14-0!

Week 15 Predictions
Patriots 31 - Jets 14
Ravens 20 - Dolphins 17
Jaguars 23 - Steelers 20 OT
Browns 27 - Bills 20
Texans 27 - Broncos 24 OT
Colts 21 - Raiders 20
Chargers 21 - Lions 17
Titans 16 - Chiefs 14
Giants 24 - Redskins 21
Cowboys 28 - Eagles 20
Vikings 27 - Bears 14
Saints 24 - Cardinals 17
Buccaneers 20 - Falcons 10
Seahawks 21 - Panthers 16
Packers 24 - Rams 17
Bengals 24 - 49ers 20
Last Week:
Picked winning team: 14-2, 0.875
Against the spread: 10-6, 0.625
Picking over/under: 6-10, 0.375

That was quite a game by the Patriots.  Playing against a team with the #1 defense in the league and the #1 pass defense in the league, and what do they do?  They pass on all but 8 plays, racking up 399 yards passing.  The offensive line was incredible, keeping Brady safe (no sacks) as blitzes kept coming.  The ultimate proof of this is what happened after the Patriots stopped the Steelers on the 1 yard line.  The Patriots are backed up on their own 1 yard line and what do they do?  They come out with 4 wide receivers.  Never in my life have I seen that.  And they quickly get a 22 yard pass.  They nearly had a 99 yard TD drive, but only ended up with an 89 yard FG drive after Moss dropped one in the endzone.

Here’s a ridiculous stat:  The Patriots have scored touchdowns on 67% of their drives that started inside their own 20.  The next best after that is the Cowboys at about 14% and then the Jaguars at about 9%.  Most teams don’t score TD’s on 2/3 of their drives, period, let alone when they have to go 80-99 yards.

Heroes:

• The defense: After giving up 13 points in the first half, they held the Steelers scoreless in the 2nd half.
• The O-line: No sacks given up with all those blitzes coming
• Brady: As always, nearly perfect
• The WR’s: Moss, Welker, and Gaffney all had big games.

There was a great quote in Peter King’s MMQB column this week about Brady.  After Brady said “Well done is always better than well said. That’s been the motto of this team,” King asked where the line came from and how he learned to always say the right thing.  Brady’s response: “Ben Franklin said that. I learn from where we all have, my dad!”  Isn’t it great to have a team be 13-0 and still stay humble and always say the right thing?

Speaking of that, there’s a great article on ESPN right now about a reporter’s visit to Boston (currently the greatest sports city!?).  Here’s my favorite part:

In a cab on Saturday to go to the New England Sports Museum at TD Banknorth Garden, I tell the driver I’m in from out of town and attending the Patriots-Steelers game the next day.

“Should be a great game,” he says warmly.

“I don’t know,” I say. “The Steelers haven’t been playing well lately. And their best defensive player is hurt and probably isn’t going to play. That’s why that Anthony Smith guy is in there.”

“No, it’s going to be very, very close,” he says, sounding confident. “The Patriots haven’t been playing well either. Pittsburgh is a good team. It’s going to be close. Trust me. It will be close.”

Fast-forward some 30 hours later and I’m sitting in traffic on Route 1 after the Patriots finish off the Steelers 34-13 — easily covering the spread by more than 10 points. “It’s going to be very, very close,” Mr. Friendly, Humble Cab Driver?

On to the Jets!