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 Super Bowl XLII:
Polling the Pundits and Players
by Michael E Lawrence
2/2/2008
A Super Six including MoJo, Bethea, Halling and Cadle Read the Super Bowl Tea Leaves
Think the New England Patriots are undoubted Super Bowl XLII favourites? The way a panel of pundits and players we consulted call it, you’re half right. In a matchup that pits a New England team on the verge of history against a New York team lumped with wild card status, you might think there’s as much chance of a Giants win as there is of Tom Petty bodypopping at half-time.
Not with that hip.
But think again. In all, we talked to six NFL players and well-known UK TV analysts about Sunday’s season finale. How many picked the Giants to win?
Well, one.
 But as Diner consort Maurice Jones-Drew reminded us from Arizona: You can win or lose on any given Sunday, and it’s tough to beat a team twice in one season.
Only one man was prepared to back the underdogs outright, Sky TV’s steel-nerved Kevin Cadle, who sees striking similarities to New England’s first ever Super Bowl win at the start of the millennium. Only, this time, it’s the Giants who might play spoiler:
I reckon it’ll be 27-24 to the Giants, Kev told the Diner. I’m tipping the upset because no one fancies New York and it reminds me of 2001 when no one gave the Patriots a chance against St. Louis in New Orleans.
Moreover, Kev’s seen firsthand the kind of preparation Tom Coughlin’s boys have been doing:
I’ve just got back from Phoenix and the Giants are pretty confident. They’ve taken a lot from Week 17 when they ran New England close. And if the Giants win, Eli Manning has to be the favourite to be the MVP.
Nonetheless, across the desk, fellow Sky stalwart Nick Halling foresees perfection winning out.
I think the Patriots are going to win. I’ve said since week seven that the Patriots have the ability to do the impossible and go unbeaten all season, and I’m not going to change my view now.
But it’s not exactly a shut and closed case, he reckons, if the New York can only out-Belichick their foes:
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Giants can cause an upset. To do it, they might have to take a leaf out of Bill Belichick’s book. Back in Super Bowl XXV, when he was defensive coordinator with the Giants, they were getting ready to take on the offensive juggernaut of the Buffalo Bills.
“Belichick reasoned that the only way the Giants could win was to let Thurman Thomas rush for over 100 yards. It flew in the face of all logic, but it worked. Thomas got his 100 yards. But that meant that Jim Kelly was unable to hurt the Giants.
 So might we see New York surrendering the ground game intentionally?
New York would much rather see the ball in Laurence Maroney’s hands than coming out of Tom Brady’s. The question is whether the Giants have enough bottle to let Maroney have his yards.
Regular studio guest Scott McCready feels the same way the Patriots have beaten the Giants once this season, and they’ll do it again he says, but only just: It’s going to be close and high scoring, just like week 17 there’ll be lots of offense and lots of big plays. Everyone is looking to New England to complete the perfect season, but New York match up well against them and they’re playing better now than at any time of the season, so I won’t be surprised if they win. Still, my head and my heart says New England, with Tom Brady as MVP. Again!
There’s certainly no equivocation behind the camera down at Sky, with Producer Karl Baumann in little doubt it’ll be New England’s day. But will they run away with it?
I think the Giants will do some good things even take the lead at some point but this is New England’s year, they go perfect, and win it 34-21.
Simple as that.
But what about the individuals who actually compete in the NFL, the players who’ve actually taken on these teams? Do they see the Giants putting up a decent fight in Glendale?
Maurice Jones-Drew’s Jacksonville Jaguars were knocked off 31-20 by the Patriots in the divisional round of the playoffs. Can anybody stop them?
Absolutely, anything can happen New York’s defense is playing great, and their offense is playing great too, and I really like the matchup with the Giants defensive line against the Patriots offensive line.
Still, it’d be a brave man to bet against a New England team yet to lose a game, right?
The Patriots go out and prepare like every game is their last game, and they’ll need to play their kind of football, to ignore all the hype, said MoJo.
It’ll be physical, like all Super Bowls, and I actually don’t think it’ll be high scoring like it was in week seventeen. But really, I wouldn’t like to call it either way!
 Indianapolis safety Antoine Bethea is headed to his first Pro Bowl next week in place of injured Steeler Troy Polamalu. Way back in week nine though, his Colts succumbed in the fourth quarter to Randy Moss and the Patriots in a battle of the unbeatens. What will the Giants need do to prevent Moss running wild on Sunday?
It’s like everyone’s saying, they’ll have to pressure Brady to stop him hitting his receivers, and I’ll tell you what, they’ll need to play for 60 minutes, says Bethea.
So can the Giants pull it off?
Obviously, the Patriots are undefeated, and they’ve got a really good chance of winning, but both teams deserve to be there. It really depends on how they come out and perform from the start if one team’s on and the other is flat, it could be lopsided. Both teams will need to be up straight away, that’s the key.
As the 2007 NFL season approaches its grand finale then, everything’s set for the Patriots to finish off an unprecedented run of victories with a glorious Super Bowl XLII rampage in Arizona.
Just don’t write off the Giants crashing the party.
Sky Sports’ comprehensive live, high definition coverage of the Super Bowl, featuring Kevin Cadle, Scott McCready, Nick Halling, Shaun Gayle and Jeff Reinebold, begins 8pm Sunday.
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