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They Might Be Giants
Britain’s Top NFL Broadcasters Exclusively Preview the Home Stretch
by Michael E Lawrence
22/11/2008
It being the festive season and all or as good as we got lucky this week when three wise men of a football disposition dropped in to shower gifts upon us. Are we talking gold, frankincense and myrrh? Lord no. The gift we unwrapped was a collective crystal ball priming the expectant Diner faithful for the final third of the regular season and beyond.
In layman’s terms not one, not two, but three of the broadcasting names we all know and love pitched in their thoughts on the how the rest of the NFL season will play out, exclusively for Football Diner.
The long and short of it? They like the Giants.
Now this isn’t to say there aren’t caveats, but generally speaking it’s the Super Bowl Champion G-Men who have caught the eye of Five’s Mike Carlson and Sky’s Neil Reynolds and Kevin Cadle, even if the spotless Tennessee Titans have raised a few admiring eyebrows along the way.
For Reynolds, they’re simply the two best teams in the league:
 You can’t look past the Giants and the Titans they’re both physical and they’re both built from the inside with strong lines on both sides of the ball. The Giants run it unbelievably well with Brandon Jacobs who’s as big as a defensive end and the speed of Derrick Ward and electricity of Ahmad Bradshaw. At playoff time that’s going to be a huge advantage.
The Titans are built the same, but importantly when LenDale White and Chris Johnson have been held in check the last two weeks, the passing game has got untracked and they’ve beaten teams through the air.
So could New Jersey’s finest finagle the first repeat championship since the 2003-2004 Patriots with a victory over the Titans come February?
As mouth-watering as it may sound, don’t bet on it, says Carlson:
The dream scenario for the media herd this season is an undefeated Titans team advancing to the Super Bowl where they meet a Giants squad entering the game as favourites to spoil a perfect season for the second year running. But I see that as unlikely.
 I agree the favourites have to be the Giants because they’re the most balanced team in the league, but they could be hurt by injuries: they don’t have much depth in their front seven defensively. As for the Titans, I suspect they may falter in the playoffs to a team getting hot at the right time, and for me Indy would be the most likely pick. That scenario also cries out for the Chargers to hit stride, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely, unless Norv Turner has an on-off switch he’s waiting to push.
The result?
If I follow the form book, it’ll be a Giants’ win over the Titans, but if I follow hunches, it’ll be the Giants over the Colts. Or vice versa.
As it happens, it seems Tennessee haven’t quite convinced all their early-season doubters anyway.
Cadle the only man who called the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII win over New England in our pundits’ Super Bowl preview likes New York to win it all again too, but reckons Tennessee are the third best team in the league at best:
 My tip is for the Giants to retain their Super Bowl crown. They’re the most complete team in the NFL at the moment with equally impressive offensive and defensive units and I see them in Tampa come February. Fans should keep an eye on Tennessee of course, but I don’t think their offense is as good as their defense and they’re just not as complete as the Giants or even Carolina.
Which throws the panthers right among pigeons.
So let’s go back to the drawing board. If we learned anything from 2007, it’s that Super Bowl teams might not yet be on the radar at the two-thirds mark of the regular season. This time last year the Giants were 7-3 and had just squeezed past unimpressive Detroit for a 16-10 win. No one imagined they’d win it all, not even Archie and Olivia Manning.
So who do our broadcasters reckon might sneak up the power rankings and make a lunge at the Lombardi Trophy before all is said and done?
For Reynolds there’s a bevy of candidates:
I still think the Green Bay Packers are a pretty good team they’re opportunistic and can make plays on both sides of the ball. They’re much better than 5-5 and I think they’ll end up taking the North. Dallas are a threat too now that Romo is back, and Carolina must be enjoying one of the quietest 8-2 seasons in NFL history.
In the AFC I like the Jets with Thomas Jones excelling as the star of that offense and Kris Jenkins playing like a man on a mission in the middle. Pittsburgh have had such a tough schedule that they’ll be battle tested come the post-season, but ultimately they don’t protect Ben Roethlisberger will enough. And keep a close eye on Miami, they’re exceeding all expectations.
 Like Carlson, Cadle thinks it’ll be Indianapolis just rounding into form this year after a 3-4 start who’ll face off against New York when only two teams are left standing:
The Colts will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. They will have to make it as a wild card along with New England, while the Titans, Steelers, Broncos and Jets win their respective divisions. In the NFC the Giants and Panthers will be joined by the Cardinals and Packers, with Dallas and Tampa qualifying as the wild card teams.
Carlson, ever the Football Swami, has his own formula for higher playoff bliss:
What I’ve done is look ahead at schedules, in a very general way, giving priority to schedule strength. That is, I didn’t pick individual results, but assumed that, for example, a team should win two of a three game stretch where I can’t really pick winners. Of course, anything can happen to change those picks.
The NFC has a real log jam behind the Giants and, odd as it sounds, the Cardinals for playoff spots. Right now I’d see the four division winners as the Giants at 13-3, Green Bay at 9-7, Carolina or Tampa at 10-6 and Arizona at 10-6. The other wild card team would be 10-6 Washington ahead of 9-7 Dallas. The Cowboys are, on paper, the better team, but they face the tougher run in.
In the AFC, this week’s New England at Miami game is absolutely crucial. If the Pats win, they, the Jets and Dolphins could all go into the last week 10-5, with the Jets and Dolphins meeting head to head and the loser still looking at a possible wild card at 10-6. If the Patriots lose Sunday, they too could still sneak that card at 10-6, but they face a much tougher run in than either of their two divisional rivals.
I see Tennessee finishing 15-1, maybe 14-2, with Indy a wild card at 11-5, maybe 10-6. The Steelers (10-6) edge the Ravens (9-7), while I think it’s likely that 9-6 Denver will travel to 8-7 San Diego in week 17, with the playoff spot riding on the game, though Denver could control the tie-breaker by that point.
Which is about as accurate as a prediction could hope to be.
And yet, as all our experts acknowledge, when push comes to shove you just never know what’s going to happen in the parity-era NFL. After all, on any Given Sunday, Saturday or Thursday
The funny thing is, after doing an exercise like this, says Carlson, it tells you very little about what might happen once the playoffs start anything can and does occur.
Reynolds couldn’t agree more: What ought to take place based on performance so far is the Giants taking on the Titans to decide Super Bowl XLIII. he says.
So you can be sure that something will happen along the way to prevent it.
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