The 2008 NFL Playoffs

[The Cid]

If Eli Manning will somehow win this game, maybe he should start doing those Priceless Pep Talks commercials.

"So I hear your little brother went deeper than you did in the NFL playoffs. Tough break. But hey, you can always do commercials."

[ampersand]

If I can try (and Vista doesn't seem to like games that aren't for Vista), I might fire up the ol' Madden 08 and see how it might project the Pats v. Giants game. I'll have to work both sides manually since Madden tends to get a really insane final score like 62-45 as a final score if I just let the computer play itself.

This one is a toughie. Since they've played once before, and it was pretty close, either it will be a really close game or the Patriots will win going away. So either it will be really close, or it will be a New England blowout.

[The Cid]

No matter how advanced Madden gets, the AI sucks at defensive game plans. Sure, as you pump up the difficulty it becomes harder to run up the middle, and the opponent's offense gets really good, but the pass defense and the outside run defense never improves.

If you listen quietly at night, you can hear Tiki Barber crying himself to sleep. (You can also hear members of the New York Giants thanking the heavens for answering their prayer that Barber would just go away.)

Serious question: Suppose the Giants manage to win this game. At 18-1 but without a championship, do the Patriots still get mentioned in "best single season team of all time"-type discussions, or do they join the 2005 Colts and 1998 Vikings; their greatness forgotten because of one loss?

[Deacon]

If you listen quietly at night, you can hear Tiki Barber crying himself to sleep. (You can also hear members of the New York Giants thanking the heavens for answering their prayer that Barber would just go away.)

Why? I don't get it. Is it because Tiki was critical of the Giants this year?

Serious question: Suppose the Giants manage to win this game. At 18-1 but without a championship, do the Patriots still get mentioned in "best single season team of all time"-type discussions, or do they join the 2005 Colts and 1998 Vikings; their greatness forgotten because of one loss?

Neither of those teams went 18-1. If the Giants somehow manage to luck out a win this many playoff games in a row, then they should get some sort of mention. The reality is that the Patriots seem to be the best team in the league this year with a record that's really unheard-of so far. It has to bear mention in the annals of football history and may go down as famous as the '72 Dolphins and be the seal on the Hall of Fame entry for a number of players.

[ampersand]

I kind of agree with Deacon. The only that would happen in a Giants victory is members of the '72 Dolphins team pass around dozens of bottles of champaign to the Giant's team and celebrate that the Dolphins still are the only team that went undefeated for the entire season.

Yet another reason why I would like the Patriots to win.

[The Cid]

Why? I don't get it. Is it because Tiki was critical of the Giants this year?

...And last year, if you'd recall. But mostly because Barber, a long-time Giant who was still considered one of the league's best backs when he left the league last year, is watching his team do more without him than they did with him.

Neither of those teams went 18-1.

No, but the Vikings went 16-2. So did the Colts actually.

The reality is that the Patriots seem to be the best team in the league this year with a record that's really unheard-of so far.

Well, actually, the 1985 Bears went 18-1, won the Super Bowl by a ton, and the team they lost to had Dan Marino at quarterback (little shame in that). So it's untouched, but unheard-of? Well, I'm not so sure about that.

It has to bear mention in the annals of football history and may go down as famous as the '72 Dolphins and be the seal on the Hall of Fame entry for a number of players.

Well, I'd say Brady's HOF-entry was already sealed before the season, but I'll go with the HOF comment. Moss would have been an iffy selection before this, because of his "me-first" nature and his inability to catch passes in Oakland. Now between this season and his years in Minnesota, he seems a lock.

Now when you say "as famous as the '72 Dolphins," that's one thing. The regular season the Pats had is going to live on no matter what. But as I've said before, few football experts consider the '72 Dolphins one of the best teams of all-time when compared to the Steel Curtain of the late '70s, the Bill Walsh/Joe Montana 49ers or the 1985 Bears. If the Patriots win this game, they will have a better record than all of those teams. Even if they lose, their 18-1 record ties the Bears for the most wins any NFL team has ever had in a season.

But do they still make it into that discussion? Do people compare these Patriots to the other best teams of all-time even if they lose to the Giants?

[Deacon]

Yes.

[The Cid]

I kind of agree with Deacon. The only that would happen in a Giants victory is members of the '72 Dolphins team pass around dozens of bottles of champaign to the Giant's team and celebrate that the Dolphins still are the only team that went undefeated for the entire season.

Yet another reason why I would like the Patriots to win.

I never liked the whole champagne popping thing that the '72 Dolphins have done every year. What worries me though is that these Patriots seem like the type to act like that too. Wanna bet that twenty years down the road Tom Brady and Randy Moss pop champagne when the last undefeated team loses?

I'm not sure who I'm rooting for in the Super Bowl. On one hand, I stopped liking these Patriots last year when they danced on San Diego's logo following their victory over the Chargers in the playoffs. I can't stand their attitude one bit, and in many ways they remind me of a certain baseball franchise I've always rooted against. In short, they come off as the bad guy.

On the other hand, their bad guy is more of a Tony Montana, or even Jimmy Conway "bad guy;" as opposed to that baseball team's Darth Vader/Sauron "bad guy." They're not an "evil empire," they just getting what they want through any means necessary and DAMN they're good at it! I never held that arrogant swagger against Michael Jordan and his Bulls. And I tolerated Warren Sapp's antics when he helped the Bucs win a Super Bowl. There's something that even the most adamant Patriot detractor has to just stop and admire about this team.

They might not always look like the best team in football history (like when Philadelphia's backup QB and Baltimore's backup QB had them on their heels for three quarters), but even in their tight games you knew they have another gear. Their schedule might not have been the strongest in history, but they beat a very good (albeit shorthanded) Colts team, a very good Pittsburgh squad, a surprising team out of Cleveland, arguably the best team Dallas has had since Super Bowl XXX, the Giants, a tough Jaguar team and an excellent (but again, shorthanded) Charger team.

If they lose, the Patriots as a team will be served the same "humble pie" that their coach serves up to each player. I'll enjoy that. I'll enjoy watching Pretty Boy Brady (the Football Jeter) get knocked down a notch, and watching Randy Moss get his just desserts in front of the world at large. On the other side of that will be the Giants, who are by no means the best team of all time. They're not even the best team their franchise has ever fielded--not by a long shot even! Yet a win over New England, improbable though it may be, would vault them into immortality with their crosstown rivals. They'd join the Jets of Super Bowl III as the biggest upset victors in Super Bowl History. (Also at that table? The 2001 New England Patriots, who were two touchdown underdogs in Super Bowl XXXVI.)

And if they win, New England will have done something that the NFL has made strides against for some fifteen years now; they'll have dominated the league. The League doesn't really like dominant teams, as they mess with the "any given Sunday" myth that any team can win any week. But New England isn't one for league rules anyway, considering one of their best players was suspended for HGH at the beginning of the season and they kinda got caught videotaping the Jets' sideline in week 1. With a win in the Super Bowl, New England becomes the most successful football team in history, statistically speaking. This team has been amazing--just something awesome to watch when they get going.

I'm rooting for football. Screw the season, screw the stories about the best team ever or David felling Goliath once more; I want to see a Super Bowl that no football fan that watches it will ever forget.

[The Cid]

Because the Super Bowl isn't done to death or anything, here's some more of my thoughts on the subject.

-As I said before, both teams are worth rooting for this time around. In fact, I'd have to say the Giants of this season are the most likable New York sports team in recent memory. There aren't any real thugs on the team, they're pretty well-grounded for a Super Bowl team from New York, they play an old school style of football and they're the underdogs.

-Another thing about these Giants worth mentioning is that they remind me of the 2001 Patriots, the underdogs that won Super Bowl XXXVI. Never underestimate the power of a large-scale underdog in the Super Bowl. Speed of lightning. Roar of thunder.

-I've been here for a while now. I have seen a lot of stuff about the Bill Belichick Patriots. And there's something important to mention about this Brady ankle thing: Belichick loves screwing around with injury reports. If he can make anywhere near a reasonable claim that a player's "questionable," or "a game-time decision," he will--even if the player was never really hurt to begin with. What I'm hinting at is that I think this thing with Tom Brady's ankle was essentially made up to mess with the Giants.

-The NFL is ridiculous. I don't understand what the deal is with the Super Bowl being treated in the same fashion other leagues treat their All-Star games. The game is awesome, don't get me wrong, but the hype surrounding the game is insane! Two weeks of the same analysis over and over and over again, with a "media day" in the middle that causes players to say really stupid stuff that non-sports fans find very funny. It's silly. Football, more and more, is taking a back seat so the networks can include audiences that don't give a damn about football.

-Furthermore, I want the league to stop with the "game has to be in a dome or warm-weather stadium" crap. Especially if they're going to put a two-week party in the host city every year. For one, football can be played in cold weather, and if it snows that makes the game more entertaining most of the time. Also, there are a lot of great cities in varying types of "cold weather" that would host killer Super Bowl parties. But screw the festivities anyway--this is about football and celebrating football. Here's a concept: Super Bowl at Lambeau Field. The "festivities" would just be a two week long beer and brat fest. It'd be a football Woodstock.

-...Alright, I'll admit it. I have another reason for rooting for New England. The idea that the Red Sox and Patriots could hold World Championships at the same time--again--while the Celtics are a serious competitor for a title...how ya like 'dem apples?

[Martin Blank]

Here's a concept: Super Bowl at Lambeau Field. The "festivities" would just be a two week long beer and brat fest. It'd be a football Woodstock.

I would go even if I could not get tickets to the game itself. The party alone would be worth it, and I'd find a good pub from which to watch the actual game.

[ampersand]

I had to think about what I could foresee happening at the Super Bowl and what will probably happen. It pretty much came down to two scenarios:

Scenario I: Patriots win in a romp. We're talking shattering the spread or coming very close to it and it's not a contest from the get-go. We're talking something like Patriots 49, Giants 3 or something even far more outlandish. Given what the Patriots did in the first two months of the season, it could well be 56- 0 Patriots by half time, and they are that cocky enough to turn another 28 points in the second half and just utterly humiliate the entire league by a 84 to 3 final. We're taking about final scores you'd only find on a Madden game. And I could see just such a case happening.

Scenario II: It's really close and might possibly go into overtime. This was the outcome of the game in Week 17, and quite possibly it might have been the game of the NFL regular season. It really helped both teams to get where they are now, so in once sense we really should not have been that surprised this was to be the Super Bowl preview. The Giants are in a plucky place of history. They're going to be known either way, as being the last team to fall towards an unprecedented 19-0 perfect season, or somehow pull out a victory that may overtake their soon-to-be vacated meadowland companion's other famous come from behind victory. (Plus, there's also an eerie sense of how similar this game seems to be to both the original Patriots victory against the Rams --- which is now being somehow considered questionable because of apparently how the Patriots may have done to the Rams what they later did to the Jets, and to the Pittsburgh run a few years ago where they became the first 6th seed to go all the way and win, only the Giants are a 5th seed.)

In the end, while I wouldn't be surprised with an improbable Giants victory, the Patriots are too professional and too prepared not to win. But it will be close. 17-14, Patriots in a close and low-scoring affair.

[The Cid]

Because it doesn't mean anything, let me go ahead and make a quick pick.*

27-24 New England
MVP: Wes Welker

Note: Pick is subject to being horribly wrong.

No time to explain. Gotta go. Cheers.

[Martin Blank]

I want 2-0 anybody.

Even better: 4-2 anybody.

[Kyros]

21-17 G-Men..yeah!

Seriously, go Giants.

[The Cid]

I want 2-0 anybody.

Even better: 4-2 anybody.

Seriously, that would be the best game ever.