Super Bowl XLII Tournament: Championship Round
The media focus this week in the NFL is on the two future hall-of-famers under center, and their destiny to face each other at UoP Stadium. But the thing TALB wants to know is, can the immortal Billy Volek step-up and take his team to the promised land? Is he going to get the chance? Does anyone want to see the Rivers-Manning Draft Day Trade Bowl instead? Will it snow as if the end times are upon us in Green Bay? Can you stand anymore questions in this intro?
Surprising San Diego, who yours truly dismissed quite some time ago, will face the 17-0 New England Patriots Sunday for the right to travel to the desert and take home Vince. I can’t see any way the Chargers defeat the Patriots though. In the wild-card round they fell behind early and had to rally to defeat a team that had no business being in the
playoffs to begin with. Then last week they benefited from drawing the under-prepared Colts. A team that couldn’t even stop their backups. While the Patriots are undefeated and haven’t let their foot off the gas, even a little bit, since September. Vegas has the Pats as two touchdown favorites.
About the only thing I can see working in the Bolts favor is the Randy Moss “situation“. But I’m guessing that since he hasn’t been a problem all year, and he’s not the focus of the offense, and Belichick doesn’t let this kind of ‘ish get to his team that it won’t be a problem. They will be focused and ready, and will walk out of Gillette with 18 victories to zero losses. Awaiting their opponent.
Patriots average over Chargers
Sunday 3 PM, CBS
Twelve hundred miles West, the Packers and Giants will suit up to figure out who is going to meet the Patriots. As I said in the column earlier this week I was waiting for the weather forecast, not great news for the Giants. The Giants would hope that this forecast holds and the snow falls earlier in the day. If it’s still coming down during the game,
they’ll be in trouble. Basically, the Giants’ swarming defense relies on speed. And, as seen last week against the Seahawks, the snow can stop the speed.
That being said, if the snow has stopped, and the Giants get a clear field Favre should be in trouble. This is the kind of team that will force him to take chances with the ball. And they’re also the kind of team that will take advantage of any miscues by the opponent. Well, that is if the Eli Manning we’ve seen for the last month is the same one who shows up at Lambeau. I can’t imagine he’s got four games worth of this mojo in him, history suggests he doesn’t. But maybe he’s found some kind of inner peace or something. Because if he goes back to the “old Eli”, then he’s the more dangerous QB (to his own team) on the field.
All of the above adds up, to TALB at least, to a Packers victory.
Packers close over Giants
Sunday 6:30 PM, Fox
Super Bowl XLII
Obviously, Pats vs. Pack
