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Superbowl XLVI

DCM

Man Skilled In All Ways of Contending
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official site.

You can take your favorite adage, "Defense wins championships" and stick it up your BCS National Championship Game—the Super Bowl is going to be all about the offenses, baby!
The tendency when analyzing this game will be to do two things, I believe—focus too much on how these teams have played in the playoffs and focus too much on the their matchup in the regular season.
To focus too much on the playoffs is to focus too much on the defenses in this game. Both have played well in the playoffs, with the Giants giving up only 39 points in their three games and the Patriots allowing 30 points in their two games.
But let's not forget that each team was extremely vulnerable against the pass in the regular season—the Giants ranking 29th in that regard and the Patriots 31st.
With two elite passing offenses set to face off, will the pass defenses from the regular season show up once again?
I believe so.


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Now, I know what you're thinking—hey Rapp, when these teams met in Week 9, the game was a defensive struggle for the first three quarters. Until a 31-point outburst in the fourth quarter, the Giants led a 10-3 game.
Rematches generally don't mirror the original game, of course. In 2007, the Patriots beat the Giants 38-35 in Week 17 of the regular season. But the Super Bowl rematch that year was a far more defensive game, with the Giants famously winning 17-14.
With two weeks to analyze that first tape and also study each and every weakness of the opposite team, I firmly believe the units that will be most taken advantage of in the game will be each team's secondary and linebackers.
The Giants will struggle all day long to match up with New England's talented tight ends. The Patriots will likely play two safeties deep over the top and be susceptible against New York's tight ends and even their running game, lame as that has been for the Giants all year.
Yes, the Giants can rush the passer effectively. No, I don't think they'll be effective enough to slow Tom Brady or a Patriots offense with two weeks to prepare to counter the Giants four-man pressure and bump-and-run coverage.
On the other side of the football, Eli Manning has been the best player in the NFL playoffs and has electric playmakers in Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. And Joe Flacco went 22-of-36 for 306 yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots defense, for heaven's sake.
So take the over set at 55.5 points if you're a betting man, get a prime seat at your Super Bowl party and don't turn away from the screen—you might miss the fireworks.
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as all of you football fans know, the Superbowl is February 5th. Who do you think is going to pull out the big win?

In my Opinion, Patriots have it in the bag. The last time the Giants beat us in the Superbowl, Brady was injured. Now, back at the top of his game, and with a great team around him, I have no question we're going to stomp the Giants.

(also, non-sports fans, please don't post 'oh, I don't like football, I only watch it for the ads.' That's not what the thread is about.)
 
I think the Patriots will win. However, the Giants might get lucky like they did against the Packers. Being a Wisconsinite, I believe that the Packers should have been in the Super Bowl and shouldn't have lost to the Giants.
 
Eh, I'm a Giants man.

I think the Giants might be lagging at first but I'm sure they will pull in a win like they did four years ago :p
 
as all of you football fans know, the Superbowl is February 5th. Who do you think is going to pull out the big win?

In my Opinion, Patriots have it in the bag. The last time the Giants beat us in the Superbowl, Brady was injured. Now, back at the top of his game, and with a great team around him, I have no question we're going to stomp the Giants.

(also, non-sports fans, please don't post 'oh, I don't like football, I only watch it for the ads.' That's not what the thread is about.)
I think the Patriots will win. However, the Giants might get lucky like they did against the Packers. Being a Wisconsinite, I believe that the Packers should have been in the Super Bowl and shouldn't have lost to the Giants.
You guys... now, I don't just quote you both because you both think the Patriots will win (not to say that such isn't fallacious).

But really?

The Patriots hardly have this thing in the bag--they already lost to the Giants this season, and arguably they didn't even seal up the last game they just played (having just escaped a prolonged game with the Raven missing a game-tying field goal--not that the Giants didn't necessarily "escape" either, though in the Giants-49ers game it can be argued as to who got what breaks at what times). As well, weapon most feared of theirs (not Brady, who is weapon-selector), Gronkowski, is questionable for the game.

Iirc, the Patriots are 3-point favorites, which is pretty low.

Per the Giants-Packers game (of most recent import), well, the Giants stomped the Packers, even as it was the Packers who were the beneficiaries of luck--I do believe that a fumble call was overturned by a ref, and ineligible to be challenged (or it might have been challenged but not overturned), even as it was shown to be a fumble. (The Steelers, as well, were the beneficiaries of a turnover-nullifying call in their game against Denver, which had the game a tie at the end of the fourth quarter.) Per the regular season game, the Packers did make an incredible show of offensive force by moving down the field in such little time at the game's very end, but that was a close game as well. Ultimately, I think that the Packers were simply exposed at the end of the season (too weak defensively giving up yards, over-reliant upon interceptions, without "undefeated mystique," and offensively exposed by the whole of the season), and that the Giants are the more exciting and deserving team.

~

Ultimately, I think that this game can't be compared to the game 4 years ago--it's interesting from one perspective, but the context of "Super Bowl Rematch" is much different from that of "Undefeated Team Goes For It All, Shoots to be Best EVer." That's not to say that Brady won't be inspired from talk of a rematch and of revenge, as he is clearly uber-competitive--still, I look only to recent history as to how this game may unfold.

I think the Giants will win, for this is the year of Eli Manning. (There were his remarks about being among or comparable to the qb elites, what could be called his living up to that, his ongoing spectacular season [the W/L of the Giants not nearly telling the whole story, especially as the Giants had one of the toughest regular season schedules of any team], his newfound dream receiver corps, and his rest from comparison to Peyton.) Well, less mystically, the Giants are capable of disguising many defensive schemes, and will probably have Brady agitated at some point (at which point his play tends to deteriorate). The Patriots probably will pull out some extremely clever crap though, to say nothing of the raw nightmare they'll be to plan for with Gronkowski. (Welker is a beast too though, and Hernandez is deadly if not prepared for; and Woodhead is actually a favorite player of mine, because he is used so uniquely.)
 
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I loved the halftime show.

And I think the Giants will still win.

They just gotta put some pressure on Brady and I'm sure he will squeal eventually.
 
Just saw the Halftime Show; I enjoyed it, but then again, I like Madonna.
I'm only watching for the ads.
Most of the ones I've seen were pretty meh. And I hate to say this, but the game is outright boring. Maybe it'll get better now that we're in the second half.

Same here, the ads were so meh I turned off the TV in the room i was in.
 
For a second I thought the Giants had it made, until the Patriots made a come back.

Waiting to see how this turns out.
 
Game could go either way at this point. biting my nails off watching it though.


EDIT: i think I just died a little on the inside.
 
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Funny how this was in a sense a repeat of 2008. Giants' coach was on the verge of being fired, he beats the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. As a Canadian, all I can say is, suck it Patriots.

Pretty good game. That last play was as close as it gets. Funny thing though, I just saw an image of what grade various states would give the Super Bowl. Nevada gave it an F - only state to do so. Vegas must be pissed. Word is, Boston Radio is usually entertaining after this as well.
 
I didn't watch the game in the best venue (I watched it in a setting where there were many annoying people who didn't care about the game [I shun conversation and social etiquette when watching football], and we all essentially watched the thing over the internet, and didn't see any of the unspoiled Super Bowl ads that aired during the event on TV [we also saw ads for the same things over and over]), but there were several things that were all so very interesting: especially at the very end. Bill Belichick's apparent decision to have the ball at the end of the game, down 4 or 6, will surely be analyzed in good degree. (Philosophically, I've figured in times afore that I might have similar calculations, but the failure of the Patriots in this instance was rather spectacular. I think I could also understand, develop and argue a case for the Patriots to have defensively exhausted their options first, but eh. [The Patriots might have had sound philosophy, as well, but, philosophy merely being philosophy, might not have yet known how to properly implement it.)

That said, the game might not have been altogether that interesting during the third quarter, but it was otherwise interesting all the rest of the time. The opening was great as well. I called the intentional grounding call on Brady that yielded the Giants two points, and when one the NBC commentators talked about Cruz being doubled, I knew Eli would throw to Hakeem Nicks. Not to brag, but I called some other events in the game as well.
 
I watched some of the game. First time I watched a Super Bowl that the Steelers didn't play in, actually. I'm a diehard Steeler fan since I'm from Pittsburgh and I love my home city so much, so yeah. I'm honestly happy that the Giants won! I have never liked the Patriots, but I do like the Giants. So yay Eli Manning and crew! :D
 
I honestly thought the Patriots were going to win it.

Also work today is going to suck. 99% of the office are die-hard football fans. Fuck.
 
I watched the last 20 seconds of the game, so whee.

Also, general consensus was that the ads were pretty bland this year.
 
I think Eli Manning deserved to win this season though. I mean, his brother may never come back to football because of his neck problem, and Peyton didn't even play this season because of it, so pulling out a win like that for his ailing brother was perfect for Eli. Kudos to him. :]
 
So glad Giants won......plus Halftime show -epic.

Madge, tisk tisk for the lip synching but stage and performance - great A little reminisent of Kylie Minogue's tours
 
I'm not the biggest fan of Madonna, but someone showed me the half time show she did. I've gotta hand it to her, being able to dance like that in high heels at her age is amazing. I can't even walk in those things and I'm almost a third her age.

I didn't see the game myself, but I knew who won pretty much the moment the game ended. There was loud cheering in the streets and even a broken window. Someone tossed a rock through the window of a guy who had Patriots memorabilia plastered all over his house.
 
I watched the last 20 seconds of the game, so whee.

Also, general consensus was that the ads were pretty bland this year.
The game seemed to get a bit more exciting in the latter half; the first half was just boring.

And the commercials were just awful. E*Trade, no more talking baby ads--they're tired. The Doritos ads weren't funny. The VW ad was bland compared to what they had last year. The only ones that I really liked were the Chrysler ad and the Chevy Camaro spot. The one from Chrysler was pretty inspiring while the Camaro ad (a teenager had just graduated and thought his neighbor's Camaro convertible was actually a gift to him) had me falling over laughing. Of course, it was a yellow Camaro so that was automatic win right there...

I missed the one spot I had really wanted to see--an ad for Transformers: the Ride at Universal Studios. Thank Primus for the internet.

I loved the Halftime show. Madonna was rockin' it with the She-Ra look. So awesome for an '80s kid like me. XD
 
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