Maybe, but you may be forgetting an important, possibly game-breaking element: NE is the NFL’s top-ranked field-goal-completion team and tops (12 for 13) in the 40-49-yard range. It will be a tight, close game that could very well be decided by special teams and NE’s field-goal capability, especially late in the game when, NE’s top-talented offense will almost certainly be able to get to get to at least midfield.
Link below is my detailed analysis if interested (I also forgot to include NE’s field-goal talent in the analysis).
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3249320/posts?page=77#77
Brady is one of the fastest at dumping the ball at 2.4 seconds. I don’t think the Pats will win on the deep ball, but Brady can win if he can keep finding people to catch it that quickly.
The Pats have a pretty good run game. Defense did a good job on the Colts, though the Colts dropped a lot of passes. I couldn’t believe that. Seattle’s O-line is a mess. Lynch is good, but he’s not a magician.
Seahawks are nowhere near 100 percent physically, and their line has been patchwork since week four. Like Arizona, its a miracle that they are back in the bowl.
As for the defense, it is amazing. They are just so fanatical about preparation and their expectations of performance. The most amazing thing about the GB game was that GB only scored one TD. The defense was on the field without rest the entire game, and in the end Sherman and Thomas played with injuries that would have sidelined other players immediately.
If Sherman and Thomas are healthy, and Therrel Simon is ready (he’s the weak link in the secondary right now), then it’s going to be interesting.
If its going to be short passes and run game from the Pats, I would expect more field goals in the final score, like with GB.
If the offense can find its keester by the second quarter, then I do think the Seahawks will win. If they played like last week, then no way.
This year, I think that the Pats are a better team than GB. The only flaw in that train of thought is that last year Denver set records. They were scoring 50 a game for a while there.
I thought for sure Denver would smoke Seattle, for the same reason as this year: Seattle’s O take so long to get rolling for some reason.
The last thing is that divine intervention cannot be ruled out. The GB win was a miracle in the classic sense of the word. The probability of Seattle winning like they did, when you stack it up situationally through that last three minutes, is so miniscule. To say that Wilson is religious is an understatement. He lives his faith, and his faith in the idea that he is in the game until literally the last second is gone is also real. He doesn’t attribute this to his own skill either. He actually believes that someday he’ll be a good quarterback, but that day is not today. One of these days, people will probably compare Wilson with Roger Staubach, especially on character.
God may not ultimately care about football, but He may very much care about whether He considers Wilson a worthwhile example about what the power of faith can accomplish.
I would never have written that if I didn’t see the GB game with my own eyes. I’ve never seen anything like that in watching sports over the last 45 years. I say this also considering that Aaron Rodgers will be an HOF quarterback of the highest possible character and that GB is one of the classiest organizations in the NFL - period.
Most of the penalties went GB’s way that day. The 2 point conversion is what did it for me. They miss that and the game is over - period. How they made it, and then what they did in overtime caused me to consider that perhaps God had taken a side in that game. This is especially true in light of the game Jermaine Kearse had had before his game winning catch.
Seattle, given the health of its players and the performance of their offense of late, should lose on Sunday. Based on what I saw in the GB game, perhaps they won’t.
And the Seattle defense was terrible against the run against the Packers and Aaron Rodgers did anything he wanted to do against their defense. If Seattle plays as bad as they did against the Packers the Patriots will win the game going away. The only reason Seattle is even in the Super Bowl, other than the Packers falling apart in the last 4 minutes of the NFC title game, was Arizona playing the entire year without their first string quarterback. Arizona loses gave Seattle the homefield advantage. If Seattle wins the game it will be the most unlikely repeat Super Bowl championship in history. They are not that good and both years they made the Super Bowl they could have just have easily lost the NFC title and certainly should have lost it this year if not for the monumental collapse of the Green Packers. Any team that does not pick up their initial first down till the second half does not deserve to be mentioned with the great teams.