Phokus

I think we have to look at points per drive. I imagine that the Patriots offense gives the patriots a higher time of posession (and thus fewer opportunities for the other team's offense to score) as well as the fact that the other team is usually playing from behind, thus it limits their playbook some.

letekro

I think it will be a great game, but the Giants offense is more than capable of putting up 30 if we don't take advantage of Eli's hail marys. Of course, our offense is too, if we don't turn it over.

SeymourTrophies

Agreed, but at the same time, Sergio Brown did play, and AHern hadn't fully recovered until early December. No doubt Nicks, Ballard, and Cruz will have their moments, but at that point in the season, our front seven wasn't anywhere near what it is now. The Pats have also played some solid front sevens the last two games, and aside from Suggs skinning Solder alive one time, the line has held firm.

The issue with the Giants is that they were 9-7 for a reason. They could blow us out by 20 points or get blown out by 30 points depending on which team shows up.

__________________
Forza Roma, Go Pats, Go Sox

Fencer

Absolutely. His current screen name is Still_Swinging.

He just posted that he predicted before the game that Pollard would injure Gronkowski, and now he wants to get Pollard's autograph.

__________________
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." -- Oscar Wilde

PatsDeb

A nice read, but I can't forget that last week CHFF predicted a Pats loss based on the oft repeated mantra that we hadn't beaten anyone with a winning record in the regular season and therefore would not beat Baltimore.

patsfaninpittsburgh

Huh?

When the Giants won that game, it put them at 6-2. Their losing streak started right after that.

It's amazing how a Hail Mary and a 15 yards crossing pattern against a keystone cops secondary grows the legend. The reality is for the vast majority of the year, Nicks has been a butter finger/alligator arm receiver.

Ahh, yeah, Cruz was the "star" he is now.

ewg_gestalt

Well, in the playoffs, not counting kneel-drives, the Broncos had 12 drives for 10 points, and the Ravens had 11 drives for 20 points. That's a total of 23 drives for 30 points, or about 1.30 points per drive (0.83 against the Broncos, and 1.81 against the Ravens).

On the season as a whole, that stat's probably not too shabby, either, since the nature of the offense gives opposing offenses a lot of drives to respond.

BSR

Actually the long drives by the Patriots offense reduces the number of drives opposing offenses have to respond. I think the Patriots D faced the fourth fewest opposing drives.

patfanken

Lets not forget that 1. the Pat lost BOTH their starting safeties DURING the game (the worst time). and was down to their 3rd C and 2nd RT. 2 actually you are wrong in your 3rd point, because Cruz's production was consistent throughout the year. Its not like he got better after this game. 3. you are also wrong in your 4th point. The Giants came into that game one a roll and it was AFTER this game that they took their dip.

The Giants have a better running game with Bradshaw than without him. But think about this. He isn't nearly as good as Ray Rice who was controlled by the Pats, and if you wanted to pick a Giant player most likely to turn the ball over, even Giants fans would pick Ahmad Bradshaw.

patchick

Agreed, I have absolutely no gut feeling about how this game will go. The Giants are extremely talented but extremely inconsistent; the Patriots defense is just settling into a stable identity; the Patriots' weakness in the defensive backfield is a tough matchup with the Giants' strength at WR; the Giants' weakness in the interior OL is a tough matchup with the Patriots' strength up front....

In short, anybody who feels confident about how this game will go must have one heck of a crystal ball.