Ditka and Hoge pick the Giants

[Charlotte Pats Fan]

Just getting it out of the way early

 

[PatsDeb]

Woo Hoo!! Now we're guaranteed a win!!

 

[sieglo]

Wait, so they actually picked the Giants, or you're predicting they willl pick the Giants?

 

[Heck67]

Just getting it out of the way early

Ditka is the biggest @$$hole and I am sure you r right he will pick the Giants on tv, but he will not put any money on them in Vegas

 

[Charlotte Pats Fan]

Wait, so they actually picked the Giants, or you're predicting they willl pick the Giants?

No, they haven't officially announced but based on yesterdays comments I would bet Ditka picks the Giants. Hoge is a 50/50 since the Pats have established the running game.

 

[Charlotte Pats Fan]

Ditka picked the Gmen 1/31/08 and Hoge came thru today

 

[cblesz]

Beautiful. C'mon...anyone surprised? Ditka and especially Hoge are big freaking bildos. Hoge couldn't pick his nose if someone inserted his finger in it for him.

 

[eom]

megalolz
.

 

[Watson's IQ]

Hoge picked the Giants officially:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/features/talent

You know what I find most amusing about so many people picking the Giants, that no one is really talking about?

Almost NOBODY picked the Chargers to beat the Patriots, and I think we can all agree they were a better team in every conceivable way than the Giants, even banged up. I guess it just comes down to people not wanting the Super Bowl to be devoid of drama.

 

[VJCPatriot]

I heard plenty of people picking the Chargers.
They were a vocal minority though.
The fact that the Chargers were so banged up prevented too many bandwagon Charger pickers.

 

[reflexblue]

I heard Ditka on espn talking about how great the Pats were.Then go on to say the although he doesn't hate them, and Belichick is up there with Lombardy he hasn't picked them to win all year.
At that moment I was thinking Sh!t he's going to ruin everything and pick the Pats. But he didn't I'm glad to hear. As far as the aspiring comedian Hodge goes I'm glad he picked against us too. Keep it consistant along with Ditka.

 

[Fanfrom1960]

Hoge picked the Giants officially:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/features/talent

You know what I find most amusing about so many people picking the Giants, that no one is really talking about?

Almost NOBODY picked the Chargers to beat the Patriots, and I think we can all agree they were a better team in every conceivable way than the Giants, even banged up. I guess it just comes down to people not wanting the Super Bowl to be devoid of drama.

So 9 of 10 of the ESPN crew picked the Pats (I saw Berman on ESPN this morning pick the Pats 35 - 20).

Haven't seen a thread, but Inside the NFL went this way:
Chris Carter, Pats by 32 - 20
Dan Marino, Pats by 31 - 17
Chris Collinsworth, Pats by 41 - 14
Bob Costas, Giants 27 - 24, but he said someone had to pick the Giants. Collinsworth studies a lot of film, in fact, this week's show had a piece showing him in his basement looking at film. I like his opinion as much as anyone's. Only caveat is that he picked the Pats to blow out the Colts in the regular season game this year.

Is it Sunday yet?

 

[NEPatriot]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/news/story?id=3222654

good article to read.

 

[Rob0729]

I love Hoge's reason the best. He feels that the Giants will win because every team this year that has played the Pats tougher the second time around. He is passing this off that teams figure out the Pats in the first game and play them far tougher in the second. There are a few things wrong with his arguement:

Didn't the Bills lose 56-10 the second time around after losing 38-7 the first time?

Weren't the Dolphins down 28-0 at halftime against the Pats the second meeting and lose the game 28-7 primarily because the Pats abandoned a true gameplan in the second half just to try to air it out to get Brady and Moss the TDs records in the Pats last regualr season home game? Didn't the Pats win both games by 21 points (the first game the Pats won 49-28)? Doesn't the fact the Pats blew the Dolphins out in both meetings and in the first half mean that the Dolphins really didn't figure out how to play the Pats all that much tougher?

Didn't the Pats and Jets meet in a Noreaster the second time around after meeting in a perfect weather game the first time?

Didn't the Chargers play so badly at the beginning of the season that they went 5-5 in the first ten games only to win the next eight games straight including beating the Colts twice? Weren't the team that played the Pats the first time very different than the team that made it into the playoffs?

I think Hoge basically manufactured his reason. He used faulty

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Beautiful. C'mon...anyone surprised? Ditka and especially Hoge are big freaking bildos. Hoge couldn't pick his nose if someone inserted his finger in it for him.

Well, Hodge went 16-2 on the Patriots this year. Of the ESPN analysts, he also had the second best record for picks, behind Schlereth.

 

[Rob0729]

So 9 of 10 of the ESPN crew picked the Pats (I saw Berman on ESPN this morning pick the Pats 35 - 20).

Haven't seen a thread, but Inside the NFL went this way:
Chris Carter, Pats by 32 - 20
Dan Marino, Pats by 31 - 17
Chris Collinsworth, Pats by 41 - 14
Bob Costas, Giants 27 - 24, but he said someone had to pick the Giants. Collinsworth studies a lot of film, in fact, this week's show had a piece showing him in his basement looking at film. I like his opinion as much as anyone's. Only caveat is that he picked the Pats to blow out the Colts in the regular season game this year.

Is it Sunday yet?

Costas should be banned from picking games. He always picks games on stupid reasons and rarely on who he really thinks will actually win the game. He also said that he was also picking the Giants because if they win, he will get a lot of credit for picking them when conventional wisedom is to pick against them. It was pretty clear, he thinks the Pats will win.

 

[Watson's IQ]

Well, Hodge went 16-2 on the Patriots this year. Of the ESPN analysts, he also had the second best record for picks, behind Schlereth.

To be fair, almost all of them picked the Pats every week. Why wouldn't you? I was pretty sure Hoge picked Dallas, Indy, and Pitt, but I could be wrong.

IIRC, Jaws was the only who picked them every week in that spot.

Edit: Nevermind, Hoge did pick the Pats over Dallas.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

I love Hoge's reason the best. He feels that the Giants will win because every team this year that has played the Pats tougher the second time around. He is passing this off that teams figure out the Pats in the first game and play them far tougher in the second. There are a few things wrong with his arguement:

Didn't the Bills lose 56-10 the second time around after losing 38-7 the first time?

Weren't the Dolphins down 28-0 at halftime against the Pats the second meeting and lose the game 28-7 primarily because the Pats abandoned a true gameplan in the second half just to try to air it out to get Brady and Moss the TDs records in the Pats home game? Didn't the Pats win both games by 21 points (the first game the Pats won 49-28)? Doesn't the fact the Pats blew the Dolphins out in both meetings mean that the Dolphins really didn't figure out how to play the Pats all that much tougher?

Didn't the Pats and Jets meet in a Noreaster the second time around after meeting in a perfect weather game the first time?

Didn't the Chargers play so badly at the beginning of the season that they went 5-5 in the first ten games only to win the next eight games straight including beating the Colts twice? Weren't the team that played the Pats the first time very different than the team that made it into the playoffs?

I think Hoge basically manufactured his reason. He used faulty

I get that we are fans, but there are an awful lot of excuses in there to deny what actually is a true fact: Of the 4 opponents the Patriots played twice this year, they didn't play as well in the second matchup three times.

I'm not saying this means will lose, or that there aren't answers for this. But it's not ridiculous that a commentator would point to the fact.

 

[Watson's IQ]

I get that we are fans, but there are an awful lot of excuses in there to deny what actually is a true fact: Of the 4 opponents the Patriots played twice this year, they didn't play as well in the second matchup three times.

I'm not saying this means will lose, or that there aren't answers for this. But it's not ridiculous that a commentator would point to the fact.

I guess that depends how you define playing well. The Patriots held the Jets, Miami, and San Diego to lower point totals in the second meeting, and as was mentioned actually improved their performance against Buffalo.

The lower scores of the games are pretty easily explained by weather (particularly the second Jets game), and the improved play of the Chargers. I still consider the 28-7 win over Miami impressive, considering we barely tried to score in the second half.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

To be fair, almost all of them picked the Pats every week. Why wouldn't you? I was pretty sure Hoge picked Dallas, Indy, and Pitt, but I could be wrong.

IIRC, Jaws was the only who picked them every week in that spot.

He picked the Steelers and the Colts, but picked the Pats in the Dallas game. Actually, all 9 of them picked the Pats in the Dallas game.

Golic picked against us the most -- 3 times. Hodge and Allen picked against us 2 times. Schlereth and Wickersham picked against us once. Salisbury, Jaws and Accuscore picked us for all games, although Jaws doesn't pick MNF.