So...What's your gut feeling on the Super Bowl?

38-14 pats:d:d:d

Gut feeling or prediction?

Pats 28 giants 17.

Pats will treat the Baltimore game as a loss because of how sloppy they played. I expect them to clean everything up. Defense is full strength (without carter but close enough). Its not likely Brady has back to back sloppy games but then again, they lost to Pitts and he played well...when he was on the field.

My gut feeling is to cringe when I hear people saying things like 'revenge' or 'redemption', this game is neither. The only way the Patriots could get redemption is if they were going for a perfect season this year, the only way to get revenge is if the Giants were the ones who were 18-0. Does anyone honestly believe if the Patriots beat the Giants this year it makes up for the fact that the Giants cost the Patriots the perfect season, and the chance to be considered the greatest football team of all time? The Patriots could win next week and to me it's a hollow victory, because it doesn't rewrite history, it doesn't change the fact that the Giants win last time cost them a perfect season and turned them into the punchline of the joke "18 straight wins, one Giant loss".

I hated the last weeks of the 2007 season. It became apparent that strong defensive well coached teams were figuring out how to stop the Pats flying circus. It felt to me that the weeks before the SB were full of unwarranted hubris and expectations, uncharacteristic of prior Pats Championship teams. Being away from NE and with no laptop I completely missed the Thomase fiasco as I don't waste time watching pundits and just tune in for the game. A feeling of dread, never felt before swept over me.

I'm more confident and optimistic this game, not because I think this year's team is better, certainly not on D, but I think this cadre of payers & coaches is more resilient and is better prepared and mentally ready to take a few punches and Gronk back.

Eight days out from game day and living in NYC with a 24/7 Giants media barrage, my gut is that the Giants and their fans are way too overconfident. It's just inconceivable to any of them that they are going to lose.

I like that. I'm starting to get a good feeling about this, but I don't know how I'm going to feel in a week. Right now, I don't think this is going to be a close game. I think one team or the other is going to win going away. Today, I think that's the Pats.

SirEatsALot said:

My gut feeling is to cringe when I hear people saying things like 'revenge' or 'redemption', this game is neither. The only way the Patriots could get redemption is if they were going for a perfect season this year, the only way to get revenge is if the Giants were the ones who were 18-0. Does anyone honestly believe if the Patriots beat the Giants this year it makes up for the fact that the Giants cost the Patriots the perfect season, and the chance to be considered the greatest football team of all time? The Patriots could win next week and to me it's a hollow victory, because it doesn't rewrite history, it doesn't change the fact that the Giants win last time cost them a perfect season and turned them into the punchline of the joke "18 straight wins, one Giant loss".

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You just couldn't ban the troll in you for more than 43 seconds, could you? You gave yourself a minute to write your post, you did well for 43 seconds, and then you let your inner troll flag unfurl!

A Super Bowl loss is a Super Bowl loss. You can never go back and rewrite it.

If you think they're a punchline, you're just a jealous troll.

With a win, they are far and away one of the most outstanding teams in the history of pro sports, something the Giants cannot accomplish with a victory next Sunday.

I feel this game has a similar story line to Rocky 3... in 2007--the proud and Great Rocky(Patriots) went into the super bowl to face a tough but kind of unknown underdog...and Rocky(the Pats) got pounded to the pavement losing his title.

This time we got "the eye of the tiger" back...we wont take Clubber Lang Lightly this time...I actually expect an easy Patriots victory ...something like 27-17

(queue up the eye of the tiger song)

Cheer up we are going to win!

SirEatsALot said:

My gut feeling is to cringe when I hear people saying things like 'revenge' or 'redemption', this game is neither. The only way the Patriots could get redemption is if they were going for a perfect season this year, the only way to get revenge is if the Giants were the ones who were 18-0. Does anyone honestly believe if the Patriots beat the Giants this year it makes up for the fact that the Giants cost the Patriots the perfect season, and the chance to be considered the greatest football team of all time? The Patriots could win next week and to me it's a hollow victory, because it doesn't rewrite history, it doesn't change the fact that the Giants win last time cost them a perfect season and turned them into the punchline of the joke "18 straight wins, one Giant loss".

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Terrible first post. Go back to your home board.

I am too concerned. I know BB and Brady will plan a much better game. I am sure 100% that Brady will play better. But my worry is about their 3 WRs and RBs.

I think we can run against them and also pass but overall little concerned about how we lost to them last 2 games. They are like us in 2001/2003/2004. STRONG D and opportunistic O.

PatsWickedPissah said:

I hated the last weeks of the 2007 season. It became apparent that strong defensive well coached teams were figuring out how to stop the Pats flying circus. It felt to me that the weeks before the SB were full of unwarranted hubris and expectations, uncharacteristic of prior Pats Championship teams. Being away from NE and with no laptop I completely missed the Thomase fiasco as I don't waste time watching pundits and just tune in for the game. A feeling of dread, never felt before swept over me.

I'm more confident and optimistic this game, not because I think this year's team is better, certainly not on D, but I think this cadre of payers & coaches is more resilient and is better prepared and mentally ready to take a few punches and Gronk back.

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Good points and I agree. And yeah, the '07 team was over-confident. Still, it's weird to me how people are quicker to mock a team that went for perfection and came up short in the final game, but go easy on the Colts who INTENTIONALLY THREW A GAME to avoid going unbeaten, AND choked in the Super Bowl to boot.

Anyway, I did some basic math on '07 vs. '11 late in the season:
Final 5 regular season:
'07: Won by average of 29.4-17.8. Over 30 points twice. Over 40 zero. Scoring totals: 27, 34, 20, 28, 38.
'11: Won by average of 36.4-23.8. Over 30 points 4 times. Over 40 twice. Scoring totals: 31, 34, 41, 27, 49.
First two playoff games:
'07: Won by average of 26-16
'11: Won by average of 34-15

AFCCGs were kind of similar (21-12; 23-20).

No doubt the '11 offense found a higher gear later in the season and did not peak as early as '07. As for the playoffs: Pretty small sample, and only time will tell if the 45 on Denver was a fluke against a team that shouldn't have been there, or a hint of what was to come.

I think they will win. With the loss in the super bowl to them AND the loss this season, I believe the Pats have more motivation to win. I think it'll come down to a FG. Pats will win.

The game starts off slow as each team starts out conservatively but picks up in the second half. The Patriots will not be able to stop Manning but the Giants will not be able to stop Brady. It becomes a shootout with the outcome uncertain.

my confidence level is riding on the health of gronk's ankle

Heart- can only see a Patriots win

Head- can see them having more bottle than us on the day.

I'm not quite sure why, but I just see us blowing out the Giants. Not 45-10, but an easy 38-24 type victory.

I don't see the Giants passrush knocking Brady around like last time - if anything it will be better than the reg season game. And way better than the SB. We aren't going to miss two left O-lineman.

Even without Gronkowski, we still have enough weapons to win. Brady took the 06 crew to the AFCCG and barely lost. A lack of a favorite target isn't the death knell to the team. The Redskins beat them without matchup problems. We can't?

We can run the ball better too, which will probably be crucial early on.

I don't see SB42 relevant at all. We're utterly different teams and more similar to each other back then than we were to ourselves back then.

Frankly, we barely lost to the Giants in the regular season during an offensive 'depression' so to speak with a poor showing by the defense. Defense has been playing far better and our offense just will not sputter like last time.

I get awfully annoyed when people think that taking away Gronkowski will murder this team's chances. As if we have this big upper hand that we can't win without. Not everyone has the luxury of tight ends like we do, and they can win games too.

I am confident in a Patriots victory. It is time, the starts are aligned.

Patriots2001 said:

I just hope so Giant players start yapping and guaranteeing a victory !!!

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So there you go!

I see the pats having a heavy running game and short passing. About 30 runs for 150 yards and lot of short crossing routes, etc. And the giants getting minimal pressure on brady b/c of it.

I see the Pats having mixed success against eli but getting some pressure and a few sacks.

Ultimately pats win 35-21.

I don't know what to think right now about the game, but for the last week I keep having dreams about a Championship banner with the MHK logo on it. I've also seen the SB rings with a MHK on the side. I don't pretend to be clairvoyant, but these images have been haunting me, so take that for what it's worth.

The closer the game draws the more talkative and disrespectful the Giants have become. That's interesting.