SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Hey, the Celtics are tied with the Knicks for the top spot in the NBA Atlantic Division. And wow, all those trades…
Nope. Move on. The Celtics don’t require your attention yet.
Hey, did you know that Groundhog Day was also Truck Day at Fenway? Pitchers and catchers report next Tuesday…
Stop it right there. The Red Sox can wait. You already know to keep the storm windows up another six weeks.
Wow, the Opening Ceremonies for the Cortina Winter Olympics is Friday night. Can’t wait to watch curling and Slopestyle skiing and ice hockey and…
Watch the ceremony. Then turn off the Olympics until Monday. Good grief.
Come on, everyone! This is the Super Bowl we’re talking about. Maybe you’re one of those adults who are turning into your parents. And if you are, please do not tell me you care about the commercials more than you care about the game.
Or maybe you’re like Tom Brady. No dog in the fight. So, he gets fast-tracked to the Patriot Hall of Fame, gets his uniform number retired, gets a huge roast party where the one and only speaker who did not cuss was Peyton Manning. And then…he gets a statue. No dog in the fight?! No one is happy here, especially his old teammates. Quit the Raiders and Fox Sports. Both those jobs are beneath you and now you’re making enemies.
Super Bowl LX is getting tantalizingly closer. The Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks are busy at work, trying to claim the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night. Neither camp reports any problems or issues. It’s damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead for both teams.
Many of those people who do have a dog in the fight have a Seattle Spaniel rather than a Patriot Pooch. On his podcast Wednesday night, Greg Bedard’s broadcast partner mentioned that out of something like 60 NFL experts at ESPN, 48 are picking the Seahawks. At the NFL Network, out of 34 experts, 30 like Seattle. All eight at The Athletic like the Hawks.
To that, we at Patriot Nation say this: Huzzah. Just what we want. And then a few delightfully unprintable words to boot. Nothing like bulletin board fodder to fire up the Patriots.
The Patriots were 19-point dogs against the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. How’d that game turn out? That’s when you first heard the phrase “We are all Patriots…”, and you know the rest.
At the time of the merger, the AFL was still looked down on as viewed by NFL fans and working personnel. Never mind that the Jets and Chiefs won the last two pre-merger Super Bowls. One owner said “They (the AFL) don’t have to call us ‘Mister’ anymore.” Someone should research that and find out if that was a “so say one, so say all” moment or just a “so say one” moment.
In the case of this year, the Patriots as a franchise are 16 years older than the Seahawks. I was in diapers when the Patriots were born and a freshman at UMass when the Seahawks were born. The Seahawks were a fairly good team, a lot better than their 0-26 expansion brethren in Tampa Bay. This is their fourth Super Bowl, and the 12th for the Patriots. The Patriots have played a major role in shutting up all the old complainers of the AFL, but many of them may not still be alive.
Bill Belichick knows what I’m talking about. Whenever the Patriots won a Super Bowl, the late Lamar Hunt, founder of both the AFL and the Chiefs, always said “Nice job, Bill! Way to win one for the old AFL! AFL! AFL!” And this was in the first decade of the 2000s, not the 1970s. The Patriots today are thought of on a much higher scale than the winners of Super Bowls III and IV.
Yet here we are, and the pro football world likes the Seahawks to win this game in large numbers. And Seattle may very well win this game. I picked Denver to win the AFC title game, until the Patriots finally broke through and won a playoff game in the Mile High City. If they can do that (despite the Denver weather and which quarterback they weren’t facing), then I like the Patriots to win Sunday. The score will come after I discuss how they will win.
I like my turnovers, apple, not football.
NFL MVP runner-up Drake Maye’s biggest contribution to the win in Denver might have been his touchdown or his game-clinching bootleg. I say it was because he had no turnovers. No fumbles, no picks. Do that in the Super Bowl and we will all finally begin to exalt you more than your seemingly ubiquitous wife.
Maye was very, very lucky to have overcome a ton of mistakes in the games against the Chargers and Houston. In the Super Bowl, even one turnover against the powerful Seattle defense could be fatal. Part of the issue is blocking by the offensive line, but Maye has to know when to eat the ball and take a sack, rather than throwing a pick or losing a fumble.
The two biggest areas the Patriots must excel at:
Sam Darnold doesn’t play like a Jet anymore. He has deleted the word “paranormal” from his vocabulary. It behooves the Patriot defense to put it back in his head.
NFL Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel once out-snookered Belichick in a game at Foxborough when Vrabel was head coach of the Titans. It was so bad that the competition committee had to change a rule. Vrabel should try and do the same to Mike McDonald at some point in the Super Bowl.
Maye not only needs to not cough up the football, he needs to run with it and throw it well. Josh McDaniels comes into play here, as he will need to design and alter (if needed) a sensible game plan where Maye will lead his team to victory and contend for game MVP. With better weather almost a certainty in northern California, Maye can concentrate on his downfield passing game, with plenty of weapons at his disposal. And Maye needs to run if needed, and not get injured or cough up the football in the process.
Meanwhile, Vrabel and Terrell Williams will need to find a way to put the fear of God into Darnold. Patriot Nation will never forget the ghosts he once saw. That perhaps is worse than the butt fumble. If the defense can do that and force the Seahawks to try and win the game with Kenneth Walker III, that might be a winning formula. Jaxson Smith-Njigba could perhaps take over the game if the Patriots allow it. Williams needs to find a way to contain him, much like Belichick would aim to take away the other team’s strongest weapon.
Stevenson might be the key to a Patriot win
After Week 3, Rhamondre Stevenson might really have won an Oscar if he starred in a movie where he played the character Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.
He was that down on himself. Then. Not now.
Here’s the Patriot running attack in a nutshell: run Stevenson between the tackles to set up the pass. Use Tre’Veyon Henderson only in end runs and screen passes (or similar). But pound the line of scrimmage with Stevenson. If McDaniels scripts his first 10-15 plays, run Stevenson between the tackles on many, if not most, of them.
Get a handle right away on what is and isn’t there. See if you can pop one or two. If not, use Stevenson in other packages to see if he can catch the ball and run a while. Whatever the case, the Patriots will be well served if Stevenson can set up the pass with the run.
Three’s a crowd.
Ideally, the Patriots would like to hold the Seattle offense to zero. That said, holding them to threes for the game would be very welcome to the defense if they cannot stop Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed with any consistency. Often times, teams will give up chunk plays in the middle of the field but hold them to a field goal and call it a win for the defense. In a game that projects to be still another rock fight for the Patriots, this sort of thing bodes well for the Patriots.
Jason Myers led the NFL in field goal attempts. He hit on 41 of 48 field goal attempts and his long was 57 yards. For comparison, Andres Borregales was 27 of 32 on made field goals with a long of 59. With good weather, that only makes for a potentially entertaining fourth quarter.
Okay, fellas, any of you ever win a Super Bowl? What’s that, Milton?
He might be the most valuable resource the Patriots have in winning this game.
The Seahawks have Kupp. The Patriots have Milton Williams. Kupp won his with the Rams some years ago. Williams is a defending champ.
Williams is on record as being generous with his time and volunteering to help any Patriot player on how to handle the Super Bowl and all that goes with it.
Lock in, he says. That’s the best advice right there.
In any case, Williams has spent the season helping players. Like Morgan Moses helping rookie left tackle Will Campbell, Williams does much the same thing. Over time, the Patriots will have more players with Super Bowl experience. The Belichick dynasty was almost a self-sustaining model. This dynasty, if such does happen to Vrabel’s charges, can enjoy the same sort of sustenance with experienced players helping out.
Naturally, the Patriots want a good game from Williams and everyone else. But Williams provides so much more than just being a great player.
Well, it’s almost here. My prediction is that Borregales, uplifted by the sight of Adam Vinatieri at the trophy presentation in Denver, will hit a late field goal and the Patriots win 17-14.
That’s it. Most of you have seen eleven of these. Enjoy number twelve. No one can accuse me of no dog in the fight. Woof-woof-woof-woof.
We invite you to catch Bob George’s Boston Sports Podcast, broadcast on YouTube. Go to YouTube handle thepic413 to view the podcasts. Please click on the Subscribe button so you don’t miss any of the podcasts.
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Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139
