Guardian writers make their predictions for Super Bowl 2012. And you make yours in our Predict the Playoffs game
Welcome to the NFL Talkboard: Super Bowl Special. By the end of Sunday night we will know who has emerged victorious from an entertaining NFL season - the New England Patriots or the New York Giants.
All you need in the build up to the Super Bowl can be found here, including Paolo Bandini's analysis of How the teams line up, Michael Solomon debunking The Science of Super Bowl-ology, and the Top 10 Banned Super Bowl ads, plus much more.
And there will be much more on Sunday: the build up, a liveblog of the game, Paolo's report from Indianapolis, galleries, commentary and some special treats.
But in the meantime, there's just one more prediction to make. Below our team offer their thoughts. And then please make yours - result and score. If jonb76 predicts the correct result then he is the Predict the Playoffs champion. (Full scoreboard here). But if jonb76 chooses incorrectly, then we could be into a tie-breaker situation, as 11 players are only one behind. In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided on how close they get to the actual score in the game (Paolo being the final arbiter). But enough of this, here are some predictions:
Paolo Bandini
Look, you can make a strong case for either team on Sunday. New England won 13 games this season, their offence ranked second in the league and they have a coach-quarterback combination who have been to the Super Bowl four times and only once failed to take home the Vince Lombardi trophy. On the other hand, the Pats had not beaten a team that finished the regular season with a winning record until the AFC title game, the Giants' vertical passing game matches up very well against their shabby secondary and Eli has beaten Brady in both of their most recent meetings.
But Super Bowls are rarely determined by the thing they're supposed to be determined by anyway. If you want my breakdown of the teams strengths and weaknesses you'll find it here. If you want my gut instinct ... Giants, in yet another nail-biter.
Giants 27, Patriots 24
David Lengel
Prediction. After six or so minutes roll by, my father will be muttering "I don't like this. I don't like this at all. Oh no, no, this is no good, no good." This will happen no matter what the score is, no matter how good or bad things are going for his New York Giants. You're out there thinking to yourselves, oh, the Super Bowl, that's fun--fancy commercials, food, friends, family, and maybe a bit of football as well. Let me tell you something, there is nothing about this game that is fun, especially to Michael Lengel. We're talking about a person who under most circumstances is a calm, cool, and collected character. Put on a Giants game, and it's chaos. When Matt Bahr kicked the New York into Super Bowl XXV out in San Francisco back in 1990 the television was off because the stress was just too much?I was forced into my room to watch the game on a 13-inch Kawasho. Last week my two year-old daughter was upstairs with her mother, wondering what the loud, unusual noises were, asking if grandpa was OK. He was not OK, not until Lawrence Tynes kicked the Giants into Super Bowl, which really only served to provide another day of newspaper throwing and nervous fidgeting.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree with the main difference being that I don't scream. Instead, I clean. My buddy Shawn was over watching the NFC Championship and remarked that it's the only time he's been over to some one's apartment and the place was cleaner than when he arrived. It will be spotless by the time the NFL crowns a new Super Bowl Champion Sunday night or Monday morning depending on where you're reading.
How will it all go down? Well, I can imagine two quarters or so of tentative, nervous play, three and outs, a turnover leading to some kind of 7-3 half-time score, before the offenses heat up down the stretch. Las Vegas has the under/over around 54 combined points, I think it will be a lower scoring game despite the teams' high octane offenses that got them to the show.
New England 23, New York 20.
Michael Solomon
I'm not one of those people who think this Super Bowl is Deja Blue all over again. For one thing, the Giants have already beaten the Patriots this season (24-20 in Week 9), and as L.S.U. can tell you about Alabama, it's not so easy to do that twice.
Plus, this time around Tom Brady's wife, Gisele Bundchen, has asked friends and family to pray for a Patriots victory. And you just don't want to mess with supermodel prayers.
If they're answered, the Patriots will protect Brady?though that's a lot to ask with this swarming Giants defense?and they'll avenge that 2008 Super Bowl loss.
In the end, I don't think the game comes down to Gronkowski's foot ?I think it will be decided by Gostkowski's leg. New England by a field goal.
Patriots 27, Giants 24
Steve Busfield
For some reason, for me, this season has become about faith, fate, destiny, call it what you will. It was Tebow that started it. I believed and he produced. And now I've been swept up in this whole Giants deja vu all over again tide. Of course my belief in Tebow was smashed by New England "Never Bet Against The" Patriots. Will my strange fervour for New York "Deja Vu" Giants be upended on Sunday? Maybe. But I'm going for the Giants anyway. And apart from all this faith stuff, there is cold hard logic: the woeful Pats defense [31st best in a league of 32], Gronk's injury upsetting the New England offense, the ever-improving Giants defense, Eli being as elite as Tom [perhaps].
Giants 24, Patriots 17
Hunter Felt
Once the playoff teams were set my first thought was that if the Patriots were lucky enough to make it to the Super Bowl, the last team I wanted them to face was the New York Giants. Yes, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees were dangerous, but the Packers and Saints defenses weren't significantly better than the Patriots' defense so I could have seen Tom Brady winning a shootout. The San Francisco 49ers? Alex Smith wasn't going to beat Tom Brady in a Super Bowl. He just wasn't.
The Giants though? Eli Manning has proven this year that he's a top quarterback (I just threw up in my mouth while writing that) and they have a defense that can rattle any quarterback, including Brady (as we've seen earlier this year). The Patriots have spent all season long falling behind early in the first half and then rallying their way to victory. This will not be possible against the Giants.
So, here's my prediction, I recommend that New England fans do not read this while eating:
The anthem singer takes too long. The Patriots win the coin toss and defer to the Giants, who score on the first drive. The Giants stake a 10-0/14-3 lead early, while the Patriots scuffle offensively. There are a bunch of terrible, sexist ads for beers that taste like rainwater. The Patriots get going, despite the fact that Gronk is clearly playing hurt, but the Giants take a significant lead into halftime.
Halftime: Madonna embarrasses herself and the rest of the nation. Justin Timberlake makes a cameo, giving network censors a heart attack, but thankfully there is not a wardrobe malfunction.
The Patriots come out of the half in "no huddle" mode and look better offensively. By the third quarter the Patriots are within a field goal when one of three things happen to gift the Giants a touchdown: Devin McCourty makes a horrendous defensive mistake, Tom Brady throws a dumb interception or Danny Woodhead fumbles a return. The New England Patriots never get any closer and after a dull fourth quarter, the game ends with Eli Manning kneeling in the victory formation.
The Fallout: Eli wins the MVP honors by default, no one on the Giants really has an astounding game. Ochocinco becomes the goat in New England despite not playing a snap. I refuse to answer my phone for a week.
Giants 34, Patriots 27.
Please make your predictions below and we hope you will join the five of us for live coverage of the game on Sunday.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/feb/03/super-bowl-xlvi-2012-predictions
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