Two impressive head coaches. The Patriots have the home field advantage and what a field it is. After their Mudbowl loss to the Jets this season, New England installed one of the fastest artificial tracks in the league, and forget all of the smoke and mirrors each coach will use to dazzle and befuddle.
The Jets are a slow team, with the emphasis on slooowww. Muck and mire means a faster teams become as boggable, but not on this turf. Scatback Leon Washington gets the ball 20 times and the Jets are in the hunt because the man simply has no center of gravity and can fling himself hither and yon. But unless they've been tinkering with an offensive scheme to get Washington that many touches, look for dinks and dunks and blitzes galore, which will keep the game close but won't be enough to win.
When you're playing with house money like the Jets are, just being there is a victory of sorts and with that in mind I just don't see Mangini surprising anyone on offense with a game plan never before tried or trued.
A 20-13 Patriot win seems about right.
Big Blue is Big Bruised but that isn't the half of what ails New York. Pick a position and there's a primadonna looking for a camera to weep into, and this isn't basketball so the Eagles dig in and stop Tiki Barber at the line while daring Eli Manning to prove he's ready for the big show.
He isn't. If Barber wants to go out with a bang, tack on 200 yards to the Giants offense but he's a loser who got lucky and I just don't see that happening. Unless of course someone convinces him that his iffy Hall of Fame creds get a boost from a major playoff performace. Stroke the ego, win the game.
That's modern pro football.
30-23 Philadelphia, with a game-tying Giants' drive stopped in the Eagles endzone after a Manning interception.
No comments:
Post a Comment