Jacksonville? The Pats will Stack the line and make Garrard beat them. Jax cant score enough to keep up with the Pats.
I disagree. Jacksonville is not an offensive juggernaut by any means, but they are the most physical team in the NFL, and I think they can give NE problems. If nothing else, they will beat them senseless for 4 quarters, whether they win or not.
Tennesse? Please. A joke that theyre in. Bill Polian cries about fair play and his team laid down allowing the Titans in. How can you have a man sit on the competition committee when his team throws a game? (I hate Polian)
On this I agree with you - well, sort of. While I've never liked Polian much, you can't argue with his track record. But I hate the idea of sitting starters - not because I care about whether Tennessee got in or not - I knew they'd be a non-factor, but Cleveland wouldn't have been any better - but because 1. I don't like my team finishing 13-3 (maybe something subconscious about the number 13, or the fact that we've lost in the divisional round at home twice after finishing with that record) and 2. I'm worried that we'll lose a little bit sitting those guys out and then having the bye - we're typically slow starters anyway.
SD. Take this to the bank. SD will not ever be good with that fraud Rivers at QB.
Rivers is OK, but not good enough to win a big game by himself, which is what he'll have to do this year - everyone is bottling up LT (at least compared to last year).
So seeing I was so right predicting the Giants game..(The Pats in a low scoring grind it out affair) here are my two cents.
38-35 is grind-it-out and low scoring?
There is only one team. The Colts.
While many say that the Pats were "lucky" to beat them the first time they are wrong! A Bill Polian phantom Pass Intereference call and a fluke dump pass for a TD made that the game close to start with.
I won't say they were lucky - they won the game fair and square. However, the Colts gave up two big plays on Defense - something they never do - in the 4th quarter. Credit Brady, Moss and (I think) Stallworth for making them, but don't look for it to happen again.
I know we hear a lot about Sanders and some people may think its BS, but that guy is THE BALLS. He can hit, stop the run, defend the pass. With him in the secondary they prove to be very tough. The big loss for the Colts D is Freeney. The Colts were able to match up well with the Pats WRs in the regular season game and bring pressure with their down lineman. With Freeney out the Colts may have to bring corners, LBs, and Safetys in to pressure Brady and that will make them vulnerable.
I agree on both counts - Sanders is THE MAN for the Colts on defense... but it is going to be hard to get the same pressure on Brady without Freeney, and without doing that, they're in trouble.
The X Factor here is the home field advantage. With the game in Foxboro, Bill Polian wont be able to cheat again piping in that phoney sound and turning up the heat to a team that is used to playing in the cold. Ive never heard a dome so loud with everyone sitting down!
Really? Were you actually at the game? You should have told me and I could have cooked you a brat or something... how many times does this conspiracy theory have to be dis-proven? It's the smallest stadium in the NFL - it doesn't take much for it to be loud. This has been debunked more times than I can count and I've personally never heard any evidence of it in the 15+ games I've been to in the last few years.
Manning will wilt in Foxboro as usual and the Pats will be off to another SB.
As usual? It was usual a few years ago, but it hasn't been lately, in case you hadn't noticed. Those were different Colts teams - teams that relied on their passing game and finesse to win (hmmm.... who does that sound like?), couldn't stop the run and couldn't handle bad weather.
I'm not saying the Colts are going to beat the Pats. Jacksonville could do it first, or the Colts could lose to SD. It's a pretty solid final 4 in the AFC. All I'm saying is that there is nothing to suggest that if they do play, the Colts will just fold and let NE walk into the SB like they have done in past playoff games. They are better suited for it this year than they ever have been - even better than last year, and maybe better than the Pats are... but we'll see. It will be fun to watch (if it doesn't give me an ulcer).
Everyone keeps talking about how great the Pats are, but they remind me an awful lot of Colts teams of a couple years ago and of another team Randy Moss was on: the 15-1 Vikings who set the scoring record the Pats were chasing all year. We all remember what happened to the Colts, and the Vikings got beat 41-0 in the NFC championship game by the Giants.
