now i'm confident in my bet.

i've never bet on a sb, but given the way the spread is set and the caliber of the teams,
i feel obligated to cash in.

not sure why ne is favored, can you tell my why, FT?

my not-so-quick summary:

while ny may not have a better offense overall,
they do have a more balanced offense and the ne defense is soft as shit after a box of wine.
if flacco makes you look bad, manning will make you look stupid.
given cruz (and nicks)...and the fact that as much as i hate manning, he is a tough motherfuck that gets the job done regardless of the adversity.
and again, the ne pass-d is atrocious against an elite qb.
i think that matchup of ny o vs. ne d easily goes to ny.

If Brady has a heavy flow day, ny d has a chance to match up very well:

ny front d-line is better than the ravens.
ne hasn't had a running game all season (minus the first half last week).
gronkowski has a high ankle sprain.
ne true receivers drop tons of balls.
brady doesn't handle difficult situations well:
he compounds the problems of his hard-handed receivers by throwing poorly when the going gets tough
and most of his "ridiculous" stats came in games where the other teams' d was beat out of the gate.
any time there was a challenging d, he lost those games. and in a perfect world, should have lost to the ravens.

oh.
and of the patriots five losses this year, two of them have come from the giants..even when the giants were playing subpar.

i think given everything -- most importantly ny's momentum -- you have to side with ny unless you simply like to root for the underdog.

if i eat crow, so be it. it won't be for being a hard-headed retard.

What is there to discuss? Sure, if you wanna break down some stuff and you can back up stuff after having watched them every single week then absolutely. If you are going to talk about them based on watching them possibly 2 or 3 times this past season, then let's just leave it at the season is over.

So because you're a "true Ravens' fan" you can't discuss your teams' loss with an "outsider"?
Don't be such a self-affirmed pussy.

Your team lost because your defense was softer than usual, your QB played mediocre and two players, in conjunction, absolutely laid the biggest turd of the year in the sports world thus far.

Thoughts?

Pretty sure that was the 15-1 Packers losing in the first round.

what did you mean to say here?

Because you did exactly like I knew you would do. You don't really have anything constructive or actual cohesive thoughts, you come to incite. That's why I won't discuss it with you. Its not because I'm a "true Ravens fan" as you put it. I just don't feel like going in circles as you throw out little jabs trying to get someone riled up.

As an Eagles fan, I will not be watching. The only possible good outcome would be a Justin Tuck/Tom Brady knee-on-knee collision, resulting in both of them blowing out an ACL and missing next year. If the Giants win, the sports media will have another white QB it can constantly slobber over. So, that's something to look forward to...

In terms of betting, I would be careful. To win, the Giants D will have to knock Brady around a lot. I'm not sure NY's linebackers and safeties are good enough to deal with the Pats tight ends and slot receivers, and I think the Patriots defense has gotten a little better towards the end of the year. Plus, the karma of the perfect season ruined. I wouldn't bet against the Patriots.

I want the Giants to win, if for no other reason than to see if LooGAR's & Bloor's, et. al., heads explode when a Manning ("a family that ain't never win nothin'") wins his second Super Bowl. & in victory, defeats noted model & coozehound, Tom Brady.

Add to that, the dissonance of having a Manning (Eli) win, but in the House that a Manning (Peyton) made famous, Eli basically usurping his brother's mantel. Maybe their heads won't explode.

... In fact, prolly not, since I think the bulk of the GARS'S animus toward the Mannings is toward Peyton, which makes sense, when I remember they were at UGA simultaneous to Peyton's time at UT. Prolly just bad memories of Volunteers laying the hurt on Bulldogs.

You're correct. He beat us 4 of 4. Fuck him.

But I'm torn between my dad's (3rd) wife (Masshole + Pats fan) and certain relatives and friends (Gints fans)

I honestly cannot tell you who I'd be rooting for if there was no Facebox.

It was until the following week...

Turn the other cheek brother-man and you'll have to pull down your pants.

one loss out of three apparently. nonetheless, the point still stands.

No, the Packers laid a bigger egg given the expectations.

Even though I know you're trying to stoke the fire, you're wrong for these two simple reasons:

1. The Packers had a shit defense that was bailed out by the O the entire season. It was only a matter of time until the O couldn't do that against a good D. This was apparent to everyone all season and backed by pretty much every defensive stat. Thus it was not a surprise to anyone, unless you only eat media shit.

2. The Ravens had one and a half opportunities to go to the Super Bowl and shit the bed so hard you had to throw the fucking thing out. Evans drops the game winning TD and then their FG kicker misses a 30 yard field goal to go to OT. You can't write a better sports tragedy in the span of one minute football time.

I think that powerful sequence of events slightly outweighs Williams' blunders in the SF vs NY game -- which would be a strong #2.

My bed-shitting of the year in the sports year thus far - as limited as my sports sphere is - goes to the final minute of the Ravens' season. Given the circumstances, you couldn't imagine a worse ending. You look desperate in a debate over an understandably over-hyped Packers team versus that Ravens' "How to Lose a Game in 60 Seconds" story.

Yeah, heard you the first six times you said it. You're still wrong. First 15-1 team in NFL history to lose their first play-off game.

I get it. But your opinion lies in the minority.
And that's still fine.
You definitely have some axes to grind living in the tri-state shithole of the NFL.

i still can't believe the Giants team that lost to Vince Young and the Eagles (which at the time seemed like a must-win-game) is now in the super bowl.

I don't have an axe to grind, nor am I just trying to stir some shit up: The Packers losing was a bigger bed-shitting. Find me a piece of evidence beyond "jerkass says so" and I'm totally willing to listen and reconsider. Otherwise, STFU and move on.

As a pack fan it pains me to say it, but I agree with Bloor. The packers looked terrible the entire game - they couldn't catch a damn ball, couldn't hold on to the ball once they had it, and the defense was as unprepared and confused as they'd been all season. They seemed to give up in the second half, as if they knew they were beat.

At least the Ravens were in the game until the end. Shitty way to lose, and two individual mistakes that will haunt them forever... but as a team they were no where near as bad as GB.

Well based on that argument, where do the Saints fall? They looked better than GB offensively all season and lost in the first round. I think if we're using failed expectations based on regular season offensive performance -- and not media hype -- as the definition of bed shitting, the Saints might be considered worse, right?

Well, the Saints didn't lose in the first round. It also took an epic bed-shitting by our defense after Brees and Co. brought us back from the many turnovers to have the lead with 1:27 left and SF on their own 15. All that said, I'm betting on the Pats in the SB. Bellichick loves revenge.

Yeah. You're right about the first-round thing. I should have stated Divisional Playoffs. So given that I think the GB wins the bed-shitting argument since the Saints did win a wild-card game...enough argument about this already I guess.

Anywho, did you actually bet money on NE? Just curious.

on paper (and given the way both teams are playing right now), all signs would seemingly point to the giants

but i simply feel like brady is going to william wallace the shit out of this thing and get revenge for the giants ruining their perfect season back in their previous SB tilt

I don't know if he can do it but I agree that if they do it'll be because he willed them to win. If Gronk can't go that's a big hit.

The "Pats D is terrible" meme has been overblown in my opinion. No one will confuse them with the '85 Bears D but there are several factors that help them out, the main one being they have Tom Brady. He eats up a lot of clock with his drives (and keeps opposing D's on the field) and he doesn't turn the ball over. Combine that with the Pats D forcing turnovers and they have the best turnover ratio in the AFC (i think, at the very least it's top 2-3). Also, because they don't turn the ball over much, opposing offenses rarely have a short field to work with and their red zone d is much better than when they're between the 20's.

Not to mention they have great special teams and have only allowed 1 return TD all year.

I actually think these teams are pretty evenly matched and it'll once again come down to who makes those 2 or 3 big plays when it matters.

Derris,