Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Battle is Upon Us







SUPER BOWL XLII
The much anticipated re-match from week 17 is merely hours away.The New England Patriots bring their undefeated record(18-0) into the University of Phoenix Stadium to square off against the New York Giants(13-6).The Giants gave New England their toughest game this season and now they get another chance to spoil New England's historic season.The Patriots are heavily favored in this game but the Giants aren't going to roll over and just hand the Lombardi trophy to them.The Giants have just as much chance as New England to win this game.So lets take a look at what each team needs to do to come out victorious Sunday.

5 Things Giants Need to do to Win
#1.First and foremost, the Giants have to dictate how the game will be played.They must control the ball with the power run game and that will open up opportunities for Eli Manning to find holes in the New England defense.Although they scored 35pts on New England in week 17, they are not built as an offensive power house team.Giants will need to win the time of possession to keep Tom Brady and the explosive offense off the field.Shoot-out games are not their style so if the Giants are going to win, its will have to be a low scoring game.

#2.Do not turn the ball over to New England.The Patriot offense will make you pay if you turn the ball over.As I stated before, Giants aren't a shoot-out team and New England will capitalize on the mistakes and the Giants will be playing catch up. A recipe for disaster for the Giants if they wish to bring home the Championship.

#3.The defense must get after Brady and force him to get rid of the ball quicker than he wants.If they give Tom too much time, he'll be able to read the field and have time to go through his progressions to find open wide receivers.Get pressure on him and they may make him force a pass allowing a defensive back to jump the route and get the interception.

#4.Keep Laurence Maroney to minimal gains.The Patriots have proven this post-season that they can run the ball if needed.If the Giants allow Maroney to get 5-6 yard gains, then that's going to set-up the play action passing game for New England.Maroney didn't play much during the first half of the regular season so to me, he's the healthiest running back in the league.

#5.The final thing the Giants must do to beat New England is get some points from their defense and special teams.In the Week 17 game, Hixon ran back a kick-off for a touchdown.If they hadn't gotten that score then it would have only been 38-28 and might not have been considered such a good game.They wouldn't have the lead by 12 points, which was the most New England trailed a team all year.


5 Things Patriots need to do to Win
#1.Same thing the Giants need to do to Tom Brady, get pressure on Eli Manning. Obviously that's the name of the game but it's easier said than done, especially at this point in the season.If you allow Eli to hit his check down receivers its going to let them control the flow of the game.The check down receivers are just like a run game, letting Eli gain minimal, but crucial yards to keep the New England offense off the field.

#2.Don't allow for the big play.In the first match-up on the very first play the Giants threw a deep ball to Plaxico Burress.By doing that it opened up everything in the middle.The Patriot defense works better when it can control the deep ball and the middle of the field.Keeping the passes short allows them to rally to the ball. I know it sounds contradictory to the above mentioned, but Bill would much prefer short 4-7 yards gains over much larger 25+ yard plays.

#3.The third thing New England must do to win is counter what the Giants need to do to win.Keep Tom Brady on his feet and off his back.Giants are going to put pressure on him so the Patriots will need to be very sharp on their short passes as they have been all year. The offensive line has a big challenge ahead of them knowing that the front sever is the strong point of this Giants defense. Screens and short passes will beat an overly aggressive team.

#4.Score quickly and often.If New England get 2 touchdowns on their first 2 possessions the Giants will have to play catch-up and that will make Eli try to force things.This will take the run game out of the game in the first half.When Eli tries to force the ball he gets his self in trouble like he did in week 17.He over threw his receiver and the pass was intercepted by New England.

#5.Get Randy Moss involved quickly.After the record setting year of Brady and Moss, the Patriots need to lean on the talent and utilize Moss as much as possible in the early stages of the game. In the twoprevious playoff games that New England won to get to the Super Bowl,Moss had a total of 2 receptions for 32 yards and no touchdowns.Moss caught 2 or more touchdowns in 8 of the 16 games this season.He had 6 receptions with 2 touchdowns and 100 yards vs. the Giants in week 17.

3 comments:

Marc said...

Great coverage of the Super Bowl.

RaysBaseball.BlogSpot.Com

Anonymous said...

Love how you didn't just give keys to New England you actually looked at the Giants keys as well. Good Job Matt.

Kyle W said...

Heck of a Superbowl Tryee's catch was jsut amazing