Come Sunday, coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots are going to be out for blood, trying to scrape the Super Bowl title that the underdog New York Giants claimed as theirs five years ago.
The New York Giants made it to the playoffs this year for the first time since beating the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. With a 9-7 regular season record, their road to the playoffs was not favored.
Advancing in the playoffs by beating the Atlanta Falcons in the Wild Card game, no one saw it coming when they took over the two best-record teams in the NFL: the 15-1 Green Bay Packers and the 13-3 San Francisco 49er’s.
The Patriots, however, pummeled through the regular season, finishing with 13-3, winning the AFC East, but then losing to Pittsburgh and the Giants. Once into playoff berth, the Patriots defeated the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens to advance to the Super Bowl.
The irony is that many believe the Giants will win, even though they are set to be the underdog once more facing the Patriots.
“Any clear-headed analysis of the game finds that the Giants are equal to or better than the Patriots in just about every phase of the game, up to and including the matchups of quarterbacks and coaches that almost always goes in favor of New England,” Josh Alper, NBC writer, said.
Not everyone agrees, though. Given that Patriot’s star quarterback, Tom Brady, has an upper-hand of four years of more experience under his belt, than Eli Manning.
“I think the Patriots will win because they have been there plenty of times before and I feel they have better fundamentals,” Matthew Galton, junior, says.
Regardless, it is hard to call who will win it, since both teams have two elite quarterbacks leading their teams, as well as power-house support systems.
For the Giants, they can count on their grade-A receiving bunch of Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham, and Victor Cruz; as well as a defensive line that is well trained in taming the Patriot’s high-powered offense.
“They’re a well-balanced defense that can shut down any opposing quarterback,” Kyle Parkinson, sophomore, said.
To compliment the Giant’s tough defense, the Patriot’s offensive is one to fear, making the Patriots and Giants a perfect match-up.
The Chicago Tribune Sports Network said, “Regardless of who the Patriots lined up against, it was still a dominating effort by Tom Brady and the offense that carried the club all season long. While the defense ranked 31st in the league in yards allowed per game, the Brady-led offense set a new team record with 6,848 net yards and finished the season with 513 points.”
Every match up between these two highly-acclaimed teams is a nail-biter, making the Super Bowl all the more entertaining.
Speaking of entertainment, if you’re not watching the Super Bowl for the game, you’re watching it for the commercials or halt-time show.
“If it’s a team I’m interested in I enjoy watching the game, other than that I like the commercials the best, because they are creative,” Hannah Stipek, junior, said.
For this year’s Super Bowl 42 the price of a 30 second commercial is an outrageous 3.5 million.
According to AOL, the best Super Bowl commercials ever aired to date include: Apple, Pepsi, Budweiser and McDonalds. Be prepared though, as this year’s commercials are expected to rise to the top of the charts and raise expectations for future years.
Super Bowl XLVI is set to air Sunday, Feb 5 at 6:30 p.m. EST on NBC. The National Anthem will be performed by Kelly Clarkson and the Halftime show will be Madonna.
