The New England "Fervent Nationalists" vs. the New York "Men of Great Size"
Can the "Men of Great Size" really and truly pull off what would arguably be the greatest upset in Super Bowl history? (With all apologies to the "Jet-Propelled Vehicles" of 1968, but let's face it, their opponents that year (the "Young Male Horses") weren't going into the Super Bowl undefeated).
So can they do it? Not a chance! Eli Manning may have looked good in that week 17 game against New England, but Belichik has a long history of QB's doing well against his teams the first time he faces them, and then crashing back to reality the second time around as he uses whatever he learned in that first meeting to devise schemes that clamp down on them and confuse/frustrate them.
........... and the Super Bowl is just about the worst place imaginable for that to happen, but that's what Eli has to look forward to. He need only look to his own brother, Peyton, for a perfect example of that decades-old pattern - a pattern established and continued since Belichik's days with the Giants, back in the 80's, when even the great Joe Montana found his game totally stifled by Belichik's imaginative and tailored schemes. And let's face it, Eli is not about to overcome something that great QB's like Montana, Elway, and Jim Kelly couldn't.
I think the claims that Eli has "come of age" over the last 3 weeks were validated by his play against Green Bay today. So when you see his play "tank" during the Super Bowl, it doesn't mean that those claims aren't valid, or were somehow "premature" - it only means that Eli is the latest in a long line of Belichik's "second time around" victims.
I like the Pats, but I think the Giants have the chance to be the David to their Goliath!