Super Bowl Preview Extravaganza: Perfect Patriots

18-0. That has been the season coming into Sunday’s Super Bowl against the New York Giants. Never before since the NFL went to a 16 game schedule has a team gone this far without a loss. The New England Patriots, amidst all the controversy of Spygate, Gisele, Anklegate, and Bill Belichick,  have done just that. It has been a season in which records were broken. Tom Brady threw 50 TD passes, breaking Peyton Manning’s record of 49. Randy Moss caught 23 of them, breaking Jerry Rice’s single season record of 22.* The season started out with them being busted for spying on the Jets, losing a draft pick (like it matters, the 49ers traded their pick to the pats, the 49ers sucked, and the Pats now have the 7th pick of the draft), but at the same time, they were blowing teams out of the water. Scores of 38-14, 34-13, 34-17, 49-28, they had dominated.

But, the undefeated season was nearly wrecked several times. The Cowboys lost 48-27 to New England, but had the lead in the 3rd quarter at 24-21 before New England pulled away and scored garbage points. At Indianapolis, in the famed “Game of the Century”, the Pats were down 20-10 with 9:36 left. Instead of folding, they rallied and won a thrilling 24-20 win over their recent rivals in the Colts. At home against the Eagles, with AJ Feeley, not Donovan McNabb, as QB, they won by a mere 3 points. They could’ve lost had AJ not try to be a hero and throw up a wild pass for Asanta Samuel to intercept.

On Monday Night Football, against the awful Ravens, with the betting line set as the Patriots as a 20 point favorite they were down 24-20 with little time remaining…….actually, the Ravens decided to shoot themselves with mistakes and let the Patriots score the winning touchdown. The Pats weren’t out of the woods, Kyle Boller’s desperation pass to Derrick Mason was caught, but 2 yards shy of the goal line. The perfect regular season still was in danger, as they were down 28-16 in the 3rd quarter to the New York Giants in the season finale. Tom Brady, Laurence Maroney and Randy Moss took the game over, and they held on for a 38-35 win in the Meadowlands.

Even in the playoffs, they only won 31-20 over the Jaguars, and 21-12 over San Diego to get to Glendale. The common denominator for both games, the losing team kicks field goals, the winning team scores touchdowns.

There is no “invincible” team as the media perceived them many times in the season. But the fact of the matter is, they are good.

The X Factor: Kevin Faulk. The cousin of legendary player Marshall Faulk, Kevin has been an unsung hero in this dynamic Patriots offense.  While not much of a running threat, he torched the Chargers in the AFC Championship Game, as he caught 3 critical 3rd down passes, and catching 8 passes for 82 yards overall. This season, he caught 47 balls for 383 yards and a touchdown. Look for him in screen passes and quick outs from Tom Brady.