Super Bowl Predictions and Discussion [Pre-Game Thread]

Super Bowl

Who wins and by how much?

Even though the Pats wil be heavily favored and SHOULD win this by more than 14, they won't because our boys in blue seem to lack a killer instinct. Like today, we should have routed the Colts, but instead they were allowed to linger until it nearly cost us. I fear the same may happen a fortnight hence, but the Pats will pull it out in the end to win 15 straight and 2 Super Bowls in three years. I won't predict a score just yet however.

Panthers in another close game.
16-9 my guess.

I'm leaning toward a Patriot win something like 23-13, but I've been very impressed with the Panthers the past two weeks and may change my mind.

Come on. We need an Iron Ian Lock.

I lost my house, thanks to you!

I hate to say it, but I think the Patriots win, something like 27-10. The Pats' short passing game is tailor made to be the Panthers. OTOH, Belichek is known for coming up with game plans to stymie passing teams, and complicated teams. There's no scheme to stop the Panthers' offense, because it's so simple. You just have to make plays. I think the Pats' defense will make plays, and thus win the game. But it'll be the players, not Belichek, who do that.

Mainly what I'm thinking is, two week SBs are almost always blowouts, and I don't see the Panthers blowing out the Patriots. I might pick the Panthers something like 16-13 if this was a one week SB.

It'll be interesting to see how the Pats match up corners to receivers. The logical thing would be to assign Law to Smith, to take Smith out of the game. He's the Panthers' most dangerous receiver. But that would leave teeny tiny Tyrone Poole (ex-Panther) guarding Muhsin Muhammad. Delhomme isn't afraid to lob the ball up to Muhammad and let his size make the play.

I see New England winning by 7 or 10, more if there's a snowstorm in Houston.

I love the Panthers but the Patriots maybe the one team that can exploit their weakness in the secondary. Carolina is good at shutting down the primary and seconday options, but the middle of the field can be soft.

Tom Brady is adept at spreading the ball around and the 5-receiver sets can be pretty effective. I can see a lot of passes to the tight end bouncing off the block.

When Carolina has the ball, the Patriots will have to stop Stephen Davis/DeShaun Foster on first down. Of course, every team that has played the Panthers knew this going in to the game, so we'll see how the Patriots deal with this.

The Panthers pull of a 13-10 win... I've been the SOLE BigSoccer poster backign them all the way through the playoffs, so I'm not gonna give up now!

The size thing is why I think that while there will be switching up, Law will be assigned to Muhammad for a lot of the game.

Score: what Garcia said, but with the Pats winning. 16-9.

Yeah, you also picked the Colts so...

Speaking of two week layoffs, what is the underdog's record after two weeks? If I remember correctly, the only upsets I can think of are New York in III and New York in XXV. Other than those, the extra week almost unfailingly benefits the favorite, which is incredibly the Patriots.

Patriots 26 - Panthers 14

I'd be interested to see a breakdown of the scores, and the time off.

I hate that it's gonna be two weeks, as a fan. Two week Super Bowls almost always suck, suck, suck.

As a Panther fan, one more week to bask in the glory...

You can say that again about the favorite thing. Given the franchise's history I have to admit I never thought I'd ever see the day where the Pats were heavy favorites to win it all going into the playoffs. Super Bowl favorites once they got there, perhaps.

Anyway, my vote was Pats 7 points or less. Not changing my 16-9 prediction right now.

People were saying that about a QB named Peyton a few of days ago. What happened to him? Anyone remember?

Yea, but that's only the Colts... this is the Panthers, people!

Seriously, while Delhomme, Davis, Smith, Muhammed, Proehl & Mangum are no Manning, James, Harrisson, Wayne, Stokley & Pollard, they are still very good at working their way down the field, seem to get the first down nearly all the time, and are a physically stronger unit than the Colts.

The Panthers defense is far better than the Colts however, and if they give your recievers the proverbial punch in the mouth that they did with the Eagles on Sunday, your passing game may lose a fair deal of it's fluency.

The Panthers will be playing for their lives in this game, since they know that there is a good possibility that they will never ever get to the big game again... the Pats will be playing very, very hard, but I doubt they'll appreciate being there as much as the Panthers.

And one other thing about the Colts match... it was in Foxboro, in the snow... this is in Houston (doesn't snow much in Texas, an Reliant is a down iirc).

The Panthers are the underdogs for sure, but I'm still gonna go with them - the masters of the close game.

Panthers are going to win it. No doubt in my mind about it. And I've changed my mind, wont be a close game.... A full walkover. How sweet it'd be to have our first shutout of the season at the super bowl?

So, Cats 24 - Pats 0

You should've quit while you were ahead.

Dave Fleming sums up why the Super Bowl appearance is so special for sports fans in Charlotte (and the whole state of North Carolina really, especially if you consider the drunk driving death of Scott Chiasson of the Hurricanes): http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs03/columns/story?id=1713533

Because there's a good chance the game will suck, here's a tentative list of Super Bowl advertisers: http://ad-rag.com/108417.php

I like the Panthers.... well, kinda. When the Browns were gone they were the team I rooted for until the Browns came back. And still have a soft spot for the Panthers..... but never thought they'd actually make the Super Bowl, especially given the lineup they've had to take out the past three weeks.

But, since they're on a roll, I'm going to pick:

Carolina 19, New England 16 (OT)

Sykotyk

I'd like to see the Panthers get their first Super Bowl win, but New England looks too tough. Pats by 7.

Super Bowl

Some are comparing this Panthers squad to the 2001 Patriots, both of whom won championship games on the road and were dogs in the Super Bowl.
I look at this year's Panthers the way I looked at the 1998 Atlanta Falcons... the upset winner of a clearly weaker conference going up against a recent Super Bowl winner (Denver). I can see it being close for a while, but with these games tending to turn into blowouts by the favorites, I can envision the same thing happening to the Panthers that happened to the Falcons. The Falcons hung around for a while, but threw three straight INT's in the 2nd half and the Broncos pulled away. The Pats have shown a tendency to let teams hang around for a bit and then put them away with big defensive plays in the 2nd half. With a halftime lead and enough pressure on Delhomme it could be deja vu all over again in the second half. I think the Pats pull away late in the 3rd quarter on a couple of forced turnovers and win by 17 or more points. I don't think they're 17 points better than the Panthers by any means, but that's rarely a factor in Super Bowls. The only question that remains is which Panthers DB will get arrested for soliciting prostitution the night before the game...

I never thought I would see the day when people thought that the Pats looked too tough going into a Super Bowl.

IIRC, there was one week before Super Bowl XXV.