Bitter much?

I noticed this on Kiss Me Suzy. Apparently some Patriots fans are starting a petition that last 1:40 of the Super Bowl should be replayed. Fans of the team that reportedly cheated their way to the second biggest upset in Super Bowl history. And you can view a powerpoint presentation (I shit you not) of the Giants' apparently rampant cheating. Seahawks fans were similarly bitter two years ago, but there were multiple questionable calls in that game.

Now he's rooting for Duke

You knew it was coming. Hitler is too big of a Patriots fan to take this loss lying down. This video isn't as funny, and I imagine there will be more Hitler clips coming out in the next week or two.

The Tuck Rule

I am still in disbelief. Somehow the Giants, the same Giants who allowed 80 points in the first two weeks of the season, held the most potent offense in the history of the NFL to two touchdowns. To 45 rushing yards on 16 carries. To under five yards a pass attempt. Unreal numbers.

In hindsight, the Giants learned more about the Patriots from their week 17 matchup than the Patriots learned about the Giants. Steve Spagnuolo must have seen some cracks in the Patriots offensive line, and Belichick never adjusted. Which is eerily reminiscent of the Patriots' monumental upset of the Rams, where Mike Martz never called any max protect. The Giants repeatedly pulled Fred Robbins outside and brought Justin Tuck (not a starter) up the middle, and rushed Tuck at the right guard almost every down after Stephen Neal left the game.

If the Redskins pull up the Brinks truck to Steve Spagnuolo's jersey estate today (rookie coaches typically make $2-$2.6 million for a 3 or 4 year deal, Snyder would probably pay him about $3 million) then they totally redeem themselves for their extended head coaching search. NFL rules penalize assistant coaches on Super Bowl teams, as the Redskins are the only opening left. Spagnuolo may turn Snyder down, with him not being able to choose his coaching staff or players, but it won't come down to money.

So where does this rank all time in terms of upsets? The Jets/Colts is from a different era in terms of media exposure of the AFL and NFL, so it really can't be compared. So that just leaves Patriots/Rams and Broncos/Packers. The Broncos upset was clearly the smallest upset of these three, in terms of point spread and revisionist history. Looking back it isn't that big of a surprise the Broncos undersized cut-blocking line were able to hold the aging, less athletic Packers defensive line in check. With the scandal emerging around the Patriots/Rams Super Bowl, revisionist history says of course the Patriots won because they did a better job cheating. Maybe in a few years we'll hear the Giants bugged Patriots practices, or they were all on HGH, but after this weekend it's hard not to call this the biggest NFL upset in 39 years.

From the start of the playoffs, the Giants are by far the most unlikely Super Bowl champ. They're the second wild card team to win the Super Bowl, but the 2005 Steelers were a year removed from going 15-1 and were just getting healthy in the playoffs. The Giants lost Tiki Barber to retirement and Jeremy Shockey to injury. The were blowed out, as Emmitt would say, by the Vikings Thanksgiving Day weekend. I believe the Giants were something like 25:1 to start the playoffs; Vegas Watch had them as the second longest odds in the playoffs.

My Super Bowl prediction

Tom Brady is so impressive it's ridiculous. He threw half a hundred touchdowns, he's dating maybe the world's most eligible bachelorette, and he always says the right thing. How about his response to Plaxico Burress's prediction?

"We're only going to score 17 points?" Brady said before chuckling about it. "OK. Is Plax playing defense? I wish he had said 45-42 and gave us a little credit for scoring more points."

The perfect response. Zero bulletin board material, even a kind of a tip of the hat to Burress, and he makes an excellent point. How are the Giants possibly going to hold the Patriots under 40? The Patriots have one of the best receiving corps in the history of the NFL, the Giants weakest position is defensive back. The Giants have the league's best set of defensive ends, but the Patriots have perhaps the league's best set of offensive tackles. I don't see New England punting more than once.

My prediction: Patriots 41. Giants 24.

Part of me sees the Patriots winning by three, just like their other three Super Bowls, but this is by far the most talented Patriots Super Bowl squad, and probably the weakest team they've played. In fact, it's arguably the weakest team New England has played in this year's playoffs.

A million to one shot, doc

Danny boy is gassing up Redskin One and heading to Arizona, presumably to talk to Mariucci, among others. Who else, and why? Profootballtalk has suggested two possibilites:

1. Snyder was taken aback by the criticism of the imminent Jim Fassel hire and is trying to make the search look more thorough by interviewing as many candidates as possible, most notably the Super Bowl coordinators
2. They're making a run at Bill Belichick

The former sounds reasonable. The latter is a longshot. They mention that Belichick would want complete control, especially in picking his coaching staff. But it's worth noting that no one outside of the Patriots organization knows for sure how long Belichick is signed for, and that if he completes a 19-0 season with his fourth Super Bowl in New England he'll have no hill left to climb there.

Germany's Team

No need to play any more games, Pats are champs

Let me get this straight: the Chargers go into Foxborough next week with Tomlinson, Gates, and Rivers hurt, and expect to have any chance of winning a Norv Turner/Bill Belichick coaching matchup? Then the Patriots will have two weeks to prepare for either an undermanned Giants squad or the most overachieving team in the NFL? It's possible the Patriots could suffer a rash of injuries, or maybe kidnappings (like in Ace Ventura), but it sure seems like smooth sailing from here on out for the Patriots.

Jobbed

The Ravens stopped the Patriots last night 3 times on 4th down on the game winning drive, and none counted. The first time, on a 4th and 1, Tom Brady was stuffed in the backfield on a quarterback keeper. But the referees allowed defensive coordinator Rex Ryan to signal timeout, even though the only person on the sidelines allowed to call a timeout is the head coach. Then the Ravens stuffed fullback Heath Evans on a fullback dive, but the Patriots were whistled for a false start. Finally, Brady through an incomplete pass on 4th and 5. But the Jermaine Winbourne was whistled for defensive holding on the tight end, a ticky tack foul that occurred within five yards of the line of scrimmage. On the one 4th down the Patriots did convert, after the false start, Samari Rolle was called for illegal contact, even though from my angle it looked like Randy Moss tackled Rolle in front of the ref. This likely led to one of the incidents of the head linesman calling Rolle "boy."

On the bright side for Baltimore, in a game that featured three sure fire Hall of Famers (Tom Brady, Ray Lewis, Jon Ogden), Haloti Ngata was the best player on the field. The Patriots averaged 4.4 yards a play when Ngata was in the game, 6.2 yards when he wasn't, a staggering difference. Ngata is 9th in the NFL in tackles among defensive lineman, ridiculous for a 340 pounder whose primary responsibility is to occupy blockers. He looks like a great choice for my 25 or Under team, and deserves a spot in the Pro Bowl this year.

Sunday Bloody Sunday Night Football

In NBC's handpicked Sunday Night Game this week, the Patriots are a shocking 23 1/2 point favorite over the McNabb-less Eagles, the largest in the NFL since 1976 and the largest in the history of the NFL in a game not involving an expansion team. New England is 9-1 against the spread this year, barely failing to cover a 5 1/2 point spread against the Colts. The fact that the Patriots run up the score is the reason for the huge number.

"Nowadays, you don't see too many spreads over 16 or 17 points," said Sean Van Patten, an oddsmaker at Sports Consultants in Las Vegas. "That's because most teams take their starters out in the fourth quarter of a lopsided game. The Patriots don't. I call this phenomenon The [Bill] Belichick Factor."

The Eagles are 5-5 and have won 3 out of 4. Bill Belichick probably doesn't hate them and might respect Andy Reid, but you never know. Imagine when the Patriots play the 2-8 Jets, who touched off this scorched earth offense with Spygate, at home. A 40 point spread is absolutely unheard of in the NFL, but it's not out of the question. Or the 0-10 Dolphins, whose ex-players and coaches have been making their typical inane comments about how great they were?

I just can't believe that NBC is choosing to air these mismatches. They've got to be losing at least 80% of their audience at halftime, at least based on the people I've talked to, and they're people who don't tend to give up on an NFL game. If you look at Sunday's slate, the three games featuring two playoff contenders are Buffalo at Jacksonville (-7.5), Houston at Cleveland (-3.5), and Washington at Tampa Bay (-3). Philadelphia at New England also is a matchup between playoff contenders, but it's obviously more of a mismatch. The problem is the the NFL has become a purely quarterback driven league, and the only games that get any play are the ones with marquee quarterbacks. So this is what we get in primetime.