Patriots are fortunate

Thursday, February 2, 2012

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cabinet staffers Joe Marchilena and Mike Cleveland give dueling perspectives on this weekend’s Super Bowl.

The New England Patriots should not be in this position.

Teams with the 31st ranked pass defense don’t make it to the Super Bowl.

Teams that only get one win against an opponent with a winning record aren’t supposed to be playing the final week of the season.

Teams that pass, pass and pass some more aren’t supposed to win games in January and February.

Maybe this is the new NFL. Or maybe the Patriots have been very fortunate. Part of the reason they’ve only beaten one team over .500 is because they only played three such teams, including the playoffs.

But aside from luck, there are reasons to believe that New England will beat the New York Giants and bring home the franchise’s fourth Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.

Two of those reasons: Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. Both are in position to leave an even greater mark on the league’s record books, and don’t doubt for a second that they don’t know that.

One more Super Bowl win for Belichick would give him four as a head coach, tying former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll for most all-time. Another win for Brady would also give him four as a starting quarterback, the same as Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana.

A lot of newsprint and bandwidth have been devoted this season to how bad the Patriots’ defense is, and for all that Belichick and Brady do, neither one can improve the talent on that side of the ball in the next few days.

But New England isn’t the only team in this game with a bad defense. The Giants ranked 27th in yards allowed per game, and gave up exactly 400 points in the regular season.

And let’s not forget that New York was a team that nearly missed the playoffs, losing five out of six games in the second half of the season.

The Giants also lost to the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins twice, teams that New England would never lose to.

While the Giants did beat the Patriots this season – 24-20 on Nov. 6 in Foxborough – that might actually play into New England’s favor.

Since Brady took over at quarterback in 2001, more often than not, if the Patriots lose to a team during the regular season, the next time they see that team, they win. And since that loss, New England has won 10 in a row.

Of course, the Patriots have had a bad habit of making bad-to-mediocre quarterbacks look good this year. Dan Orlovsky threw for 353 yards against this defense, Jason Campbell threw for 344 and Vince Young had an even 400.

Before this season, Eli Manning might have gone in that mediocre category, but not now. Not after putting up almost 5,000 yards through the air this year. And the Giants have so many weapons: Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham, Ahmad Bradshaw, Brandon Jacobs …

Hard to believe that Brady might actually have to keep up with Manning, point for point, to win this game.

Of course, the Patriots could also rely on what’s gotten them this far already. In that case, break out your rabbit’s foot and your four leaf clover and whatever other talisman you’ve got lying around.