Alex Hall

Journal Staff

The agony that is the week in between the AFC and NFC Conference title games is now behind us, with the Super Bowl just four days away from kicking off in Indianapolis. As one Downtown Crossing store’s t-shirt put it, New England will be looking for revenge on the New York Giants for the way things ended in the 2007 Super Bowl.

The G-Men will be looking to defeat the Patriots for the third straight time en route to their second Super Bowl championship in five seasons.

New York will head into Indy with some impressive victories under their belt over the past few months. The Giants have been fighting for their playoff lives since week 14 of the regular season, winning three of their remaining four games and clinching the NFC East division title in the process.

Then they started up the postseason by holding the Atlanta Falcons to just two points, and defeated the Green Bay Packers as well as the San Francisco 49ers in back to back weeks on the road.

Big Blue is coming into Sunday defeating arguably the best offensive team and the best defensive team in all the NFL in over the past few weeks, thanks to an excellent front for on defense and their elite quarterback Eli Manning.

The Giants didn’t have the best record heading into the playoffs, but they were the hottest and they have yet to show any signs of cooling off.

The Patriots have impressed as well, not falling victim to Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos in the divisional round as well as defeating the Baltimore Ravens in a close encounter two weeks ago.

I can’t decide if it’s a good thing or not that New England has yet to play their best game of football and made it to the Super Bowl. Quarterback Tom Brady looked especially out of character against the Ravens, with just a 61 percent completion rate and only 239 yards passing.

What the Super Bowl comes down to is whether or not the Patriots and their less than stellar defense can shut down Manning and the Giants’ offense. Brady and company are as good, if not better than what the Giants have to offer offensively, but New York has boasted the second best defense since postseason started.

The Pats defense has been able to hold both of their postseason foes to 20 points or less so far, which is respectable.

Though the Broncos and Ravens offenses aren’t exactly as intimidating as what the Giants have going on. Bill Belichick’s defense isn’t going to get blown out of the water by the Giants Sunday, but they’re certainly going to get pushed around a bit.

This defense simply doesn’t have the personnel to shut down Victor Cruz, Ahmad Bradshaw, Eli Manning, Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks. There’s just too much firepower the Giants can unleash upon a defense that has struggled most of the season.

Regardless of tight end Rob Gronkowski’s health, Tom Brady will make the Patriots offense run the same way it usually does and should be able to have some amount of success against a tough Giants defense.

That being said, this game will end up being yet another loss for the Pats at the hands of the G-Men, and Big Blue will once again be Super Bowl champions.