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Saturday, November 3, 2007

All Eyes On Super Bowl 41.5

Passing offense:
Patriots - Clearly the Patriots are superior in this category. Listen to these stats, 73.5 completion percentage, over 300 yards per game, and Tom Brady has 30 TD passes with only 2 INTS.

Colts - The Colts have a great pass offense, but they don't match the Pats: The Patriots have the edge in almost every statistical category. Advantage: Patriots.

Rushing offense:
Patriots - We all know about Brady and Moss, but do we really understand the Pats can also run the ball? They average over 135 yards per game and 4.2 per carry. Those numbers are good and we shouldn't sleep on them.

Colts - With that said about the Pats, the Colts get over 140 yards per game and 4.4 per carry. Both numbers are slightly higher than the Pats. Though not by much, the Colts get the advantage here. Advantage: Colts.

Rushing defense:
Patriots - To pick a winner in this category is very difficult, here is why. The Pats have better statistics against the run only because they typically get out to such a big lead teams need to abandon the running game. There giving up under 88 yards per game rushing. But as I said, teams don't have time to waste by running against them.

Colts - The Colts give up more than 100 yards rushing per game, however they are pretty good in this category as well. With the return of a healthy Bob Sanders, this team can stop the run. That's why they have the edge. Advantage Colts

Passing defense:
Patriots - Again this is a little mis-leading because of the tremendous leads the Pats have had. They have given up 10 TD's and have forced 11 interception. Also, they have recorded 22 sacks. But as I said earlier, they should give up a lot of passing TD's because all teams do is pass against them.

Colts - The Colts have allowed only 5 TD's and have forced 9 interceptions, while recording 12 sacks. However, if they were thrown on as many times as the Pats have been, these numbers would clearly show the Pats dominance. Advantage: Patriots.

Special teams (returns):
Patriots - The Pats are averaging 29.2 yards per kickoff return with 2 touchdowns and 10.1 yards per punt return.

Colts - The Colts are averaging 23.9 yards per kickoff return with no touchdowns and 9.0 yards per punt return. Advantage: Patriots.

Special teams (kickers):
The Colts have Adam Vineteri, enough said. Advantage: Colts.

Coaching
We all know the coaches, but Bill Belichick is the best in the game, maybe ever. Advantage: Patriots

My prediction:
I think the Patriots have too many offense weapons. They are going to run up and down the field, and wait for Peyton to make a mistake. Granted, that may never happen, but the odds of him making a mistake are bigger than Tom Brady making a mistake.

Patriots win 41-35 (and cover the 5 points spread).

2 comments:

Matt said...

Looks like you were right. Brady made more mistakes than Manning, but his team simply had too much firepower to be denied the victory.

David Stefanini said...

Brady did make more mistakes, but he also made more plays. And I was right about them winning, but I thought they'd cover the spread, they didn't.