Enough Super Bowl Hype...Who's Gonna Win?
Super Bowl predictions: ESPN's experts weigh in.
Feb. 1, 2008 — -- PHOENIX -- Who'll win Super Bowl XLII? It could be the Patriots in a blowout. Or maybe they'll sweat it out in the final minutes. Or maybe the Giants in a stunner. After all, few people give them a chance to knock off an unbeaten New England team that has already been lauded in some corners as the best in NFL history.
"I think it will be a shock-the-world thing," veteran Giants cornerback Sam Madison said. "But it's not going to shock us. We know we can play with these guys."
Teammate Plaxico Burress certainly thinks so -- he predicted a 23-17 Giants win earlier this week. Of course, while Burress gets a chance to actually influence the outcome of Sunday's game, the rest of us must be content with just making our predictions, sitting back and watching.
So how do our experts see it? The Pats are the heavy favorites, to be sure, but it's certainly not unanimous. The only thing we know is that everybody has an opinion on the game.
The Giants will benefit from having played New England once already. They're confident that quarterback Eli Manning can make big plays against the Patriots secondary and that their pass rush is also capable of causing problems for New England QB Tom Brady.
The Giants also watched two different teams hold Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss to just one catch. If the Giants can shut down Moss and harass Brady, the game won't even be this close. But since it's hard to do both, expect this one to come down to a last-second field goal and a Giant -- as in colossal -- upset.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been a master of making his players accountable. Even when they were blowing out teams by 25 or more points early in the season, players spent more time after games talking about their mistakes instead of the good plays they made. That kind of focus has made them more efficient.
Expect Tom Brady, despite the high ankle sprain, to win the Super Bowl MVP because the Patriots will go back to the four-
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