The Pick Rant

First, I'd like to remind everyone that I CALLED THIS.

And here it is.

Patriots 24, Eagles 16

But I've accepted that. I'm OK with that. Well, I'm not OK with it, but you know what I mean. I feel bad, though -- like I'm being a bad fan by going that way. I want them to win, but I just can't see it happening.

My real issue is with some of the other predictions I've seen for this game. I've seen people on TV pick the Pats to score 35, 34, 38, 45 points (the over/under's only 48, folks), and I have to wonder if they've watched any Eagles games this year. Or any Patriots games, for that matter.

The only team that allowed fewer points during the season than the Patriots and Eagles (260 apiece) is Pittsburgh. And that's with no one even mentioning the Eagles' defense, which has the best (active) secondary in the league, had the second-most sacks in the league, and a run defense that improved markedly after Trotter was made a starter following the Steelers game. The Freak may have a field day with the poor sap who's filling in at right tackle for the Pats. The Patriots are not going to blow them off the field, and anyone who thinks they are needs to tell me who their weed man is. The Eagles only gave up more than 21 points twice, and one of them didn't matter (the phoned-in finale against the Bengals) These Eagles aren't the Chargers in 29 or the Falcons in 33 -- inferior teams that had no business being there in the first place and knew it.

The thing is, the Patriots are simply better. They're not "we're going to go over the top and win with the deep ball" better -- they're just better. They do everything right. They don't make mistakes or turn the ball over. They've got a few great players and a lot of good ones. They ALWAYS score first. (Seriously, look it up. It's uncanny.) The Eagles haven't faced a team this good all year, and they won't face one this good next year either unless they get back to the Super Bowl and either 1) play the Pats again, or 2) the Colts finally figure out how to beat them.

The Eagles CAN win this game. (And if they do, I'm thinking a kick return of some kind will have played a huge role.) If this were a best-of-seven it'd probably go six or seven. But it's not. And they won't. And that makes me sad.