Super Bowl Predictions

[Erm310mce]

What a championship Sunday!! 

An incredible day of football, the Patriots prove again that they have at least one more fight in them. Brady was just incredible, coaching was great and the defense played a great game.

9 super bowls for Brady/Belicheck, 8 straight AFC games, 4 out of last 5 SBs... will we ever see a run like that again?

This Super Bowl should be another classic!

Who do you have and why?

Hard to bet against the Pats the way they are playing.. I’m going Pats by 6! But I’m biased  let’s go Pats!! 

[joeypots]

It was indeed a great day of football, even if the officiating was a bit "off". Brady and Belichick are our Russell and Auerbach of the 21st century. 

[peteando]

Pats 27, Rams 17.  Bold prediction: Belichick announces retirement this offseason.

[Stump89]

23 minutes ago, peteando said:

Pats 27, Rams 17.

I think this is a pretty solid prediction. As much as I am a Brady/Belichick hater, it's tough to see them losing. Rams need to run the ball and keep Brady off the field if they are to have a chance.  Aaron Donald is gonna need the game of his career too.

[JGD]

Patriots by 10. Brady and Belichick return for next season. Gronkowski announces he’s done after this Super Bowl.

[alloy]

Pats will win if, and only if the officials aren't from the LA area. Three of the refs in the Saints loss live in the LA area. The back judge who did not make the interference call actually played for the Rams back in the 80's and lives in the LA area. 

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, alloy said:

Pats will win if, and only if the officials aren't from the LA area. Three of the refs in the Saints loss live in the LA area. The back judge who did not make the interference call actually played for the Rams back in the 80's and lives in the LA area. 

even according to one of the saints fans' forums, it was supposedly a different judge and not this bloke who played for the rams. and he lives several hours from LA. if you check his record, since 08, in games with the rams, he is 3-6 before yesterday. and that includes the game earlier in the season where the saints beat the rams. so bit hard to claim too much bias.

it was a shocking call, or non call, or probably did cost the saints a spot, but there are a number of refs on the field. hard to see them getting any playoff gigs for a few seasons. but the saints had plenty of chances. 

to suggest brady and the pats can only win if the refs are not from LA is a bit rich, given what they have achieved. 

personally, thought it was a brilliant weekend of football and hopefully the superbowl will live up to it. i have no fave either way (it does cause me to weep to think that we gave up mcvay and kept gruden when it was blindingly obvious where the talent lay). it would be nice if it was not decided by refs. the only positive for the superbowl for me was that this was, if memory serves, my tip for the two teams who'd be there. think i tipped the rams to go all the way but very hard to go against brady. extraordinary stuff. hard to see any team ever repeating this run. 

one tip, i can't see bellichek retiring yet. 

[anjimj]

Pats should win this game but will as always be a close one. Pats 34 Rams 31.

Ain't no way anyone is retiring except maybe Gronk who has back issues. This might be his final game.

[JohnInCleveland]

I'm a contrarian.  27-24 Rams.  

[FOHrty9er]

I will go Rams.  Consider this: they are building a shiney, expensive new stadium that will be touted heavily by the league.  It is in the NFL's better business interests for the Rams to win.

[Ken Gargett]

57 minutes ago, FOHrty9er said:

I will go Rams.  Consider this: they are building a shiney, expensive new stadium that will be touted heavily by the league.  It is in the NFL's better business interests for the Rams to win.

i think every football competition, indeed sporting competition, suffers from nonsensical conspiracy theories. all blacks in the 95 world cup, anyone? 

does anyone really think that the pats players are going to go along with this? or will the ref'ing be so utterly biased that they can't win (that only happens when the cheats from nsw dud the glorious qlders in origin and interstate rugby).

but seriously, every year the same thing. two years ago, no way were they going to let the pats win after deflategate and the commissioner's disputes with the pats. well it would have only taken a very very few minor subtle decisions to have made that happen, given the state of the game. and what happened? 

it is also deeply insulting to mcvay and the rams. as well as plain idiotic. 

[FOHrty9er]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

i think every football competition, indeed sporting competition, suffers from nonsensical conspiracy theories. all blacks in the 95 world cup, anyone? 

does anyone really think that the pats players are going to go along with this? or will the ref'ing be so utterly biased that they can't win (that only happens when the cheats from nsw dud the glorious qlders in origin and interstate rugby).

but seriously, every year the same thing. two years ago, no way were they going to let the pats win after deflategate and the commissioner's disputes with the pats. well it would have only taken a very very few minor subtle decisions to have made that happen, given the state of the game. and what happened? 

it is also deeply insulting to mcvay and the rams. as well as plain idiotic. 

NFL football has been a huge part of my life for the better part of 40 years.  It saddens me to see the deterioration of a once great sport.  I wish it could go back to the glory days, but it will not.  Viewer ratings are plummeting  and execs ate meddling to an absurd degree.

From my perspective, I witnessed the Rams get away with many pass interference violations.  They were never penalized so they kept doing it.  Surely they were laughing about it on the sideline.

Their vagrant disregard for the basic rules of football was an insult.  The two lesser quality teams won yesterday.

My suspicions of NFL execs meddling began when the 49ers played the Ravens in the SB years ago.  The Ravens were absolutely dominating, and the power goes out?!?  No way that's coincidence.

Just my opinions of course.  Starting to get more into college these days...

[Ken Gargett]

2 minutes ago, FOHrty9er said:

NFL football has been a huge part of my life for the better part of 40 years.  It saddens me to see the deterioration of a once great sport.  I wish it could go back to the glory days, but it will not.  Viewer ratings are plummeting  and execs ate meddling to an absurd degree.

From my perspective, I witnessed the Rams get away with many pass interference violations.  They were never penalized so they kept doing it.  Surely they were laughing about it on the sideline.

Their vagrant disregard for the basic rules of football was an insult.  The two lesser quality teams won yesterday.

My suspicions of NFL execs meddling began when the 49ers played the Ravens in the SB years ago.  The Ravens were absolutely dominating, and the power goes out?!?  No way that's coincidence.

Just my opinions of course.  Starting to get more into college these days...

i'm sure most of us have walked away from games convinced that the ref'ing was deliberately dodgy and cost us games. i certainly have. and i'm sure it might occasionally happen. that i can swallow but i really struggle with the concept of governing bodies deciding who they want to win and trying to manipulate the result. too difficult. i don't buy the conspiracy theories about the lights for that superbowl. something like that will come out. and the ravens still won. it gave the 49ers a great chance to regroup, sure, but beyond that, i really do not buy it. the money involved in this sport, it is not worth it. if it ever came out, the loss of fans, of confidence, of interest, would have cost them billions. we had a cricket game in brizzy last week where we were in trouble and the lights went out. simply bad luck for the opposition. game was shared as it never got a chance to start again. 

the major football contest here is what is known as Origin. three games of league between nsw and queensland. been plenty of accusations over the years. even the most rabid qlder would admit that a ref known as the grasshopper was a shocker and blatant in his favouritism. but one of our great players once said, nsw had plenty of refs who were even worse, they just hid it better. things are improved these days. scrutiny makes it much harder to get away with things and video reviewing of aspects also. i hope they bring pass interference into the decisions which can be challenged. 

as for ratings, here is an article https://www.thewrap.com/what-drove-the-nfls-tv-ratings-increase-in-2018/ talking about the lift in ratings for the NFL and then this weekend, apparently they got huge numbers. mind you, if the skins v the cowgirls was the biggest ratings game of the year, that alone should have put people off ever watching again. 

the officiating in both games yesterday was poor. i'm sure that the winning sides could point to some dodgy decisions as well, though that interference was disgraceful.

lesser quality teams often win games. just because you top the division, although with the saints/rams, it was a whisker, does not hand you the playoffs. you have to go out and win and both losing sides had their chances.

as for the chiefs and pats, the chiefs might have been the better side in the regular season, but the pats know the playoffs better than any team. as the commentators said yesterday, the pats had something like 30 plus players, i think, who had experience in a championship game and in total, something like 136 games of championship experience. the chiefs had none. not a single player had ever been in a championship game. that matters. they had a rookie, or close to, QB who was terrific during the year but these games are different. i thought that the pats and brady made a number of errors during the game which kept the chiefs in it. i thought that they were clearly the better team on the day. it is why we have finals. 

as for the changes to the game over time, i think most agree with you, but that is the way of the world. you need to protect the players. we won't be going back sadly. agree with you on this. 

anyway, still looking forward to an exciting game on monday morning in two weeks. 

 

[SCgarman]

I am a Giants fan. And hate the Patriots. So I will root for them. To LOSE

[Lomey]

I say the Patriots by 6.

[Erm310mce]

19 hours ago, FOHrty9er said:

Their vagrant disregard for the basic rules of football was an insult.  The two lesser quality teams won yesterday.

 

I know there is a lot of hate outside of New England for the Pats, but I’m just not sure I agree with this statement. 

The Pats held them scoreless in the first half, I think KC had 4 snaps the first quarter? 

I know there were some questionable calls but it really was both ways. Gronk gets interfered with so many times without call. 

On paper KC should be the better team talent wise, but in the end they were beaten twice by the Pats. 

I think the Pats are enjoying being “the underdog” with the media though. 

[MoeFOH]

Pats. All the way! Boston to do the double over L.A. - Red Sox & Pats. 

Pats by 10.

 

[FOHrty9er]

Belicik (sp?) is a great coach, there is no denying that.  Hats off to him and the Pats.  Many of my closest friends are from that region and we enjoy the banter.  Whether I like them or not is, in my eyes, irrelevant.  They are embellished is NFL lore through dominant play and coaching.  It's amazing to watch.  

Now if they could just lose for once ?

Enjoying this thread, BTW...

[Ken Gargett]

Just now, FOHrty9er said:

Belicik (sp?) is a great coach, there is no denying that.  Hats off to him and the Pats.  Many of my closest friends are from that region and we enjoy the banter.  Whether I like them or not is, in my eyes, irrelevant.  They are embellished is NFL lore through dominant play and coaching.  It's amazing to watch.  

Now if they could just lose for once ?

Enjoying this thread, BTW...

even his work with the giants before he went to the pats was impressive. 

funny thing is that when i was living in the States, that was the time that the Pats were the proverbial joke. i know they made the final against the 85 bears - talk about the poisoned chalice - but otherwise, they were pretty hopeless and if you were playing them, you automatically assumed a win. extraordinary the turnaround. 

if only the skins could do that but the catalyst was change of ownership. if only...

embarrassingly, just seen what an editor has down to a piece i wrote about lusi's. i mentioned that they were great for watching a top movie, say the godfather, or settling back and watching arsenal beat manu or "as the Redskins roll on towards a Superbowl, although Skins fans will not be holding their breath". my otherwise highly esteemed editor took it upon herself to "edit" this and turn me into a Pats fan. i have begged for a change but not sure if i was in time. cruel. 

sadly the pats did lose one - last year. wrong year to pick. allowing the iggles to win. the horror. 

[MoeFOH]

8 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

my otherwise highly esteemed editor took it upon herself to "edit" this and turn me into a Pats fan.

Ouch. Particularly harsh! There are some things you just don't mess with. Ever. 

[Ken Gargett]

2 minutes ago, MoeFOH said:

Ouch. Particularly harsh! There are some things you just don't mess with. Ever. 

agreed. that said, she did leave the bit about arsenal thumping man u.

i suspect she did not want the site associated with anything to do with the Skins. hard to argue. 

[Bill Hayes]

On 1/22/2019 at 2:32 PM, Ken Gargett said:

i

the major football contest here is what is known as Origin.

 

The major football contest here is the AFL Grand Final - according to us Victorians, South Aussies and West Aussies at least ?

[Ken Gargett]

13 minutes ago, Bill Hayes said:

The major football contest here is the AFL Grand Final - according to us Victorians, South Aussies and West Aussies at least ?

bill, that took way longer than i expected.

understand that it has its appeal - last's years the best in ages - but in all seriousness, yes preaching to the converted. 

[Eric E]

As a lifelong Bills fan, I hate the Pats* with my very soul. Go Rams!

 

 

*caught cheating multiple times

[multi-useless]

I'm from the St. Louis, Missouri area.  Most people know us as a baseball town, with an arch, and pizza on really thin crust.  The pizza is pretty good; if you ever find yourself here, get a pizza.

This is also the city that the Rams played in from the mid-90's, up until a couple years ago...  and most folks here are pretty upset with the Rams for leaving still, and therefore hate the Rams.

This is also the city that, when we were home to the Rams, lost a Super Bowl to the Pats - pretty much right before spygate became a thing, leaving most people here with a feeling that we were cheated, so people here also hate the Pats.  So, this is the last matchup anyone around here wanted to see.  

Personally, I was sick of the Rams long before they left town so I don't feel the animosity that a lot of fans here feel...  and I think that regardless of any scandals, Brady and Belichick have made a strong case for GOAT.  My prediction for the game is that I will watch it in my garage while smoking a cigar or 2, and not get too upset or excited either way.

Lastly, there's always this: https://yourteamcheats.com/