Amidst all the drama the last two weeks in New England, the Patriots embarrassed the Titans. Bill Belichick’s level of coaching and his teams experience, especially Brady, were clearly OP for the Titans.
Jacksonville ruined the season long dream AFC Championship matchup all the NFL pundits were predicting all year by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers put up a valiant effort but Leonard Fournette (my mid-season trade acquisition in fantasy) went off, Bortles had a very solid performance and the “Sacksonville” defense made some highlight plays to lengthen their season.
So next week I imagine the Pats will be picked by Skip, Shannon, Cowherd, Stephen A, Kellerman, Cain, Romo, Collinsworth, Deion, Hasslebeck, Moss, Esiason, Cowher, King, Glazer, Rex, Warner, Dungy, Bradshaw, Johnson...
Everybody and yo momma. Just give them the damn ring already.
Honestly though, no lying, I’ll probably pick them too.But let’s not be so fast. The Jags have the one guy in the building that is the kryptonite to the Super-organization Patriots, Executive Vice President of Football Ops, Tom Coughlin.
Everyone knows what Coughlin did for the Giants and the city of NY (my home town) in the ‘07 & ‘11 seasons. Two of the greatest Super Bowl games in NFL history, miraculous plays in both games (props to Eli, Tyree and Manningham), the team that sabotaged an undefeated season “18-1”, and the only man to beat Belichick and Brady in the big game, 2x. Jacksonville has the guy with the blueprint that can help them shock the world and continue the craziness that is the ‘17-‘18 NFL Playoffs.
To go back to what I mentioned earlier, if I’m putting money on the game, I’m going Pats because Bortles just scares me and c’mon it’s the Jaguars, right... Right?
Let’s look at Bortles vs Eli from ‘07, his first Super Bowl year. When you look at the numbers for their seasons Bortles is slightly better.
Record: Both 10-6
TD to INT: Bortles 21 TD 13 Int - Eli 23 TD 20 Int
Completion %: Bortles 60.2% - Eli 56.1%
Pass Yards: Bortles 3687 - Eli 3336
Rush Yards: Bortles 322 - Eli 69
QBR: Bortles 55.5 - Eli 54
Sacks: Bortles 24 - Eli 27
If you remember Michael Strahan’s speech he gave at the parade. He eloquently explained how they won 11 straight road games and what they did to New England. What he said again?
“We Stomp You Out”
And you might say, “Well the Giants had Strahan, he was a great leader and a Hall of Famer.”
Calais Campbell is a really good leader for Sacksonville and he’s 2nd in the league in sacks this season.
So clearly the defense is what carried the Giants to the Super Bowl and they’re pressure is what kept the highest scoring team in history to only 14 points that game. But when you put the defensive stats next to each other the Jags have the edge.
Rankings
Total Defense: Jags 2 - Giants 7
Pass Defense: Jags 1 - Giants 11
Rush Defense: Jags 21 - Giants 8
INTs: Jags 21 - Giants 13
Fumbles: Jags 12 - Giants 6
Also the swagger of that defense spills off the screen when you watch them. T.I.’s “Swagger Like Us” needs to be set on repeat on game day in the locker room for real.
So Bortles is playing well, the defense is rolling, they have the Tom Coughlin Effect and they have Brandon Jacobs Super Saiyan 4 in Leonard Fournette. I didn’t even mention him much this whole post. Just look up Goon in the dictionary, who you see there?? Yup, Leonard.
So NFL bureaucrats I hope you ease up on your predictions before this game and take everything into consideration. Remember that the Tom Coughlin Effect could be in effect.