Going out on a limb with the Patriots

Pick the Patriots, my buddy Jason begged.

Jason is a coworker. He noticed I picked the Giants to lose all three of their playoff games.

Jason is also a Giants fan.

Jason wants me to pick the Patriots to win the Super Bowl and hopes the trend of my being wrong continues.

OK, I’ll pick the Patriots, but not because of some covert plan to give the Giants the title.

I’m picking the Patriots because I just don’t see any way they can lose.

Yes, I know the Giants almost beat them during the regular season finale in a game in which the Giants had nothing to lose. Well, now they have something to lose: the Super Bowl.

Yes, the Giants have the pass rush to rattle Tom Brady, and the running game to smack the heart of the Patriots defense.

Yes, the Giants have confidence in quarterback Eli Manning, who during the last month strung together the three best games of his career.

But …

It’s tough to pick against a team that has won 18 straight; a team that was outplayed by an injury-riddled Chargers team in the AFC title game and still won.
This Patriots team knows how to finish games.

They’ve blown teams away. They’ve kept games close and waited for the other team to make a mistake.

They’ve gotten lucky, too. Witness the incredibly stupid timeout called by the Baltimore coaching staff on a 4th-and-1 play the Ravens actually stopped, except they didn’t, because, unbeknownst to the players, the play was whistled dead before the ball was snapped.

No timeout, and New England is 17-1 today.

But with that timeout, and some late Brady magic, the Patriots sit on the doorstep of history.

This is the game they’ve been waiting for since early in the season when they realized no one in the AFC would stop them.

Forget “Spygate” and all revenge theories that people seem to think motivate the Patriots. The Patriots are motivated by two things: They want to win the Super Bowl. They haven’t won one since Feb. 6, 2005.

In their minds, they are long overdue.

All those other games in which they struggled yet somehow won, those were just the necessary paperwork leading up to the Super Bowl.

And now it is here.

Yes, the Giants are on a roll. But the Bucs and Cowboys and Packers are like nothing they will face in Glendale, Ariz.

Can the Giants win? Sure. In boxing lexicon, they have a puncher’s chance.

And if they do, it will go down as one of the greatest upsets in pro football history.

If the Patriots win, we will witness the conclusion to the greatest season in pro football history.

I think it will be a close game. I think the Giants might even hold a second-half lead. But the Patriots will find a way to finish, whether the defense forces a late turnover or it is Brady to Randy Moss or both.

So, here you go, Jason.

Patriots 31, Giants 27.