How's that!? Weren't the Giants on a 5 or 6 game winning streak going into the London game?! :confused: Apart from the first 2 or 3 weeks the Giants have been pretty solid if unspectacular!

The Giants pushed the Patriots all the way at the end of last year too.

Giants will win the whole thing

Dear God, its all going to peoples heads

They mentioned on Sunday that it's the first time a team has reached the Championship game with 8 rookies in their team or something like that!

Giants ended with a 10-6-0 record, two of those losses were to the Cowboys who they've since beaten. One of them was to the Pats who they pushed very very hard indeed.

Other teams they've lost to are the Packers (revenge on Sunday perhaps?), the Vikings, and once against the Redskins who they've also beaten once in the regular season.

I don't think the Giants will win it, even if they get past Green Bay. Both AFC teams are superior in just about every department and it would be a HUGE upset if the Giants get to the main game, let alone win it.

I actually hope it is a Giants-Chargers Super Bowl, purely because you'll get to see this photo a lot before the game.

http://assets.espn.go.com/i/magazine...27_manning.jpg

There's no way in the world the Giants will win the Super Bowl. None.

I don't think so either.

The shame is their defence, especially the front four, are just getting better and better.

Also, I see Rivers is likely to miss Sunday.

Now, I am quite openly blinded by my hatred for Whingealot Brady and Belicheat, and I will freely admit that the Pats are an outstanding team, but...

Has there ever been a team who've had so many lucky breaks during a season? It's getting silly now.

At this rate the Giants will make it to the Super Bowl to play the Pats, only to end up with Fatty Lorenzen under center and half their D struck down by the mysterious Maronorovirus.

It's a fair point.

Lol never realised San Diego took Eli as the number 1 draft pick! :o You learn something new everyday!

More Trouble for Pacman Jones

How can you be in line to make millions of dollars and just keep ••••••• everything up!!!

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Luck evens out eventually. As Palace fans, we all know that.

Besides, the opposition QB being injured doesn't affect Brady's ability to only throw two incompletions and have his lead WR marked out of the game yet still win a match comfortably, does it?

And who on the Jags team was badly banged up last week? Were the RBs both injured to the extent NE defence EASILY stopped them?

It's actually quite pathetic some of the articles in the press about the Pats. They're not winning because of the "cheating", they're winning because they've got a point to prove with regard to being accused of it. It's not like the Pats are the only team who record and it's not like they're the first team to have some footage they're not supposed to have - they're just the first to get caught. Bitter Mangini and his bunch of way-below-average charges merely wish they had the talent for their cheating to make a difference ;)

Hang on. As I said, they're an outstanding team. And I never said Brady was lucky, although I've no doubt his unsportsmanlike hounding of officials influences some of the dodgy calls which have gone your way this season in every game other than the one in Indy. (Funny how quick Pats fans were to bemoan the calls which went against them that day, yet never ever spot Randy Moss committing offensive pass interference one play in every five.)

I'm merely saying that as well as being one of the finest teams in history, you're also one of the luckiest. And no, simply put, luck does not always even out eventually. You simply cannot go 16-0 without a bit of luck along the way. Surely even your ungracious lot can acknowledge that? Or have you already forgotten Rex Ryan, 4th and 1 in Baltimore?

But the fact you've leapt straight on the defensive and spun my point in a completely different direction demonstrates perfectly one of the reasons I hate the Pats: because they (as a team and a set of fans) act the hard done by innocent all the friggin' time and reckon that all criticism, however constructive, is only aimed at them because they're succesful. Whereas, in actual fact, it's because of their total lack of grace and sportsmanship that they invite so much ire.

I know I've said it before, but they're the Chelsea of the NFL.

While we're on the subject of Baltimore, why not mention the Ravens press conferences pre-NE game mentioning offensive pass interference regularly and then Randy Moss being called for 2, if not 3, of the most dubious OPI calls of the season.

I'm not saying we're hard done by, I'm saying that everyone looks for things in order to demean our achievement this season.

And as you also mention Indy, if anyone gets calls for them, especially at home, it's Indy. The Pats overcame it to win and so did the Chargers on what I would call the most one-sided refereeing of the season. But no-one mentions the Colts "12th man", do they?

As Palace fans we definitely know that isn't true. :sob:

Will reply to the other stuff later. Just a quick lunch-break post.

In terms of luck, consider something as small as this. The '85 Bears could have gone unbeaten. In the one game they lost a critical play occured when a Dan Marino pass hit the helmet of a defender, then looped up and into the arms of a wide-open Mark Clayton.

Weird stuff used to happen when teams were chasing unbeaten records. Of course I can't remember any right now, but it used to happen. Trust me. :D (And yes, I know I went 1-3 in my predictions last weekend. Give me a break!)

I think the points about Indy and officiating are valid. Having seen the bogus holding call on the interception return it almost reminded me of the Pittsburgh game a few years ago, when all sorts of dubious calls went against the Steelers (remember the Polamalu interception?).

The Colts also benefitted from all the whinging about officiating in previous play-off defeats to New England. The fact is though with the rules interpreted as they are now New England has built an offence to capitalise on that. They've done it better than the Colts (who haven't been helped by Marvin Harrison's injuries).

But the biggest thing is the general lack of class with the Patriots, led by their Head Coach. Even before this season he could be churlish (behavious towards Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning and Tom Jackson are just a few examples of this). He's a brilliant coach, but a flawed human being in my opinion.

I fully agree. The Colts get plenty of bent decisions their way. The one which ruled out Cromartie's IC return against SD was disgraceful. And if the Colts were forever moaning on about being hard done by then I'd make the same criticisms of their behaviour that I do of the Pats.

I hate the Colts and the Pats!

I've only been into the NFL for two seasons so far, but already those two stand out as being the Chelsea / Man Utd of the NFL.

Quite honestly, the inbred media-whore Manning gets all he deserves. :D