The 2011-2012 NFL season concludes tonight with what should be another epic clash between the New England Patriots and New York Giants. Super Bowl XLVI, which will be broadcast live on NBC, is scheduled to kickoff at 6:29pm ET at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. The latest Giants vs Patriots Odds have New England listed as a -2.5 against the spread favorite and the game total set at 54 points.
New England and New York arrived in Indianapolis by wildly divergent paths, but they are both here nonetheless and ready to do battle. The Giants were the last team to officially punch a post-season ticket as they needed a win over Dallas to secure the NFC East and a spot in the playoffs. The Patriots, on the other hand, went in as the AFC’s top seed after producing a 13-3 regular season record.
New England played two home playoff games in route to the Super Bowl while New York hosted a Wild Card contest before hitting the road to face two of the league’s best teams, Green Bay and San Francisco. Both clubs were tested in their respective conference championship games, though, as the Pats barely slipped by a tough Ravens team and the Giants needed overtime to turn back the 49ers.
Everyone knows the strength and weaknesses here, they have been discussed all week. And most pundits believe New York to be the more well-rounded team at this juncture. The Giants have some holes, but they are small ones as their once porous defense has played like a top five unit down the stretch. New England is viewed more as a high powered offense with a bend, don’t break type defense that does just enough to help keep the Patriots out of the loss column.
New York, strangely, has talked an inordinate amount of trash coming into this game, something that did not take place four years ago. The Giants embraced the underdog role given to them by the odds makers but they have acted as though tonight’s result is a foregone conclusion. New England has been quite, though, keeping to its low key script while hoping to silence the chatty Giants on the field this evening.
All the talking will disappear once the ball is in the air and the G-Men, for all their bluster and talk of being under appreciated and under valued, will give New England all it can handle. The Patriots will be game too, though. This is not Tom Brady or Bill Belichick’s first rodeo…they know what this looks and feels like. I suspect Brady will shake off his ugly AFC Championship Game performance and provide a more than worthy adversary for New York’s recently revamped defense.
The bigger question, however, is whether or not the Patriots secondary can stand up to Eli Manning and the Giants host of explosive receivers. We all know there will be some bending going on, but just how much breaking will New England do? Well, if I am correct in my assessments enough to see the Giants hoist a fifth Lombardi Trophy.
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Giants vs Patriots Odds 2012 Super Bowl: Provided by SBG Global
New York Giants +2.5 (-105), Over 54 (-110), +120 (Moneyline)
New England Patriots -2.5 (-115), Under 54 (-110), -140 (Moneyline)
