Sure, New England punched their ticket to the Super Bowl with a 21-12 win against the San Diego Chargers. But there are two aspects of that game which could be seen as a break in the norm for Tom Brady & company:
First off, the Pats weren't that convincing offensively. Mr. Brady threw three picks, & those very picks on drives which could have put the game away in short order; Randy Moss was a nonfactor for the second straight game...WTF? But these shortcomings were more than made up for by Messrs. Faulk, Maroney & Welker (which goes to show you how loaded NE is in offensive options). To tell you the truth, the Patriots looked vulnerable at times when they had the ball & the Chargers defense deserves credit for all this.
Secondly, having said that, the Patriots defense carried the day rather than depending on Tom Brady's arm to help things along. And believe me, they made the big plays which mattered most: holding those pesky Bolts to 4 FGs & getting downright stingy in the red zone. But the one defensive stop which stands out most from Sunday was Junior Seau (an ex-Charger, BTW & one of the old-timers in the LB unit) making an open-field tackle on 3rd & one, with the Chargers threatening to score a touchdown. Not only did Seau's play thwart a key scoring opportunity; it held San Diego to 3 points as well.
Certainly, New England feels ecstatic to reach the Super Bowl for the fourth time in as many years & they should; they paid their dues to get this far (even though we have plenty of Patriots haters out there saying the Colts could've done it all or the Cowboys...yada yada yada.) But the worst they could do against the New York Giants is a repeat performance. And that with the Giants riding extremely high on confidence after deflating the Lambeau Field myth once & for all.
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