fantastic 4
Serby breaks down NFL’s Super hopefuls
Sixty minutes from the Super Bowl. Only one team will be happy at the end of Super Bowl XLIX. But two teams will be devastated when they come this far and don’t get a chance to play in it.
Only one of the final four head coaches (Chuck Pagano) and one of the quarterbacks (Andrew Luck) do not own a Superuper Bowl ring. BBill Belichick and Tom Brady have three; Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers have one; and Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson have one.
NFC Championship: Seahawks-Packers
The Packers might want to use the infamous Fail Mary that ignited the firestorm that thankfully ended the replacement ref fiasco … even if it seems like the replacements are still officiating some of these games.
Unfortunately for the Packers, Aaron Rodgers, due to a torn left calf, will be lacking the mobility that makes him — and his counterpart, Russell Wilson — a dual threat. As great and gritty as he is, A-Rod is not the same quarterback on the road he is at Lambeau Field. And Jordy Nelson will have a problem with Richard Sherman, which means rookie Davante Adams will need to step up again and help Randall Cobb. Hard to see Eddie Lacy gashing the Seattle defense.
The Seahawks are driven to make history, to become the first team since the 2003-04 Patriots to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Wilson is a pathological winner who has an uncanny knack for making the right play at the right time. He lost Golden Tate to the Lions in free agency and then Percy Harvin to turmoil within. Still, he refuses to blink.
It isn’t only Marshawn Lynch, the entire team is in Beast Mode now they can smell another Lombardi Trophy. Amazing job by Pete Carroll making a mockery of complacency and the Disease of Me. Dan Quinn has piranhas on defense who love playing for him. The Carroll-John Schneider team is the template for how the harmonious relationship between head coach and the front office can lead to success.
AFC Championship: Patriots-Colts
Luck slayed the Peyton Manning dragon, now he tries Tom Brady. Luck will be the next face of the NFL, but he’d better brace himself for an ambush. He is a much better quarterback than the one who threw four picks in Foxborough last January, but Bill Belichick will have Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner waiting for him this time. And Reggie Wayne is on his last legs and Donte Moncrief is a rookie. That means Revis Island for T.Y. Hilton. Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins is athletic enough to contain Luck’s rampaging legs as well as cover Coby Fleener and/ or Dwayne Allen. The Colts don’t have a Justin Forsett and they don’t have the Ravens’ pass rush or mental toughness. Luck, armed with his first road playoff win, will scare the Patriots, but it’s not yet his time.
Pagano has a team of fighters, and rest assured they won’t let LeGarrette Blount or Jonas Gray rumble for four touchdowns this time. One big problem: Gronk. Game-changing tight end Rob Gronkowski didn’t play in last year’s playoff game between these teams. He’s playing in this one. Another big problem: Julian Edelman. The guy is a gamer and a winner, the perfect Patriot.
And Brady had been waiting a decade to win his fourth Super Bowl with Belichick. If he has to will his team to the Super Bowl, he will. This is the most complete Patriots team we have seen since the Bruschi-Vrabel-Seymour-Harrison days. A fourth ring makes Brady the Greatest of All Time. Even if he already is in Gisele’s eyes.