Puckett’s Pond’s Super Bowl Predictions

Today is Super Bowl Day, and even though we’ve been getting more and more excited about the coming baseball season, this is the one day of the year when baseball just cannot compete with football. So Puckett’s Pond is going to take a break from our consistently brilliant and life-changing baseball analysis to bring you some good old-fashioned pigskin picks with a modern Minnesota fan perspective.

We’ll start with Senior Staff Writer Eric Pleiss’s prediction:

“Tom Brady endorses Ugg slippers, which does not carry a lot of weight for a lot of people, but I happen to own a pair of those very same Ugg slippers, and they are pretty awesome.  Unfortunately, those slippers will not help the New England Patriots beat the Giants.  The New York Football Giants defeated the Green Bay Packers, and that is more than enough work to earn my vote.  As a Minnesotan living in Wisconsin, any team that beats the Packers is always going to be my second favorite team (unless the Bears beat the Packers, but let’s be honest, that isn’t happening any time soon).  I have not watched a lot of football, and even less playoff football, but I am willing to hazard a guess at the final score: NYG 30 NEP 27.”

I’m sure some of our Minnesotan-Wisconsin transplant readers will sympathize with Eric. They have become Packer-slayers in recent years, having beaten the Packers in this year’s Divisional Round as well as 2007’s NFC Championship Game.

Here’s Staff Writer Christian Engel’s take on the game:

“My prediction for the game is Giants 27, Patriots 24. Nick Punto will shock the sports world by suiting up for the Patriots and will ultimately cost them the game by trying to jump an Eli Manning pass. Drats! Foiled by overaggressive defense yet again!”

Punto is about the size of an NFL cornerback, and in his youth he had the speed to cover a receiver, so this makes sense. Remember, he’s in Boston now, so the Patriots would be a logical side gig. Finally, aggressively jumping a receiver’s route would be a recklessly aggressive move, kind of the equivalent of sliding into first base. In short, Christian’s prediction makes sense to me.

Except for one thing: Eric and Christian both predict a Giants win, but I can’t see that happening. Actually, the entire sports world seems to be in the pro-Giants camp. Even though the Patriots won four more regular season games than the Giants, the Pats are only favored by three points.

I think the Patriots are going to stomp New York. And I badly want this to happen. Not because I like the Patriots, but because I loathe the Giants. I’m still mad at them for what they did on January 9, 1994, when they beat the Vikings 17-10 in the Wild Card playoff game. Just when my irritation at that game was starting to wane, the Giants met the Vikes in the playoffs again. Remember the 41-0 debacle? I do, and I’ll hate the Giants for that forever.

Today, I predict that New England will smash New York by that same 41-0 score. That would make me feel a lot better. Bonus prediction: Joe Mauer will be spotted in the audience feeding popcorn to Cameron Diaz. You can take it to the bank!