Looksee at Super Bowl Matchup

Here's an abbreviated looksee at this Super Bowl matchup between the Pats and the Panths.�

Bottom line up front:� This game will be a royal asswhipping, but first, a look at how these teams got to where they are:

Carolina was the league doormat just a couple seasons ago.� But they rebuilt and restocked.� Unlike, say, the Stillers, the Panthers didn't sit fallow during this past offseason.� In March, they signed UFA Jake Delhomme, and then a week later signed RB Stephen Davis.�� Boom, boom -- just like that, the Panthers were putting key pieces together for a quality team.� Right about the same time as the Davis signing, the Pats signed UFA safety Rodney Harrison.� Just so you get the complete picture here, bear in mind that both Davis and Harrison were readily available for the pickin's, but the Stiller braintrust of Colbert/Cowhard was too enamored with Doughboy Bettis and Burnt Alexander to even consider a stab at signing either of these quality free agents.�

Then there's the draft and, equally important, the actual usage of young players. CB Ricky Manning was a 3rd round draftee this past April.� He's the guy who had 3 INTs in the NFC Title game a couple weeks ago.� On a Billy Cowher coached team, Manning would have been rotting the bench, with Billy sobbing to the media, "Well, he's still trying to get a feel for our scheme and get a handle on our system."� Under the superb tutelage of Panther coach John Fox, all Manning does is just play, and make plays, and acquit himself quite well.� Over in New England, DE Jarvis Green had a huge game against the Dolts, sacking Peyton Manning 3 times.� Green was a 4th rounder in the '02 draft.� Again, under the coaching (sic) of a Billy Cowher, Green would have had so many splinters that his pants could have served as kindling for a pregame bonfire.� ��

Then there's the Pats acquisition of former Stiller Mike Vrabel.� The former Buckeye spent 4 seasons with the Stillers, but never, ever started even one game during that tenure.� Vrabel was mired behind "Mr. Pro Bowler", Jason GilDong, and as such, was shifted all over the defense, forced to move from LB to DE to nose tackle to DE to LB and on and on.� �"I told Bill Belichick about him, 'You're going to get a kid who's smart and can play almost any position,' " said New Orleans coach Jim Haslett, then the Steelers' defensive coordinator. "He's a good pass rusher. He's kind of 'tweener' in some areas, probably not a great pass defender, but a great pass rusher. He's so smart he can do a lot of different things for you and he's a good special teams player. He has a lot of skills. The thing I like about him is he's very, very intelligent."� Yep, Vrabel was so intelligent, so smart, so talented, and had so many skills that he rotted for 4 years behind a total stiff like Jason GilDong, never once getting anything remotely close to a simple opportunity to compete for a starting job.� "It (signing with NE) was an opportunity to play more, an opportunity to earn a starting job, which really wasn't going to be available in Pittsburgh," Vrabel said.� The Pats came out of this Vrabel signing smelling like a rose, while the Stillers smell like horseshit after pissing away $24M on a over-rated, over-hyped stiff named Jason GilDong.� Even putting aside the salaries, there's not a single GM -- perhaps with the exception of Colbert himself -- that would trade Vrabel even-up for a total stiff like Jason GilDong.� By the way, the next time you hear or see some Cowher-loving simpleton recite the banal mantra of, "Bill Cowher is in practice every day, and he sees these players every day and he sees the game films, and I trust his judgment on player evaluation matters," simply respond with these two words:� Mike Vrabel.�

Lastly, the Pats cut popular team leader Lawyer Milloy shortly before the '03 season began. �After all the cries of, "The Pats were wither without his leadership and locker room presence" died down, the Pats won 15 consecutive games and are in the big show.� �Contrast this with the baloney about "Jerome Bettis is indispensable because he's a popular team leader", and you see why the Pats are so good and the Stillers so sub-par.� ��

The moral of these personnel moves?� The good teams become good by making aggressive changes in the offseason, and by refusing to spend extravagant money on over-paid, over-rated stiffs.� The mediocre teams do absolutely nothing in the offseason, and are content to lumber along with a plethora of highly paid, overly content slouches.�

Looking at the teams' lineups:

O-line:� Most Steeler fans spent the 2003 season crying and moaning about the O-line.� These 2 teams clearly showed that you don't need an All-Pro at all 5 line spots to have a solid offense.� Carolina starts Jeff Mitchell at C and Jeno James, a former 6th rounder, at LG.� Mitchell was continually tooled and punished by the Stillers when he played for Balt, and Jeno would probably be better off opening his own pizza shop, yet the Panthers are in the Sup Bowl.� Due to a rash of injuries, the Pats have an interior line made of Russ Hochstein, Dan Koppen, and Joe Andruzzi.� Hochstein isn't any better than another ex-Husker, Brendan PigStai; rookie Koppen is ok at center but hardly a Dermontti Dawson; and Andruzzi is an average, run-of-the-mill guard.� Even the Pats' RT, Tom Ashworth, isn't worth much, no pun intended.� Yet, the Pats are on the brink of another SB win.� Unlike a Billy Cowher -- who cries and complains the entire pre-season and regular season about "shuffling" and "injuries" and "inexperience" on his O-line -- Belichick marches along and works with what he's got, without any whining or excuse-making.�

Defense:� The Panthers have the edge on the D-line, and really, they have the edge against almost any other NFL club.� You get what you invest in and what you sew, and Carolina has done a superb job in this regard.� On the other hand, the Pats led the league in fewest points allowed.� Unlike yardage allowed, which is a bogus stat, you can take fewest points allowed to the bank and actually get some credit for it.� Along with the in-your-face play of the NE D-backs, the primary reason for the Patriots' defensive success is that they actually USE the 3-4 defense the way it was designed to be used.� Yep, that's right -- no Vanilla Defense there in New England, unlike Billy Cowher's stale, vanilla version of the 3-4.� The Pats use versatility to get the max out of their LBs, placing them all over the field; putting them in a down-stance at times; and most importantly, wreaking havoc and confusion on opposing offenses because rarely does a LB perform the same task 2 plays in a row.� For example, you won't see a NE LB blandly loop-rush -- a la Jason GilDong -- play after play after play after play.�� Disruption & confusion has always been the mandate of the 3-4 defense, and the Pats have perfected it to art form.� �

Spec Teams:� Both teams have very, very strong spec teams, unlike a Billly Cowher-coached team.� The teams feature two of the league's premier special teams coaches, Scott O'Brien of Carolina and Brad Seely for New England, both of whom have worked on Bill Belichick staffs.� Unlike a Billy Cowher, both are fanatical about attention to detail. One of the game's true special teams devotees, O'Brien keeps videotapes of several years worth of kicking-game plays, and has lugged cartons of cassettes to Houston for the big week. Earlier in the week, Belichick even recalled that, when he first interviewed him for a job, O'Brien all but gave himself a hernia dragging in a box filled with tapes.� This is entirely unlike a Billy Cowher, who treats film study with all the disdain of a 16-year old doing routine homework, and Cowher's only close occurrence with a hernia comes from lugging around his Jumbotron-sized ego.� ��

Synopsis:� This matchup isn't much different from the Jan. '95 matchup between SD and SF.� Like SD, the upstart Panthers were handed a gift by an underachieving, bumbling home team in the conference title game.� Like the Niners, the Pats have an unbelievable amount of playoff experience, poise, and know-how under pressure.� Like this year's matchup, there were actually millions of idiots who thought that the Chargers could beat the Niners.� This game is asswhip city, and it will be the Pats who put the beating on the Panthers.� Much like Stan Humphries 9 years ago, Delhomme will be roughed up, confused, and mostly ineffective.� The final score won't be a mega-blowout, but NE will control the tempo and will be in control, en route to a thorough 26-13 beating of the Panthers.�

(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of the past 3 Stiller playoff losses�.)