Super Bowl Preview

One of my favorite things about Super Sunday has always been when the random sit-coms and cartoons that play throughout Sunday morning play their "Super Bowl" editions. I can still remember as a kid watching the Flinstones Super Bowl episode, and then the Full House Joey-invites-an-entire-bar-to-their-house-because-he-promised-Michelle's-class-he'd-take-them-to-the-science-fair episode. Classic. Not sure if this still happens now, but I hope so. If there are re-runs on tomorrow morning and they don't deal with football, that would be disappointing. Somewhere there are kids like me who need to experience that.

Now, on to the game.

I feel like much of the saturated analysis out there on ESPN is focused on the wrong thing. To me, I'm not sure it matters all that much that Dwight Freeney may not play or that Gregg Williams says he's going to hit Peyton Manning. The defenses just aren't going to have that great of an effect on this game. The fact is, both of these teams are going to score points. They just are. They're too good and their defenses are too average for this to go any other way.

For that reason, I'm probably more excited about this Super Bowl as any in quite some time, probably since the Panthers made it in 2003 (clearly, for different reasons). I think this is going to be close, and I think it will be exciting as heck. I'll probably be wrong, but that's okay. I can still be excited.

For my pick, I just don't think I can bet against the Colts right now. One of the most interesting things about this season and these playoffs to me has been Peyton Manning reinventing himself before. Prior to this year, he was really football's version of Greg Maddux- unstoppable in the regular season but much, much more average during the postseason. In 2010, though, it's just different. The Jets game showed that. New York had ALL the momentum in that game, up 17-3 and looking like they were doing the job in confusing Manning and the Colts offense. That, and they were already everyone's "it" team in the media. Then, it was like Peyton just decided that was enough, and he scored every time he touched the ball in the second half. That half of football was one of the great clutch performances by a quarterback I've ever seen. And I think it shows that Manning has finally figured out how to get the pressure off in the postseason and how to play like he does in the other 16 games during this time of year.

And I think he continues that tomorrow. Drew Brees will put up numbers, and the Saints will keep it interesting, but the Colts will ultimately pull it out, 38-34. Mark it down.