Super Bowl analysis by Markie

First, a few facts courtesy of Sports Illustrated…

• The Giants are trying to become the first team to be outscored during the season and win the Super Bowl.

• The Giants are trying to become the first 9-7 team to win the Super Bowl. The only teams with nine or fewer victories to win the Super Bowl are the 1967 Packers (9-4-1), who played only 14 games, and the 1982 Redskins (8-1), who played only nine games because of the strike.

• The Giants are trying to become the first team to give up 400 points (25 points a game) and win the Super Bowl.

• The Giants are trying to become the first team to lose four games in a row and win the Super Bowl.

Oh, and while it was duly documented that the New York Football Giants had the toughest schedule in the NFL this season, they are trying to become the first team to beat the Patriots twice this season.

Point blank, the Patriots secondary seriously under performs, and their linebackers are not very fleet of foot, evidenced by the 6,500 yards of offense they have allowed this year. And if Eli and his posse of talented, young wide receivers can’t exploit this group, I will be beyond amazed.

Much has been made of the Pats’ superstar TE Rob Gronkowski’s upper ankle sprain. They say he’s out of the walking boot and walking without a limp. But after the first half comes the extended Super Bowl halftime at which point his heavily-taped ankle just might become a bigger issue.

If Gronk is limited at all, it changes New England’s entire “between the hash marks” approach on offense, as well as wreaks havoc with their protection schemes for QB Tom Brady.

Speaking of protecting Brady, the Giants celebrated four-man wrecking crew of a defensive line will be playing on artificial turf for the first time since they demolished the Falcon’s offensive line, on turf, in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Not on the frozen tundra up in Cheese Bay. And not in the mush at San Franfreako. On turf.

Tom Brady will probably look to nullify that pass rush by going no-huddle and pitching plenty of short passes. But as they did during the first game won by the Jints, the Jints will try to keep Brady guessing by disguising their defensive alignments before the snap. Expect a lot of three safety sets, little to no corner blitzes and the younger, speedier linebackers getting plenty of snaps.

I think the Giants are going to dare the Patriots to try to run the ball. But if the Giants front four puts consistent pressure on Brady when he drops back to pass, the Pats will likely switch to their heavy package consisting of two tight ends and/or extra offensive linemen and take the Giants up on that. And that would be preferable, to have the Pats trying to win by way of the ground game.

There is the question of which team has more momentum. The Pats have won ten straight since the shorthanded Giants beat them in their own house. But the Giants have played and won five consecutive do-or-die games against the best that the NFL has to offer, including the reigning Super Bowl champs.

Meanwhile, the Patriots looked like world beaters against QBs Tim Tebow and Joe Flacco, neither of which will ever be confused with Dan Marino. And the Patriots won the AFC championship game when the Ravens’ kicker missed a point blank range field goal.

In addition, Tom Brady had arguably his worst game of the season during that Ravens game, against a Ravens defense that disguises it’s defenses and gets after the passer. Sound familiar?

I think the Patriots win the first half. And I think they lose the second half.

I also think the Patriots are going to secretly curse the name of Victor Cruz come tomorrow.

If the Giants avoid turnovers, and if the Giants can keep the penalties to a minimum, we win by double digits...thirty-something to twenty-something.

Because of the Janet Jackson booby incident, this year’s halftime performer, Madonna, promised that no clothing malfunctions will take place when she performs at halftime. This, of course, is coming from a woman who usually performs in her underwear.

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Super Bowl 42...The Drive

Yup!

The Patriots were 18-0 and working on 19-0 when Eli foiled their plans.

It'll go worse for the Pats come tomorrow night.

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Chase Blackburn: "Never give up"

My son, my recently departed brother and I have been wondering aloud for years why this monster of a guy never became a mainstay in recent New York Football Giants lore.

Finally, he has become a mainstay, an all-important cog in the machine.

Giants' Blackburn takes long route from his couch to the Super Bowl

Chase Blackburn always had a bag packed. Just because the New York Giants no longer wanted him didn't mean no other team would. For three months, he kept the suitcase by the door.

It's no secret that the NFL is a cold blooded business. Camouflaged by fun and glory, the chill can be hard to recognize. But players come and go, even as they believe their careers are just beginning to bloom. The great Paul Brown once referred to professional football players as "interchangeable drill bits."

That makes Blackburn's story all the more rare and inspiring. Players do get second chances. Those considered extremely skilled get more than one. Not many, though, rise from their couches in December to become the starting middle linebacker on a Super Bowl team, as Blackburn has this season.

Always around the ball, don't be shocked if he turns in a pick-six sometime tomorrow night.

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40 years later

Forty years later, and they're still wondering whether toxic chemicals being dumped into the soil by the tens of thousands of gallons is a bad thing.

N.Y. town still baffled by teens' mysterious tics

According to a 1999 report from the EPA, about 30,000 gallons of trichloroethylene (TCE), a potentially harmful chemical used primarily as a cleaning solvent, and 1 ton of cyanide crystals spilled from ruptured tank cars.

The report said the railroad company, Lehigh Valley Railroad, tried to get rid of chemical odors at the site by using 1,000,000 gallons of water to flush the chemical into trenches, for four months beginning in March 1971.

The EPA and the New York Department of Health found TCE in 50 wells east or southeast of the site when they ran tests between 1990 and 1994. They installed water treatment systems at 37 of the wells where the levels of TCE were above the maximum standard.

Frack on!

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Jints Disease

I used to suffer from this particular disease. But there came a time when I packed it all up and gave it all away to my brother and my son. That is, except for the photo-copy of Lawrence Taylor's paystub.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Jon McNaughton's...

...The Forgotten Man.

Water, guns and ammo?

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Local stuff or: nice try and all

Some breaking (gush!) news…

State Ethics Commission clears Leighton

The state Ethics Commission has cleared Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton of any misconduct related to the repeated hiring of his children, finding the city's former human resources director hired all interns "without input or direction from the mayor," according to a letter obtained by The Citizens' Voice.

To the overzealous folks who fancy themselves as revolutionaries in this city, this is nothing more than proof that the State Ethics Commission is corrupt, too.

Trust me. You see, you either bow to the so-called activists, or you too are guilty as charged of corruption.

Okay, so what's next? Any new right-to-know leads?

This following moonbattery still confounds me in it’s sheer idiocy.

Woman says city stole her car

WILKES-BARRE – A city woman has filed legal paperwork charging Mayor Tom Leighton and Leo A. Glodzik with theft of a motor vehicle.

Senta Boyer, with assistance from Mark Robbins, the Forty Fort man who has stridently criticized Leighton, Glodzik and the city police department at several city council meetings, said her car was towed and LAG’s pricing made it impossible for her to get it back.

Follow me here: Somebody is driving around town with no registration and no insurance. And after the W-B police stop the illegal vehicle and then have it towed and impounded, somebody can not even afford to reclaim said vehicle.

The question is, if somebody could reclaim the vehicle, what next? More driving around town with an illegal vehicle? And if and when “somebody” goes and T-bones you at an intersection, from a financial standpoint, you, not somebody else is in a world of hurt.

It seems to me that both the WBPD and LAG Towing are protecting the general public from those who would put us at risk by skirting whatever law it takes to get from here to there.

Home Rule: The First 30 Days/First Tax Increase

Let’s see, our deposed county commissioners levied tax increase after tax increase after tax increase until the voting public, horrified and pushed over the edge by the corruption scandals, rose up and replaced the entire system of government with a council/manager form of governance.

And while we count down the days until our newly-hired county manager from California takes the reigns, the recently-seated county council decided to raise property taxes rather than furlough too many county employees.

I heard and read the various reasons for the surprising flip-flop from council. And while there was an iota of sense that accompanied their reasoning, in my mind, they weaseled out and buckled under to union pressure.

Yes, they need continuity and financial accountability while they and the new manager sit down together and brainstorm, but when confronted with the choice of making county residents pay or county employees pay, they chose to tag the residents.

So, with Home Rule, what’s changed?

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Grandrodents on WBRE

Looky here. Three of my five grandrodents got their pics on WBRE...

BOTW: CFD

G'nite

VW: The Dog Strikes Back

As has become tradition with the advent of this electronic ether network, the Super Bowl ads are showing up ahead of the big game.

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Henry Hynoski pics

These are the pics, the subject of a recent newspaper story, that the local hometown folks sent to New York Giants fullback, Henry Hynoski, who played his high school football at Southern Columbia.

In case you're wondering, if you've made the trip from the Wilkes-Barre area to Knoebel's Grove, you drove right past the Southern Columbia campus in the waning moments of the trip to the park.

Henry was a monster in high school, and a regular on the Friday night television football recaps. He played his college ball at Pitt, and was very highly regarded as a pro prospect until an injury set him back.

The Giants signed him before the start of this season, and he was named the starting fullback, the lead blocker for Giants running backs Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs.

The pics were graciously provided by Lynn Snyder of Coal Township.

Go Henry!

Go JInts!

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