The Pigskin Prognosticator: Post-Season Review

Yeah, I was wrong – along with everyone else outside of the greater Boston metropolitan area. St. Louis didn't lose Super Bowl XXXVI, New England won it. The Pats drove Kurt Warner crazy, chasing him around the backfield and forcing him into making bad decisions. They roughed up Rams receivers when they did catch the ball. And Adam Vinatieri made Boston sports fans forget Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner, if only until Spring Training.

In my Super Bowl preview, I said turnovers were likely to determine the winner, and they did. St. Louis gave the ball away three times, including an interception New England returned for a touchdown, while the Patriots committed no turnovers. New England's defense proved a worthy opponent for "The Greatest Show On Turf," keeping the Rams out of the red zone, and the end zone, until the fourth quarter.

The Patriots' offense was just good enough to get the job done in the end. After the Rams evened the score at 17-17 with 1:30 to go, a friend remarked that they had left New England with too much time. Now, I'll never question Ricky Proehl's decision to get into the end zone (although I expected him to run out of bounds around the seven yard line), but my friend proved right.

Did the better team win? Well, the team that was better on Sunday did, and that's all that really matters. St. Louis' edge in points scored and both offensive and defensive rankings didn't mean much after 60 minutes of football was played. New England's huge turnover advantage, both during the season and on Sunday, certainly was key.

My final prediction was a 35-24 win for St. Louis. My initial review of the numbers gave me a 24-20 Rams win. Hey, at least at one point I was right on New England's final point total.

Overall, I was 8-3 during the playoffs. The three games I missed? All Patriots victories.

Hats off to the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots. They came to play, as a team, from the introductions to the post-game interviews. Despite being 14-point underdogs, they shocked the world.

Greg Simons can be contacted at sportschatter@hotmail.com.