Since this is my final blog I wanted to predict the biggest sporting spectacle in the world, the super bowl. The game hosts two great and deserving teams, the Patriots and the Giants. In the last set of predictions I made I was fortunate enough find an NFL.com expert's predictions and compare mine to him. But since the super bowl is in 10 days and not this upcoming weekend, there are no expert predictions on NFL.com, which means that I will have nothing to compare my predictions to. Nevertheless, I now will analyze and predict the super bowl.

The Giants are a team that has a good offense. But there main focus is on the defensive side of the ball. The Giants have the most feared defensive line in the league, led by rookie Jason Pierre Paul. On the offensive side of the ball, the Giants have completely changed there offense since 2007. In 2007, the Giants were a run first, pass second team. Now they are a pass first, run second team. Also there quarterback Eli Manning has evolved into an elite quarterback.

The Patriots are a team with an electrifying offense and a terrible defense. Their defense ranked second to last in the league in total yards per game allowed and pass yards allowed per game. Which means the only reason that the Patriots have come this far is because of their terrific and explosive offense, which is led by quarterback Tom Brady. The Patriots offense was third in the league in points per game and second in the league in yards per game. That is why the Patriots are in the super bowl.

Finally, here is my prediction for super bowl 46:

Giants-31
Patriots-28

Since this is my second to last blog, I wanted to take the time to honor some of the top NFL players by predicting the NFL awards. Coach of the year is an interesting award. Some people may judge coaches on how they turned a losing team into a winning team. Other people might judge coaches on how far they can take their team into the playoffs. With that said, my coach of the year award goes to Jim Harbaugh of the San Francisco 49ers. What amazed me about Harbaugh was how in his first year as head coach of the 49ers, how he turned his team around. In 2010, the 49ers won 6 games and lost 10. In 2011, they won 13 and lost only 3. I give a coach lots of credit if they can orchestrate a 7 game turnaround. 

My second award is a very honorable award. It is comeback player of the year award. It can symbolize a player who followed an injury filled season to go on to be great the next year. It can also be a player who always found away to make a comeback and win. My comeback player of the year award goes to Eli Manning. After not making the playoffs and throwing 25 interceptions in a disappointing 2010 season, Eli led the giants to the playoffs and a berth in super bowl 46. Eli also had 6 comeback victories in 2011, an outstanding feat. 

And finally the most highly anticipated award in the NFL, the league MVP award. I believe quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees are nearly neck and neck in the race for the MVP award. Although Rodgers won more games, Brees broke the record for passing yards in a season. So that's why my MVP award goes to Drew Brees of the saints for his remarkable passing numbers. 

Quarterback Eli Manning of the New York Giants has always been considered worse than his older brother and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. But now that Eli has gotten the Giants to the super bowl again, I believe Eli has established himself as an elite quarterback. So is Eli now the better of the two Manning's? I personally don't think so yet. But if Eli beats the patriots in the super bowl on February 5th, then I think he will be the better Manning. This being because although Peyton has much better stats, Eli has had much more success in the playoffs. In the playoffs, Peyton has won 9 games and lost 10 in the postseason while Eli has 7 wins and only 3 losses.

Another factor that will help come to the conclusion of whose the better Manning is Peyton Manning's future with the Colts. Peyton didn't play the whole 2011 season due to a neck injury. And with the Colts receiving the number one pick in the NFL draft, Peyton Manning's future doesn't look complete with the Indianapolis Colts. As a Jets fan, I can only hope a great quarterback like Peyton Manning will get traded to the Jets.

The Super sequel

It's déjà vu as the dynastic Patriots and red-hot Giants meet for the NFL title and a place in history.

Although the jets are not in the super bowl, I can't wait to see the patriots and giants square off for the championship in Indianapolis. But I want to talk about why in the world the patriots are favored by 3.5 points. The giants have proved twice that they can beat the nearly unbeatable patriots. The giants have showed that they can shut down the most powerful offense in the league. And most importantly, the giants have showed that they can defeat the patriots in a super bowl.

Also, I feel like the patriots lucked out against the ravens to advance to the super bowl. If the ravens kicker can nail a 32 yard field goal, then who knows what happens in overtime. The ravens outplayed the patriots in every way possible. But the ravens just were very unlucky. In my opinion, I think the giants should be favored by 3.5 points, not the patriots.

The New England Patriots just beat the Baltimore Ravens to earn a super bowl berth. The score was a nail bitter, 23 to 20, with the Patriots winning because the Ravens missed a field goal at the last second. The Ravens kicker flat out blew the Ravens season. Being a Patriot hater, I was very angry at the Baltimore Ravens kicker, Billy Cundiff. But as I think about it now, I kind of feel bad for Cundiff. The whole season came down to one kick, and he just chocked.

I also wonder how Cundiff's teammates reacted after the missed field goal. They could have either been supportive of Cundiff or pissed at Cundiff. If I were a teammate of Cundiff, I would have kept my frustration inside of me and tried to be as supportive as possible towards Cundiff. Hopefully there won't be any death threats from Ravens fans.

With not a lot of headline news in the NFL, for today's blog I decided to dive deep into the NFC and AFC championship games and make my predictions. As Michael Silver knows, the prediction I made last week was pretty bold to say the least. I predicted that the 9 win 7 loss giants would beat the 15 win 1 loss packers, 28 to 14. Although the score was a little off, the giants still romped the packers, 37 to 20. Below are NFL.com's Albert Breer's predictions.

 24  23

 24  20

I like Breer's predictions, but I believe the patriots-ravens game will not be as close of a score as Breer thinks. Here are my predictions.

Ravens-31, Patriots-17
This game was hard for me to pick, but I believe the Ravens defense will shut down the Patriots offense.

Giants-27, 49ers-21
I am very confident that this game will be close.

Today I wanted to talk about the lockout that almost ruined this NFL season. 176 days ago, the players and owners finally agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement to end the lockout, which lasted for over 100 days long. The players and owners couldn't figure out how to split 9 billion dollars evenly between them. This is one part of professional sports that I find disgusting. I mean, why does it even matter if players earn half a million dollars less then before? They are still multimillionaires. You would think that one would be satisfied with this salary.

Also, the players and owners needed to do something that did not happen. They needed to think about the NFL fans and how they feel. As a fan myself, I would wake up every day hoping with all my might that the players and owners agreed to a deal to end the madness. But soon enough, the news that the owners and players couldn't reach a deal would once again deflate my hopes and dreams. Now, although the jets were eliminated from the playoffs, I am still very much thankful for that one player or owner who realized what a selfish act this whole lockout was, and helped in the return to football for the 2011-2012 season.