Super Bowl XXXVI

Five reasons why Patriots will win
By Mark Cannizzaro
Special to ESPN.com

Here are five reasons why the New England Patriots will defeat the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI on Sunday and capture their first NFL title.

1. Pressure
Really, we should say lack of pressure. The Patriots are playing with house money right now, and that should allow them to play the game as loose as they've played all season.

No one expected New England to advance past Pittsburgh in last week's AFC championship game, and fewer expect them to merely cover the robust two-touchdown point spread in the Super Bowl.

New York Jets coach Herman Edwards, who faced the Patriots twice and the Rams once this season, calls the Patriots a "dangerous" team because of the no-pressure factor.


	David Patten, left, Charles Johnson and the Patriots may be celebrating at the end of Super Bowl XXXVI.

"I think they have an excellent chance; I really do," Edwards said. "They'll come in there and play loose. There is no pressure on New England because no one expects them to win except for the guys on New England. That's a great way to go into it, really.

"They're playing with a lot of confidence right now," Edwards went on. "To go in there and beat Pittsburgh like they did, that's huge for them. They know what they're getting ready to deal with. They've played the Rams. They know they are going to be the underdogs.

"They have nothing to lose, because they are not supposed to win the game anyway. The Rams are expected to win so they have the pressure to win the game."

2. Bill Belichick
The Patriots' head coach and his defensive staff have to be taken into account when handicapping this game.

There might not be a better game-day scheme coach in the NFL than Belichick. And there's no one better at making game adjustments on the fly than Belichick. So, if the Rams are hurting New England with something in particular in the first half on Sunday, watch for Belichick and his staff and players to adjust quickly.

Edwards said the reason Belichick has so many gray-beard players on his defense -- such as linebackers Bryan Cox and Roman Phifer, cornerback Otis Smith and defensive end Anthony Pleasant -- is because those guys have enough league experience so they're able to follow and execute with little preparation time Belichick's schemes, which week to week are so different.

"(Belichick) has a lot of different things that he will use," Edwards said. "That's why they keep those core guys around him. That's why they keep the Otis Smiths and the Bryan Coxes, the Roman Phifers and those veteran guys around because of those schemes.

"It would take a first-year guy two or three years to figure their schemes out. What (Belichick) has done is he has aligned himself with those guys who are still functional players that might have lost a step or two. But in this system, they survive because of what they are asked to do.

"What (Belichick) is going to do is take your weapons away. He's going to go into the game and say, 'If (Rams receiver) Isaac Bruce is one of the weapons and Marshall Faulk is one of the weapons, I'm going to take those two guys away. You are going to have to beat me with (receiver Torry) Holt and the tight end.'

"For Pittsburgh, probably the first thing he said was, 'Jerome Bettis is not going to run the ball. We're going to stop him from running the ball and we're going to make Kordell Stewart try to beat us.' I kind of think that is probably what happened."

3. Charlie Weis
Why isn't Belichick's accomplished offensive coordinator among those capable assistants being mentioned for head coaching openings?

Weis, a Bill Parcells protégé who has had his hand in every facet of the NFL coaching game -- and with a good measure of success every step of the way -- should be an immediate candidate for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' job considering the franchise's need for an offensive-minded head coach to complement the already-existing defensive talent on the roster.

Weis, who burns to someday become an NFL head coach, would certainly keep Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and staff on board, which seems to be a desire of Tampa Bay management.

Weis' résumé as an offensive coordinator is rather impressive considering Vinny Testaverde had his best season in 1998 with Parcells, Weis and Dan Henning coaching him (29 touchdown passes, seven interceptions) and considering the job he did this season with Tom Brady, who's headed to the Pro Bowl.

Weis is an imaginative coach who was a considerable factor in the Patriots' AFC championship win over Pittsburgh, opting to throw on almost every first-down play to slow down the Steelers' top-rated pass rush. The week before in the divisional playoff game in the snow against the Raiders, Weis awoke his dormant offense in the second half and in overtime by going to a no-huddle offense -- something the Raiders never handled well.

Weis, like Belichick on the defensive side of the ball, will undoubtedly come up with something to keep the Rams' defense off balance. Win or lose Sunday, Weis deserves consideration for the Tampa Bay job, which is the only remaining opening.

4. Troy Brown
Add to the Patriots' talented receiver and punt returner the entire group of special-teams units, which are a distinct New England edge over the Rams.

Brown is simply one of the most valuable and versatile players in the entire league, having caught 101 regular-season passes as a receiver and averaged an NFL-best 14.2 yards per punt return with two returned for touchdowns. That, of course, doesn't include his eight receptions, 55-yard punt return for a touchdown and the recovered blocked punt he lateralled for a second special-teams touchdown against the Steelers.

Brown is one of those players whom the opposition knows is good and is keying on, whether it's on offense or special teams, and yet he still makes game-turning plays. He's a definite potential Super Bowl XXXVI MVP candidate.

5. Hunger
The Patriots' roster is littered with veteran players who've fought every battle there is to fight in the NFL without having yet played in a Super Bowl.

That factor is as much an intangible advantage as there is in the game, because you know that first-timers such as Cox, in his 11th season, Phifer, in his 11th season and playing in the postseason for the first time, and Pleasant, in his 12th season, are going to be willing this Patriots team to victory.

"The Patriots have a veteran team with a lot of guys who have played in a lot of battles, trying to reach this game their whole career," Edwards said. "Now a lot of them have finally reached this game for the first time and that brings extra juice to those guys, because they know how hard it was to get where they've gotten."

Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post writes an AFC notebook every week for ESPN.com.


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		SB XXXVI Over/Under Predict the result of 15 over/under questions from the big game. Entries lock Feb. 3rd. Free to play!