in NFL Betting Trends

      Just a hunch, but I think the Eagles are a lock to suffer from the infamous "we're just-happy-to-be-here" syndrome at the Super Bowl.
     
      First-time qualifiers can talk all they want about not being satisfied to just get there, but very often they're satisfied to just get there. Philly's Super Bowl came last Sunday, when they finally got over their NFC title1 game curse. For the next two weeks the Eagles will swear that their work isn't done yet, but it well may be that New England will be the only team that treats the game like unfinished business.

      The Patriots will have a huge advantage in the circus atmosphere in Jacksonville, because they have so many players and coaches who know the drill and know how to block out all the cacophony of noise that comes with those gaudy Roman numerals.

      Philadelphia head coach Andy Reid knows how to keep his Eagles focused, and he is a no-nonsense type guy himself. But when it comes to concentrating on the task at hand, no one is in the same league as Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

      Sorry, but I don't think Super Bowl XXXIX will even be close. My early read is Patriots by about two touchdowns - call it 24-10, and it'll only be that close because of the respect I have for Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson and his hard-working Philly defenders.

      One further prediction: Belichick and Reid will make this the all-time least quotable Super Bowl from a head-coaching perspective. The two maestros of monotone will battle to out-do one another in a dullest-man standing competition. My money, as always, is on Mr. Bill.

      I'll also lay odds that Terrell Owens will be back from a broken leg in time to make a cameo Super Bowl appearance. But it won't be a difference maker for Philadelphia. With that injury, Owens may catch a few balls, but his YAC (yards after catch) will be limited. Nothing however will cut into his Super Bowl yakking. 

      Terrell who? Who needs T.O. when you've got the Lewis and Lewis boys catching passes from Donovan McNabb. Take a bow, Greg and Chad.

      Reid said to his players, just after getting his traditional late-game Gatorade bath: "You're killing me!'' This seems fair, since he and his players have been killing Eagles fans the past three Januarys.

      It's a good thing the Eagles won, because I don't think any of us would have wanted to see an entire city break off and sink into the North Atlantic.
     
      I'm not breaking this story, but in retrospect, those high-risk, big-money offseason deals to acquire Owens and defensive end Jevon Kearse were worth it, Jeffrey Lurie. Or do the Eagles owe their Super Bowl-qualifying status as much to the weakened state of the NFC this season?

      That old sports axiom of Joe Louis was again proven true against the Falcons.  There was no where to run, no where to hide, Michael Vick. That's called containment, folks. What a job was done by the Eagles defense against the game's most elusive open-field runner. Four sacks, seven knockdowns, and one interception of Vick. Who would have thought that McNabb would be more elusive in the open field than Vick?

      It was also a pretty underwhelming effort by the Atlanta secondary. That was the Falcons' defensive weakness all season long, and it came back to bite them one last time in their denouement in Philadelphia.

      That wasn't just second effort that Dorsey Levens showed when he scored Philadelphia's first touchdown against Atlanta, on a tough-as-nails 4-yard run. Call it fourth effort. After all, this was the Eagles' fourth try at the NFC title1 game. 
     
      The experience of playing in all those cold weather playoff games in Green Bay is probably a big part of the reason that the Eagles gave Levens so much more action than usual.

      Nice hire by the 49ers, giving Mike Nolan his first crack at NFL head coaching. Way to go, Dr. John York. Maybe you know what you're doing after all. But we can't help but ask one pertinent question: If you loved Nolan, the young, energetic, defensive-minded son of a former NFL head coach (and one who coached the 49ers to three consecutive division titles in the early 1970s, no less), how come you didn't just keep Jim Mora in the first place?

      After all, Mora, who led the Falcons to the NFC title1 game this year as a rookie head coach, is a young, energetic, defensive-minded son of a former NFL head coach. Not to mention that Mora was extremely popular in his stint as the San Francisco defensive coordinator. Just saying.

      Once Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel lands the Cleveland head-coaching job, speculation on his coordinator hire on offense centers on Dallas assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon, who cedes the Cowboys' play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Sean Payton.
     
      If Bill Parcells blocks Carthon's path to Cleveland, there are those who believe that Terry Robiskie will remain the Browns' O.C. Robiskie served as Cleveland's offensive coordinator and then interim head coach after Butch Davis left town.

      As for defensive coordinator in Cleveland, Crennel will no doubt try to persuade highly-coveted Patriots defensive backs coach Eric Mangini to accompany him to Ohio. But chances are, Belichick will want to keep Mangini and have him replace Crennel as coordinator. A compromise choice? Patriots defensive-line coach Pepper Johnson.

      Look, I might as well wish for world peace in our lifetimes, but after watching Sunday's Philly-Pittsburgh doubleheader being played in the harshest of winter cold, is it too much to ask for the Super Bowl to occasionally factor in the challenge of dealing with the elements? Deteriorating weather conditions are so much a part of the season's second half in the NFL, and then the first three rounds of the playoffs, but never in the biggest game of the year.

      Why?  The league's answer is that it's for the comfort of the fans - which really means the fat-cat corporate types who high jacked the Super Bowl years ago. I don't suspect anything will be changing on that front any time soon, but football is just more fun to watch when it's played in the cold. Dare we hope for a freak February snow in Jacksonville? Who do we speak to about that?

      Speaking of Wayne Weaver-ville, I'm hearing through the grapevine that league officials are more than a little worried about whether Jacksonville is ready for its close-up, which begins next weekend when the Eagles and Patriots start arriving in northeast Florida. The whispers center on whether Jacksonville will be up to the challenge of putting on a first-class Super Bowl, with its far-flung geography, lack of premier hotels, and cow-town status.

      We know how the Jaguars' Weaver landed the game: He got a new stadium built in Jacksonville, when his expansion team began play in 1995 in what was once the shell of the old Gator Bowl. The league for a while now has made it its policy to hand out Super Bowls to cities that erect new facilities (see Houston, Detroit, and Arizona), but the conventional wisdom in some NFL quarters seems to be: "What were we thinking by coming to Jacksonville?''

      It was only January 2002 that New England upset Pittsburgh at Heinz Field in the AFC title1 game, but here's how long ago it really was: Kordell Stewart was the Steelers' star quarterback that day, and was coming off his career year. While the Patriots have had Tom Brady at the controls in the subsequent three seasons, the Steelers have gone through Stewart, Tommy Maddox and Ben Roethlisberger in that span. Stewart lost his job to Maddox in 2002, spent 2003 running for his life in Chicago, and 2004 wasting away on the bench in Baltimore.

      Yes, sir, I'd say the still-young Mr. Brady is in pretty fair position for his pending contract negotiation. If the Patriots cover-boy quarterback -- the only legitimate star on his team's blue-collar-studded roster -- wins a third Super Bowl ring in four seasons, he could legitimately look at New England owner Robert Kraft and mimic the line credited to Joe DiMaggio, when he was asked what Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would have had to pay him if he was a modern-day Yankee: "I'd say, George, you and I are about to become partners.'' Ditto for Brady and Kraft.

      So much for the notion that the Patriots would be critically weakened by the loss of their finest defensive lineman, Pro Bowl tackle/end, Richard Seymour. New England is 2-0 in the playoffs with Jarvis Green taking over for Seymour.  This team's resiliency is amazing!