PFT's Super Bowl LX picks: Florio vs. Simms
Better late than never.
It's been a hectic week, with the Radio Row rollercoaster yielding to multiple days of preparation and rehearsal for the Super Bowl pregame show on NBC. Along the way, I almost forgot that there's a game - and that we need to make our picks for it.
So here we are. The last game of the year. It doesn't impact the season-long competition. Simms won the straight-up battle; I've clinched the spread competition.
Either way, we disagree today as to the winner of the game, but not as to the team that will prevail against the spread.
The Patriots need to muddy it up and keep it close. If they can, the primary factor in an eventual victory will be the skills and abilities of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, who combines an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules with a keen appreciation of how to use them to his advantage and an innate understanding of how it feels to be a player to make the right decision at the right time to deliver the right result.
He did it against the Broncos. On the fateful fourth-down play in the second quarter, Vrabel gave the Broncos a pre-snap look that made them think their play would work. And then the Patriots broke their own tendencies with a defense that shut the play down. And before the interception that sealed the game, Vrabel had his defensive players take their time exiting the field during a late Denver substitution, causing the play clock to tick-tick-tick and creating extra urgency for an inexperienced quarterback who rushed the play, and his throw.
That won't matter if the Seahawks open up a multi-score lead, and the Seahawks have the skills to do it. The Patriots have to keep it close for Vrabel to be the difference maker. And given that Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold has had moments during his career when things went haywire, Vrabel and his staff undoubtedly have studied each of those situations with the goal of recreating that same pressure and uncertainty - all the way back to the notorious moment when Darnold was "seeing ghosts." Coincidentally, against the Patriots.
So here we are. Winner and score.
Florio's pick: Patriots 23, Seahawks 20.
Simms's pick: Seahawks 21, Patriots 17.