This year’s game is a rematch of a classic from just four years ago, when – I’m sure you’ve heard by now – the New York Giants ended the New England Patriots’ perfect season. It’s really a shame that this game will be compared to that Super Bowl, since we have a potential classic brewing that can easily stand on its own in the annals of time.

On one side, we have Tom Brady. Everybody’s favourite pretty-boy quarterback who is looking to win his fourth Super Bowl and tie Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw’s record. He can also break Montana’s record for playoff wins by claiming victory on Sunday.

His Patriots squad features Rob Gronkowski, a tight end that set just about every receiving record at his position this season, including leading the league in touchdowns. On his worst days, he’s still a matchup nightmare. The only break that the Giants get by facing him now is that he’ll be slightly hobbled by a high ankle sprain suffered in the Conference Championship game.

Don’t forget about Wes Welker either. He has been one of the most consistent targets as a receiver in the entire league since coming to New England and is threat to get a first down on any play.

On the other side of the ball, there’s Eli Manning. He’s trying desperately to step out of his big brother’s shadow and now he gets a chance to win his second Super Bowl while playing in Peyton’s (soon to be former) home stadium.

He has two amazing playmakers at receiver in Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. Both have shown in recent weeks that they can turn any catch – even a simple seven-yard slant – into a massive gain. These guys routinely take poor-tackling secondaries to school.

The G-Men’s running game should not be overlooked either, with Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs aptly carrying the ball recently. If they can establish the ground game, the Pats could be in trouble.

Both of these offences can shred opponents, and that’s why this game’s decisive factor should come from the defensive side of the ball.

It has been well documented how dominant the Giants’ pass rush can be and how that allows them to create pressure while only rushing four. That, of course, allows them to drop more players into coverage and frustrate opposing receivers. But is it a guarantee that they can do so against an offensive line as strong as the Pats and a quarterback as smart and quick as Brady? I’m not so sure.

When the Patriots are on defence, well, let’s put it this way: If New England wins, they will boast the worst defence to ever win a Super Bowl – by a large margin.

Even so, they have looked good so far in the playoffs and they’re getting key contributions from guys like Julian Edelman (a wide receiver) and Sterling Moore (cut from the Raiders’ practice squad).

Also, it can’t be discounted that Bill Belichick is one of the most brilliant minds in football, leaps and bounds ahead of the league – including Tom Coughlin.

So how do you pick against one of those two teams? Well, in a couple of now-famous words “Nobody believes in us.” Ever since betting began on this game, everybody has been pounding the Giants, almost immediately lowering the line from 3.5. It even dipped to 2.5 on some boards. So why no love for a team that has only lost three games all season? It’s because the Giants are the hot, chic team. Well, after two weeks to sit down and think about it, the pressure should be on New York.

A Patriots win here would be the picture perfect end to their story: They redeem themselves for the “18-and-none” season, they do so in the city of another recent heartbreak, they crush their rival’s little brother and all after Tom Brady gets dressed sitting at Peyton Manning’s locker.

It’s not quite a Tim Tebow-level miracle script, but it’s damn good and I’m willing to follow it.

The pick: New England -3
The score: Patriots 24, Giants 20
The playoffs: 5-5
Regular season: 131-120-2

Later in the evening, across the country, San Francisco residents and 49ers fans were probably attaching a few nasty adjectives to the name of backup return man Kyle Williams.

Those, right there were the two goats that essentially cost their teams a chance at playing in the Super Bowl.

Granted, those plays cost their teams their respective conference championships, but there is one thing that few are bringing up: Cundiff’s kick would only have taken their game to overtime. There was no guarantee that A) the Ravens would even get the ball or B) that Joe Flacco could do anything with it if he did.

On the drive that led to Cundiff’s terrible shank left, Flacco and Co. had several chances to punch it into the endzone and couldn’t do it. Including a ball caught by Lee Evans and then batted out of his hands just in time – great defensive play by the way. This game could have played out like it should have, Tom Brady could have marched down the field in overtime and scored, then who would be to blame?

At least in this scenario, the Ravens now have a scapegoat and Cowboys fans (Cundiff used to kick for Dallas) get a little I-told-you-so redemption.

Williams, on the other hand, should just be hanging his head. First, he booted a punt that was recovered by the Giants in the fourth quarter, leading to score. Then, in overtime, he fumbled a return that would lead to the game-winning field goal.

Niners fans have to playing the what-if game in their heads right now, wondering if they’d be booking a trip to Indianapolis if Ted Ginn was in the lineup instead of injured on the sidelines.

So, prepare for two weeks full of rematch and redemption talk. It’s the Patriots facing the Giants, who ruined their perfect season in the Super Bowl a mere four years ago.

This week: 0-2
The playoffs: 5-5

NEW ENGLAND -7 over Baltimore
Let’s face it; there is no team that can cover the Patriots two amazing tight ends. If there was one, it could have been the Ravens of a few years ago, when Ray Lewis was a few years younger and Ed Reed wasn’t as consistently banged up. In fact, it’s almost a certainty that Reed will not be 100% for Sunday.

If there’s one thing to worry about, it’s that the Patriots have not beaten a winning team all season. That is unless you include the Broncos last week, who were technically 9-8, but 8-8 in the regular season.

But then you have to figure how bad the Ravens were away from Baltimore. They went 8-0 at home, but were a weak 4-4 on the road, including a loss at Jacksonville of all places.

The Pats defence was terrible in the regular season, but looked to have really come together last week. It’s not like the Ravens offence is very tough to contain either. Just keep Ray Rice in check, stop Torrey Smith when he goes deep and watch for screens. That seems like the only ways they can move the ball.

And if you’re picking the Ravens to win on Sunday, all you have to remember is that you’re betting against Tom Brady at home. That should be enough said.

SAN FRANCISCO -2.5 over New York Giants
Think about the how the playoffs work and how the Super Bowl usually turns out. How many times do we really get that perfect matchup? The one with all the season-long storylines that come together or a possible rematch of a classic past game usually never happens. So that’s why the 49ers will win on Sunday.

That would deny of us of two potential Super Bowl rematches involving the Giants, including the one that everyone wants to see: New York taking on New England.

But this isn’t just a pick because of that storyline; the Niners are talented enough to win this game. They’ve already beaten the Giants at Candlestick once this season and they’re defence is among the best in football.

The Giants are in peak form, but I don’t see them being able to break huge plays thanks to sloppy tackling. That is the huge reason why Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks were able to make those massive gains was because their opponents had terrible form when trying to take them down.

The Niners’ offensive line is also strong enough to contain New York’s vaunted pass rush. They’ll have to bring some blitzes in order to get consistent pressure on Alex Smith.

And don’t think that John Harbaugh isn’t playing the ‘Nobody believes in us’ card. This game is tailor-made for it and the Giants should be coming in overconfident after beating Green Bay last week.

Last week: 2-2
The playoffs: 5-3

Follow me on Twitter @danbilicki

So let’s look at the bandwagons that will have to wait until next season to start up again.

-The Denver Broncos: Let’s face it; this bandwagon should really be called the Tim Tebow bandwagon. After a stunning overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, this team picked up a lot of believers. It was just too bad that the Patriots didn’t read the script. Tom Brady and Co. came out strong and just dominated Tebow and a defence that looked surprisingly beleaguered. Really, we all should have seen this coming. New England already dominated the Broncos once this season and there was really no sign that they wouldn’t do it again.

-The New Orleans Saints: This one was pretty heartbreaking since I had picked them to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season. But they really showed that you do need some semblance of defence to win in the playoffs. They allowed Alex Smith to march down the field not once, but twice to take the lead in the fourth quarter and eventually win it. Drew Brees and the offence didn’t really help the cause, turning over the ball five times. It’s hard to come back from that.

-The Green Bay Packers: During the week, many brought up how the Giants were built the right way to give the Packers headaches. A strong pass rush and playmaking receivers. Well, that’s exactly how they beat them. Green Bay looked sloppy and overmatched by the visitors – certainly something we couldn’t have expected from a team that had lost just once in their past 19 games. So, yet again, we won’t be seeing a repeat.

So, who’s left? Well I see the Giants and Patriots picking up a lot of fans over the next week. And who wouldn’t like to see a rematch of Super Bowl XLII?

This week: 2-2
This playoffs: 5-3

First, since this version of NFL playoff format started, over 70% of home teams won their divisional round matchups. Now, that can be mainly due to the fact that they were likely the better team having finished higher in the standings, or that they had a bye week leading into the game. Plus, of course, they had home-field advantage.

Second, in the past 26 playoff games that favourites have won, they have also covered the spread. So, the Sports Guys’ manifesto rule of ‘don’t pick an underdog unless you think they can win,’ has been holding pretty true recently.

Well, don’t expect me to follow the trends here, it’s all about rational gut picks.

The lines are from Vegas and the home teams are in CAPS.

New Orleans -3.5 over SAN FRANCISCO
Here’s the pick that flaunts it against the first trend. It’s not very often that the visiting team in the playoffs is better than its host in Round 2, but that’s not the case here. The Saints are the superior team and they’re red hot. They’ve covered the spread nine weeks in a row and I can’t see them stopping here.

The Niners’ defence is incredibly strong, but have you seen the way that Drew Brees has been playing? San Francisco is incredibly strong against the run, but the Saints only use that as a changeup to their passing attack.

And do you really want to bet on Alex Smith getting the better of Brees in a game of this magnitude?

NEW ENGLAND -13.5 over Denver
There’s actually another trend that I didn’t mention above that I’ll be going against: Tom Brady is on a 35-1 run at home during the regular season, but he’s 0-2 in the playoffs at home. That will most certainly change.

A lot of people will credit Tim Tebow and Denver’s defence for their shock win over Pittsburgh last week, but I’m crediting the Steelers’ injury woes. They were down practically their entire defensive line, some of their offensive line and Big Ben could barely move without shrieking in pain during the first half.

The Patriots have already beaten the Broncos this season and they did that at Mile High in the friendly confines of Gillette, they’ll be able to run up the score against the overachievers.

Houston +7.5 over BALTIMORE
Yes. I am seriously taking T.J. Yates on the road in a playoff game, in Baltimore. He looked rattled at home last week against Cincinnati, so yes, I might be crazy. But this game is going to be about defence and rushing and these two teams are not eight points different in those categories.

Ray Rice and Arian Foster are essentially even and the two defences are pretty much on par now that Wade Phillips is back from surgery. He’ll be looking to polish up that resume too now that Tampa Bay is reportedly interested in making him their new head coach.

So, the Ravens will win, but they won’t cover – breaking trend No. 2.

GREEN BAY -7.5 over New York Giants
A lot has been said about how the Giants are built the perfect way to challenge the Packers – strong pass rush from their front four, playmaking passing game, an effective power rushing game that’s coming on – but I just can’t see Aaron Rodgers going down that easily.

Even if the Giants are rushing four great guys against a banged-up Packers offensive line, New York’s coverage guys won’t be strong enough to contain the massive amount of receiving talent that Green Bay has.

As for when the Giants have the ball, Eli Manning is good, but he’s not exactly consistent. Also, Brandon Jacobs has been trending up, but form is only temporary, class is permanent – something he doesn’t have.

I see this going down like the Saints-Lions tilt last week: The ’dogs threatening for a backdoor cover and getting it, but the favourites pulling away afterwards.

Last week: 3-1