What a ride it’s been with Mike Phillips.
The Gridiron Green regular season-champion also known as “commute29” has picked alongside your venerable Gridiron Guru throughout the postseason and arrived at a similar place.
He and I both went 1-1 last week to arrive at 5-9 and 7-9 for the postseason, respectively.
Seattle spoiled a perfect championship weekend for the both of us, besting the upset-minded San Francisco 49ers.
Alas, five months have led to this: Super Sunday nearly is upon us.
And without further adieu, the game.
Super Bowl XLVIII
Denver vs. Seattle, at the Meadowlands: Take a moment between now and Sunday, however brief, to give thanks: The football gods truly have bequeathed a delightful spectacle upon us for this first Sunday in February.
The two best teams in the NFL this season will play for the championship, making the now-departed BCS shed a single, prideful tear.
Denver brings the most explosive offense in the history of the league to the table. We’re talking 606 points, 55 touchdown passes and the longest field goal ever to boot.
Seattle counters with a defense so vicious it has its own nickname: the Legion of Boom.
Richard Sherman will talk a lot of trash, and Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas will back him up in center field.
The storylines read like a Hollywood script:
Will Peyton Manning cement his legacy with a second Super Bowl win? Or will his playoff struggles continue?
Can Russell Wilson ascend into the NFL’s quarterback elite with a victory in his first trip to the big game?
Can Pete Carroll bury his Meadowlands demons with a victory at his old coaching stomping grounds?
Will he join Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer as a member of the “won a Super Bowl and NCAA championship club?”
How do the Broncos receivers match up with the Seahawks’ secondary?
Will it snow?
Steven Spielberg couldn’t have crafted a more epic finale for the 2013 NFL season. Most of the pregame talk has centered around the Denver offense vs. Seattle defense matchup, but there’s another aspect to this game.
The Broncos will have to contend with Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and the rest of the Seahawks’ offense, as well.
They shut down Tom Brady and LeGarrette Blount in the AFC championship to get here, and even though they’re playing without Chris Harris and Von Miller, Jack Del Rio has kept his defense ready all season.
When Manning does have the ball, though, Seattle will have its hands full.
The Seahawks have excelled in pass coverage all season but never encountered an offense like this.
Five Broncos caught more than 60 passes this season, and they all found the endzone more than 10 times; that kind of balance will make the difference.
Peyton matches Eli with his second ring, leaving Seattle and its 12th Man to moan and wail louder than anyone.
Call homer if you will, but I did not pen the Illiad.
Pick: Denver Broncos 24, Seattle Seahawks 21.
Line: Broncos by 2½.
MP: “Well, I went through the playoffs at 50 percent, but I picked Denver 100 percent of the time all year, and I’m not about to stop now,” Phillips said.
“Go Broncos! Let’s get Peyton another ring!”
