The perfect Patriots

Former Patriot Scott McCready tells us why New England should make it a perfect season.

Scott McCready is the only Brit around who owns one of the most coveted items in sport, a Super Bowl ring. Wide receiver McCready was part of the 2001 New England team that beat the St. Louis Rams in the 'greatest show on turf' and this weekend he will be in Sky Sports' studio for our live coverage of Super Bowl XLII. McCready is a loyal Patriot but, as he tells skysports.com, it isn't just his heart that tells him that unbeaten New England are going to go the whole way and complete the perfect season. There is only one place to start really and that has to be with these Patriots? Just how good are they and, if they go all the way, would it be a better achievement than that of the 1972 Dolphins? SCOTT: I think most definitely it would be better than the 72 Dolphins, this is a different era of football we are talking about now with free agency and those kind of things. It is much harder to keep guys on your team with salary caps and people wanting to get more money from around the league. One thing New England has always done is have their superstars but also have other players who can step in and make big plays. It is not even to just keep it going, but come in and not miss a step. They don't change the game plan offensively or defensively; if somebody goes down, someone else takes their position and they keep on rolling with it. Really that is what happened with Tom Brady (in 2001). Drew Bledsoe got hurt against the Jets, Brady steps in and all of a sudden a star is born. That is their MO, how they do things, but it is really amazing that they can do this in this era of free agency and salary cap and all those things. They are the best team of all time in my opinion and let's see what they can do on Sunday. How much of all this success is down to the coach? What can you tell us about Bill Belichick, the man who has masterminded the Patriots to this magnificent season and three previous Super Bowl successes, and a guy who you worked under? SCOTT: He is a really quite an interesting old character. He never says much, doesn't get to excitable and is very focussed. He knows what he wants to get done and how to do it. If we had a super, super good game, the first thing we would see on a Monday morning when we watched film would be the bad plays, the screw-ups. When we had a bad game, the first thing we would see would be the good plays and what we did well, and then we would see what we needed to change. He always demanded a lot of his team and his players and that will always be the same but the way he coaches is pretty smart I think. Everyone preaches about worrying about the next game but he really believed that. He won't let you get too big-headed when you are winning but he also won't let you get down when you play badly. He does a pretty good job of balancing both of them and keeping focussed for the next game. You have mentioned Tom Brady, the quarterback, already and he gives the impression at the moment that with him in control, the Patriots will get the job done. How much confidence does the team take from having a guy like Brady at quarterback? SCOTT: A tremendous amount of confidence and it is not something he has just done this year, it is something that he has done for the last six or seven years now. There is never a time when the team thinks they won't get the job done when Tom Brady is around. I remember the first Super Bowl against the Rams and them scoring to tie the game at 17-17. The first thing I said on the sideline was we have enough time. There was 1.45 left and that was plenty of time for Brady to take us into field goal range and for Adam Vinitieri to do his thing - and that is exactly what happened. He has had that reputation as a winner ever since he stepped on the field for New England and so long as he is in there, they believe they are going to win every single game. So far they have, so you can't really argue with it. One area that the Patriots might have the edge is with their running game on Sunday, because Laurence Maroney has played so little this year and thus arrives in Arizona fit and in the form of his short career. How big an impact do you think he can have on this game? SCOTT: I think that is a good point and that Maroney will be a big weapon for us on Sunday. He rushed for over 120 yards the last two weeks and he has had injury issues. The kind of defense that the Giants play is against an offense that loves to throw the ball, so that those two defensive ends can pin their ears back and rush the quarterback. Osi Yumeniora and Michael Strahan, if they know it is a pass, will just pin their ears back and rush but if you challenge them with the run and take it up the middle, then they have to stay home all of a sudden and have to see the play develop and be wary of the run. When you are not running the ball and always dropping back for the pass they can come off the line and attack the quarterback and it is what they do best. So the fact that Laurence Maroney is fit now and playing really, really well is going to be a tremendous weapon for them to keep the Giants defense and pass rush off balance. Moving on to New York, are you surprised that the Giants have made the Super Bowl? SCOTT: The Giants have always had a reputation for being a team that starts out pretty good and collapses in December; they have done that the last few years. Whenever I talked about them, I said that we had to wait and see what they did in December and they actually started off December pretty poorly too. But I think they gradually started to believe in themselves and then when the Patriots game came in week 17, I don't think anyone gave them a chance to even come close. The game meant nothing to them, they could have fielded a weaker team, taken a big loss and gone into the play-offs and not worried about it. But they fielded the strongest team they had, the Patriots fielded the strongest team they had and I don't think there is anyone who can doubt that those two teams played to win that game. It turned out to be maybe the best game of the regular season, with a three-point win for the Patriots. After that game I thought they really believed in themselves and each other and all of a sudden Eli Manning had come through in a big match. He has had his issues and people think he chokes in the big ones - he is under a bit more pressure because he is Peyton's little brother and that doesn't help - but I think he has come into his own and emerged as a leader and a playmaker. In December and through these play-offs they were starting to believe that they could beat anyone, and they should, because they are the best team that has played the Patriots all year.

The thing that the Giants have been doing better than anyone else in the NFC in the play-offs is look after the ball. Are they going to have to do that again and do you think they can keep their turnovers down against this Patriots D? SCOTT: Yes. They could have won that game in week 17 if it wasn't for a late interception off Manning. The teams are so good at this stage that it could be just one mistake here or there that can turn the tide. As you say, they have done a good job of taking care of the ball, as have the Patriots and Tom Brady, except for last week when he through a few picks out of nowhere. New England do seem to find a way of picking themselves up and a way to do it but it will come down to who makes the least mistakes this weekend. And how about Lawrence Tynes, potentially the second Brit to get a Super Bowl ring, a guy you played with in Scotland, New York's kicker... SCOTT: I played with him in Scotland and also in Kansas City last year, so I have seen quite a lot of him! How do you think he will handle the pressure of kicking in the Super Bowl? After all, it's been a bit of a mixed year for him with some criticism coming from coach Tom Coughlin for missing makeable kicks and then there was the NFC Championship game when he missed two kicks but made the big one. How is he feeling going into this game off the back of all that? SCOTT: You know, the thing with LT is that he has always been a confident person and you have to be to be a kicker. What people don't appreciate or understand is the mental side of football; it is more of a mental game than a physical one and it can get inside your head and really mess with you, especially being a kicker. He has always had a big leg, a strong leg and been able to make kicks. What separates a great kicker from a good one is the ability to put the bad kick behind you and then make the important one. He missed two kicks against Green Bay, one of them potentially a game-winner, but the fact of the matter is that he still went out there and made that overtime kick. The ability to put the missed kick out of your mind, go out there and do your job is what it's about. In football or whatever, it is not what happens but how you react to it that matters. The fact that he stepped up and made that kick will give him a boost on Sunday. Let's talk about the wide receivers on Sunday night, and I guess you have to start with New England who have so much depth in this position. Has anyone ever had more talent wide out that Brady, with Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth and Jabar Gaffney not to mention the tight ends Ben Watson and Kyle Brady, as well as Kevin Faulk from running back, who had a big game in the air against the Chargers? SCOTT: Kevin Faulk has always been a good running back who catches the ball upfield. I remember playing with him when I was there and he has a fantastic set of hands. He was always making unbelievable catches in practice and in games and is probably one of the most under-rated Patriots on offense. Whenever they need him or call his number, he goes in there and gets the job done. He is an excellent player. With all that talent it is ridiculously hard to defend against the Patriots because Brady basically has his choice. He has all those weapons out there as receivers and you can't double cover all of them. The person you double cover is the guy with 23 touchdowns, Randy Moss, but he'll still run down the field and catch touchdowns. He is the guy they will try to take out of the game but then you have Welker catching 11 or 12 balls for 100 yards, Gaffney taking six or seven touchdowns this year, Stallworth is always dangerous and makes big plays and Watson and Faulk and... The fact of the matter is, in order to stop this offense you have to stop it at its source. You have to get to Brady and stop him from throwing the ball. Hurrying him and hitting him in the face is not going to do it - they did that in week 17 and he threw for 356 yards - you have to get him on the ground before the ball gets out of his hands. It is the only way to stop this offense. The Giants are no slouches in this area too though with Plaxico Burress in terrific form in Green Bay as well as Amani Toomer and the rookie, Steve Smith. Do you think they can give the Patriots defensive backfield a tough game? SCOTT: Plaxico is a great receiver and Amani Toomer is a good receiver too but after that, they fall way short of the Patriots as far as receivers are concerned, especially with the fact that Jeremy Shockey is injured. The back-up, Kevin Boss, has been doing a pretty good job but Shockey is an elite player and one that they will miss. Plaxico has been doing his trash-talking already earlier this week. I would be careful what I was saying if I were him because they have a pretty good one and two but after that they fall way short of the Patriots. Tell us about your own Super Bowl experience, as part of the 2001 New England Patriots, and the build-up to the big game? SCOTT: It is quite an amazing experience. It is just hectic, crazy, from the second you step off the plane. Media everywhere and the only privacy you have is your hotel floor, where there are security guards everywhere. The lobby though, because it is a regular hotel, every time you walk in to the lobby there is a crowd and you are fighting to get to the stairs to get up to your room. You are signing autographs here there and everywhere and for the first few days of the week, it is media days. Tuesday is media day and you go to the stadium, wear your kit, take the photographs but every other day of the week there is an hour and half set up for media. Big guys at the podium, then the next guys around a table and everyone else around the back and the media walks around talking to whomever they want to talk to. It is not really until Wednesday that things get back to normal and you go to practice. The working week in NFL is practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, walk-through Saturday, game day Sunday, film on Monday and Tuesday is your day off. Now though they get there Sunday, get all the media stuff out of the way on Monday and Tuesday, all the hoopla, and from Wednesday they try to make it as normal as possible. I can hear Belichick saying it on Wednesday, 'that's all the s*** over, let's get down to the game'. I can tell your heart says New England, but does the head say New England too or can the Giants do it? SCOTT: I think they can do it but I think New England is going to win. They have too much for anyone and I think they are going to be the first 16-0 undefeated team and take the Super Bowl. But I do think the Giants have the potential to do it, they showed it in week 17. They are confident and have started playing better. The key factor on Sunday though is Laurence Maroney, as you said already, because he has been playing so well for them recently and really gives them an edge. My heart says the Patriots, and I think they are going to win, but I wouldn't be completely shocked if it is the Giants.