Has NE already lost the SB even if they haven't?

Same here.... New England crushes Seattle................

Good thoughts in the OP.

I'm not even going to comment about the Xo's and O's as you and Suuma already did that at length.

I know you are on the Hawks, and I also know we both do the overwhelming majority of our capping from the psychological angle.

I posit the following:

1) Outside of the one capper who noted that the deflated balls cause fewer fumbles, (and really), this is as the QB legends say it is, a QB manufactured controversy.

In all likelihood, Brady caused all of this.

So let's say Brady is the guilty party and only he and a ball boy know the balls were deflated.

Every other member of the Pats, offense and defense, their talents and accomplishments, are undermined by Deflate-gate.

That could only motivate more than they already would be having not won a SB in nearly 10 years to prove just the opposite on the largest of all public stages.

2) Brady

So we assume Brady is guilty.

Of all the guys in the league who would want to prove they could still light it up (like Brady did in the second half with a regular ball against the Colts), Brady is at the top, if not number one.

What I saw all year was this: A guy who would accept nothing less than perfection from his teammates, continually barking on camera at the smallest infractions that stalled Pats drives in key spots...a route that was run wrong, a bad snap, a holding penalty.

And that fire emanated from one desire, the desire to finally win it all once again after the Giants (of all teams) dashed their hopes twice, once with the near greatest team in history.

So to points 1 and 2, you have an entire Pats team that is not discouraged by Deflate-gate, but ENcouraged, all albeit, self-created.

3) Repeating

The hardest thing to do in all of the major sports in my opinion is to repeat in the SB. Even if you have the better team, and you are convinced the Hawks are (I am not), it is still the tallest of mountains to climb.

And the Hawks face-off against the one team that was the most recent to accomplish just that.

This is an extraordinary psychological mountain to overcome.

I gotta go the other way on this one with an almost pure line, but as a Jets fan, I will have no problem losing money and watching the Pats lose.