- You have to be-- any team that makes the final four obviously has-- there are some things they're great at. So there's no-- there's not going to any walkovers. I understand that. Like, you can't go into any pro football game, much less a conference championship game, like, oh there's no way we lose.

But we also should level set and maybe take a 10,000-feet view of where the Pats are, where they started the season, where they are right now. They came into this season as the heaviest favorites to win a Super Bowl that we've seen from any team in a decade. Throughout the season, once they-- they dealt with the Julian Edelman injury in the preseason. Throughout the season, they have been very fortunate as far as key players being injured, more fortunate than we've seen from New England in recent years. They also have been fortunate as far as injuries other teams have suffered.

We mentioned Ryan Shazier, but Carson Wentz, the guy who was probably going to win MVP on the other side of the bracket. Aaron Rodgers. Now they see Drew Brees getting knocked out of the playoffs. And their path to winning their sixth Super Bowl goes through Marcus Mariota, Blake Bortles, and then either Case Keenum and Nick-- or Nick Foles.

So I'd say all that to say this. Could the Jaguars win this game? Sure. But everything has set up perfectly for New England.

Part of that is their own doing, by getting the one seed. That's why they get to play Marcus Mariota. They-- and they earned that. Part of that to do-- their maintenance. Maybe it's the pliability as far as why their guys have been healthy. I don't know. But the-- the Pats are in a better position right now to be heavy Super Bowl favorites than any year I can remember since the undefeated team, because of what's happened around them in the league. And I know this past weekend was about defenses, but because of the other quarterbacks left standing.