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One-on-One Breaking down the Super Bowl on Sports Tonight
Sports Illustrated's Peter King joined the Sports Tonight gang live in Tampa, Fla., on Monday night to discuss the Super Bowl. Fred Hickman: You think this is going to be a good Super Bowl. Tell us why. Peter King: This game, to me, is your old-fashioned pitchers' duel. How many people love to see Pedro Martinez play against Roger Clemens ? A pitchers' duel is great is in baseball, and a defensive duel, I think, is great in the NFL. I want to see Michael Strahan and I want to see Ray Lewis dominate this game. Vince Cellini: We have a caller, Jeff in Las Vegas . 
Jeff in Las Vegas: I think the Giants will win. I think the key will be how well the Giants offensive line holds off the Ravens' pass rush because I think the Ravens' hit men are going to come after Kerry Collins and try to knock him out of the game. What do you think? King: There is no question about that, Jeff. There are two things that are very interesting about this matchup. First, you hit the nail on the head. Kerry Collins needs to take those short drops, he can't afford to take the seven-step drops, because that means he is going to be hit hard by Ray Lewis. He needs to look for his tight end. The unsung hero in this game could be Pete Mitchell . Collins needs to hit the short and intermediate stuff just to get the 5-, 7-, 8-yard gains. He's not going to get that with the rush. He needs to do that through the air, to his tight end.
Hickman: How much pressure is going to be on Trent Dilfer going back home to Tampa to play? King: Fred, you just hit the nail on the head. This is the most underplayed aspect of this game, early on in this Super Bowl, is that we don't know how Dilfer will do. He has reacted to pressure well so far, but he hasn't reacted to coming home to his backyard -- three miles away from where he lived for six years -- and playing in this stadium and playing in a stadium where people hated him. So I think the key element right now is how will Dilfer react to playing in the place where people booed him. I think it would be amazing if he plays big in the biggest game of his life. Fred: How well does Dilfer have to play for the Ravens to win? King: First of all, the thing the Ravens are going to do is to not put the ball in Dilfer's hands. [Ravens head coach] Brian Billick has done a superb job. The Ravens were 5-4 and the Ravens were trying to salvage the season. What did Billick do? He went to Jamal Lewis and said, "Jamal, you are my guy." He didn't go to Dilfer and say, "you're my guy." He said, "Jamal Lewis, carry the mail." And what he did over the next seven weeks, he gave the ball to Lewis 20 times more per month than he did previously. He gave it to him so many times, Lewis became the offense in November and December. That is going to be the key in this game. The one key thing is that he would rather give his defense the ball at the opponent's 30-yard line and let them take on the Giants' offense. He's fine with that. He doesn't want his offense to lose the game for Baltimore. Cellini: The Giants have been here before and the games were pretty defensive games. Will it be the same? King: The two scores of the Giants' Super Bowl games at halftime were 10-9 and 12-3. These were not offensive powerhouse games, even though the first game turned into one. I think what we are looking for in this game is that -- don't forget that Kerry Collins can throw the intermediate routes, he can take the three- and five-step drops. The one thing that people all over the country are forgetting, including us, is that we don not understand that Kerry Collins is made to play in Sean Payton's offense. Payton, to me, is the smartest guy in the NFL for offensive coordinators in doing what the defense gives you. This Ravens' defense gives you the three- and five-step drop, the 5-, 7- and 9-yard intermediate routes, especially to the tight end.
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