Esiason On Toucher & Rich: Patriots Running Game Will Get Them To Super Bowl
BOSTON (CBS) - Toucher and Rich were joined by Boomer Esiason of WFAN and CBS Sports to talk football, and he made the prediction that the Patriots will get to the Super Bowl due in large part to their stable of running backs.
"In my estimation, it's probably the best running game that is left in the playoffs and it's probably the running game that will ultimately get them to the Super Bowl."
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Esiason is picking his former team the Cincinnati Bengals to beat the Chargers on Sunday, and that will set up for a Saturday showdown next week in Foxboro against the Pats.
Besides the running backs, another reason Esiason thinks the Patriots will reach the Super Bowl is the lack of stout defenses in the conference.
"I think the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC is the easiest it's ever been. I don't necessarily know that there's a defense left in the AFC that is nearly as good as Carolina, Seattle, San Francisco or even New Orleans for that matter in the NFC."
"At the beginning of the season I said the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks [in the Super Bowl] and I'm not straying away from that. That was my initial pick. I still feel that way," Esiason said Friday morning.
Seattle controls homefield advantage in the NFC, and with the way that CenturyLink Field crowd rallies behind their team, Esiason doesn't think anybody can go in there and beat them - save for maybe the San Francisco 49ers.
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Fred Toucher, Dan Roche and Jon Wallach then went over all the head coaching vacancies with Boomer, which led to a discussion about Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
He thinks it's "preordained" that McDaniels will coach the Cleveland Browns and said "as long as they keep him out of the personnel department they'll be fine," (referring to the first round draft pick of Tim Tebow in Denver).
Listen below for the full interview:
