Patriots, 34 - Giants, 20

The title (Patriots, 34 - Giants, 20) is not a prediction. It is the result of the remarkably life-like experience of playing a board/dice game known as Pizza Box Football, published by On the Line Game company out of California. Each year, at this time, the company offers owners of the game special gaming charts which tailor the game experience to the specific strengths and weaknesses of the two teams involved in the Super Bowl and ask that participants report their results on the company Web site (www.pizzaboxfootball.com).

As of this evening, having completed the game, I thus report the results.

What makes this game such a particularly enjoyable experience for football fans and board game fans alike is the way that the game 'mechanic' of dice rolls, matched to charts which pit offense and defensive choices against each other, creates such a 'nail biting' experience for the 'coaches' of the two teams involved.

 As it so happened, I (a Patriots fan, now writing on a Red Sox blog, because after all. . Red Sox Nation is paying attention at this point) and a New York Giants fan went at it, beginning last week. We'd have completed the game in a single session, but the Giants fan (Mike, by name) got home from work late and by the time we'd completed the first half (Patriots, 20 - Giants, 7) it was really too late to continue. So we picked up where we'd left off.

I won't regale you with a long list of 'stats' that as you actually play the game are really not necessary to track, but I will note that in the second half, the Giants gained as many yards in the air as the Patriots did, overall (147). This, spearheaded by a stepped-up passing game by the Giants and an Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress, 81-yard touchdown pass, late in the third quarter that made the game interesting (27-20, at that point, if memory serves). But the Patriots did (in this game re-creation) what the Patriots do on the actual playing field. They didn't over-play their hand. They did just what they needed to do to win and if the score got run up a bit, it's largely because the defensive efforts to stop them got  frustrated by idiosyncratic and unpredictable play-calling. Just when you think you know what they're going to do, they tend to do something else.

Just so you know, I am not affiliated with the game company in any way, shape or form, other than having written a review of the game for Knucklebones magazine when the game came out a couple of years ago. I will say this. The Giants fan, Mike, with whom I played this particular re-creation is not really a fan of tabletop board games and he thoroughly enjoyed it; to the point where he expects to introduce the game to one of his own, football-but-not-necessarily-board-game-fans at a Super Bowl party he'll be hosting on Sunday. There is talk in the wind of he and his friend taking offensive and defensive play-calling as a team, against me, doing both.

There's time to get this game before the Bowl on Sunday to give the match-up a shot. The only cautionary note I would add would be that it is something of a process oriented game. It will, for the newcomer, especially one not tuned in to tabletop gaming, take a little time to sort through the complications of the defensive and offensive play calling scenarios, at first. It was Mike's first experience with the game and while the first half took a while to complete, for the reasons stated, the second half zipped along at pretty much normal game speed (There is a 'clock' of sorts and it does manage to create a bit of tension as it winds down at the conclusion of the two halves).

Just to connect this up, the company will be releasing a Pizza Box Baseball game, reportedly sometime next month. I hope to be able to use it, in some way or another, as the 2008 MLB Season commences and progresses; hopefully, to play out some Yankee-Red Sox scenarios. If the new game is anything like the old game, it'll be a lot of fun to play and report on.

Go Patriots