You had to figure at some point, Plaxico Burress’ 23-17 Super Bowl prediction was going to get the attention of even the most cool Patriot of them all. Yesterday, New England QB Tom Brady responded during media day.

“We’re only going to score 17 points?” the three-time Super Bowl winner and 2007 regular season MVP expressed to the AP Thursday. “OK. Is Plax playing defense? I wish he had said 45-42 and gave us a little credit for scoring more points.”

“Plaxico is a hell of a player,” Brady went on to add. “If he feels that way, I think that’s great. I’d hate for him to think he’s going to lose this game. It’s obvious nobody does.”  

So, what was Plax’ reaction?

“I’m not taking anything away from what those guys accomplished. They set all the records you could possibly imagine. They have a great quarterback, the MVP, who threw for a record (50) touchdowns. Randy [Moss] set a TD record for catches. They had two receivers with over 100 catches.

“The numbers don’t lie about what they have done.”

“It’s all entertainment,” the favorite target of Eli Manning noted. “Look at how this has made national headlines. I’ve always been a confident player and I’ll always be that way and will continue to be that way. What we have done up to this point really doesn’t matter. All we can do is go out there and try and do our thing.”

His teammates including veteran defensive end Michael Strahan and sack leader Osi Umenyiora seemed to agree. Does it really matter what’s said off the football field when it comes to the biggest game of the NFL season? Not as long as you go out perform and back it up.

Does anyone else find it funny that Plax’ final score had to do with his HS basketball number and the current Giant No.17 he wears? He was pulling out of Giants Stadium getting ready to leave when the reporters swarmed him looking for anything they could get. If I were there, I’d probably do the same thing. The media has a job to do and they’ll go to great lengths sometimes even too far to get their stories.

This is the Super Bowl and having a New York team in there for the first time since that Ravens’ 34-7 SB XXXV blowout over a different Giant team is a huge deal here unless you’re a Met fan hanging on every nanosecond as time ticks down to the 5 PM deadline to overpay Johan Santana.

When a star athlete from this town makes a prediction a la Broadway Joe Namath and The Captain Mark Messier, it draws plenty of attention. Even if Plax was having a little fun while at the same time showing belief in what his teammates have already accomplished in knocking off three higher seeds on the road to get to Tempe.

Why shouldn’t he be confident? They certainly have a balanced offense which could pose problems for the Pats. And the best recipe for them to pull this upset is to keep Brady and that vaunted offense off the field. That means a solid mixture of precise passes and solid runs from Brandon Jacobs and rookie Ahmad Bradshaw chewing up as much of the clock as possible while picking up first downs. Most importantly, when they get into the red zone, it’s a must to come away with seven. Settling for field goals against the well oiled New England machine won’t win this game.

As we get closer and closer to the weekend, the exciting realization that the two teams will finally be shutting their traps and taking the field builds. 

You can talk all the talk you want during a superhyped up week but can you walk the walk on the biggest Sunday of the year? That’s what it all boils down to. 

It should be fun.