Giants receiver Plaxico Burress needs to be quiet in these last days before the Super Bowl.

Burress predicted the Patriots would score only 17 points, leading an incredulous Tom Brady to respond.

Brady makes a good point: Why is Burress speaking for his team’s defense? He might be trying to compliment the unit that has played well in the playoffs, but in the meantime is just pissing the Patriots off.

Burress delivered a great game against the Packers and is entitled to jaw a little, but jaw about the Pats’ defense, not about something that’s not in his control. The key to motivation is to motivate your own team, not the other one. Burress has been in the league long enough to know that.

Oh, if the Giants hold the Patriots to under 35 points, it will be an accomplishment. I doubt 17 is going to happen.

When Mike Carey officiates Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, he will become the first black referee to work the Super Bowl. It’s a minor milestone, but it has seemed that in the past few years, the NFL has moved beyond such milestones. I think the media presented last year’s Super Bowl, with the first black coach to win one, as more of a big deal than the league and its players did. It was an important milestone, but not really surprising, not at this level at least.

What’s cool about Carey refereeing — his distinct style in announcing penalties. You know how some baseball umpires have a unique way of calling strikes and out? Along those same lines, Carey’s arm comes across is body when he points at the side that committed the penalty. It’s tough to explain without actually seeing it, but the extra little flare is a step up from refs who just point nondescriptly to one side. So that should be more of a milestone Sunday — Carey won’t be dull when he’s calling pass interference against the Giants.

It’s Super Bowl Week! A whole week of hype! A whole week of Tom Brady’s injured ankle and model girlfriend! A whole week of hearing how much each commercial is going to cost! A whole week of every story angle imaginable!

OK, it’s not so overwhelming. There is always a sense or urgency during the week before the Super Bowl, possibly because there was no football to watch over last weekend.

One thing I’ve noticed in past Super Bowl weeks is the tendency to give the underdog more of a chance than it might actually have. Sometimes it pans out — look at the Broncos 10 years ago against the Packers — but usually it doesn’t. There are some pundits who think the Giants have a chance. Really, fellas, they don’t. But it’s fun to believe they might. All part of Super Bowl Week.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick has never been that open to begin with, but his not addressing Tom Brady’s limp has reached a kind of silly level, don’t you think?

Brady reportedly has a mild ankle sprain, but the NFL isn’t mandating an injury report until next Wednesday. In the meantime, no one else including Belichick is commenting much about it, like it’s not a big deal or they are trying to hide something. Of course, it’s not shocking that the Pats are secretive about anything, but this is a big deal — the NFL MVP, on a team on the verge of the greatest season in league history, with a possible injury days before the Super Bowl. Belichick could have at least said Brady was OK, that it was nothing — even if that statement was a lie. Wait until the media session next week when every question is about Brady — that could have been somewhat diffused this week.

Yes, some secrets are necessary — look at Philip Rivers’ surgery no one knew about. But Belichick should have been a little smarter, because if this creates a circus next week and the Pats somehow lose the Super Bowl, it will bite the coach in the, um, no comment.

Yes, it was cold in Green Bay on Sunday, but I read a quote from a Wisconsin meteorologist stating that it was nowhere near a record low. Still, I was surprised during the pregame to see fans at Lambeau a few hours before the game. The three women in bikini tops that Fox cameraman discovered weren’t as surprising, though usually it’s some drunken guy with his shirt off, not the ladies.

It had to be rough to be a Packer fan at Lambeau, you endured subzero temperatures and got a loss in return. You could have not risked frostbite at home to see that.

Finally, didn’t Howie Long look like Darth Vader in that black, ear-flapped hat?

The Giants surprised the Packers by winning the NFC championship Sunday and advanced to the Super Bowl. The Patriots did the same in the AFC and surprised no one.

First, the Giant upset at Lambeau Field. New York could have easily lost this game, but their defense was spectacular, more so than Brett Favre wasn’t. Take away the long touchdown-after-catch and the Packers’ offense was anemic. And the Green Bay defense didn’t make the stops it needed to. It seemed on several occasions the Packers looked like they were holding Eli Manning in check, only for him to throw for a first down, usually to Plaxico Burress. Green Bay’s abundant penalties didn’t help, either. Still, the Packers almost pulled this out. They got the ball first in overtime and proceeded to do nothing. As soon as that happened, you just knew their fate was sealed.

On to New England, where I believe the Patriots got their one bad game out of the way. Imagine your one bad game being a victory in the AFC championship. Tom Brady wasn’t quite the all-world quarterback he was all season, but the running game stepped up, and the defense held the Chargers out of the end zone. Unless all three of those facets of the Pats falter, they won’t lose the Super Bowl, no matter how confident the Giants feel right now.

Everybody throws Super Bowl parties, but we’ve thrown them for the conference championships. People are going to sit and watch them anyway, why not add some festiveness to the day. Alas, no parties this year, but it should still be an entertaining day.

SAN DIEGO at NEW ENGLAND
The thing I’m realizing about the Patriots this season is how flawlessly they have played. Yes, they have made some mistakes, but never to the extent that they were in jeopardy of falling apart. And since they execute so well, too much has to go wrong for them, and right for the other team, to manage an upset. To beat New England, San Diego will need to play that perfect and hope the Pats screw up one time too many. Won’t happen, and with the Chargers already banged up, it might be a struggle not to get blown out. The San Diego defense is good and helped upset the Colts last week. But as I’ve been saying all year, the Colts, or insert any other team, aren’t the Patriots.
Prediction: Patriots 35, Chargers 14

N.Y. GIANTS at GREEN BAY
The Giants are this year’s playoff Cinderella (more so than the Chargers) and will have more of a shot at Lambeau Field then people are giving them credit for. And their nine-game road winning streak is impressive, but this will be no ordinary road game, in the cold, in front of a hostile crowd that will be going crazy (if not just to stay warm), during Brett Favre’s career renaissance, against a Packer team not in disarray like the Cowboys were to an extent. Eli Manning has matured impressively these last weeks, but this might be to tough for even a veteran playoff quarterback to handle. Green Bay is a better team, and with its defense turning in perhaps its best performance of the season last week, there’s just too much in the Packers’ favor to pick against them.
Prediction: Packers 28, Giants 17

The hype for Sunday’s Giants-Packers game is overshadowing the hype for the Patriots-Chargers, possibly because no one thinks San Diego has a chance, but mostly because of the forecast in Green Bay — highs in the low single digits. The “frozen tundra” and “Ice Bowl” references have hit like a blizzard, and don’t expect them to stop for weeks, months, years if the Packers win.

This classic Packer weather might be the stuff of NFL lore, but there have been a lot of cold playoff (and key regular-season games) at Lambeau. Though Wisconsinites are going a little batty that the Packers are hosting and have a good shot at the Super Bowl, I’m sure many fans attending the game wished it was going to be in the 20s — cold enough to affect the Giants, warm enough not to get frostbite.

It’s sure to be an entertaining game. More so if you are indoors. With the thermostat set to 75 degrees. In Florida.

The Titans fired offensive coordinator Norm Chow this week, after Tennessee’s offense sputtered all season despite having Vince Young at quarterback.

Was this a case of Chow’s offensive philosophy that worked so well at USC not translating to the NFL? Or was he the fall guy for Young not really improving in 2007? After Young, the Titans really don’t have too many weapons, though LenDale White did improve this year. They finished 21st in offensive yards per game, 22nd in scoring offense, 27th in passing offense. Yet Tennessee did improve and made the playoffs.

Chow will land on his feet, probably at the college level, where he’s excelled. We’ll see how the Titans do with a new offensive coordinator, who may not have a lot to work with outside of the quarterback position, but a whole lot of potential with Vince Young.

The Packers couldn’t beat the Bears this season, and evidently the Colts couldn’t beat the Chargers.

Granted, San Diego was a better team, but Indy came up short again, losing Sunday 28-24. This was another game the Colts should have won, especially with LaDainian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers sidelined for part of the game, but they couldn’t capitalize on many chances while the Charger defense came through when it needed to.

So no Patriots-Colts rematch. And sorry, Charger fans, your team doesn’t have a chance in New England.