Looking at the numbers, Super Bowl XLVI falls on the side of the New England Patriots.

Bill Belichick’s consistency with that organization is hard to overlook. He’s on a streak of 11 consecutive winning seasons, nine straight years of 10 or more wins, and has put together five regular seasons of 13 or more wins while with New England.

Tom Coughlin has had just one losing season in his eight campaigns with the Giants, but had two 8-8 campaigns and has won as many as 12 games only once.

Belichick is 16-5 in the playoffs with the Patriots, Coughlin 6-5 in postseason with the Giants.

But ...

Coughlin owns a Super Bowl win over Belichick’s Pats.

New England is a 3-point favorite to win this Super Bowl — which isn’t necessarily a good thing. In the 12 most recent Super Bowls, the favorite has managed to cover the spread only four times.

Look for the New York Giants to win this game, simply because the Giants are a bad matchup for New England.

The Pats’ pass defense is suspect and the Giants hve the tools to exploit it. Eli Manning has been spectacular throwing the football in the postseason and is coming off one of the best regular seasons of his career.

New York’s vertical passing game features receivers Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham. Any one of those guys can get loose deep at any time.

On the flip side, Pats’ record-setting tight end Rob Gronkowski has a high ankle sprain and hadn’t practiced at all through Thursday. If he plays, his mobility and effectiveness will be somewhat limited.

Aaron Hernandez, the other half of the Pats’ two-headed tight end monster, is also banged up.

Wes Welker is good and Deion Branch is consistent at wide receiver, but the Patriots are a possession offense. Drive the ball down the field and punch it in.

That will be difficult against this defense.

Guys like Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck can put heat on Tom Brady and will likely knock him around a few times.

While he is a lock to be enshrined in Canton five years after his retirement, Brady has never been one to like contact. It throws him off his game.

This Giant secondary of corners Corey Webster and Aaron Ross, safeties Antrel Rolle and Kenny Phillips, is outstanding. They’ll take advantage of any errant balls thrown downfield.

The NFL has gone pass-happy and so has the Super Bowl. There haven’t been too many grind-em-out games in this showcase of late.

A pass-happy game favors the Giants.

The choice here is New York winning, 31-20. Cruz will find the end zone a couple of times, go over 100 yards receiving and be the game’s MVP.