It’s that time of the season. We are just a couple of days away from the biggest game of the year in the NFL. Atlanta Falcons will meet with the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI in what promises to be a great game on Sunday. Will Matt Ryan lift his first Lombardi Trophy or will Tom Brady do it for the fifth time in his Hall Of Fame career?
Atlanta is entering this game as the number one offense in the Playoffs. They were scoring at an extremely high rate in the regular season. In the postseason, they haven’t lost a step. In fact, they elevated their game on both sides of the ball. Packers and Seahawks stood no chance against Matty Ice and company. But, they will be facing a different beast in the form of the New England Patriots.
When Belichick has two weeks to prepare, he usually does an outstanding job. It’s tough to beat him when Bill has that much time to scout you. Patriots are coming into this duel as a better all-around team, but with a lot of questions on how to stop Atlanta’s two-headed running attack as well as their wideout core.
Julio Jones is a guy that you need to double, and Belichick will do that for sure. Butler will probably be on Sanu while Ryan will get the help from the safeties on Julio Jones. As far as Freeman and Coleman are concerned, Patriots will likely force the Falcons to run the ball and leave it to their linebackers to have a matchup with the running backs of Atlanta.
Brady has already been in this position before. He knows how these kinds of games are won. He’s been in the big-match situations over and over again. Delivering on the biggest stage in football is just what Brady does. The matchup is favorable for him, and this New England’s offense as the Falcons’ defense hasn’t been impressive all season long. That’s why the key for Atlanta is to run the ball and keep Tom Brady off the field. Falcons are not going to win this duel in a defensive struggle like the Giants did against the Patriots back in 2007 and 2011.
If Atlanta wins, it’s going to be on the offensive side of the ball. But, we don’t think that this will happen. Patriots defense is good enough to at least slow down the Falcons. They will bend, but won’t break. On the other hand, we are expecting the Falcons defense to break all over the place. We are picking the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl with the final score of 31:35 in favor of the Pats.
