We are a week away from Super Bowl LI, and the world is rife with Super Bowl predictions, analysis, prop bets, and recipes. As preparations for America’s unofficial national holiday rage on, it is time for our readership to let us know their pick to take home the Lombardi Trophy. Will the Patriots bring home their fifth world championship? Or will the Falcons rise to the occasion and parade the Lombardi through the streets of Atlanta for the first time in franchise history?
The Falcons, of course, set the league ablaze with the NFL’s most prolific offense, led by an MVP-caliber season from quarterback Matt Ryan. Behind Ryan, second-year head coach Dan Quinn, and second-year offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, the Falcons won the NFC South and secured a first-round bye. Once in the playoffs, Ryan was able to exorcise some of his postseason demons, leading his team to home victories over the Seahawks and Packers en route to Houston, the site of Super Bowl LI.
While the Falcons will be appearing in the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1998 season, this is all pretty familiar to the Patriots. New England took home its eighth straight AFC East title in 2016, and despite Tom Brady‘s four-game suspension to open the season, a season-ending injury to Rob Gronkowski, and some disappointing defensive performances, the Patriots steamrolled their way to a 14-2 record, a No. 1 overall seed, and two fairly easy postseason wins (although their divisional round victory over the Texans was a bit more of a struggle than one might have expected).
New England is currently viewed as a slim favorite in what could turn into a high-scoring affair, but Atlanta looked unstoppable in its romp over the Packers last week, and this one has all the potential to be memorable.
So what say you? Will Super Bowl LI be business as usual? Or will a new team join the world champion ranks?
Denzel Washington will win
Lol
Does anyone remember super bowl 49? Pats v Seahawks, the Patriots offense ran wild on the Seahawks who was the DC? Current Falcons head coach Dan Quinn! He’s brought over a very similar system only difference from that super bowl and this is Falcons defense is no where near as good as the Seahawks was, Patriots are a much better team than they were. Because of those reasons I have Patriots 37 Falcons 20
That Seachickens team had a mediocre offense. The Falcons have the highest scoring offense in the league, so your comparison has no relevance. It’s going to be a high scoring game, which works in favor of Atlanta. That doesn’t mean they’ll win, but they should be favored to do so.
Rarely over the past 15 years has a team scored more points than the Patriots in any type of game. Defense wins 90% of most games and the Patriots are superior on that side of the ball. 70 point total, Patriots win another title 40-31
Defense wins 90% of most games. So whats the actual percentage, like 75-80ish?
Agreed. Plus the only teams who can beat the Patriots is big games are teams that can get to Brady. Teams with a really good defense. The Falcons are NOT one of those teams.
For all intents and purposes the Falcons are the NFC equivalent to the Manning era COLTS… which the Patriots owned.
Pats 31 Falcons 24
The last 6 games that the #1 offense played the #1 defense… The results are 5 wins DEFENSE 1 win OFFENSE!! HERE WE GO AGAIN, #1 VS #1 WHO’S it going to be?? History sides with the Defense, but I’M going with the Falcons!!! I hate the New England Patsies!!! GOOOOOOO STEELERS!!!!
It’s funny people want to talk about how New England is the number 1 D yet they played no dynamic QB’s and had NINE games vs the bottom 11 Qb’s with no game vs a QB in the top 8
No need to make fun of the teams names bro..so childish
All in fun, but you should avoid sports forums if you’re the overly sensitive type.
ChiSox my comparison had nothing to do with the offense rather the defense as I stated, it’s literally the same coach that the Patriots tore apart except the defense is much worse. Add the Patriots only gave up 25 points or more once all year and have Bennett, Brady, Blunt, Lewis, White, JE11, Hogan this teams offense is great
Who has the patriots played? Not one good offense.
Atlanta #1 offense
Pat’s #1scoring defense
Pat’s #2 offense
Atlanta #25 defense
What jumps off the page for you?
Your cockiness
You’re a rookie, the Patriots have the 2nd best offense in the NFL and the number one scoring defense. Falcons have the number one offense and 29th scoring defense. when NE has the ball in the red zone they score a TD 72% of the time. When the Falcons are in the red zone they score a TD 51% of the time. The Falcons defense will seldom pressure Brady because of the NE OL. NE wins this game easily. Won’t be as close as the so called experts say it. Go read what I wrote on my FB page about the NFC playoffs. I wrote that on 4 Jan beofre the wild card game and predicted the NFC playoffs 100% correct from start to finish. The Patriots are going to mop the floor up with the Falcons. The TV idiots are pumping this game up when they know better but need to keep ratings high. Patriots will score about 40 points and the Falcons wills core no more than 20 which is 4 more than the Patriots defense allowed this year on average.
That was 2 years ago it was different teams this Falcons offense has played against the toughest defenses in the league during the season and NE has played the weakest offenses. It will come to a head all on 2/5 & can’t wait #RiseUp #InBrotherhood
Go Browns!
Lol!!! That’s a good one!! Ha Ha!! If the Brownies ever do win a SUPERBOWL, it will be a couple of lifetimes from now and they will be the last of all NFL teams to do so… By the time they do go to the Superbowl, there will probably be 42 teams in the league!!!
Browns are the best team in the nfl
In super bowl the top defense of one conference played the team with the best offense in their conference
The team with the best defense won 4 of those 5 games! Pats have best D the Falcons best offense Advantage Pats Pats 34 Falcons 23
Pats D is overrated. In fact, defense around the NFL is a joke with the rule changes. The Patriots haven’t faced a team like Atlanta’s this season. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Falcons score 40 in a blowout.
40 in a blowout.
Nonsense
I haven’t heard of or seen a single person say they want the Patriots to win. The entire country is collectively pulling for Atlanta to take the cheaters. Go atlanta!
Cheaters? You mean the team who was just caught pumping in crowd noise?
Falcons 14 patriots 17
Its so funny how people say the pats are cheaters.let me remind u of spygate everyone in the NFL was doing this filming stuff and then they make these rules and the pats got caught but literally every team did it.and now to deflategate no 1 really knows if tom Brady had anything to do with it and not to mention it had nothing to do with the outcome of the game in fact after the first half they got those balls at halftime and gave us legal balls and we scorched the colts even more then we did in the first half.furthermore I’m pretty sure 2 teams this year were suspected of deflated balls and what did the NFL do in those cases absolutely Nada.all u pats haters are only jealous because each and every year for almost 2 decades we keep winning. HATERS KEEP HATING!!!
Preach
Pats 31 falcons27
Falcons43 pats 27
I hear a lot about #1 Offense vs #1 Defense history and how it favors the defense, while usually true I just feel like it won’t apply to this game. It’s a very rare instance when I personally feel like a teams schedule will make the biggest impact on this game, but the Pats have played NO QB’s this season! Outside of Big Ben (with no Bell for most of the game, who is the engine of the offense) who has that defense played? Sure, they’ve allowed a league low in PPG but man, they’re in for a BEAST of an offense. As for the Falcons, they’ve played defenses like the Seahawks & Broncos on the road back to back, Panthers (not great, but decent before we dropped 48 on them) Cardinals, Chiefs etc. My point is the Falcons are more battle tested and the defense is improving. It will be a GREAT hard fought game, but the Falcons won’t be slowed down. Close game in the 4th but ATL will pull away, 38-27 Falcons.
Didn’t buffalo bills shutout the pats this season and buffalo dosent have awesome defense if they could do so can falcons