Who Wins The Big One? Just Follow What’s Trending.
I hear a bunch of, "Trending, you say? How silly!" Indeed.
Well, if you've followed me during the regular season you may know that I'm old school and my 'trending' has nothing to do with social media. I could, in fact, rephrase it and simply say, "follow the signs!"
In a year that sees sports lose Peyton Manning, Charles "Megatron" Johnson, Steve Smith, extremely-old school NFL head coach Jeff Fisher after ousting another in Tom Coughlin the year before, and yes, even Kobe Bryant (we also lost Prince for good) while welcoming a youth movement that includes Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott as two of the NFL's top figures, the NBA's Kyrie Irving emerging as penthouse-worthy in the Finals, even the youngest head coach in pro football's history appointed by the LA Rams in Sean McVay, should it be a huge surprise when the recognized best of the best shows us the possibility that they may never be the best again?
Yeah-no, I get it, you say the Patriots are still at the top having made it to the big show. And sure, the brilliance of Bill Belichick may never get passed by. But let's be real. Tom Brady can't play forever and the fact remains, players wanna get paid (especially this new school brand-before-ball breed), something New England doesn't do well most of the time. Their plug'n play method is bound to backfire in a major way. I know, I know, I'm committing sin in some parts of the east coast suggesting the Patriots may need to rebuild inside the next few years, so let's move on before someone blames me for a Pats-loving relative's suicide.
Don't like that perspective? Okay, screw the scenic route, I'll just be blunt. The Patriots get their asses kicked Sunday.
Here's why:
The Falcons are just simply more of a complete team with a team defense that steps up their game in the big ones. This unit is tied for the league lead in defensive scores while NE's is bottom 4. The Patriots' offense, as good as it is, is not built to come from behind in a game of this magnitude against a high-scoring team and be advised, they will fall behind Feb 5th. If the defense doesn't go soft and Atlanta doesn't take their foot of the gas the Falcons should be fine.
Atlanta has too many dangerous weapons and unlike that Super Bowl against the Rams and their Greatest Show on Turf, New England won't be able to cheat or take cheap shots after the whistle (a brilliant second-half adjustment by their coaching staff when obviously out-classed) due to changes in rules since that better protect WRs and QBs. In a nutshell, even genius is out-gunned here. Quite possibly, the era of patriotic luck runs dry and its heroes go the way of the old days when only a few opinions were heard and everyone didn't have their own channel.
All in fun, Super Bowl Predictions by comparison:
Myself, resident Prose.com Expert(?): Atlanta Falcons 41, New England Patriots 27
ESPN Experts
Chris Berman, NFL Countdown host: Patriots, 27-21
Tedy Bruschi, NFL Live analyst and three-time Super Bowl champion: Patriots, 32-28
John Clayton, writer/NFL expert: Patriots, 23-20
Trent Dilfer, NFL analyst: Patriots, 34-27
Mike Greenberg, co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike: Patriots, 27-26
Mike Golic, co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike: Falcons, 27-24
Jon Gruden, Monday Night Football analyst/ex-NFL head coach: Patriots, 34-24
Ron Jaworski, ESPN analyst: Patriots, 31-27
Trey Wingo, NFL Live and NFL PrimeTime host: Falcons, 27-17
Sports Illustrated Experts
Greg Bedard: Patriots, 35-30
Ben Baskin: Patriots, 28-24
Greg Bishop: Patriots, 35-31
Chris Burke: Patriots, 31-27
Jacob Feldman: Patriots, 34-30
Jonathan Jones: Falcons 27-17
Eric Single: Falcons, 31-23
Source: http://www.si.com/nfl/2017/02/01/super-bowl-2017-predictions-score-picks
www.NJ.com Experts (New Jersey sports)
Darryl Slater: Patriots, 38-31
Connor Hughes: Patriots, 27-21
James Kratch: Patriots, 31-28
Joe Giglio: Patriots, 34-31
(I'd post a few more but they're all a bunch of freakin' homers!)
Source: http://www.nj.com/sports/index.ssf/2017/02/super_bowl_2017_picks_predictions_for_new_england.html
*CBS chose to allow the prediction to come from a Madden game: Patriots won, 30-20.
*OddsShark's Super Computer, which calculates future scores based on past gameplay, has the Atlanta Falcons to win by a margin of around 8 points.
What say you?