The conference championship games are in the books and the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons are now the last two teams standing. Next up, the two will battle it out in what could be a high-scoring Super Bowl — to say the least.
Before unleashing some bold predictions for the biggest game of the season, let’s see how these teams got here first.
Atlanta’s journey, believe it or not, has been rather easy — well, the team has at least made things look easy. The Falcons took care of business against the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers. Atlanta is putting up 40 points per game in the 2017 NFL playoffs.
As for the Patriots, they have taken down the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers. They are averaging 35 points per game during their playoff journey.
Not only will two high-octane offenses be taking the field in this year’s version of the Super Bowl, but two NFL MVP candidates will be going at it as well. Those two players are, of course, Tom Brady and Matt Ryan.
While Ryan and the Falcons’ offense has been on absolute fire, it’s tough to go against the Patriots at this stage of the game. Why? Well, because they have made it to this point in the season so many times before. Not to mention, Brady has four Super Bowl titles to his name.
Almost unstoppable.
Brady: most Super Bowl appearances all-time (player) Belichick: most Super Bowl appearances all-time (head coach) pic.twitter.com/Ad1SvYB50T
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 23, 2017
As is typically the case with any Super Bowl, the storylines will be flooding the scene entering this big-stage event.
And now, let’s drop some bold predictions for the biggest showdown of the year, shall we?
First Team To 35 Points Captures The W
While both teams are more than capable of putting up 35 points, it’s important to note that New England only allowed 15.6 points per game this season, which just so happened to be the best mark in football. The Falcons didn’t even come close to that mark as they gave up 25.4 points per contest.
For all it’s worth, Atlanta led the NFL in the scoring department with 33.8 points per game . The Pats weren’t too far behind in that department with 27.6 points per game.
Numbers aside, when you have two of the most lethal quarterbacks in the game, which will certainly be the case in this showdown, no defense is safe.
Tom Brady And Matt Ryan Combine For Seven Touchdowns
So far, Brady has five touchdown passes in the playoffs. Ryan has recorded — wait for it — seven (he also has a rushing touchdown). On the season, Ryan dropped 38 passing touchdowns while Brady racked up 28 . Needless to say, these quarterbacks are no stranger to finding the end zone (that is quite the understatement).
It remains to be seen which quarterback will have a better performance or come out on top, but seven touchdowns for two players in one clash has “bold” written all over it.
Fans Finally Get To Witness An Overtime In The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl has been around for quite some time (this is the 51st edition of this contest, after all). However, not a single Super Bowl has gone into extra innings. In other words, no Super Bowl has ever gone into overtime. That feat is bound to happen one of these days.
If both offenses are red-hot, which has kind of been the theme all season long, and if both quarterbacks are making it rain from start to finish, then we could be in store for a truly epic championship game. An overtime finish would be the monster cherry on top.
In terms of who will win this battle, it’s hard to go against Brady, the man with four Super Bowl rings. With that in mind, anything is possible in sports. Last year alone, the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, a team that captured 73 wins during the regular season, which is an NBA record, while the Chicago Cubs came back from the same deficit in the World Series to end a 108-year title drought. Oh, the beauty of sports.
[Featured Image by Jim Rogash/Getty Images]