Super Bowl LI Preview: Falcons vs Patriots

With both the AFC and NFC Championships in the books and new conference champions crowned, the table is officially set for Super Bowl LI. And with each team coming off of blowout victories, there should be no shortage of fireworks when Tom Brady and the New England Patriots square off against Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons come February 5. But aside from claiming division crowns and dismantling their opponents in the playoffs in blowout fashion, the road these two teams have taken to get this far are very different from one another.

In what will be New England's fourth trip to the Super Bowl in the last decade and an NFL record 9th appearance overall, the Patriots who feature the number one ranked defense in the league, were able to shake off the early distraction of being without their star quarterback for a quarter of the season as Tom Brady served his 4-game suspension due to his connection with the Deflategate scandal. While the team would go 3-1 in his absence to begin the year, they wouldn't skip a beat upon his return either and were near perfect with their leader on the field to the tune of a 14-2 regular season record while ranking tops in the league in Wins and Losses: 11-1 (1st), Point Differential: +208 (1st), Points Per Game: 30.7 (2nd), and Points Per Game Allowed: 15.9 (1st). Even a red-hot team like the Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of nine straight, couldn't get in the way of Brady and company as the Patriots handed Pittsburgh their worst loss in an AFC Championship in their 16 trips -- a 36-17 shellacking on Sunday. Brady would register a near perfect performance by passing for 384 yards and 3 touchdowns in the victory that would send his team to the big game. His go-to target in that game? Undrafted journeyman Chris Hogan who hauled in a career-best 180-yards and two touchdowns on 9 receptions.

As for the Falcons who made it this far under second-year head coach Dan Quinn by way of their high-octane offense which led the league in scoring spearheaded by MVP candidate Matt Ryan, the big game will be only the second trip to the Super Bowl for Atlanta in the franchise's 51 year history. With the Falcons' one and only Super Bowl appearance coming in 1998 -- an eventual loss to the Denver Broncos in the last game of John Elway's Hall of Fame career, the franchise is still seeking its first piece of hardware. Finishing atop the NFC South with an overall record of 11-5 during the regular season, the Falcons were a mediocre 7-5 on the year through their first 12 games before flipping the switch and winning their last four to closeout the season strong and hold off the surging Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the division. And while most teams lacking Super Bowl experience are unable to translate their regular season success to the playoffs, the Falcons offense has been every bit as potent in the postseason as evident of their 44-21 handling of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers who entered Sunday's NFC Championship winners of 8 straight and playing out of this world at the QB position. But in the biggest game of his career and the Falcons' last game at the Georgia Dome, QB Matt Ryan was able to match and out-duel the performance of Rodgers by throwing for 392 yards and 4 touchdowns in a turnover-free game which gave him a passer rating of 139.4, the second-highest ever posted in a conference championship game behind only Kurt Warner's rating of 145.7 in 2009, bidding the perfect farewell to the team's home since 1992 and further solidifying his case for something no Atlanta Falcon has ever won before -- an MVP Award.

Ryan also added a rushing touchdown in Sunday's win over Green Bay to become the first-ever QB in Falcons franchise history as well as the first in playoff history to pass for four touchdowns and rush for another in the same game. He also became the first QB in history to record a passer rating of 120.0 in six consecutive games. Ryan's favorite target and in my opinion the best receiver in the league -- Julio Jones, led the way with a game-high 180-yards and a pair of touchdown grabs on nine receptions, eerily similar to Hogan's stats for the Patriots. Another team performance like that in a winning effort would make the Falcons the highest-scoring team to ever win a Super Bowl. Not to mention a title would do wonders for the city's fan base as Atlanta's only championship in either of the four major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA & NHL) came in 1995 (Atlanta Braves). But as we all know, that last win is always the hardest to get. And with history on New England's side, odds makers have the Patriots as 3-point favorites out of the gates. In case you were wondering the last time the Falcons defeated the Patriots, you'd have to go back to Week 10 of the 1998 season during Atlanta's only other Super Bowl run and before Brady was even drafted. Since then, the Patriots are a perfect 4-0 against Atlanta in the Brady era and are one of six teams the 2-time league MVP has never lost to in his career.

What also makes this match-up intriguing is that it will mark the seventh time the league's No. 1 scoring offense will meet the league's No. 1 scoring defense. A stat that figures to favor New England considering No. 1 offenses are 1-5 all-time versus No. 1 defenses in the Super Bowl. The last team sporting the league's best offense to fall victim to the league's best defense was Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos who set numerous records on offense during the regular season but were no match for the Seattle Seahawks' dominant defense in 2014 at Super Bowl 48. In fact, the only team with the No. 1 scoring offense to defeat a team with the league's No. 1 ranked defense was the 1989 San Francisco 49ers who blew out the Denver Broncos in record fashion with the largest blowout in Super bowl history, 55-10. A win for New England would give them five Lombardi Trophies, tying them with the 49ers and Dallas Cowboys for the second most Super Bowl victories of all-time with five. Brady will be trying just as hard to bring the Patriots their fifth title. Regarded as one of if not the greatest quarterback of all-time, Brady who will be making a record seventh Super Bowl appearance, can silence the critics once and for all if he's able to capture that elusive fifth Super Bowl ring, one for the thumb if you will, to add to his Hall of Fame resume.

But unless you're a Patriots fan, live in New England or just a Tom Brady fanboy, there's no reason you shouldn't be rooting for the Falcons to claim their first ever Super Bowl win. Unless for some odd reason you enjoy seeing the same thing over and over again. That's no diss to Brady and Pats head coach Bill Belichick who are undoubtedly the greatest quarterback-head coaching duo the NFL has ever seen, but the two have long been the commander and chief of the Evil Empire. You know, that team you've grown tired of watching win year in and year out. The Falcons on the other hand are both refreshing (seeing as they've never won it before), and exciting to watch. The Little Engine That Could, if you will. And for what it's worth, a computer simulation of Madden17 predicted back in August that the Falcons would make it to and win Super Bowl LI. With that said, here's to hoping for an exhilarating game (unlike last year's snoozefest) and a Falcons victory. Prediction: Falcons 27, Patriots 24.

Catch Super Bowl LI from Houston - Sun, Feb 5 Live on FOX @ 3:30PM PST.


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