It’s the big game, the one that stops a nation (and more) every year. The flippin’ Super Bowl, guys.  Where men become legends and legends become immortal… unless they lose, which is an entirely different matter. This time we’ve got a good old fashioned clash of good versus evil as the Atlanta Falcons hit up the Super Bowl for just the second time in their franchise’s history to try and overcome the Death Star of NFL teams, the New England Patriots, back in the Bowl for the seventh time in 16 years and a record ninth time overall.

The 2016-17 edition hasn’t exactly provided for the best playoffs we’ve ever seen, that’s an understatement. The wildcard round was littered with one-sided contests, the Seahawks crushing Detroit, the Steelers doing the same to the Dolphins, the Packers running away with it in the second half against the Giants and then the closest game of the lot of them was the Texans beating the Raiders in a match where each team’s best player (Derek Carr and JJ Watt) were out injured, leaving us with a not-so-thrilling contest between Connor Cook and Brock Osweiler.

Similarly the divisional round wasn’t much better as each of the eventual Super Bowl teams strolled to victory, the Falcons beating the Seahawks 36-20 and the Patriots defeating the Texans 34-16. There was a mightily close one as the Steelers narrowly overcame the Chiefs, having seen a late KCC two-point conversion overturned for a flag, that was a cracker at least. And almost inexplicably we also had the Packers beating the Cowboys 34-31 in a modern thriller… but in the championship games it was back to business as usual. The Falcons were way too good for those Packers for a 44-21 victory while the Patriots were about the same in beating the Steelers 36-17. Both teams got out to big leads in the first half and that was about that.

We haven’t seen any playoff overtime and we’ve only witnessed two games that have been one-possession contest inside of the two minute warning.

Ah but that’s why this Super Bowl match-up is such a dream. We’ve got the highest scoring offence up against the stingiest scoring defence, the probable MVP quarterbacking on one side and a multiple MVP winner on the other side. Dominant playmakers on offence, including arguably the best wide receiver in the game, and points, points, points. Yes, there will be points.

That Falcons Offence

Guess who dropped the most points this season on their pitiful opponents? Yeah that’d be the Hellbringers from ATL. The New Orleans Saints managed more yards overall but did so in 110 more offensive plays and they couldn’t come close to touching the 540 points that the Falcons logged in 2016. 540 points in one season, mate. That’s well clear of the Saints in second with 469 and then the New England Patriots, no coincidence, who are third with 441. Matt Ryan and Julio Jones deserve their own spotlights and they’ll get those but this is more than a two-man offence. The eighth highest scoring team in history would have to be, right?

Devonta Freeman is a 1079 yard rusher with 11 touchdowns from the run. He’s a dynamic option who knows how to beat a tackle and his deputy Tevin Coleman, who had 520 yards and 8 rush TDs himself means that the Falcons can play with speed without tiring their dudes out. There are options and the run game has tended to open up that passing game of theirs this season. Matt Ryan has thrown 300+ yards in defeat a couple of times and he’s thrown under 250 in victories too but the Falcons have lost all three games in which they’ve run for less than 66 yards. And really that number should be 90 because the 66 yard rush game was a 42-14 win over the offensive graveyard of the Los Angeles Rams.

The real stinger for these Falcons comes from the big plays they strike in the passing game though. Not only do Freeman and Coleman have some pretty solid success as runners (they’re no Le’Veon Bell or Ezekiel Elliott but then they don’t work with the offensive lives of those teams either) but each also had over 400 yards receiving too. Because neither is a massive bruiser of a runner, they’ve got the athleticism to line up out wide or in the slot and Matty Ice and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan – the maestro here who is a 99% chance to become the new San Francisco 49ers head coach for next season – really take advantage of. Add in WRs with length and speed like Mohamed Sanu and Taylor Gabriel (the latter more speed than length, to be fair) and they’re a difficult team to contain.

Oh and the 6.7 yards per play that the Falcons managed in 2016 is also waaay out on top, beating the R*dskins and their 6.4. You know what else? They played the second toughest defensive schedule in the NFL this season and still did this.

Plus they’re peaking at the right time. This stuff is ridiculous:

The People vs Brady vs Goodell

Tom Brady: Is he the greatest of all time? Who cares, it’s not like we’ll ever have a consensus answer on that question. Still, you win a fifth Super Bowl, you win it at age 39 playing some of the best footy of your career… you’re gonna put up a case that not too many can rival.

It’s about more than that though. Tom Brady began this season with a four game suspension, the final audit completed and the final punishment served after the futile bollocks that was Deflategate. Nobody cared about the deflated balls, nobody cared about any of that. The Patriots always ride that line between the furthest point within the realms of the rulebook and, well, cheating. That’s what they do. The whole drama was handled terribly and now Bostonites are convinced that it was some kind of conspiracy. Again, nobody cares. Nobody… except probably for the New England Patriots.

Roger Goodell has said it would be an honour to hand another Lombardi Trophy over to the Pats and you can bet your ass that the Patriots (Brady, Belichick and owner Robert Kraft) would love nothing more than to take it off of him with a vengeful handshake and smile. Winning it all would be the ultimate payback, the ultimate righteous indictment.

What a lot of people are missing is that the ban might also have worked in the team’s favour. Brady is a guy who lives and breathes football. Even when he was banned for that month he still found ways to stay sharp, even just playing catch in the park with one of his personal coaches. The season he then put up at 39 years of age is ridiculous, the all-time record for TD:INT ratio for one thing. Think of it this way though, while the rest of his team is heading into their 21st week of the season, he’s effectively entering week 17. Just had his bye week and he’s still physically in regular season mode. There’s no way that isn’t an advantage for an older QB.

MVP QBs

Here are the 2016 numbers for the quarterbacks on show, presented without initial comment:

Matt Ryan – 373/534 PASS | 69.9% COMP | 4944 YDS | 38 TD | 7 INT | 9.3 Y/A | 117.1 RATE

Tom Brady – 291/432 PASS | 67.4% COMP | 3554 YDS | 28 TD | 2 INT | 8.2 Y/A | 112.2 RATE

Tom Brady was more or less eliminated from MVP candidacy by virtue of missing the first four weeks. For a time there he was on such a tear that it seemed that might not even matter but realistically his numbers were never gonna compare to the best blokes who got through the entire season. Granted, that brevity is the only thing that really counted against him. This was an immense year of quarterbacking from one of the best we’ve ever seen.

There are a couple of other names that deserve to be among the Most Valuable Player contenders. Ezekiel Elliott, Derek Carr, Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott all had great seasons. It’s become pretty clear though that the man they call Matty Ice is gonna take it out and by this stage it’s difficult to argue with that. The former Rookie of the Year (2008) broke an NFL record with touchdown passes to 13 different receivers and didn’t miss a game, acting the leader for that superb scoring offence. The Falcons had the 27th best defence as far as points allowed goes, which is a slightly distorted stat because of their tendency to win games 45-32 or 48-33 or 38-32, so to consistently leak 30+ points and still win easy, that’s a quarterback who knows how to get it done over and over again. Against the Packers and Seahawks in the playoffs they’ve put up another 80 points, which is pure madness.

Obviously this is Ryan’s best season as a pro, probably the one that’ll define his season depending on how he does in SB51. In the past he’s always been a great thrower but he’s had a bit of a reputation as a bottler. Before this season he’d had a 1-4 playoff record, albeit he hadn’t made the postseason since 2012. Then again, swinging back the other way, they blew a 5-0 start in 2015 to miss out altogether at 8-8 and with 16 picks, Ryan was hardly blameless in that. A couple of bad seasons had dropped him from sitting on the verge of the fabled top tier of QBs to struggling to hold his place in the top ten. Mate, that’s no longer a worry.

As for the nickname, it’s a convoluted mix of stories. Some say it’s from his cool demeanour under centre, others say it’s coz he used to drink Natty Ice, a cheapo alcoholic bevvie that’s popular among American teens. But nobody’s telling.

Who’s Bringing the Pressure?

They say championships are won with defence. They’re wrong, and will be for as long as points scored still define the outcome of games. But defence is still bloody crucial and while the Falcons’ unit isn’t as average as some will say, it’s also not as good as the Patriots and their lot.

There’s no superstar on that Patriots’ D. Malcolm Butler had 4 interceptions, he famously won the Super Bowl with a goal-line pick that time, and he’s probably their best defensive back – although Logan Ryan’s got something to him as well, leading the team in tackles. Don’t’a Hightower is a powerful linebacker and Trey Flowers can get to the quarterback at times too but the beauty of the Patriots’ defence is the same thing that permeates through the entire team, from management on down: everyone does their job. They simply don’t slip up.

23 takeaways is good for T-14th in the NFL compared to the 22 that the Falcons have managed, pretty even there. An average of 5.2 yards per play conceded is more than decent as well, 8th best in fact. Having said that, you wouldn’t have guessed those numbers belong to the best scoring defence by a margin. Just 250 points against, a fair distance better than the New York Giants who were next. In the Suspended Brady days it was their defence doing all the damage.

As for the Falcons, there are some impressive players in that defence but the one that stands head and shoulders above as the most important here is Vic Beasley. You don’t beat the Patriots if you don’t pressure Tom Brady. He’s so good and they’re so well coached that the only way he’s faltering on a drive is if you force the mistake – it won’t happen regularly enough otherwise. Vic Beasley is the only Falcon who brings any serious pressure to the opposition quarterback… luckily he just so happens to be the 2016 sack leader with 15.5 of them. Plus he’s forced 6 fumbles which is no small number either. In only his second season he’s emerged as a man to fear. All depends now on whether he can still keep that production up against a team like the Patriots who are pretty adept at taking away your best options.  

Both teams made 34 sacks this season, while on offence the Falcons allowed 37 sacks compared to the Patriots with only 24 (5th best in the NFL). Keep in mind that a third of those came in the quarter of a season that Brady missed as well. 8 in four weeks versus 16 in 12 weeks. As good as their offence is, the weakest link for the Falcons is their offensive line.

Julio Freakin’ Jones

What’s there to say? He missed two games and still came within a 40 yard catch of the receiving yardage title for the 2016 season. T.Y. Hilton got there in the end with 1448 to Jones’ 1409, though Hilton can’t boast a 300 yard receiving game like Julio did against the Panthers in week four. At his best, he’s the untouchable finest wide receiver in the game. He’s got everything you want, great hands, top speed, big size and a clever instinct. There are days that Jones has where he’s simply unstoppable and he had one of those against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game, with 9 catches for 180 yards and 2 TDs.

Amazingly, this was a down season for him too. In 2015 Jonesy made 136 catches for 1871 yards – good for second all-time in both categories (Antonio Brown tied him for receptions in the very same season). Ignoring quarterbacks, there will be no more talented player on show in Super Bowl 51. What he does is best seen with your own eyes…

By the way, the best receiver on the Patriots is Rob Gronkowski and he’s been injured most of the season. Won’t be playing. A bit of a worry but then the Patriots are famous for getting the most out of limited guys – you only need to look as far as last game when Chris Hogan explodes out of nowhere. Not the worst thing for the pre-show though, Gronk will be partying all the way down instead.

Get Excited!