There are many reasons why I am picking the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl on Sunday.
I won’t go into them all, but will touch on a few in the interest of clarity.
First, I like the combination of Patriot coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Give this pair the ball and, if there is time left on the clock, they can produce a win. Give them an overtime, let them win the coin toss and that’s all. The game’s over!
If Belichick has time to think and Brady has time to throw, the game’s over.
Patriot linemen, offensively and defensively, know what to do and how best to do it, especially when the game is on the line, no matter who the opponent may be and it doesn’t much matter who the opponent is.
Each member of the team stays focused on his job on every play. The team is a well-oiled machine trained to perform their duty on every play to perfection and perform it just like it was drawn on the blackboard by Belichick.
Brady doesn’t worry about what might or could happen on every play. He adopts well to what actually happens on every play, however, and makes something happen on every play and his teammates react according to their abilities. Usually, the results are positive, resulting in gained yardage and another first down and maybe even a touchdown. As a Patriot, every play is designed to result in a touchdown.
This will be Belichick and Brady’s ninth Super Bowl appearance together. That is absolutely amazing!
Another reason I favor the Patriots is they have wide receiver Julian Edelman, who has been around for the last 10 seasons catching pass after pass from Brady.
The 32-year-old had a career playoff-best 151 yards receiving in New England’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers to open this season’s playoff run.
Just so you know, Edelman has moved past Reggie Wayne and is second all-time in playoff receiving receptions behind Jerry Rice with 151. His five career 100-yard receiving games in the postseason trail only Rice’s eight and Michael Irvin’s six.
The Los Angeles Rams, who shouldn’t even be in the Super Bowl, having benefitted from an obvious blown pass interference no-call in the NFC championship game, also have a coach-quarterback duo in coach Sean McVay and quarterback Jared Goff. It will be interesting to see how the pair fare against Brady and Belichick if the NFL can find six competent officials for Sunday’s game.
The Super Bowl is, of course, the NFL’s signature game every year and this year is no different. Millions of dollars will be won and lost before the game ends with both winners and losers vowing to “wait until next year” at the end.
No matter who wins and no matter who loses, this game should always have an asterisk beside the Rams’ name noting the blown call that got them to the big game.
