The Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots have punched their ticket to Super Bowl 51! This is one of the most highly anticipated Super Bowls in recent history, if for nothing else the fact that we have a Hall of Fame quarterback going against a man who is potentially headed there himself and is having the best season of his career by a country mile. What did the books have to say about the Super Bowl 51 odds? Find out here at BookMaker.eu.
Super Bowl 51 Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
Falcons ( 57.5 ) vs. Patriots ( -3 )
Super Bowl 51 Preview
Falcons vs. Patriots – Sunday, February 5, 6:30 p.m. ET
Two teams probably couldn't have taken more opposite paths to the same place while ultimately looking exactly the same over the course of the entire postseason.
For the Patriots, the formula was relatively simple this year. They stacked their roster with unheralded, yet incredibly viable defensive players, consistently asked that defense to play with a "bend, but don't break" mentality, and use Tom Brady's arm to do the rest of the work.
Of course, it was a huge help that the team didn't really have to play much of a schedule to get to this point either. Sure, the Patriots beat up everyone that they faced for the most part this season, particularly after Brady's suspension was said and done with after the first month of the year, but it's not like this docket was all that tough. The team drew Miami on the road after Ryan Tannehill was lost for the year, played Pittsburgh in the regular season without Ben Roethlisberger, and ultimately had to go through two teams in the playoffs who played during Wild Card weekend and were tremendously overmatched. Furthermore, in the AFC Championship Game, Le'Veon Bell was a non-factor before he was hurt in the second quarter and never returned to the game.
The Falcons were flat out on the field to outscore you each and every week, and they did just that more often than not. Unlike New England, they had to play against an insanely tough schedule, one which included road games in Oakland, New Orleans, Denver and Seattle in the first six weeks of the year. A roadie against Tampa Bay and one against Philadelphia weren't easy either, and the team had to play the AFC West and NFC West this year out of division.
When push came to shove in the playoffs, sure, Atlanta played against two teams that played in Wild Card weekend as well and was blessed with two home games as the No. 2 seed in the NFC, but beating Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson feels a lot different than Big Ben and Brock Osweiler.
It's not often that we end up seeing a matchup between the top scoring offense and the top scoring defense in the NFL, but that's what we have on Super Bowl Sunday. But what might be more notable is that matchup between Brady and Matt Ryan. This is the first time we've seen a Super Bowl featuring the top two quarterbacks in the league by QBR since Drew Brees and Peyton Manning squared off in what might be the best quarterback duel in the history of the Super Bowl to date.
Could Super Bowl 51 one top it? That's surely what the NFL is hoping for after a drab postseason which has featured just one really classic game and two games decided by 13 points or fewer.
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