How Confident Are You?

[The Brandon Five]

They had 3 good games playing SF LA and a Carolina team that had given up. Brady and patriot o vs Atlanta D is one of the biggest mismatches in NFL history.

I hear ya, but that's what I thought going into SB 42.

Mismatch of the Century

You know the Patriots scored more points this year (589) than any team in history. You know their scoring differential of +315 points (589-274) is also the greatest in history.

You might not know that the Giants were a mere +22 on the scoreboard in 2007 (373-351). (Only one team reached the Super Bowl with a more mediocre record in the standings or on the scoreboard. The 1979 Rams went 9-7 and were a mere +14 (323-309).)

To put it another way,

• the Patriots outscored opponents by an average of +19.7 PPG in 2007
• the Giants outscored opponents by an average of +1.4 PPG in 2007

There's never been a disparity that great in NFL championship game history.

I just threw up in my mouth.

 

[ralmat55]

To me, this game has the feel of one of those lopsided Super Bowls of the late 80s or early 90s with the Patriots being the 49ers and the Falcons being the Broncos.

If not for the Patriot fatigue, envy or pure hatred so many in the pro football profession, media and public feel towards them, people would be fawning all over this Patriot team not clutching at straws hyping a good not great team like the Falcons.

 

[Ring 6]

I hear ya, but that's what I thought going into SB 42.

Mismatch of the Century


I just threw up in my mouth.

That giant team had a defense

 

[Tony2046]

I'm extremely confident for this game.

I expect to see OMG Atlanta fan faces all over the screen.

I expect to see McCourty hit Julio Jones so hard falcon feathers puff up into the air during the collision.

By the fourth quarter the certainty of defeat will appear across the faces of Jones, then Ryan, then Quinn and finally Roger.

Atlanta's Mayor will Tweet "Parade is canceled" at halftime.

No Squealy Tom in this game. No sir.

BB will get the Gatorade dump with 12 min left in the game.

The Falcon fan who showed up to the game will leave with 10 minutes left in the game and toss his dirty bird T-shirt onto the field.

It will be the first super bowl in which 3 QB's from one team have thrown a TD. Brady, JG and Brissette.

The score will be so out of hand that the Pats will pull Butler in the fourth without bothering to replace him. The 10 man D.


Any given Sunday. Right?

 

[Ring 6]

We would've been better off playing GB. Rodgers is great but it's just a better matchup. I'm not saying we can't win. Other than possibly QB, they have the better WR, RB, pass Rushers.

We have a far better defense, and more depth and versatility at wr and Rb and I'm not sure why you are impressed by their pas rush.

 

[IndianPat]

I am extremely worried about this game. I have read all the stats, read the reviews, gone over every posting in this forum. But, then you realize that you are going to the war with TOM BRADY on your side. He may not win them all, but he is a damn good fighter.

 

[Gronkowski123]

I'm confident, unless our defense ****s the bed!

 

[bormio]

That giant team had a defense

And they had just played a very competitive game.

 

[dafoe2016]

On a scale of one to ten I am a seven or eight. I think we are clearly the better team. We can't leave plays on the field. And we can't do ridiculous things like allowing the other team to march up the field with almost no time left in the first half and score 7 like we did against Seattle. Absolutely inexcusable. That game wasn't as close as people like to think it was. We shot ourselves in the foot several times. It should have been a blowout.

I just want to get it over with. It's stressing me out. I never enjoy these playoff games. My stomach is always in knots.

 

[dafoe2016]

I am cautiously optimistic that we can win. I say that because our defense has never been this good (knock on wood ) heading into the superbowl. I just hope ATL have any big surprises for us or jump onto a big lead and ruin the day for us. If we win the turnover battle and O-Line protects Brady I say we win.

The 2003/2004 defense was clearly better than this year's.

 

[Nitro]

I like reading the Falcons board about how ****y New England fans are when they are just as ****y.

Where the hell is this? I found a falcons message board and it looked like it was getting 3-5 posts a week, it'd take 3 years to spot any ****iness at that speed.

 

[venecol]

I can understand somebody thinking Atlanta will win; but four people are giving the Patriots only a zero to ten percent chance of winning?


WTF?

6 now because I'm 80% confident this thread brought out the trolls.

 

[The Brandon Five]

The 2003/2004 defense was clearly better than this year's.

Yes and no. In 2004 (SB 39), here were the active defensive backs:

Starters:
Randall Gay LCB
Asante Samuel RCB
Rodney Harrison SS
Eugene Wilson FS

Subs:
Je'Rod Cherry (DB)
Antwan Harris (DB)
Earthwind Moreland (CB)
Hank Poteat (CB)
Dexter Reid (S)

 

[SVN]

Yes and no. In 2004 (SB 39), here were the active defensive backs:

Starters:
Randall Gay LCB
Asante Samuel RCB
Rodney Harrison SS
Eugene Wilson FS

Subs:
Je'Rod Cherry (DB)
Antwan Harris (DB)
Earthwind Moreland (CB)
Hank Poteat (CB)
Dexter Reid (S)

But the front 7 was all world compared to this years.The strength of those teams were the LBs really+ Rodney.

 

[Nikolai]

Well, I just ran the numbers...literally. I'm not going with 31-23 anymore.

Pats 37-17

 

[SVN]

I started off the week well because it was ATL. IF it was GB i wouldve been more nervous .But as the week as gone on and more and more shows about atlanta's dynamic offense and the fact that shanahan's offense has always given BB's defense trouble with zone blocking and rollouts makes me nervous as the days go by. Pats might contain julio jones like we did antonio brown but we cant count on their other WR's dropping passes like the other steeler wideouts did.

 

[ralmat55]

I'm 60 days into a 90 day free trial subscription to SiriusXM radio, and I've been listening to a ton of NFL on Sirius programming over those 60 days.

Here's the false narrative believed by the uninformed including most of the media, the Patriots are all Brady and Belichick. The rest of the team is just a bunch of untalented slubs who couldn't beat your local High School team if not for Belichick and Brady.

Julien Edelman and Chris Hogan can't get open unless some team like the Steelers is stupid enough to play zone against them. Of course, those same people think Mike Tomlin is a good football coach. You know why the Steelers played zone? Because they knew they couldn't play them man to man. The Falcons can't either.

Julio Jones gets 9 catches for 180 yards against an injury depleted Packer secondary and it's because he's an incredible athlete. Chris Hogan does it and it's because the stupid Steelers were stupid enough to play a stupid zone. But, they never talk about how Hogan went 5 for 95 the week before and Jules over 100 against a Texan team that actually had the personnel to make them earn every yard they got with tighter than tight man to man coverage.

Forgive me my rant. This is why I stopped watching ESPN and the NFL Network years ago. I guess I'll not be extending the SiriusXM when the trial subscription ends.

 

[slash83]

The closer the game get the less nervous I am getting, I was a lot more nervous vs Seattle.

 

[StockingAnarchyNumber12]

Atlanta's inexperienced confidence + their defense + Brady's mother? We win. 5th.

 

[PScottman]

...unless it fails the eye test.

For those game day thread regulars, an actual eye test for you Sunday. Please feel free to enlarge or shrink to fit your particular desired test parameters.