Super Bowl Pick'em

New England Patriots (-3) vs Atlanta Falcons (+3)

Over/Under: 59.0

And it all comes down to this. After a grueling NFL season only two teams remain standing for Super Bowl 51. (that's right I'm done with the roman numerals BS)

In one corner we have the up-start Atlanta Falcons and in the other we have the evil empire of Brady and Bellichick appearing in their seventh total super bowl together. The seasoned Patriots come into the game as three point favorites (-3) and its hard to argue against an all-time great at quarterback like Tom Brady. However, the Atlanta Falcons have fielded the best offense in football all season and their young defense has slowly improved.

In all honesty, there's no clear favorite in this game as far as I see it, so let's take a look at an interesting stat.

The Falcons are 12-0 this season when their offense scores more than 30 points and 1-5 when their offense fails to reach 30 points. Clearly the Falcons' formula for winning is a well-oiled offense that lights up the scoreboard. Unfortunately it appears from that stat that they might not have a second punch.

Insert the Patriots' legendary head coach Bill Bellichick, who's probably the greatest defensive mind in the history of football, and we may have a serious red flag. In fact, in each of the Patriots' six super bowl trips under Bellichick his team has not allowed a team to score 30 points once.

Therefore, its extremely reasonable to believe that the high-powered Atlanta offense could hit a snag or two in Bellichick's gamep plan.

Additionally, the Atlanta Falcons have four rookies seeing significant playing time on the defensive side of the ball. While this has brought their defense a shot of youth and team speed, it also leaves them rather green on that side of the ball. Meanwhile the Patriots have this guy named Tom Brady. I'm not sure if you heard of him but he's playing in his seventh super bowl and has either broken or will break every major statistical record a quarterback can break. So yeah, the Patriots will probably manage to put some points on the board and may look to put the pressure on the young Falcons early on.

For these reasons I like my money on the Patriots (-3) to cover the three points and nab their fifth super bowl in my lifetime. (major eye-roll from a Cleveland Browns fan) Happy Super Bowl Sunday everybody! Enjoy the game!