Alright everybody, another Sunday before the Super Bowl since nobody cares about the Pro Bowl anyway, another preview. Welcome in to the True Raider Laker’s Super Bowl XLIX preview between AFC champion, New England Patriots and the NFC champion and the reigning defending Super Bowl champs, Seattle Seahawks. Like last year, I will evaluate both teams’ roster, their season, and my final prediction on who will the champion at the end of the day when it’s all said and done.
For the 2nd straight time, the top two teams will match up against each other in the Super Bowl and for the 1st time in 10 years, the defending Super Bowl champion advances to back to the big game the year after. The Seahawks will look to end all this talk that “it’s hard to repeat in the Super Bowl” and they will look to do so against the team that was the last team to win back-to-back titles in the New England Patriots.
New England Patriots
For the Patriots, the team has revolved on two people for over a decade: Tom Brady and Bill Belichick (Shady Brady and Bill Belicheat). As long as Brady is on that field, commanding the offense and Belichick is on the sidelines, the Patriots have compiled consistent winning season after season. They’ve barely relinquished the mountain top of the AFC East (2008 as the exception of course since Brady got hurt) and they have consistently added pieces to the puzzle whether its big names or under the radar names to keep contending. Of course on the defensive side, they’ve revamped their secondary with the additions of Darrelle Revis and former Seahawk, Brandon Browner add that up to Chandler Jones and a healthy Vince Wilfork to wreck the pocket and that spells a pretty good defense. On the offense, for the first time in a long time, Rob Gronkowski is 100% healthy and that Brady-Gronk duo has had defensive coordinators shaking their heads. With Gronk on the field, it opens up the passing game for the Patriots and if defenders double-team him, then that leaves either Edelman or LaFell open. This season, the Patriots have played a game of “running back roulette,” constantly switching with LeGarrette Blount, Shane Vereen, and Jonas Gray and all are capable of doing damage to defenses in the trenches.
During the season, the Patriots started real slow and I mean real slow. If you can recall Week 3 when the Raiders played them, we were expecting Brady to throw darts, but they barely scored multiple TDs and still wound up winning 6-16. The real concern was the following week in the Monday Night game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs took it to the Pats and hammered them out of Arrowhead. After that game, there was just a little turmoil in the team that the fact Tom Brady’s age is catching up and questions were surrounding Belichick whether it’s necessary to start rookie QB, Jimmy Garoppolo for evaluation. Belichick muttered the words in the press conference: “we’re on to Cincinnati” and that’s all that’s written. After that Chiefs game, New England got hot and crushing multiple beatable teams beginning with the Cincinnati Bengals in a Sunday Night game. It was like the prime example of waking up a sleeping giant and the Patriots cruised on to a 12-4 record, home field, and another AFC East division title. For a team that has been to the AFC championship game 4 times and constantly recording double digits in the win column, it’s an astounding feat. Of course we all know their situation with “Deflate-Gate” where they used underinflated balls in their AFC championship beat down to the Colts and that can especially take off some momentum riding into next Sunday if the investigation is still ongoing.
Seattle Seahawks
Wait, I already wrote about them last year. Then I realized; they’re in the Super Bowl again. The Seahawks have carried their core from last year to this year and will look to use the same winning formula in hopes for a “RePete.” The Legion of Boom is still intact. Richard Sherman is still “the best corner in the game,” Byron Maxwell has done an exceptional job taking over the departed Brandon Browner’s spot permanently and of course you have Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor flying all over the field and delivering hard hits. The Seahawks defense overall outside of the LOB is still exceptional. They may have lost a couple of key pieces during the offseason, but Pete Carroll has done a great job getting the defense to stay bulwark against opposing offenses. Speaking of offense, Seattle is still reliable on their dynamic 1-2 combo of Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson, running the ball with Lynch and getting Wilson to extend plays to find open receivers like Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Luke Willson, etc. Not a lot of change except for the glaring fact that they traded Percy Harvin midseason to the Jets, especially with the way how Harvin contributed during the Seahawks’ 43-8 domination over the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
A lot has happened for the defending Super Bowl champs this season. It’s safe to assume that the Seahawks had some inconsistency and some divide in the team. After their convincing opening night win vs. the Green Bay Packers, they fell flat on their back the next week in a stunning loss to the San Diego Chargers. The first week they’re like the team to beat again and then the next, it’s like they could be the third consecutive Super Bowl champion to get knocked out of the playoffs. It was a bumpy road early on for Seattle considering Arizona had firm control of the NFC West and they were looking up to the 49ers at one point for the Wild Card spot. They’ve had tough and embarrassing losses: against the Cowboys at home, against the Rams in St. Louis when the Rams sealed it on a fake punt run, the Chiefs in Kansas City. Just like the Patriots, after the Kansas City game, the Seahawks started to flip the switch and they have held opponents to a single digit score. They climbed their way back up for another NFC West division title and the number 1 seed. In the conference championship (I know everybody saw that crazy game), it looked like Seattle was dead in the water and their chances of another Super Bowl trip diminished when the Packers were leading 16-0 throughout the game. Then, through crazy special teams play and their defense keeping them alive, the Seahawks came back and won it in OT despite committing 4-5 turnovers. This team just finds ways to win when they’re down, never doubt the heart of a champion. You can’t write a better script with the Seahawks looking to win back-to-back titles and against the team that did it a decade ago and nobody has done it since.
Matchups and Prediction
Obviously Russell Wilson vs. Tom Brady is the top-tier matchup to look forward to. Wilson is undefeated against Super Bowl-winning QBs and Brady is like that final boss to beat in a video game. We’re looking at Wilson’s ability to extend plays and find open receivers vs. Brady’s ability to quickly find receivers on his quick release. Also here, it’s a battle between the best shutdown corners: Revis vs. Sherman. Those two have been trash talking to each for quite some time and there’s no better way to settle the great debate in the big game. It’s expected Revis will have his way against Seattle’s receivers, while Sherman has to look for Julian Edelman. I’m referring back to the Week 2 Chargers game where the Chargers used a small, elusive receiver like Eddie Royal to catch Sherman off guard and the Patriots are looking to that blueprint. Matchup three, Marshawn Lynch vs. ????? in terms of the running game. You can just never guess who New England’s gonna put in there as the feature back as they keep rotating. Obviously, the Patriots’ run defense is going to account for Lynch while the Seahawks’ run defense has to decrypt whoever’s starting at running back whether it’s Blount, Gray, or Vereen. And the most pivotal key matchup, Rob Gronkowski vs. the LOB or Seattle’s linebacker corps. Seattle has had a tough time covering Tight Ends all season long. Seattle’s the champion until dethroned, so there’s understandability to pick them, but I just don’t see how they can cover Gronkowski down, better yet even take him down or how the Seahawks’ receivers are going to get separation from Revis Island. As much as I really hate the Patriots, I’m gonna be honest, they have a real legit chance to knock off the Seahawks and ending their reign. In conclusion, I’m predicting the Patriots to win the Super Bowl and I’m predicting them to win big time against the defending champions.
Final Score (Prediction): NE 31 SEA 16
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