Jacob Lintner Patriots Win 27-23

30 teams down, two to go. This year’s Super Bowl is the first matchup between No. 1 teams, aside from last season, since 2009, and it is shaping up to be one of the best games in recent memories. The prolithic New England offense will try to operate against the dominant Seattle defense, and the explosive Seahawks offense will attempt to maintain their explosiveness against the much-improved Patriots defense, especially in the secondary. Speaking of New England’s secondary, the additions of free agents Brandon Browner and Darrelle Revis have drastically improved this team defensively, giving the Patriots the extra boost that they needed to make it to this year’s Super Bowl. The Seahawks, on the other hand, simply needed to do what they did to reach last year’s Super Bowl: crush opposing gameplans with their outstanding defense and keep their offense on the field just long enough to score enough points to win. In the end, though, this game will come down to the following three points:

Defense/Special Teams Work

These two teams are pretty even on special teams. The Patriots have guys who play exclusively on special teams, like Matthew Slater, that really impact the game. Slater is a converted wide receiver, and he has made the Pro Bowl three years in a row as a special-teamer. This is for good reason.

Slater has all of the intangibles that a great special teams player needs: he can catch the football, he can return kicks and punts, he can block as well as any “receiver” in the league, and he can tackle as well as any secondary defensive player. To counter Slater, the Seahawks have a plethora of players, both offensive and defensive, that can play on special teams, like Jermaine Kearse, Doug Baldwin, and Jeremy Lane (the third-string cornerback who said that Rob Gronkowski “isn’t that good,” but we’ll get to that later). This will make the special teams units of these two teams very interesting to watch, as Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll are two of the sharpest minds in football, and they will definitely be watching the special teams to find any kind of weakness in the other team. All things considered, I give the Patriots the slightest of edges in special teams, if only because of Matthew Slater.

As far as the defenses are concerned, it’s easy to give the Seahawks the obvious edge because of the Legion of Boom, but these two defensive units are a lot closer than most people think. The Seahawks may have the best secondary in the league, but the Patriots aren’t far behind. This postseason, the Seahawks have allowed 200.5 passing yards per game and a 67.8 opposing QBR (quarterback rating) to go with four interceptions, while the Patriots have given up 209.0 passing ypg and a 62.9 opposing QBR and four interceptions. These two stat lines are almost identical, and that’s exactly how it should be. Seattle boasts secondary players like Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor, but the Patriots can just about match that with Darrelle Revis, Brandon Browner (a former Seahawk) and Devin McCourty. The run defenses are, again, extremely similar, leaving not much more to say on this topic. Just like the special teams, the margin between these two teams is quite small, but it is in the favor of the Seahawks because of the sheer force they can put on the smaller New England wide receivers.

Rushing Attack

The rushing attacks of these two teams, unlike the secondaries, are separated by quite a bit. Seattle can use anyone from Marshawn Lynch to Russell Wilson to Robert Turbin to attack and wear down defenses. The Patriots’ run game is a little less intimidating. They have a solid power runner in LeGarrette Blount, a pass-catching running back in Shane Vereen, a traditional runner who can eat up the clock in Jonas Gray, and a change-of-pace guy in Brandon Bolden, but none of those backs can even come close to the dominating Seattle rushing attack. The only thing in Seattle’s running game that the Patriots could exploit is the Seahawks’ lack of ball control. This postseason, Seattle has coughed the ball up on running plays three times, one for Lynch and two for Wilson, while Lynch had just one fumble in all of the regular season, and Wilson had five. To take advantage of this, the Patriots should bring a safety, likely Patrick Chung, into the box to add another run-stopper and confuse the young quarterback Wilson. If New England can have an effective game from Chung in the run game and get a huge push from their defensive front four, they will have a great shot at stopping Seattle’s offense, but this section is comparing the two teams’ abilities to run the football, at which the Seahawks have the clear advantage.

Moving the Ball Through the Air

Lastly, the two teams’ passing attacks are going to be compared. Like the rushing attacks, this category is not all that close. The Patriots are masters of the late 80’s-mid 90’s style of offense, leading with a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback and a running game that is just good enough to balance out the offense, while the Seahawks run sort of a quasi-70’s-mid 80’s offense with a scrambling quarterback and a West Coast feel. This means that the Seahawks have a phenomenal defense, a powerful running back, and a quarterback that can get you by- almost the opposite of the Patriots, who rely extremely heavily on their quarterback, a running game that is great at being ever so slightly above average, and a vastly improved defense that has been known to carry this team in the second half. In addition, and as promised, I feel the need to address the remarks made about Rob Gronkowski by Jeremy Lane. Lane, as previously stated, is a third-string cornerback that normally covers slot receivers, so he will likely have zero matchups with Gronkowski, arguably the best tight end in the NFL. All that Lane has done with his saying that Gronk is “actually not that good” is make this 6’6” 265-pound tight end angry, which is a wrath that I would wish on no human being, except maybe the one who was dumb enough to make the comments in the first place. Needless to say, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski will both has huge days on Super Bowl Sunday. Also, the New England Patriots are much better at moving the ball through the air than the Seattle Seahawks.

In conclusion, the New England Patriots will win Super Bowl XLIX. Bill Belichick will pull out all of the tricks on both offense and defense- throwing in wide receiver sweeps, non-quarterback passes, four offensive lineman formations, and even using offensive players on defense. There will be no filter on Belichick as he and Brady will attempt to obtain that elusive fourth Super Bowl Ring, and they will not be denied. Pete Carroll is a very smart man and a very good coach; he’s just very bland. If his defensive scheme isn’t working, he will simply either move players around, or he will do nothing at all and tell his players to play better. That strategy is alright during the regular season, when they’re facing lesser teams, but by the time that your football team reaches the Super Bowl, you have to be creative on both sides of the ball. Darrell Bevell does a great job with Seattle’s offense, especially with all of the option plays they run, but Carroll and Dan Quinn simply are not good enough at managing NFL defenses to match Belichick’s supernatural ability meticulously disrupt opposing offenses and defenses alike. Simply put, Bill Belichick will out coach Pete Carroll on his way to a fourth Super Bowl Championship, all but securing his spot as the greatest coach in NFL history.

Zach Mills Seahawks Win 24-14

Repeat.

This will be the headline when you wake up Monday morning (well you should already know that by then because if you didn’t watch the Super Bowl I’m sorry it must be hard being blind). The Seattle Seahawks will defeat the New England Patriots in the Valley of the Sun on Sunday.

This probably will not be a blowout like Super Bowl XLVIII was but they will definitely share many similarities. One of the big similarities is the always dominant Legion of Boom.

The legendary defense of the Seattle will once again rise to the challenge of facing “(arguably) the best quarterback of the last ten years”. This time Tom Brady actually is that, (sorry Peyton, rings don’t lie). Nevertheless the final result will be the same. The L.O.B. is too physical for the undersized New England receivers, with one large exception. I’m sure Pete Carroll and one of the best defenses in NFL history will find a way to slow Rob Gronkowski a.k.a the Patriots only weapon on offense.

One of the few differences is that New England actually has a decent run game whereas Denver just sucked in that department. The Seattle interior of Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett, Bruce Irvin, and last years Super Bowl MVP Bobby Wagner are more than up to the task of stopping the knockoff Lynch that is LeGarrette Blount. They face Lynch everyday in practice so they should have no problem stopping his lesser version. They’re only hope is if they return all the kickoffs to one yard line and Tom Brady runs it in.

Repeat.

These are the words that Russell Wilson does not want to hear come Monday morning. That he repeated his performance against Green Bay. He cannot throw four picks like he did two weeks ago, the Patriots have an adequate enough offense to convert those into points. As long as they return the pick to the one yard line and Tom Brady can try to make people believe he is a physical quarterback.

Seattle needs to stick with what they know best Marshawn Lynch and the read-option. This and Jermaine Kearse’s hands is what defeated the Packers and what will ultimately hand Belichick and Brady their fourth Super Bowl defeat.

Another important factor in this debate is the fans. Which teams fans are going to show up in Glendale on Sunday? The answer; both. There will be more Seattle fans in the cheap seats because Seattle is geographically closer, and the 12th man always shows up. But there will be more Pats fans in the more expensive seats because Patriots fans make more money. Seriously, the GDP per capita of Massachusetts is 62,866 and Seattle’s is 54,654. So there will probably be about the same amount from each side, but I’d give the slight edge to Seattle just because of their huge bandwagon.

So in conclusion the Legion of Boom will dominate and at the end of the night Tom Brady will go home to Giselle and listen to what I assume is his favorite album, Taylor Swifts 1989, the most fire album of 2014.