The end is here. What a ride it’s been. I’m still learning despite capping football for 15+ yrs & that’s definitely apart of the fun. Conference wk continued my perfect POs w/Hotlanta & NE winning in easy fashion. I even hit on my only prop bet of Jesse James over 3 ½ receptions. It would be TERRIBLY disappointing if I were to get my 1[SUP]st[/SUP] PO loss in this here SB.
Regular Season: POW 10-5-2, Teasers 11-6, Overall 43-28-3 (44-29-3 undocumented), GOY 0-1.
POs: POW 2-0, Overall 4-0 (POW 3-0, Overall 6-0 undocumented).
ATL (+3) is the hottest team in football rt now. It was DAL, then GB beat them. Then it was GB, but ATL beat them. Will the bright lights of SB Sunday be too much for this young, hungry team? Much has been said about GM Tom Dimitroff bringing the “Patriot way” to ATL since coming from NE as a scout director. His biggest acquisition has to be C Alex Mack. I mentioned him in another writeup but he is the single biggest reason for ATL’s turnaround. He suffered thru many losing seasons in CLE but always practiced & played hard. ATL’s oline all say he was a huge influence w/his work ethic & focus in meetings. He’s currently off the injury report, but will need to play thru pain. I think painkillers won’t be necessary w/how motivated he will be to get this win. I don’t need to go over all the “O” weapons ATL has, nor Matt Ryan’s understanding of Kyle Shanahan’s complex “O”. Instead I’ll go over some previous gms that are relevant to this matchup. The biggest comparison being made is the #1 “O” vs #1 “D”. The last time that happened in a SB was DEN/SEA. This is extremely different here. It’s funny to say this, but that blowout SB loss proved further how great Peyton Manning was. No one realized how mediocre their oline really was until SEA’s talented front-7 exposed them. Outside of Pro-Bowler LT Clady, that line was mixed & matched all season, yet DEN set all kinds of offensive records that yr. Peyton was the best @ coaching olinemen & he couldn’t mask their deficiencies against that great SEA “D”. ATL’s oline is much better, & ATL’s WRs much better w/contact than DEN’s. The water cooler talk is that NE also has a great “D” this yr. Yes, they’re the #1 “scoring” “D”, but look who they’ve played. QBs NE “defended” in their division were Tannehill, Moore, Fitzpatrick, Petty & Tyrod. Outside of the East was a laundry list of awful QBs led by Osweiler, Charlie Whitehurst, Goff, Kaepernick, Landry Jones & Siemian. In fact, NE had the easiest schedule in the NFL this yr. NE was able to contain Ben in POs, but he is not the same QB on the rd & Leveon Bell went down in 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Q changing the whole gm on “O”. ATL’s rd to SB wasn’t terribly difficult either, but I feel it was far more challenging than NE’s. SEA’s oline might be the worst in football, but Wilson, Rawls & SEA’s receivers were still very dangerous & they had the SB pedigree. Then came the hottest QB in the NFL @ that time. GB’s “D” proved to be the sieve everyone thought, but they held up enough to help win 8 straight gms before hitting the ATL buzz saw. ATL’s “D” will have problems too. They’re young & fast, which means they’re prone to mistakes & can be taken advantage of. However, they’ve progressively gotten better & are now battle tested against QBs like Rodgers & Brees, who resemble the mind & accuracy of Brady. They also shutdown SEA & GB’s run gm which will be huge if they want to keep this one close. Blount is key to NE pulling away in gms & ATL can contain him w/out selling out on run gm. This will likely be a very close gm & what it will boil down to is I have greater faith in ATL’s “D” making key stops against NE than vice versa. A lot is being said about Belicheat’s SB experience too. But NE is 2-4 ATS in SBs & a perfect 0-4 ATS as the fav (I’ll never forget how easy PHI’s TD drive was in 4[SUP]th[/SUP] Q of SB 39 to blow that 7 ½ pt cover). I think this will also play into ATL being more motivated as a team here because of all the predictions by the media going w/Brady & Belicheat’s experience. Esp Julio Jones who must be tired of hearing how NE will take away their #1 weapon & the rest of the team will need to step it up. This will fuel him to fight thru some double teams & make several key plays. All ATL needs to do is pressure Brady just a handful of times, which is extremely difficult w/how good their oline is, & that will be enough for this uber gifted “O” to win the gm.
NE 30
ATL 33
7 Units
1 Unit ML +130
GL to all & comments are most welcome. What a fun & memorable season!
Regular Season: POW 10-5-2, Teasers 11-6, Overall 43-28-3 (44-29-3 undocumented), GOY 0-1.
POs: POW 2-0, Overall 4-0 (POW 3-0, Overall 6-0 undocumented).
ATL (+3) is the hottest team in football rt now. It was DAL, then GB beat them. Then it was GB, but ATL beat them. Will the bright lights of SB Sunday be too much for this young, hungry team? Much has been said about GM Tom Dimitroff bringing the “Patriot way” to ATL since coming from NE as a scout director. His biggest acquisition has to be C Alex Mack. I mentioned him in another writeup but he is the single biggest reason for ATL’s turnaround. He suffered thru many losing seasons in CLE but always practiced & played hard. ATL’s oline all say he was a huge influence w/his work ethic & focus in meetings. He’s currently off the injury report, but will need to play thru pain. I think painkillers won’t be necessary w/how motivated he will be to get this win. I don’t need to go over all the “O” weapons ATL has, nor Matt Ryan’s understanding of Kyle Shanahan’s complex “O”. Instead I’ll go over some previous gms that are relevant to this matchup. The biggest comparison being made is the #1 “O” vs #1 “D”. The last time that happened in a SB was DEN/SEA. This is extremely different here. It’s funny to say this, but that blowout SB loss proved further how great Peyton Manning was. No one realized how mediocre their oline really was until SEA’s talented front-7 exposed them. Outside of Pro-Bowler LT Clady, that line was mixed & matched all season, yet DEN set all kinds of offensive records that yr. Peyton was the best @ coaching olinemen & he couldn’t mask their deficiencies against that great SEA “D”. ATL’s oline is much better, & ATL’s WRs much better w/contact than DEN’s. The water cooler talk is that NE also has a great “D” this yr. Yes, they’re the #1 “scoring” “D”, but look who they’ve played. QBs NE “defended” in their division were Tannehill, Moore, Fitzpatrick, Petty & Tyrod. Outside of the East was a laundry list of awful QBs led by Osweiler, Charlie Whitehurst, Goff, Kaepernick, Landry Jones & Siemian. In fact, NE had the easiest schedule in the NFL this yr. NE was able to contain Ben in POs, but he is not the same QB on the rd & Leveon Bell went down in 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Q changing the whole gm on “O”. ATL’s rd to SB wasn’t terribly difficult either, but I feel it was far more challenging than NE’s. SEA’s oline might be the worst in football, but Wilson, Rawls & SEA’s receivers were still very dangerous & they had the SB pedigree. Then came the hottest QB in the NFL @ that time. GB’s “D” proved to be the sieve everyone thought, but they held up enough to help win 8 straight gms before hitting the ATL buzz saw. ATL’s “D” will have problems too. They’re young & fast, which means they’re prone to mistakes & can be taken advantage of. However, they’ve progressively gotten better & are now battle tested against QBs like Rodgers & Brees, who resemble the mind & accuracy of Brady. They also shutdown SEA & GB’s run gm which will be huge if they want to keep this one close. Blount is key to NE pulling away in gms & ATL can contain him w/out selling out on run gm. This will likely be a very close gm & what it will boil down to is I have greater faith in ATL’s “D” making key stops against NE than vice versa. A lot is being said about Belicheat’s SB experience too. But NE is 2-4 ATS in SBs & a perfect 0-4 ATS as the fav (I’ll never forget how easy PHI’s TD drive was in 4[SUP]th[/SUP] Q of SB 39 to blow that 7 ½ pt cover). I think this will also play into ATL being more motivated as a team here because of all the predictions by the media going w/Brady & Belicheat’s experience. Esp Julio Jones who must be tired of hearing how NE will take away their #1 weapon & the rest of the team will need to step it up. This will fuel him to fight thru some double teams & make several key plays. All ATL needs to do is pressure Brady just a handful of times, which is extremely difficult w/how good their oline is, & that will be enough for this uber gifted “O” to win the gm.
NE 30
ATL 33
7 Units
1 Unit ML +130
GL to all & comments are most welcome. What a fun & memorable season!
