So Called Experts Say Who Will Win Super Bowl XLIX … And Your Choice is New England Patriots or Seattle Seahawks? (GO PATS!!!)

Finally, it is Super Bowl Sunday and the Super Bowl is almost upon us …

Last night the Westage Vegas book made the game a pick ‘em … there is no point spread for their Super Bowl. Game on!!!

The so-called experts and pundits have made their picks and predictions,

• ESPN’s staff was pretty close to a tie, with 24 staffers picking Seattle and 22 picking New England.
  • John Clayton, senior NFL writer and commentator: Seahawks 24, Patriots 20
  • Adam Schefter, ESPN NFL Insider: Patriots 24, Seahawks 21
  • Chris Mortensen, ESPN NFL Insider: Patriots 20, Seahawks 16
  • Todd McShay, ESPN college football and NFL draft analyst: Patriots 24, Seahawks 21
• Over at CBS Sports, five experts went with the Patriots and only three picked the Seahawks — but the CBS Sports “Prediction Machine” picked Seattle for the win.
• Bleacher Report’s staff was 11 to five in favor of the Seahawks winning.
• NFL.com, eight of the 14 polled analysts went with Seattle.
• NJ.com rounded up more than 80 expert predictions from around the web on Friday, and found that more than half of the experts picked Seattle to win over the New England Patriots.

EA Sports, Madden football 15 picks the New England Patriots 28-24.

Madden 15: Super Bowl Predictions – Seattle Seahawks vs New England Patriots in 2015 Super Bowl

My analysis and prediction:

Let me first qualify this that I am a die-hard New England Patriot fan from the days of Sam “Bam” Cunningham, Steve Grogan, Irving Fryar,  Stanley Morgan, Craig James, Mosi Tatupu, Randy Vataha, the late Darryl Stingley, Russ Francis, John Hannah, Mike Haynes and to one of my all time favorites Sam Adams.  To more recent players like Ben Coates, Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Tedy Bruschi, Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison,  Adam Vinatieri, Joe Andruzzi, Troy Brown, Randy Moss and Drew Bledsoe. To today’s cast of Patriots like Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, Nate Solder, Rob Ninkovich, Vince Wilfork, Devin McCourty, Chandler Jones and LeGarrette Blount.

Football games are made up of offense, defense, special teams and intangibles. Games like the Super Bowl generally multiply the importance of intangibles like turnovers, sacks, penalties and bad calls by referees.

OFFENSE: (Patriots)

The New England Patriots finally have a balanced offense and have gotten away from the video game, throw at all-cost offense that hurt them in the Superbowl’s they lost against the NY Giants. They have proved in the 2014 season that they can run or pass the ball depending on what defense they are going up against. In this years playoffs, they ran all over the Colts and passed all over the Ravens to victory. The Pats have the best QB in the game today, with a Super Bowl victory, Tom Brady may be considered the best ever. The Patriot offense finally has a collection of WR’s that are tough and fearless, similar to the ones that they won three previous Lombardi trophies with. Their power running game with LeGarrette Blount can be dominating. Then there is the match up nightmare who Rob Gronkowski … The GRONK!

For the Seattle Seahawks, if the offensive offense shows up Super Bowl Sunday like the one from the Championship game, they will not be trailing 16-0 at half time, it will be 35-0 and the game will be over. However, it is hard to believe anything that bad could happen again. Honestly, the Seahawks can thank their lucky stars that Green Bay coaching staff  had their own “deflategate” incident two weeks ago where their head coach did not have the balls to go for it on 4th down and win the game and let the ‘Most Valuable Player’ in the NFL win the game. Guess who doesn’t do that, Bill Belichick. There have been games this year where Russell Wilson was terrible and of course there where many where he was very good. If “beast mode” and Marshawn Lynch does not carry the load in this game, it is hard to believe that the Seahawk passing game can.

DEFENSE: (Edge to Seahawks)

Obviously The Legion of Boom is a great defense, maybe one of the best of all time. Trust me, they will tell you so. I am a PATS fan, but I can acknowledge that the Seattle D is very, very good. The only difference this year as compared to last year’s Super Bowl is the Patriots are not Denver, Tom Brady is not Peyton Manning, Belichick is not John Fox. Also, they only think missing from the Seattle D is depth. Their D-line is not as good as they do not have their continuous flow of revolving the D- line. Kam Chancellor is the best safety in the game, but the unknown going into today’s game is the health of the Seahawk secondary. Safety Earl Thomas and CB Richard Sherman got hurt in the NFC Championship game. For some reason GB decided not to throw against Sherman who had one arm. If they get nicked up in this game, that could swing things in a major way. Kam Chancellor also dealing with an injury.

Although the Seattle D is very good, it is not like the New England Patriots are chopped liver. Their DB’s and safeties are very good and built to go up against the elite receivers of the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts. The LB’s morph to either taking on the run or dropping back into pass coverage. It may be the D line that  determines the outcome for the Patriots. If they can stop the run and contain Wilson in the pocket, that would be key.

SPECIAL TEAMS (Patriots)

Sorry, kicker Stephen Gostkowski is a weapon and has a huge leg. Ryan Allen is one of the best punters in the league.

Punting and kick off return also goes to the Pats. Gone from Seattle is kickoff returner Percy Harvin, who put last years Super Bowl out of reach. Also gone is Seahawks wide receiver Paul Richardson who suffers an ACL injury in the divisional-round playoff against the Carolina Panthers. In the Championship game, Seahawks returner Doug Baldwin fumbled in the first half. Don’t think the PATS did not see that on film.

Then there is Julian Edelman, a Wes Welker with even more talent and heart. Can you say punt return for TD? I said, can you say punt return for TD!

INTANGIBLES 

• Penalties - The Seattle Seahawks were the most penalized team in the NFL. The Seahawks continually jump offsides on defense and receive illegal procedure penalties on offense. The last thing you would want to do is give Tom Brady second chances and free plays. Some where during the game this will benefit the Patriots and go against the Seahawks.
• Coaching – nod goes to Bill Bilichick.
• Two TE New England offense. Gronk and Tim Wright have gelled of late.
• Injuries – Going into the game, 3 members of the Legion of Boom have injuries, the Pat’s center  rookie Bryan Stork does as well.
• Beastmode – Will Seattle use their running game in the beginning of the game? For some reason they think they are a passing team lately.
• Julian Edelman – Does Edleman have a special play in him today, punt return, pass for a TD, etc?
• Which Russell Wilson shows up today? The one that starred in last years Super Bowl out-dueling Peyton Manning, or the one that had a 0.0 QB rating at the end of the first half two weeks ago?
• Can the Patriots and LeGarrette Blount run on the Seattle D, setting up play action passing?

My guess, the Patriots will look to stop the Seattle running game and contain Russell Wilson in the pocket. That means putting their DB’s, Darrelle Revis-Island, Brandon Browner, Kyle Arrington and Devin McCourty man-to-man against the Seattle receivers and move a safety up to play the run. If the Patriots can make Seattle a one dimensional team or play from the lead, it will bode well for New England. My feeling is that the 2014 Patriots team is more like the one’s that won the Super Bowl, than the pass happy, all offense and no defense ones that lost. Football is a game of match ups and this will be a physical one.

My pick, Patriots 30-20.