Houston: An NFL season that began with Tom Brady serving a four-game suspension ends with him in the Super Bowl, where his New England Patriots take on Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
The oddsmakers have Brady and the Patriots three-point favourites, which seems kind of low. The Patriots are in their seventh Super Bowl since Brady became the starter in 2001, winning four so far, though all were tight contests.
Perhaps also on the minds of the oddsmakers were those 540 points the Falcons racked up in the regular season. As were their play-off romps past Seattle and Green Bay, both of which were probably superior to Houston and Pittsburgh, who were New England’s postseason victims.
Brady is impressed by the NFC champions.
“If you make a mistake against them, the next thing they have the ball for five minutes and you’re down another seven points,” Brady says. “This is going to be a great challenge for us.”
Brady and coach Bill Belichick will be seeking their — and the Patriots’ — fifth Lombardi Trophy, and second in three years. This is the franchise’s league-record ninth appearance in the Super Bowl, including titles in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2015.
“This team showed a lot of mental toughness over the course of the year,” Brady said.
New England opened the season with a 3-1 record despite using two backup quarterbacks. Brady went through a lengthy court battle in an unsuccessful bid to have his ban overturned for what became known as “Deflategate.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Brady because the league said it determined the Patriots intentionally underinflated footballs in the AFC Championship game victory two years ago.
During the most recent AFC Championship in Foxborough, Massachusetts, spectators taunted Goodell by chanting “Where is Roger?” - he chose to attend the play-off in Atlanta instead. If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, Goodell will have to present Brady and the Patriots with the Lombardi Trophy.
Brady says he’s tried to block all the negativity this season, echoing his previous comments on “Deflategate.”
“I’m a positive person so I just focus on all the positives. I don’t get caught up in negativity and bashing other people,” he said. “I’m very blessed. I get to do something I love to do, show up to work every day, play football in the National Football League and play for the Patriots.”
Defence captain Devin McCourty says Brady has maintained his leadership role all season.
“All of the things that he has to go through and the things that he has to do to be the starting quarterback, to be Tom Brady, it would be easy to be frustrated at times,” McCourty said. “But he’s always ready to go.”
With a win against the Falcons, Brady would break a tie with Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana for the most Super Bowl wins by a quarterback. It would also tie Brady with Charles Haley, who is the only player with five Super Bowl wins. Bart Starr is the only other quarterback with five NFL championships, winning three before Super Bowls began.
The Falcons have never won the Super Bowl. This is Atlanta’s second trip to ‘the big game’ it lost to Denver in 1999.
The club has never had a quarterback quite as good as Ryan, though. The guy nicknamed ‘Matty Ice’ is the first quarterback in NFL history with three or more passing touchdowns in four consecutive playoff games. In his past six games, including play-offs, he has 1,861 passing yards, 18 touchdowns, and no interceptions.
His chief target has been Julio Jones, who has 15 receptions, 247 yards and three touchdowns in two postseason games.
Atlanta’s score-at-will offence, which produced the most points during the regular season, against the unheralded defence of New England, which allowed the fewest, could be the truly key matchup of the Super Bowl. It is the sixth time since the 1970 merger that the Super Bowl matches the top scoring team and the team allowing the fewest points. The better defensive team has gone 5-1 in those meetings.
The teams come to Houston playing their best.
New England (16-2) has won nine consecutive games, and hasn’t even trailed in a game since November 27.
Atlanta (13-5) has won their past six in a row, scoring at least 33 points in each.
Another thing these teams have in common is that neither hurts itself with turnovers: They tied for the fewest in the regular season, with 11.
