Super Bowl 51: Three Unpopular Predictions

No, I’m not a contrarian. But, after some research among my friends and fellow 12s, I do have some unpopular predictions for Super Bowl 51.

Unlike Skip Bayless, I don’t churn out unpopular, shocking opinions for a living. I only write what I think about sports and hope that maybe I can add a perspective or a point you haven’t thought of yet. But on the doorstep of Super Bowl 51, the seventh Super Bowl of the Brady-Belichick era, I find a few of my predictions and opinions are relatively unpopular.

First, a popular hope: I hope the Atlanta Falcons crush the Patriots, bringing a new era in New England–one of mediocrity and decline. A 43-8-like thumping at the hands of the Falcons is what every NFL fan outside New England would love to see rather than Brady raising yet another Lombardi Trophy. There are a great many things I would rather see, personally.

The Dirty Birds stomping the Patriots like the Seahawks stomped the Broncos seems unlikely, however. The Patriots are coming into this game as the ‘great defensive team’ facing the ‘great offensive team.’ In the history of GDTs playing GOTs in the Super Bowl, especially in the last two decades, the GDTs almost always win. The 2013 Seahawks are, of course, exhibit A for their beatdown of the best offense in NFL history.

While the Pats aren’t a GDT like the historically great 2013 Seahawks, the top-scoring defense in the league also has an excellent offense to back it up, which brings me to my first unpopular prediction: