Yes, PATRIOTS!!!!

Yes, PATRIOTS!!!

The 2017 National Football Season comes to a close this weekend with the number one American national sporting event—the Super Bowl, this is number 52. The Sunday evening matchup features the defending champion New England Patriots against the upstart Philadelphia Eagles. The game will be played at the brand new US Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

The odds makers have installed the Patriots as the favorite in the game but the line has decreased from 7.5 to 4.5 as of this writing. Many fans have been won over by an outstanding post season surge by the Eagles beating up Atlanta and Minnesota on their path to the championship game. Likewise the Patriots have impressed their faithful with come from behind wins against Tennessee and Jacksonville to defend their title. This will be the first post season game of the year away from home for both teams, and the neutral site venue does take away some of the fans who have supported both teams all season.

The Eagles have gotten a tremendous performance by backup QB Nick Foles replacing the injured Carson Wents and feature a ferocious defense led by 8 aggressive linemen. The Patriots are what most have come to expect Bellechik, Brady, and a cast of interchangeable, adaptable and talented role players. Some say the Eagles defense will dominate the game and cause Brady to have flashbacks of the punishment he suffered in the Pats’ 2 Super Bowl loses to the NY Giants. Most agree that without such a pass rush an Eagle victory is highly unlikeable. Patriot detractors say this team is not quite as good as recent models and some wonder if the offensive line can standup under the pressure of fresh defensive linemen for 4 quarters.

HERE’S WHY I THINK THE PATRIOTS WILL WIN

I keep remember who well the 3-13 NY Giants moved the ball against this vaunted Eagles defense. Although having a subpar year Giants Eli Manning was able to pick a part a bad Eagles secondary---twice, without all the effects of pass rush by Philly. If Eli can have such success behind a horrible offensive line, the view from here is that Brady and Bellichik will study the Giants tape meticulously and also see that Philly’s secondary is very vulnerable to double moves so look for the Pats to go deep a few times in this game. Here are a couple of other things to watch for:

1-See if Philly’s pass rush bothers Brady early if it does, it only figures to become more problematic late in the game

2-Watch how Bellechik and Patricia create defensive schemes to take the Eagles TE Ertz away from Foles especially on third down passing situations. They will make Foles throw to someone else

3-See how the Patriots defend the Philly rushing game with Ajayi and Blount. If Philly can run the ball effectively and stay with it they can shorten the game

4-look for unique schemes from Bellechik who has been known to create havoc on Quarterbacks

5-look for Doug Peterson to be outcoached by Bellechik , the Eagles coach has been known to be a gambler and in this game he might be tempted into a foolish move

We like the Patriots to win their 6^th Super Bowl, New England 27 Philadelphia 23

Pitchers and catchers are less than 2 weeks away