Super Bowl 51: 5 reasons the Atlanta Falcons win
By John Buhler
The Atlanta Falcons will play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. Despite being a three-point underdog, here are five reasons Atlanta will win it.
While the 2016 NFL playoffs have only given us 1.5 great games, Super Bowl LI between the AFC Champion New England Patriots and NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons should be a real treat for fans of great football execution.
Super Bowl LI could be a coaching clinic for how to play the quarterback position between Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. Both are playing at an elite level and are major reasons for how their respective teams reached Super Bowl LI.
While the Patriots are going to their seventh Super Bowl of the Brady/Belichick era, the Falcons are the new kids on the block. Atlanta hasn’t made the Super Bowl since 1998 and this is only second time the Falcons will play for the Lombardi Trophy. Though New England is a three-point favorite heading in, here are five reasons it will be the Falcons that will win Super Bowl LI.
5. Matt Ryan is a precision thrower
In a season where he will likely win NFL MVP, Ryan had the best game of his life against the Green Bay Packers in the 2016 NFC Championship. Ryan completed 27-of-38 passes for 392 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
His passer rating was through the roof at 139.4 and his QBR was almost perfect at 98.4. Ryan not only pushed the ball down the field with a yards per attempt of 10.3, but he added a fifth touchdown on a 14-yard scamper to put the Packers out of reach.
In the best season of his career, Ryan is completing 69.9 percent of his passes. The accurate signal caller coming out of Boston College in 2008 has now become the most precise thrower of the football in his ninth year in the league. Ryan has always thrown a catchable ball, but is not making the same mistakes with the football in the intermediate passing game.
In two years, he has flourished in the West Coast offense after thriving in the Air Coryell under former offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter. Will Ryan make a mistake in the passing game against New England? Potentially, but he is more precise of a thrower of the football than Brock Osweiler or Ben Roethlisberger were this postseason.
While New England’s secondary is strong, it isn’t as opportunistic as Kansas City’s or Houston’s. That means if the Patriots pick off Ryan it will be because he made a terrible read or defensive coordinator Matt Patricia had his team execute brilliantly in pass coverage. Ryan is throwing the football through the key hole. That is problematic for the best of defensive tacticians like Belichick and Patricia.