The
49th edition of the Super Bowl features the New England Patriots and the
Seattle Seahawks. Kickoff for the game is at 4:30 PM (MT) today and will be on
the NBC television
network in the United States.
Here
are the other links as part of my Super Bowl XLIX preview, but if you wish to
see my pick go ahead and scroll down.
THE PICK
Going
back to when the Super Bowl was last played in Arizona, the NFC Champion has
won 5 of the last 7 Super Bowls. It would be seven straight had it not been for
Santonio Holmes in Super
Bowl XLIII and a
Ravens goal line stand in Super Bowl XLVII.
In
the Super Bowl era
(1966-now), only seven teams have gone back-to-back: Packers (1966-67), Dolphins
(1972-73), Steelers
(1974-75, 1978-79), 49ers
(1988-89),
Cowboys (1992-93),
Broncos (1997-98), and
Patriots (2003-04).
In
that same time period, three teams have entered the game as defending champion
and has failed to repeat. The Cowboys entered Super Bowl XIII as the
defending champion and lost to the Steelers who then went back-to-back.
In
January 1984, Washington was the defending champion and had the number one
scoring offense. They scored 9 points while the Raiders scored 38.
The
last team to enter a Super Bowl as the defending champion and lose was the
Packers in 1997. Denver came in as the wild card team and behind this play and
Terrell Davis' 3 rushing touchdowns pulled off the 31-24
victory.
Including
the NFL Championship games prior to Super Bowl I (1933-65),
six teams have repeated as league champion: Bears (1940-41), Eagles (1948-49),
Lions (1952-53), Browns (1954-55), Colts (1958-59), and Packers (1961-62, 1965-67).
Meanwhile,
there have been eight instances where the defending league champion came into
the championship game and failed to defend their title. The Giants twice in
1935 and 1939. The Bears quest for a three-peat was stopped by Washington in
1942, but in the following season Chicago defeated Washington 41-21 for the
title. The Cardinals won the championship in 1947, but failed to repeat in 1948
and it kicked off a playoff win drought that wasn't broken until January
1999.
The
Browns stormed to the NFL championship in 1950, but failed to repeat in 1951
losing in rematch to the then-Los Angeles Rams. The Lions (yes, the Lions were
once a good team) beat the Browns by 1 in the 1953 NFL title game, but lost
56-10 in the rematch the following season.
In
1965, the Browns were the defending champions but lost to the Green Bay Packers
who not only won the 1965 NFL crown, but also the first two Super Bowls. As of
now Green Bay is the only team to have won three consecutive championship games.
So
in the entire history of the NFL Title Game/Super Bowl period, 13 teams have
repeated as league champion with the Packers and Steelers doing it twice while
10 teams, including the Giants twice, came into the championship game as the reigning
champion have failed to defend their title.
So…
who wins Super Bowl XLIX?
So it is time to make a pick after careful analysis.
The
line opened with Seattle by 1 and has since shifted to New England by as much
as 2.5 points. According to some lines, it is a pick 'em.
Here
is Madden NFL 15's take on the game.
NFL
Network, Bleacher
Report, and Sports
Illustrated have their predictions on the game. ESPN also has their picks
as well as
various proposition bets on the game. Grantland's Patriots homer Bill
Simmons is predicting Patriots 27, Seahawks 19 in his recent mailbag.
3 of the 4 analysts of Inside
The NFL say the Patriots while Ed Reed is picking the Seahawks.
TransGriot's Monica Roberts has her
pick up. Even though I won the regular season title in our picks, she has a 8-2
record in the playoffs better than my 7-3 record. She
is picking Seattle.
Deadspin
and FiveThirtyEight
looks at the statistical analysis of the game. The Deadspin analysis concludes that
both teams are the best in their respective conferences while FiveThirtyEight's
piece notes that both teams are good, it does not exactly equate to game
quality. Just because the two best teams meet in the championship round does
not mean that the game will live up to the billing.
All
right, like in previous years, I am stalling for time. It is time to reveal who
I, Michael Watts, think will win Super Bowl XLIX.
At
the start of the
playoffs I said that I will keep my pre-season Super Bowl pick as Seattle.
So
on the morning of Super Bowl XLIX, my pick is…
SEAHAWKS 27, PATRIOTS 20
Super Bowl MVP: Marshawn
Lynch
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