For anyone who is unaware, the 51st Super Bowl is set to take place on February 5. The two teams left standing after 20 weeks of football are the New England Patriots, who will represent the AFC, and the Atlanta Falcons, who will be playing for the NFC.

Both teams are out to prove something: the Patriots to Roger Goodell (commissioner of the National Football League) and the Falcons, simply to the rest of the NFL. Both teams are middle aged and are coming in just before the NFL-AFL merger for the Falcons and just after for the Patriots.

Despite being historical, neither team has been historically significant until recently. The Falcons got big in the late 90’s, died off, and came back just recently.

The Patriots, while incredibly average for a while, saw their success start in the early 2000’s. While most fans would love to see the Falcons upset the Patriots, let’s take a look at each team before calling in bets.

The Patriots reached the Super Bowl as the first seed in the AFC with a 14-2 record, despite starting second and third string quarterbacks for the first four games as starter Tom Brady was suspended. They also played most of the year without All-Pro tight end, Rob Gronkowski who was injured.

Even with those handicaps, New England walked relatively easy to the Super Bowl, as they only lossed twice and had only won by less than seven twice. Once in the playoffs, they beat the dysfunctional Houston Texans and picked apart a stout Pittsburgh team.

On offense, the Patriots are led by running back Legarrette Blount, wide receivers Julian Edelman and Chris Hogan, as well as multiple Super Bowl winner Tom Brady. Their defense is less known, but still talented and fast. They are led by linebacker Rob Ninkovich and corner Logan Ryan. They hope to improve New England to 5-4 in Super Bowl.

The Falcons reached the second seed in the NFC on a less dominating 11-5 record. They won the same way as the Patriots: by relying on  offense and simply having a good enough defense. They’ve ridden their probable MVP quarterback Matt Ryan to the playoffs.

Once there, Ryan dismantled the Legion of Boom from Seattle and outgunned Aaron Rodgers from Green Bay. This team hopes to get “The Dirty Birds” their first Super Bowl win after losing in their only appearance in ’98.

Their offense is similar to the Patriots in that it relies on the same four spots; Ryan at quarterback, Devante Freeman at running-back, Mohammed Sanu and Julio Jones at wide-out. Their defense is a solid unit with few standouts, but edge rusher Vic Beasley will need to make himself felt.

Overall, as much as I dislike the Patriots, personally I think they’ll win. Offense vs offense, Atlanta wins. Throw in the respective defenses and now you have an outmatched Patriot defense that’ll force some turnovers and punts.

Atlanta’s defense will likely not be able stop New England multiple times each quarter. It’ll be a high scoring win for the Patriots, plus they aren’t playing Eli Manning. Final score, 35-27 New England, followed by a ban from Goodell.