Super Bowl XLIX Preview: Searching for the hidden advantages
By Mike Lacy
Before last year’s Super Bowl, I tried to see if there were any hidden advantages for either team that most pundits had overlooked. Sure enough, I found some indicators that the Seahawks were going to emerge as champions.
Since some of you may want to place a wager or two on the big game, I figured I would once again help you out and decide which team holds the hidden edge.
Backup quarterbacks
Just about everyone in America knows who Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is. (If you happen to be one of the few who don’t, he’s Gisele’s husband!) And with this being his second consecutive appearance in the Super Bowl, America has gotten very familiar with Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.
Jimmy Garoppolo. Image Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
But what would happen if either of those guys got hurt? After all, the saying in football is that a backup is just one play away from being a starter. So let’s take a look at the guys who serve as their team’s backup quarterback.
When the Patriots drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round of the 2014 draft, many people suspected that he would be the eventual heir to Brady. He still may eventually take over, but I’m guessing that most Patriots fans hope that it doesn’t happen any time soon.
Garoppolo saw some mop up duty this season, and generally performed pretty well. In six games, he completed 70.4 percent of his passes with a touchdown.
Being an unknown, there’s a chance that Garoppolo might muster some sort of magic if he was forced to enter the game. On the other hand, if the Seahawks need to call on their backup, you might as well just hand the trophy to the Patriots.
I was shocked to learn Tarvaris Jackson is still in the NFL. I guess you can stick around for a long time in the NFL if you’re never asked to actually step on the field.
Want to know how long Jackson has been around? The Eagles actually beat him in the playoffs.
Did I just mention this as an excuse to include this clip? Absolutely!
Edge: Patriots
Ex-Eagle factor
The Seahawks do not have any ex-Eagles on their roster. The Patriots have one, and he isn’t exactly fondly remembered by Eagles fans.
Patrick Chung was a part of the Eagles hit-or-miss free agent class in 2013. He was the team’s starting safety, but unfortunately, the one thing he seemed to excel at was hitting his own teammates, taking them out of the play.
Fast forward to the 2:00 mark of this video:
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap2000000283159/Week-11-Redskins-vs-Eagles-highlights
Chung returned to the Patriots, and apparently he has been far from awful. The Patriots actually signed him to an extension!
He blames his 2013 struggles on never being fully healthy. Or maybe the Patriots are just better than the Eagles at utilizing their secondary personnel.
Either way, just thinking about how bad he was for the Eagles doesn’t fill me with confidence about the Patriots’ secondary.
Edge: Seahawks
Distractions
After the conference championship games, all anyone wanted to talk about was the Patriots’ balls and whether they were intentionally deflated. But thanks to the bye week giving us two weeks in between games, there is plenty of time for new non-stories to emerge.
Sure enough, a new story has emerged in the form of Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. In case you hadn’t heard, Lynch doesn’t want to talk to the media. He’s supposedly not comfortable with the attention…so naturally he does something which draws as much attention to himself as possible.
Of course, if a company pays him to talk, then he’ll do so happily:
Personally, I’ve never been that big a fan of Skittles. If I’m going to have a bite-size candy, it’s M&M’s or GTFO.
I also feel like they’re kind of trying to trick us into thinking that they’re healthy with all the fruity flavors. And who would fall for something like that?
Usually, the team that deals with the most distractions leading up to the game doesn’t perform as well as they should. So maybe Lynch is just trying to draw all this attention so that his teammates don’t have to deal with it? Or maybe he’s just weird.
I was going to give the edge to the Patriots, but as I thought more about it, Lynch’s saga is nothing compared to how much attention “deflategate” has received.
Edge: Seahawks
Feel-good story
It was tough for me to come up with any feel-good angles for this year’s game. Both teams seem to be made up of terrible people, and no matter which team emerges victorious, many fans are going to be left with a bad taste in their mouths.
Edge: Push
The burden of legacy
Winning the Super Bowl is presumably the goal of every NFL player, so there’s always talk about what a win would do for a player’s legacy. For instance, every time Peyton Manning plays in the Super Bowl, it seems to shift his standing in the pantheon of great quarterbacks.
Tom Brady’s legacy is on the line. Image credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
This is the record sixth Super Bowl for Tom Brady, so if the Patriots win, many people will consider him to be the greatest quarterback of all-time. On the other hand, if the Patriots lose, then Brady has to deal with the stigma of losing three consecutive appearances in the big game. That’s not good for the old legacy.
Russell Wilson also probably realizes that winning two Super Bowls will come in handy one day when people are debating his worthiness in the Hall of Fame. And you’ve got to think that two rings will give Seahawks coach Pete Carroll a decent shot at making it into Canton as well.
In the end, I’d say that the Patriots have a little more at stake. Brady and Belichick can both make strong claims to GOAT status with a win, and this may be their last chance to do so.
Unfortunately for them, over the past few years, it seems that the team with the most at stake has come out on the losing side.
Edge: Seahawks
Based on these factors, it looks like the Seahawks have the clear advantage. Does that mean that they’ll be raising the Lombardi trophy for the second straight year on Sunday? We’ll find out on Sunday.