SUPER BOWL Before Super Bowl LI kicks off, before old rivalries are renewed and season-long scores are settled with higher stakes than ever, before anyone enters a gauntlet of hostility in Foxborough or Arrowhead or Arlington, even before Connor Cook or Brock Osweiler emerges as the quarterback of record in a playoff victory ... we’ll do our best to spoil it all for you.
SUPER BOWL LIVE After 17 weeks of monitoring the league, SI.com’s writers and editors have peered into their respective crystal *****, then turned in their 2017 playoff brackets and Super Bowl picks. Read their explanations below.
SUPER BOWL LIVE STREAMNFL SUPER BOWL LIVE When reading the brackets, please keep in mind that the highest remaining seed hosts the lowest remaining seed in the following round of the playoffs. The higher-seeded team receives home field advantage in each matchup.
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The Packers just aren’t good enough against the run to defeat the Cowboys, and Dallas can limit Green Bay's big plays in the pass game. Chiefs are a worthy opponent for Patriots, but Andy Reid and Alex Smith are just too conservative to take down Tom Brady and Bill Belichick at Gillette. You have to put the foot down and never let up to do it, and Reid and Smith can't do that. And while a great running game with a mobile/accurate QB like Dak Prescott is the antidote to the Patriots, Belichick, with two weeks to prepare, would not let Prescott become first rookie QB to win a Super Bowl. It's just not happening.
SUPER BOWL 2017SUPER BOWL 2017 LIVE STREAM Preseason, I had Patriots-Seahawks in the Super Bowl; mid-season, I went with Patriots-Packers. So, there’s one constant in those picks. K.C. or Pittsburgh is capable of pulling off a title-game win in Foxborough, but New England has the most complete team in that conference. The NFC is more of a ****shoot—hence my constantly changing conference champ call. Atlanta has the offense to win a shootout but it also has enough pass rush to make life on, say, Aaron Rodgers difficult. Whichever team survives the NFC will be an underdog to New England in Super Bowl LI, and rightfully so.
SUPER BOWL 2017 LIVESUPER BOWL LI Two months ago I had the Vikings as the No. 1 seed in the NFC and Denver as the No. 2 in the AFC. Let’s forget about all that and simply remember I had the Patriots winning it all. Atlanta hasn’t gotten the credit it deserves all year, and the Falcons have enough firepower to outgun the Packers in the NFC title game. But when they run into the best scoring defense in Houston, Tom Brady will get his fifth ring.
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Greg Bishop
In a season that lacked dominant teams, one stood out, from beginning to end. Whether Tom Brady was sitting out his suspension or carving up defenses, whether Rob Gronkowski was healthy or hurt, whether Michael Floyd was playing for the Cardinals or the Patriots, it didn't matter. New England won and won and won and won. It's hard to see any other scenario unfolding in the playoffs. The Patriots are more than the safest bet. They're the surest one.
SUPER BOWL 2017 LIVE STREAMINGSUPER BOWL 2017 LIVE STREAM The only team in the AFC that mighthave a chance to beat the Patriots is the Chiefs, but I’m not betting against Brady and Belichick in the playoffs— especially when they are in the midst of their own version of Sherman’s March to the Sea through the NFL and Roger Goodell this season.
SUPER BOWL 2017 LIVE And because the NFC is completely wide open (I debated between three different possible NFC winners: Dallas, New York, and Green Bay), I’m riding the “things happen in threes” theory and picking a Giants-Patriots Super Bowl matchup. I feel like these types of perfect sports narratives just have a way of coming to fruition. But I see the ending of Giants-Pats Part III ending differently, simply because Brady has had to put up with nine years of hearing that Eli Manning is his only kryptonite and two years of jokes about his deflated *****.
SUPER BOWL 2017SUPER BOWL 2017 No pun intended, but Connor Cook is an absolute wild card, perhaps not yet self-aware enough to grasp the enormity of the playoffs. This can be a good thing. Brock Osweiler is no mystery—he’s been an absolute disappointment this season, and it’s easy to envision him crumbling under pressure. The Steelers’ secondary—which has only allowed nine touchdowns to opposing receivers this year—should envelop the Dolphins.
SUPER BOWL 2017 LIVE STREAM Never bet against Russell Wilson in the playoffs, at home, against a susceptible Lions defense. Giants-Packers was the toughest call of the first round, but Aaron Rodgers is too on fire now to think he’ll slip.
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