New England Patriots

Super Bowl 51: 5 reasons the New England Patriots will win

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:21 a.m. ET

Fansided, Luke Sims/FanSided via Black and Teal

Super Bowl 51 will be a hard-fought battle between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. Here we lay out why the Patriots will come away victorious.

Putting together a dominant NFL team is difficult. Putting together a dominant NFL team over the span of 10+ years is even more difficult.

Still, that’s exactly what Bill Belichick has done with the New England Patriots, bringing the team to Super Bowl 51 in his 17th season at the helm. It will be his seventh Super Bowl appearance in those 17 seasons. To say the Patriots have been dominant would be an understatement.

And Belichick’s teams have done it all in different ways. From dominant offenses to suffocating defenses, the New England Patriots have proven themselves innovative and adaptable each and every season, never winning less than 10 wins in a season since 2002.

The dominant Patriots take on the (relative) upstart Atlanta Falcons and the crazy-impressive Matt Ryan-led offense. The Patriots will have to do everything in their power to win, but they have a number of things in their favor.

We examine those things here.

1) Experience

No team has as much experience in big games as the New England Patriots. Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady have been to the playoffs every season since 2000 except 2002 (when the Patriots went 9-7) and 2008 (when the Patriots went 11-5 without Brady).

No other team has even sniffed that kind of success, even teams with big win totals over the regular season, like Andy Reid’s Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs over that same period. Belichick and Brady are about as seasoned as a head coach and quarterback duo can be in the NFL.

That experience matters. Playing on the biggest stage in the world during Super Bowl 51 will be an entirely new experience for some players on the Patriots but they have Brady and Belichick to guide them. It will be entirely new for the opposing Atlanta Falcons.

In measuring the experience of the two teams facing off in the Super Bowl, it’s not even close. The Patriots have a major edge over the Falcons here.

Jan 22, 2017; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) celebrates a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the 2017 AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

2) The Patriots have Tom Brady

All due respect to newly-minted league MVP Matt Ryan, but Tom Brady may be the best quarterback in Super Bowl 51. What Ryan did in 2016 was impressive, but what Brady has done in 2016 and every season before it is, simply put, amazing.

“Terrific Tom” is, at age 39, as good as he’s ever been. He can still sling it as far as all of the other, younger quarterbacks and he is still as precise as ever. Tack on his experience as a starting quarterback since 2001 and in the biggest games in sports and he is a formidable presence and a quarterback with arguably no equal.

Brady may not come out and throw for 400 yards and compete for Kurt Warner’s Super Bowl record, but he will put on a show. Few defenses have been able to compete with Brady when he is on point and he has looked incredibly sharp over the 2016 season. Taking four games off to start the season due to suspension may actually have helped keep him fresh over a longer period of time.

The biggest competition Brady is facing is Father Time and he won’t be on the field in Super Bowl 51. The Falcons will need to harass Brady a la the 2015 Denver Broncos if they hope to slow him down and, frankly, they don’t have a defense like Denver’s.

Jan 14, 2017; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches from the sideline as they take on the Houston Texans in the first half at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

3) Bill Belichick is willing to innovate

The best head coaches in the NFL do not stick to one way to win. They find ways to beat each individual opponent and aren’t afraid of changing a scheme or changing a focal point to do it.

Nobody does this better than New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. He has shown some innovative defenses and innovative offenses in his years as head coach, employing shocking schemes on some downs that confuse viewers as much as they worry opposing head coaches.

Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn has never faced Belichick and it is almost guaranteed that Belichick will break out something fresh for the Super Bowl to confuse his younger opponent.

#SB51 will be the first time Dan Quinn faces Bill Belichick as a head coach. 👀 pic.twitter.com/6kZ95SFf8d

— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) January 31, 2017

With that innovation comes experience. Quinn has some incredibly talented players at his disposal but he and young offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan (named assistant of the year) are unlikely to throw something at the Patriots that Belichick hasn’t seen before. Belichick can rely on his decades of head coaching experience to combat what they want to do.

There is a lot of hoopla about the Falcons offense and they deserve it, but the Patriots are a completely different animal from any other team they have faced before. Belichick has a psychological edge over opposing head coaches and he keeps that edge heading into the Super Bowl.

Dec 18, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia celebrates with middle linebacker Dont’a Hightower (54) in the second half against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

4) Dan Patricia’s defense is more than a match for the Atlanta Falcons offense

While Kyle Shanahan won assistant of the year, that award could also have quietly gone to New England Patriots defensive coordinator Dan Patricia and nobody would have been completely shocked.

Keeping his head down and toiling away under Bill Belichick, Patricia has quietly put together one of the best defenses to every fly so under the radar. His defense bends but does not break and is incredibly opportunistic. Shanahan may be the one walking away with a head coaching job after this season, but Patricia is deserving of one as well.

The Patriots defense allowed the least points in the league in 2016. They also allowed the eighth least yards. Patricia, like his innovative head coach, wasn’t married to only one thing and employed different strategies to take away the opposition’s best player. He’ll have to do that with more than one player because the Falcons sport Matt Ryan, wide receiver Julio Jones, and running back Devonta Freeman, but he has proven himself capable in the past.

The Patriots allowed just 21 passing touchdowns and only six rushing touchdowns throughout the 2016 season. If they can even slow down the Falcons, it’s likely that the Patriots will either walk away victorious in a tough scrap or completely blow out the competition. Much of the Pats’ hopes and dreams rest on Patricia’s shoulders.

Jan 14, 2017; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots running back Dion Lewis (33) celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown against the Houston Texans during the first quarter in the AFC Divisional playoff game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler III-USA TODAY Sports

5) The New England Patriots are bigger than the sum of their parts

There are many good players on the New England Patriots roster. In fact, many of them could put together Hall of Fame careers or at least cap off stellar, long careers with the Patriots.

But, more importantly, the Patriots are greater than the sum of the team’s parts.

While other teams rely on one or two players to get them through games, the Patriots are capable of having any one player step up and make a difference. The systems the team employs allows anybody who can do the best in any situation to excel. From Malcom Butler’s rocketing from obscurity to star cornerback status to Tom Brady’s legendary toughness and ability, the Patriots have found ways to win by relying on anybody on the roster.

Collectively, they are the kind of team that wins Super Bowls. Super Bowl 51 will be no different. Many of the faces have changed and there are some new numbers on the field, but the Patriots are still the same team, no matter how many new names the announcers have to learn each year.

And that team is a winner.