Definitely prefer Atlanta, but watching Goodel hand that trophy to Brady would be pretty damn sweet. Good thing is that I won't be angry with either result.
Agree, given I've had the Falcons as my "home" team since their inception.
As for the game, it'll probably be very even.
Consider TD receptions. Everyone is slurping up the Pats and their receivers and their defense, saying ATL better have more than Jones or the Pats will eat them up.
Well, ATL did have 13 receivers catch TD passes this year (reg. season), while the Pats had 10. 10 of ATL's receivers caught multiple TD passes; Pats had 7. Essentially, ATL's passing attack is at least as diversified as the Pats, if not a tad wider.
On defense, interestingly ATL and the Pats are very similar. Exactly the same number of sacks, 34 each, with almost exactly the same number of yards lost via sack, ATL 228, Pats 227.
But ATL had 45 tackles for loss while the Pats had 30.
In passes defended, ATL had 85 passes defended with 12 interceptions; Pats had 70 and 13 respectively. Oh, and ATL returned 3 of those interceptions for TD, Pats did not return a single interception for TD.
ATL forced 17 fumbles and recovered 10; the Pats were 19 and 10, respectively. ATL did return 2 of those fumbles for TD, and again, the Pats returned none for TD.
You can keep looking at stats all day, they end up quite similar for both teams, at least from what I can see.
It may be a good game, I hope it is. I'll pull for ATL out of being a homer in this case, but will be completely ready for the letdown at the end, which would be typical of an ATL team, frankly. I am hoping against hope that Quinn as head coach is finally making some progress in moving ATL towards being a competitive team. Does look like he's made some positive impact.