Jules

Both GB and Atlanta have horrible defenses. I don't see either of them beating New England. 

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Bogie for what it's worth, The Colts won the SB with the 32nd rated Run Defense/worst in the league. It's not Pass Defense but that had never been done before and still hasn't since.

Saints had a defense ranked in the 20's in 2009 when we won it all. Everything came down to turnovers, which we boasted the league best of turnover differential and scoring defense. 

I would like to see GB win it all but this stuff really concerns me. When I seen they had the 31st ranked pass defense, it reminded me of the 1992 Bills, who had the same stat (27th overall in a year where there was 28 teams)

That Bills team kinda went on the same run too...They went 11-5, missed out on the #2 seed thanks to the Dolphins having a matching record and the tie breaker came to the Dolphins beating them in the regular season. But then Buffalo won all these games in a row and going into the playoffs got red hot with their comeback win. They went into Miami in the AFCCG and smashed the Dolphins...and then in the Super Bowl they gave up 50 points and got slaughtered. 

That's what worries me about GB but win or lose, this season was a success for them. No one expected them to get this far after they went 4-6. 

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I doubt NE would lose to Atlanta though.

 

I also still think GB wins in Atlanta.  

NE would destroy Atlanta. It would be like Christmas day for Saints fans like how they just LOVED last year's SB when Cam got demolished. 

Falcons fans keep arguing that they are 'battle tested' cause they beat Denver and Arizona in the regular season, and now they beat down Seattle, but Seattle was very vulnerable this year. Go back to when the Saints played them, we scored on 7 consecutive drives without a single punt. Saints punted just one time in that entire game with Seattle. Their defense is a farcry of what it once was. 

How the hell they brag about beating Arizona though, I have no idea. I'm actually VERY shocked Arizona had a high ranked defense all year long, cause the Saints went in and put 48 points on them in a game where we boasted over 550 yards of total offense. Just how they had a high ranked defense all year is a big mystery. 

I'd like to add that besides those big wins against Denver and Seattle; Atlanta has feasted on cupcakes in a similar matter that they did in 2012 and 2010 when they had a bye week in the playoffs those years. Atlanta got to beat Carolina and New Orleans twice - two teams with horrible ranked defenses. They also beat Oakland, and San Fran - add it up and that is 6 wins against teams with the worst defenses. You can also throw in the worthless Rams, while they had a high ranked defense, both the Saints and Falcons dropped 40 points on them, so maybe their defense really wasn't all that great as it seemed, just like Arizona. 

Turnovers are always the elephant in the room, if you have a franchise QB like a Brees or Rodgers sometimes your team can get away with having a low rated Defense if they get Turnovers. We both agree Peyton wasn't near Peyton of old last season but the Broncos creating Turnovers into points was the difference in the SB.