Who will win the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl brings lots of intrigue when it comes to the gambling aspect of the game. With so many prop bets, such as who will win the coin toss and if the opening kick will be returned, The Daily Iowan wants to answer the simplest of questions: Who will win?

Atlanta

The Falcons’ historic season will top off with a storybook ending when they defeat the New England Patriots led by arguably the greatest head coach-player combination the National Football League has ever seen.

Tom Brady will always garner most of the attention.

However, this year, much praise has been awarded to the Patriots’ defense, which allowed the fewest points per game (15.7) in the league. While the Patriots’ defense is a very formidable group, its numbers have been inflated because of scheduling.

The Patriots only beat three teams over .500 in the regular season once Tom Brady returned, giving New England the easiest strength of schedule among playoff teams. Not only that, but two of the three wins came against backup quarterbacks, as the Pittsburgh Steelers were without Ben Roethlisberger and the Miami Dolphins sent out Matt Moore to man the offense.

The third victory was against a Trevor Siemian-led Denver offense, a unit that finished in the bottom half of the league in every major offensive statistical category.

Atlanta sports an offensive juggernaut, the likes of which the Patriots have yet to face this year. Finishing with 540 points, the Falcons tied the 2000 Rams for the seventh-most points scored in a single season while also committing only a league-low 11 turnovers. The offense is filled with playmakers, and MVP candidate Matt Ryan has thrown touchdowns to 13 different receivers, the first time this feat has been accomplished in NFL history.

The Patriots face a daunting task against this Atlanta team. I do not see it going well for them.

— Jake Markowitz

Patriots

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will win their fifth Super Bowl on Feb. 5.

The Patriots were the best team in the league all season long — nothing will change once the final whistle blows at the Super Bowl.

Belichick is arguably the greatest coach of all time; he wins by inserting under-the-radar free agents into his genius coaching scheme.

Even without Brady, Belichick proved he can win with anyone under center.

Too bad for the Atlanta Falcons that Brady is playing some of the best football of his career.

Atlanta has the league’s highest scoring offense, but New England is right behind at third, scoring 27.6 points per game.

Neither team has a defense that jumps off the page, but New England ranks in the top half in takeaways — that’s why it’s third in the turnover differential.

Meanwhile, Atlanta ranks No. 28 in passing yards allowed per game — New England’s specialty.

Both teams are polar opposites in scoring defense. The Patriots have the league’s best scoring defense (15.6 points per game), and Atlanta is 27th (25.4).

Even though these teams are far apart on defense, they still match up well on paper.

Good thing big games like this aren’t played on paper.

New England does the little things right — it has a no-name defense that silently takes names while moving up the playoff ladder.

Its offense clicks without any slip-ups.

Atlanta is due for an off game, especially on offense.

Last season, an NFC quarterback, Cam Newton, led his team to his first career Super Bowl against a Super-Bowl veteran, Peyton Manning.

It’ll be the same story this year.

— Adam Hensley