RISING UP TO THE SUPER BOWL

Trevin Kalick, Sports Editor

The NFL season is coming to an end as Super Bowl Sunday is February 5, and it is fast approaching. Normally people around here don’t really get a chance to cheer on their team in the Super Bowl because they are either Falcons’ fans or Titans’ fans. Well, that’s not the case this year as the Atlanta Falcons and their high power offense have made it to their first Super Bowl since 1998. Unfortunately, the Falcons didn’t win the big game back in 1998 so they are still searching for their first Super Bowl ring. The Falcons have their shot to get that first ring, but them making it this far is quite a shock.

I asked Holden Smith, a junior at HHS and lifelong Falcons fan, if he believed they could make it to the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season and he said, “No, honestly I thought the Panthers were going to remain the dominant team in the NFC.” I think every NFL fan had this exact thought as the Panthers looked unstoppable last year, but fell very short of this year as they didn’t even make the playoffs. Atlanta took advantage and claimed the top spot in the NFC away from the Panthers.

The Falcons meet the New England Patriots on Feb. 5 to decide who the best team in the NFL truly is. This is not the Patriots’ first rodeo, as they are setting an NFL record for most Super Bowl appearances (9) and seven of those have come in the Brady/Belichick era, so experience is definitely on the Patriots side but Atlanta’s offense is no joke. With the surefire MVP at QB in Matt Ryan and one of the best WR’s in the league in Julio Jones, this offense can definitely put up a lot of points. Now the Falcons have the number one offense in the league but the Patriots are right behind them with the number three offense and also have the number one scoring defense in the league. This should definitely be a very memorable Super Bowl and everything tells me that it will go down to the wire.