Sports Illustrated Super Bowl 51 Picks: Experts Favor New England Patriots

The experts at Sports Illustrated have officially made their final picks for Super Bowl 51. Needless to say, the New England Patriots easily got the majority of votes.

Between their amazing magazine to superb digital content, Sports Illustrated is easily one of the most iconic sports publications in the world. Needless to say, when they give their final picks for Super Bowl 51, they’re usually pretty spot on.

Out of the top 12 Sports Illustrated writers that voted, eight voted for the New England Patriots with the other four going with the Atlanta Falcons. The common theme by all, however, was that this year’s Super Bowl would more than likely come down to the wire.

Almost everyone at Sports Illustrated predicted this would be a rather close game and it makes sense in the grand scheme of things. With a top offense in the Falcons going up against a top defense in the Patriots, this could very well turn into a chess match. The team to commit either their first big mistake or costly turnover could very well decide the final outcome.

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Hopefully, Super Bowl 51 delivers a great game by all featuring some of the top NFL players to date. This has a historic matchup written all over it and well, with declining TV ratings that defined the 2016 season, going off with a shootout-like kind of big game for the NFL will bode well for football fans all across the world.

Despite the majority that tends to dislike the Patriots, they’re still the popular vote to win it all. Whether you love them or hate them, chances are, you’ll be tuning in to see if the Falcons can finally dethrone them once and for all.

Chris Burke put it perfectly when he explained his final pick for this year’s Super Bowl. He predicts the Patriots win 31-27 and had this to say:

Neither defense will have an easy time finding stops, but the Patriots are one of the rare teams with the pieces to—at least, potentially—match up with the Falcons’ explosive, wide-open offense. Malcolm Butler can hang with Julio Jones, Logan Ryan and the safeties are all movable parts, Dont’a Hightower is among the league’s better linebackers, and so on. It may only take one or two timely stops to get the job done Sunday. And on offense, we all know what the Patriots are capable of doing.

MUST READ: ESPN Super Bowl Picks: Experts Favor New England Patriots

Overall, expect a great game and who knows. Should the Falcons go against the majority of those that think the Patriots have sealed a win might give the football world a shock by taking care of business.