The big day is upon us.
With the New England Patriots set to face the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII, Sportsnet’s expert panel is ready to weigh in on how the final game of the NFL season will play out.
The panel includes editors Geoff Lowe and Craig Battle, as well as staff writers Donnovan Bennett, Mike Johnston and Emily Sadler.
So who will hoist the Lombardi Trophy?
Donnovan Bennett
The Pick: Los Angeles Rams 
The Score: 31–30
Super Bowl MVP: Aaron Donald
The Breakdown: The last five teams to lose a Super Bowl and return the next year have all lost again. If the Rams get pressure in the interior, especially from their nickel defence, that trend will continue.
Tom Brady thrives against the blitz because he beats you with his mind — not his arm. This year he completed 65 per cent of his passes on 8.9 yards per attempt against the blitz. But what is he going to do when Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh collapse the depth of the pocket and the Rams are dropping eight in coverage? During his last three post-seasons Brady has a 33 per-cent completion rate and is sacked 17 per cent of the time when pressured up the middle. He’s just 1-3 in Super Bowls when he is hit at least eight times.
Credit where it’s due: Brady is the GOAT. But outside of him, the Rams have the majority of game-changing players suiting up on Sunday. The Rams win this one based on concept. They do so much out of simple formations.
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Geoff Lowe
The Pick: New England
The Score: 31-28
Super Bowl MVP: Tom Brady
The Breakdown: Over the last two weeks I’ve tried to envision all the ways in which this game can play out, and I keep coming to the same conclusion: The battle between the Patriots’ interior offensive line and the Rams’ Donald-Suh defensive tackle tandem will decide this game.
If Brady is comfortable in the pocket and kept clean — he’s been hit just twice in these playoffs and hasn’t been sacked — he’ll be able to take advantage of the mismatches Josh McDaniels will create against the Rams defence, specifically the linebackers.
If Donald and Suh have their way with the interior of that New England o-line, forcing the Patriots to adjust their game plan, Super Bowl LIII will be L.A.’s for the taking.
I expect the former to unfold Sunday night in Atlanta, giving Brady and the Patriots just enough juice to get past Sean McVay, Jared Goff and a Rams offence that will still manage to keep things exciting in a hard-fought losing effort.
Mike Johnston
The Pick: New England
The Score: 41–17
Super Bowl MVP: Sony Michel
The Breakdown: My 2019 Superb Owl pick is the athene cunicularia, a.k.a. the burrowing owl, a ground-dwelling organism that is “generally active at dusk and dawn, but sometimes at night also” that has “a wide range of different calls” and “can be surprisingly bold.” Sounds exactly like Bill Belichick if you ask me. That’s why my 2019 Super Bowl pick is, without hesitation, the New England Patriots.
No one outside the Pats locker room knows exactly how Belichick and his coaching staff are going to scheme around Aaron Donald, Ndamukong Suh and the threatening interior pressure of the Rams defence, but ol’ Burrowing Bill will have an answer — and he’ll have a counter to whatever adjustments L.A. makes during the game.
Opposing teams either overthink things when they play the post-season Patriots or they simply don’t bring their A games. For example, Greg Zuerlein won’t be making 57-yarders like he did against the Saints; he’ll miss a makeable one. Watch it happen. Players make mental errors they wouldn’t typically make (yes, Dee Ford, you really did line up offside). New England also consistently benefits from controversial calls and non-calls, and on top of that they execute their game plans masterfully. Pats by 1,000.
P.S. I haven’t picked the Super Bowl winner correctly since the Ravens beat the 49ers six years ago, so feel free to disregard everything I’ve mentioned above.
Emily Sadler
The Pick: New England Patriots
The Score: 34–27
Super Bowl MVP: Tom Brady
The Breakdown: Is my pick a little boring? You bet it is — but it’s like this for a reason.
See, I had to fight my urge to overthink this whole thing and pick against New England. So powerful are the Patriots that they can make their opponents ultimately outthink themselves in their effort to fool the great duo of Brady and Belichick.
The Rams’ offence will make a late surge — cue the Sean McVay fist pumps! — but Brady puts together another textbook late drive for ring No. 6.
Craig Battle
The Pick: Los Angeles Rams
The Score: 27–24
Super Bowl MVP: Jared Goff
The Breakdown: If I had to bet my life on one of these teams, I would literally ride or die with New England and Belichick’s uncanny ability to call a playoff game.
But that dystopian future is at least a couple years off, so I’m going with the team I plan to cheer for: the other one.
I don’t hate the Patriots; I’m just tired of them. This isn’t disrespect; it’s fatigue. Go, [insert name of the team playing the Patriots here], in perpetuity! I hope you win.
