Sports Blog 01/02/2018: Super Bowl LII Preview – Philadelphia Eagles vs New England Patriots, Sunday 4th February 2018

Will the New England Patriots make it 3 Super Bowls in 4 years when they face the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday?

Not only will victory this weekend seal the Patriots’ position as the dominant side of the last decade, it would see them match the Pittsburgh Steelers’ record 6 Super Bowl wins. Interestingly the Patriots actually beat out the Steelers to finish atop the AFC table, the only thing separating the 2 being the former’s better head-to-head record after picking up a 27-24 win at the Heinz Field back in December.



Then Patriots then bossed their divisional play-off, thrashing the Tennessee Titans, who themselves narrowly beat Kansas City in the Wild Card game, 35-14. They had more trouble against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Championship match, however, dragged over the finish line by 2 fourth quarter touchdowns from Tom Brady to finish with a 24-20 victory.

Unsurprisingly Brady has far and away the best Patriots Play Performance spread, at 97-107, ahead of Dion Lewis at 90-98 and Rob Gronkowski at 84-92. Gronkowski does lead the Player Touch Down Minutes spreads, though, at 20-23 to Lewis’ 15-18.

As for the Philadelphia Eagles, they’re making their first Super Bowl appearance since they lost the 2004 edition to, incidentally, the Patriots. Like their Sunday rivals the Eagles required a bit of stat-work to finish at the top of the NFC, squeaking in front of the Minnesota Vikings due to a greater winning percentage over their common opponents.

There was little doubt who was the better side following their NFC Championship battle a fortnight ago, however. Having beaten the Atlanta Falcons 15-10 in the divisional play-offs, the Eagles went on to wallop the Vikings 38-7, largely thanks to Nick Foles, who has a Player Performance spread of 82-88.

It’s no surprise that the Eagles are heading to the US Bank Stadium as distinct underdogs, at a fixed odds price of 18/8 to the Patriots’ 40/85. Yet they proved their quality against the Vikings, and may well be able to overcome a New England/Philadelphia Point Supremacy spread of 3.5-5.5, with a Total Points spread of 47-50.