Super Bowl 52 preview

They call it the Greatest Show on Earth. Well, they're Americans, they would do, wouldn't they?!

With regular Super Bowl props guru Ian Steven (@deevo82) heading to Philadelphia to party with fans of his beloved Eagles, we sought other expert help to preview the big game. But you've got to see this video of Ian speaking to 6ABC in Philadelphia. The irony is that Ian does a lot of subtitling work and the Americans had to subtitle him to understand his thick Glaswegian accent!



Best of luck mate!


Back to the preview. Coming off the bench with some very credible recommendations of his expertise, it's Shane Adair, @beat_the_bagman.

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SUPER BOWL 52:

It’s that time of year again!

We are left with our final two sides in the NFL season.  The 2018 edition of the Super Bowl is the New England Patriots v Philadelphia Eagles. Both sides this season have been nothing short of excellent all during the post-season matches.

New England:

It is becoming a familiar tale, yes the New England Patriots are back again for the big dance having played in the Super Bowl an amazing eight times in the past 16 years and going for their third victory in the past four years. The two post season games for the Patriots were a strong victory over the Tennessee Titans (35-14) in their Divisional playoff match then a stirring come-from-behind victory over Jacksonville (24-20) in the Conference Championship. The most impressive part of the victories was the Patriots defence who played well in both victories and only letting through six second-half points to overhaul Jacksonville. Plus they have another factor, you might have heard of him. Five- time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady who at the age of 40 continues to deliver season after season and deliver when the stakes are high. Looking at the stats, New England's offence has been nothing short of superb rating second in the league and third in their past three matches. It looks almost impossible to see them not scoring high. They have been putting up on average almost 29 points per game, this is on par with the figures they were putting up in 2016 when they were Super Bowl champions. Their defence is still very good in overall terms rating fifth in the league and fourth in their past three games however the one area they do fall behind in Philadelphia in.

Philadelphia Eagles:

Yet to taste success in a Super Bowl they have been riding the underdog tag in their post season matches getting over Atlanta in a dour clash (15-10) then very impressively blowing away the highly fancied Minnesota (38-7) in their Conference Championship. They have done an incredible job since losing their starting quarterback with a season ending injury in week 14.  Nick Foles has stepped in and if you take out a meaningless week 17 clash they are actually undefeated when Foles has started as QB. This is mainly due to the high pressure defence Philadelphia have brought all season and this was again proven in their last game forcing three turnovers and scoring a Touchdown. A quick look at their numbers paints a slightly different picture. The offensc although very good is not as high as the Patriots. I think you can put this down to the differences in quarterbacks. Foles can be a bit worrying at times under pressure and seems to have slight trouble pushing the ball down the field. Their defence is better than the Patriots, rating second this season and first in their past three games and will need to be at its best to stop the Tom Brady machine.

So Who Wins?

After crunching the numbers my market has the New England Patriots winning, however they are not as short as the current market place has them.

Patriots - 1.82

Eagles  -  2.21

I think the Patriots' ability to score and the class edge they have with quarterbacks under the guidance of the superstar Tom Brady will be a bit too much for a brave Eagles outfit who have done an amazing job to get this far.

What should we be betting?

-          Philadelphia is currently doing an amazing job at covering the spread in their recent matches. The line was at +6 when early markets went up however at current time of writing it sits at +4.5 still slight value here to my thinking as I have it marked at around +2.5.

-          I think we might see a high scoring Super Bowl. Both sides can score freely and no one has been able to control Tom Brady as yet this post season. Current game total sits as 48 points. I would be taking the overs on this market.

-          New England's biggest weakness is their defence although nowhere near poor, it’s the one area Philadelphia will be looking to exploit  and taking the Eagles star tight end to Zach Ertz to score a touchdown looks a good play at 2.5.

-          Stephen Gostkowski is arguably the finest kicker in the game and this is an area New England will be looking to take advantage of, although short in betting around the 1.50 mark, taking over 1.5 field goals for the first half looks a safe play.

-          Looking for something a little obscure? Try Justin Timberlake to sing “Can’t Stop The Feeling” as the first song of the Super Bowl half time show. Performed it at the Oscars and strong mail that it has be rehearsed as the first track. Has been heavily backed with the offshore US operators. Something to keep us interested through half time anyway!

Enjoy Super Bowl 52! It looks like another cracking match.