It’s week 10 of the season and there are very few teams left undefeated. With playoffs quickly approaching, the theories as to who will be in Super Bowl L are spiraling.
Check back to last year: Super Bowl XLIX ended in a great upset by the Seattle Seahawks ending in a New England Patriots victory. It all came down to coaching error if you ask me: Russell Wilson’s stats speak for themselves. Watch the replays if you want. Not to put the Patriots down too much (cough, cough), but it wasn’t long after the championship that allegations of ball deflation began surfacing.
But I digress. Both the Seahawks and Patriots were expected to come into the current season blazing and the Patriots did just that. They entered week nine undefeated, while the Seahawks went in with a 4-4 record, beginning the season with back-to-back losses.
Alongside the New England Patriots, the Carolina Panthers and the Cincinnati Bengals went into week nine undefeated. The Denver Broncos, home to quarterback and Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning, entered week eight undefeated, but took an L against the Indianapolis Colts, only a week after their nail-biting defeat by the Carolina Panthers.
At the halfway mark of the season, NFL analysts updated their predictions for Super Bowl L. Unsurprisingly, 17 of the 18 analysts predict the Patriots as Super Bowl contenders, 16 predicting a Patriots victory. The Panthers earned two votes as contenders, but only one for a win. Interestingly, the Bengals received zero acknowledgement throughout the predictions, even with their undefeated record. The Cardinals, Seahawks, Packers, Broncos, and Vikings all earned a few votes of confidence as potential contenders, with the Broncos and Packers earning just a few more as victors.
Only time will tell who will be in this year’s Super Bowl unless the Patriots deflate every other team's balls; then we'll know at least one contender.
