PLAYERS RETURN TO THE SUPER BOWL

It is evident that experience will be one of the ways to measure what Philadelphia and New England will be capable of doing in the Super Bowl, and the Pats have a gigantic advantage there. There are 33 players who will return to the title game of the NFL, while Philadelphia only has six players who already know what it is to be in that game. The Eagles have a mix of rookie players or players with one season in the NFL with veterans, that is why they only boast Torrey Smith, Dannell Ellerbe, Corey Graham, Malcolm Jenkins, LeGarrette Blount, and Chris Long as players who already know what it is to be in that game. On the other hand, the Patriots had a shake-up in their roster from the previous season to this one, but even with those 33 names, that point makes them favorites.

THE JAMES HARRISON FACTOR

It was not a coincidence. If something Head Coach Bill Belichick has demonstrated is knowing how to make the most appropriate personnel moves not only to win games but to win titles. And the last one was made at the end of December when they decided to hire defensive player James Harrison, who had been cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Belichick is a very accurate calculator, and we do not doubt that that move was made to have all the necessary information in case of facing Pittsburgh in the AFC final. That duel did not happen, but Harrison turned out to be very important, especially at the end of the game when he pressured from the blind side and contributed to a fumble by the quarterback (recovered by Jacksonville) and then provoked the quarterback to get out of the pocket and throw hurriedly. The lineman had three tackles and one sack on the quarterback. A key situation, which was not a coincidence, was that Harrison had to be stopped by Cam Robinson, a rookie tackle. A play that changed things while Brady was on the bench. That's why they hired him.

WE'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE

At the start of the postseason of the 36 possible Super Bowls that could happen, there were eight that would be a game that would be repeated. Well, that's what happened. On February 4, the Patriots and the Eagles will face each other for the second time in the game that disputes the NFL title, a clash that took place on February 6, 2005, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville. On that occasion, New England defeated Philadelphia 24-21, in the Patriots' third title in four seasons. That night, Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes, while Corey Dillon ran for 75 yards with a touchdown. The rival quarterback was Donovan McNabb, who threw for 357 yards with three TD passes, although he suffered three interceptions.

Back-to-Back Teams

With the Patriots' reappearance, a team will play in the Super Bowl in consecutive years for the 16th time. The history began from the first two editions when the Green Bay Packers participated and won both, and it will happen with New England on this occasion, as they return to defend their title. In total, there have been 10 teams that have appeared in the Super Bowl in two consecutive seasons, with the Dallas Cowboys being the one that has done it the most times with three: 1970-71, 1977-78, and 1992-93. These are the teams that have played the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons:

• New England 2003-2004 and 2016-2017
• Pittsburgh 1974-1975 and 1978-1979
• Dallas 1970-1971, 1977-1978, and 1992-1993
• Denver 1986-1987 and 1997-1998
• San Francisco 1988-1989
• Green Bay 1966-1967 and 1996-1997
• Washington 1982-1983
• Miami 1971-1972-1973
• Minnesota 1973-1974
• Buffalo 1990-1991-1992-1993

Head-to-Head Game

This will be the 13th occasion that the two teams with the number 1 seed from their conference face each other. Starting from the 1975 season, when the classification was installed according to the record, the top two teams from each conference have only faced each other 12 times in the Super Bowl. The first time this happened was in Super Bowl XI when Oakland and Minnesota played against each other, while the most recent one was in Super Bowl 50 when Denver defeated Carolina. The NFC team has won eight of those 12 matchups.