TMS columnists’ Super Bowl predictions

Rinard's Rundown

By Jordan Rinard, Senior Staff Writer

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us once again and the sports columnists of The Miami Student recently picked the winner between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.

Jordan Rinard

Patriots 28, Seahawks 24

I think the offense for New England that averaged nearly 30 points per game in the regular season is going to give Seattle problems and the unheralded Patriot defense will come up with some key stops. I'm not in love with the Seahawk front seven (20th in the NFL in sacks in the regular season) or their passing game in general (27th in the league in passing entering the postseason). The difference in the game will be the versatility of LB Jamie Collins, who has been making plays throughout the playoffs both in coverage and rushing the passer. He has 15 total tackles and an interception.

Andrew Geisler

Patriots 24, Seahawks 13

The Pats are a basically bad matchup for the Seahawks in a couple key areas. First, the Patriots secondary is a huge mismatch versus the Seahawks receiving corps. Second, the Patriots offensive attack is highly flexible: They'll spread teams out with the quick passing game, but also use their big back (LeGarrette Blount) to eat up a small interior front. These are two things that can break down the Seahawks fast, but not so complex, defensive scheme. If the Seahawks can do what they did in the last year's Super Bowl and get pressure with a four man rush, they will probably win, but I don't see that happening. My key player on Sunday is Jamie Collins, the Patriots second year linebacker who seems to be on the field in almost all of the Patriots multitude of looks. It's not hard to understand why he'd be so heavily utilized. He's got serious speed and eats up a ton of tackles (116 this year), and if he's on his game Sunday, making run stops while the Pats are in their sub package, it will really hard for the Seahawks to move the ball.

Justin Maskulinski

Seattle 24, New England 23

In the postseason, the Patriots are allowing 19 points per game and the Seahawks are allowing 19.5 per game. Both defenses will show up, forcing field goals and a close, low-scoring game.

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The Seahawks stumbled a bit in the NFC Championship, but they showed how resilient they can be as they found a way to win against the Packers. Seattle's red zone defense forced field goals early in the game, making the comeback possible. The red zone defense will show up again Sunday. The Patriots were extremely dominant in their win against the Colts, and they would have easily won the game without the help of "atmospheric conditions." This Super Bowl has similar intrigue to last year as an older, dominant quarterback takes on the Legion of Boom. I think Brady and Company will score more than eight points, but I don't expect the Patriots to be dominant.

Russell Wilson will bounce

back and manage the game well after a rough outing and the Seahawks will repeat as Super Bowl Champions. It'll be close, but I can't go against the team I picked to win it all at the start of the season.

Daniel Taylor

Patriots 27, Seahawks 23

Do not upset Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Rewind to the first three weeks of the season. People were talking about the era of Brady and Belichick being over. Now they are in the Super Bowl. Fast forward to present day and thanks to underinflated footballs, we have a conspiracy that says two pounds of air pressure is the secret to the Patriots success.

It's not.

The Patriots will not win because of a deflated football. The Patriots will win because LeGarrette Blount gets the ground game working early, thus allowing Tom Brady to toss the ball around between Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski. Blount will bring home the Most Valuable Player award on the back of two touchdowns and over 100 yards. The Patriots will prevent the Seattle Seahawks from taking home a back-to-back title.

Tom Downey

Prop Bets? Prop bets.

I don't have a gambling problem, I have a competitive problem. Let's just get that out of the way now. Anyway, here are some of my favorite prop bets (any bet made on the side of the football game).

Idina Menzel's national anthem will come in UNDER 2:01. The first commercial will be of Anheuser-Busch. Americans love their beer and their football after all. Katy Perry's hair is blue, she does kiss a girl during "I Kissed a Girl" and Snoop Dogg makes a cameo wearing Oakland Raiders gear.

Al Michaels will refer to some kind of spread or odds (and we're getting +200 on this bet!). You better believe Pete Carroll being the last head coach of the Patriots will be mentioned.

And your bonus Groundhog Day Parlay: Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow and Patriots win the Super Bowl. Your Super Bowl MVP is Rob Gronkowski (9:1 odds), but the Gronk erotic fan fiction is not mentioned.