ON Sunday, the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams meet at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII. This will be a rematch of Super Bowl XXXVI (Feb 3, 2002), in which the Patriots, led by second-year head coach Bill Belichick and back-up quarterback (QB) Tom Brady, defeated the heavily favoured Rams, who were based in St Louis at the time, 20–17. The Rams may approach Sunday seeking revenge but the only player remaining on either roster from the 2002 encounter is Tom Brady.

Super Bowl LIII will be the first time in six seasons that the NFL’s #1 seed will not be playing on Super Sunday and features record-setting age differences between rival quarterbacks and coaches; Tom Brady (41) and Jared Goff (24) share the largest age gap (17 years, 72 days) of any starting quarterback match-up in Super Bowl history while Bill Belichick (66) and Sean McVay (33) have the largest age gap (33 years, 283 days) of any head-coaching match-up in any Super Bowl.

The JustBet favourite Patriots are making their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, their fourth in five years, their record 11th overall, and ninth under the Belichick–Brady head coach–quarterback tandem; the Patriots are also the first team to play in three consecutive Super Bowls since the Buffalo Bills played in four straight from Super Bowl XXV through Super Bowl XXVIII. The Patriots are only the third team overall to play in three consecutive Super Bowls, after the aforementioned Bills and the 1971–73 Miami Dolphins.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady earned his 14th Pro Bowl selection this season, finishing with 4,355 passing yards and 29 touchdowns, with 11 interceptions, while also rushing for 35 yards and two touchdowns. These statistics made him just the second quarterback in NFL history to amass 70,000 career passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards. New England finished the 2018 regular season with an 11–5 record to earn the #2 seed in the American Football Conference (AFC) and their 17th season with double digit wins in the 19 years under head coach Bill Belichick. Alhough the team had only two Pro Bowl selections this year, they scored 436 points (4th in the league) while giving up only 325 (7th fewest).

The Rams finished the 2018 season as the #2 seed in the National Football Conference (NFC), before earning their fourth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. They went from 2004 to 2016 without posting a winning record. But, after relocating from St Louis back to Los Angeles and posting a dismal 4–12 season in 2016, the team’s fortunes changed with the hiring of 30-year-old head coach Sean McVay, the youngest head coach in NFL history. Under McVay and second-year quarterback Jared Goff, who recovered from a lacklustre winless rookie season, the Rams improved to an 11–5 record in 2017. Then this season, they won their first 8 games and finished the year with a 13–3 record, tying the Saints for the best record in the NFC.

The Rams’ offence ranked second in the NFL in both points scored (527) and yards gained (6,738). Goff continued to improve in his third season, setting new career highs in passing yards (4,688, 4th in the NFL), passing touchdowns (32), passer rating (101.1), rushing yards (108) and rushing touchdowns (2).

The Patriots have been using media criticisms, Rams’ comments and discussions about Brady ‘slowing down’ to give them extra motivation (as if they needed it) leading up to the Super Bowl. They enter the contest as JustBet 3-point favourites based mainly on the fact that their margins of victory and defeat in Super Bowls have been amazingly small. All have been decided by one score, with an average point differential of 4.25. Basically, the Brady-Belichick Patriots have been a handful of plays away from never winning a Super Bowl or winning all eight in which they played. At 3-points, the Patriots are just under their average.

The two contenders this weekend boast high-powered offences and at least 30-points are expected from each team.

The JustBet UNDER/OVER line is 56.5 and, by all indications, the outlook is for the score to exceed this total. The Rams’ defensive front (including Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh) are slightly better than their opponents’ and will have a significant impact on the scoreboard. Offence will be on show this Sunday but defence will definitely make a cameo appearance. Don’t miss it!

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The schedule for Super Bowl LIII is provided with odds for the main bet options but SPECIAL BETS are also available for the event (visit www.justbetja.com for the all available bet updates and options).

SUPER BOWL LIII SCHEDULE & ODDS:

DATE TIME HOME TEAM AWAY TEAM MAIN MATCH BETS03/02/19 18:30 LA RAMS NE PATRIOTS 2.10 1.80 H2.5 1.93 1.93

MONEY LINE FINAL WITH

1 2 HC 1 2

*Betting odds, handicaps and limits are subject to change.

*If an NFL Match ends in a tie after overtime is played, then all bets on “Money Line Bets” will be given odds

of 1.00 and all other bets will be settled based on the final score. Odds on NFL Money Line bets include the

outcome after regulation and overtime.