Sportsbook-wise the Atlanta Falcons have good, though not great, odds to win Super Bowl 52. Historically speaking, however, things get a little bit more uphill. As people who enjoy betting on NFL may or may not know, the last team to lose the Super Bowl and come back the following year to win it were the 1972-73 Miami Dolphins – who lost Super Bowl VI to the Dallas Cowboys and won Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins. Coincidentally, the 1971 Cowboys lost SB V to the defunct Baltimore Colts and went on to defeat the Dolphins in SB VI.
Now if we were, for the sake of completion, to go further back in time, we would find that the 1960 Green Bay Packers lost the NFL Championship game to the Philadelphia Eagles and returned the next year to beat the New York Giants, the Cleveland Browns lost three straight championship games between 1951 and 1953 but defeated the Detroit Lions in 1954, the LA Rams lost to the Browns in 1950 and defeated the Browns in 1951, ditto the Eagles the Cardinals in 1947-48, the 1942-43 Chicago Bears, and the 1938-39 Packers. All things considered, while this used to be a more common occurrence a very long time ago, it has not happened in the Super Bowl era in almost 50 years.
Sportsbook odds to win Super Bowl 52
• New England Patriots +390
• Dallas Cowboys +1000
• Seattle Seahawks +1125
• Pittsburgh Steelers +1275
• Green Bay Packers +1050
• Atlanta Falcons +1425
People betting on NFL games like to talk about the dreaded Super Bowl hangover, but that’s really just a myth. What is very real, though, is the Cam Newton hangover. This is what Atlanta Falcons starting QB Matt Ryan has to avoid at all costs. In 2015 Newton was on top of the world, having lead the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, a NFL Most Valuable Player, NFL Offensive Player of the Year season crumbled to nothing in one fell swoop. In Super Bowl 50, Newton was sacked six times and Manning fumbled twice, and threw an interception and the Panthers lost to the Broncos 24-10. Newton was never quite the same after – in fact, he entered some sort of early middle age crisis. The Panthers finished the 2016 season with a 6-10 record and missed the playoffs.
So that’s three things Matty Ice has in common with Cam Newton. Ryan was also named NFL Most Valuable Player and NFL Offensive Player of the Year in the season in which he lead his team to the Super Bowl. The third thing? A disappointing, underwhelming performance in the Super Bowl game. It’s safe to say that if the Iceman melts the rest of the team will follow suit, as was the case with Newton and the Panthers. Ultimately, Ryan has a few things that Newton lacks such as experience, wisdom, and of course, cold water running through his veins. If you’re betting on NFL at a sportsbook, the Falcons are a very intriguing proposition.