SJHS Predicts the Super Bowl

Football is one of the most popular sports in America.  All who watch have their own opinions, whether that be who the best team is, who has the best defense, or even who is the best player.  But if there is one thing that NFL football fans love to discuss more than all of these topics, it is the Super Bowl.  Even experts can have a tough time predicting the outcomes of the playoff games, which are played early in the year each year.  But you don’t have to be an “expert” to predict football games.  Some students, and even some teachers at Springville Junior High, love to try and figure out who will win which games.  All predictions listed in this article were made before the first game of the 2013 NFL Playoffs.  So which teams did SJHS teachers think had what it took to win the Super Bowl?

Twelve teams earned the right to head to the playoffs: the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, and the Cincinnati Bengals from the AFC, and the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks, and the Minnesota Vikings from the NFC.  According to Mr. Kindrick, a science teacher at SJHS, the Broncos and the Seahawks were his picks to go to the Super Bowl. 

The playoffs can be extremely tough to predict, especially because every team is capable of winning each of their games.  “It’s so hard to tell who will win the Super Bowl; the teams are so even,” said Mr. Shields, a history teacher at SJHS.  Mr. Shields predicted the Broncos to face the Falcons in the Super Bowl, and, like Mr. Kindrick, had the Broncos coming out on top.  However, according to Mr. Shields, there were many teams he felt had a chance.  Green Bay, Atlanta, and Seattle are all teams Mr. Shields felt could have also won the Super Bowl.  And, despite the fact that both Mr. Shields and Kindrick were incorrect as far as who made the Super Bowl, both correctly predicted all four wild-card games.  Mr. Shields also correctly predicted three out of four of the divisional games, discluding the double-overtime win the Ravens had against the Broncos.  Mr. Kindrick was also incorrect on the Broncos-Ravens game, and also mispredicted the Falcons-Seahawks game, in which a tremendous comeback by the Seahawks was squandered by a last-second field goal by Matt Bryant, kicker for the Falcons.  Still, both teachers were very accurate on most games.

Going into the playoffs, the Baltimore Ravens were not a favorite to make the Super Bowl.  In fact, after beating the Indianapolis Colts in the wild card round, few people thought that the Ravens would be able to stop Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.  However, the Ravens were somehow able to pull off a 38-35, double-overtime win to advance to the AFC Championship.  From there, Baltimore was able to hold off New England for a 28-13 win to put them in the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers.  After an amazing playoffs effort, the Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII by a score of 34 to 31.  According to Hannah Grosland, a Baltimore Ravens fan and ninth grader at SJHS, she believes the Ravens were able to win the Super Bowl because of their solid offense and defense.  And, even though the 2012-2013 season has just ended, it is no doubt that NFL fans are already looking forward to next season.