Whenever two teams meet in the postseason, there's almost always one team that has more playoff experience than the other. When the Patriots are one of the two teams involved in the game, they're almost always the team with more experience. In this upcoming Super Bowl, the difference is incredibly stark: New England has 22 players with Super Bowl experience on its roster (led by Tom Brady, who is playing in his seventh Super Bowl) while Atlanta has only four.
How much does that matter? Not much, according to Falcons corner Jalen Collins.
"We might not have all the experience that they have," Collins said Tuesday, per NFL.com, which also noted that seven of the last 10 Super Bowls have been won by the team with less Super Bowl experience. "But we worked just as hard to get here -- you can't win a game with experience. You gotta win it on the field."
This is going to be one of those things where we'll get some retroactive reasoning no matter what happens.
If the Patriots win, their experience in big games will be highlighted as a factor -- especially if the Falcons play an uncharacteristically poor game. If the Falcons win, they'll be said to have overcome their relative lack of experience, even if, like Collins said, games are actually won on the field.