Jackson Free Press

We are nearing the end of what seemed like a never ending two-week wait for Super Bowl LI. This Sunday, Feb. 5, the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons will take the field at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.

The obvious question as time ticks down to kickoff is, “Which team is going to win the game?” That question has been a tough answer to find as I’ve dug through the statistics of each team.

New England has the best defense on paper, but Atlanta’s defense is better than its ranking and has been battled tested against the league’s top offenses. The Patriots’ defense feasted on weaker offenses in the regular season but is still a tough unit.

Both teams feature high-powered offenses that can put up plenty of points, so the key for both defenses will be stopping the opposing quarterback.

For teams wanting to beat the Patriots, the formula has been simple: Get pressure on quarterback Tom Brady and let the hits add up as the game goes along.

The New York Giants used that formula to beat New England in two Super Bowls, and other teams, such as the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens, have found success against the Patriots using the same game plan.

In Super Bowl XLIX, the Seattle Seahawks nearly rode that strategy to a win until a Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler made an interception and sealed the game for New England. Seattle was able to hit Brady seven times in that Super Bowl.

The Denver Broncos hit Brady 17 times on its way to Super Bowl 50 and kept right on attacking quarterbacks when they played against the Carolina Panthers for the championship. So will that game plan hold up this time?

Looking back at the regular-season games, New England won five times in instances where Brady got pressured more than other team’s quarterback. In one of the two Patriots losses, Brady didn’t play, and in the other, Seattle hit Brady five times, but the Patriots got to Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson four times.

In the playoffs, both the Houston Texans and the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to get to Brady more than the Patriots’ defense got to their quarterbacks. New England won both games anyway, including one matchup during which the Texans hit Brady eight times.

Teams have been able to get pressure on Brady, but it’s what happens in the secondary that is most important. Opponents haven’t held up in coverage until the pass rush gets to Brady.

Atlanta, on the other hand, has struggled when teams pressure quarterback Matt Ryan. Four of the Falcons’ five losses have come from games in which the Atlanta defense hit their opponents’ quarterback fewer times than the opposing team hit Ryan.

Seattle had 13 hits on Ryan to the Falcons’ five hits, the San Diego Chargers had nine hits to the Falcons’ six, the Philadelphia Eagles had six hits to the Falcons’ three, and the …

National Signing Day in college football is close to the draft in the NFL. Most every coach will say that his team got some of the players that it needed to win in the next season or in the near future through that event.

Just like the NFL Draft, football fans won’t know the true winners and losers from Signing Day for a couple of seasons. The high-school and junior-college players that signed with teams yesterday, Feb. 1, still have to live up to the potential that made them worth taking a chance on.

Most recruiting rankings, including Scout, Rivals and ESPN, only look at the Division 1 FBS teams. There are few sites that rank FCS teams, but 24/7 Sports ranks 250 teams across the nation. The website has Alcorn State University with the 186th-ranked recruiting class and Jackson State University with the 206th-ranked class.

Mississippi Valley State University wasn’t ranked in the top 250 schools in the 24/7 Sports rankings, but interestingly, Mississippi College ended up at 218th on the site.

While the recruiting rankings are somewhat lacking for FCS schools, there are plenty of options for FBS-school rankings. Some look at every FBS schools, and some have a cut-off point at the top 75 or 100 schools.

The top-10 national recruiting classes, no matter which ranking service you are looking at, feature mostly blue-bloods of the sport. The University of Alabama, the University of Southern California, Florida State University, the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University, Ohio State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Oklahoma all finished in the top 10 in the four ranking lists used for this article.

Alabama finished as the top class in every ranking, and the SEC finished with three teams in the top three. The Big Ten placed two teams, and the ACC, PAC-12 and Big 12 placed one team each.

Mississippi State University ended up with the best ranking out of the three FBS schools in our state. The Bulldogs had the 24th-ranked class for 24/7 Sports and ESPN, 25th class for Scout and 27th for Rivals.

The University of Mississippi finished with the 29th-ranked team on Scout’s list, 30th for 24/7 Sports, 36th for ESPN and 39th for Rivals.

In the SEC recruit rankings, MSU finished ninth according to 24/7 Sports, Scout and ESPN, but finished 11th for Rivals. The Rebels ended up 12th in the SEC for ESPN, 24/7 Sports and Rivals, and11th for Scout.

The University of Southern Mississippi finished with the 71st-ranked class according to Rivals, 79th for 24/7 Sports and 81st for Scout. ESPN didn’t have the Golden Eagles ranked among its 75-team rankings.

USM finished with the second-best ranking in Conference USA according to Rivals and the third best in the conference for 24/7 Sports and Scout.

These …