Buying chips and soda, inviting or being invited to parties, unfolding preserved jerseys: this seems like the week before the Super Bowl. Although sometimes hectic, this is an exciting time for most of the 100 million viewers of America.

This year’s Super Bowl in Houston is between the 12-4 defending champions New England Patriots and the 11-5 Atlanta Falcons.

The Patriots are considered to have one of the most competitive and experienced quarterbacks on their side, Tom Brady, as well as a Bill Belichick, who has been the Patriots’ head coach for 18 years.

Atlanta has offensive key points as well. Julio Jones, their 28 year old Pro Bowler, had 1,409 total receiving yards in this year’s regular season, according to espn.com. He is a reason that gives Atlanta fans more confidence. Though some people, like freshman Ian Choi, think that Julio Jones is not a big threat to the Patriots’ defense.

“The Patriots’ defense can handle Julio Jones and the rest of Atlanta’s offence,”  said Ian Choi, who is in contrast an Atlanta fan.

Most of the confidence and love of football fans seems to support the Falcons. This is mostly because of the rising dissatisfaction due to the Patriots continual success. According to patriots.com, the Patriots have had 6 Super Bowl appearances, 4 of which they won, after Brady started.

The “Deflategate” is also a factor that leads many people to cheer for the Falcons. It happened in early 2015 when the Patriots were accused of deflating the footballs used in the AFC championship against the Indianapolis Colts to help them win. This dilemma stretched until mid 2016, which by then had created a lot of negativity around the Patriots.

This caused a suspension in the first four games of this season for Brady. Although this may seem to have harmful effects, the Patriots finished the first four games with a 3-1 start.

This may not be bad at all because it is likely to motivate Brady even more to prove the skeptics wrong.

“After game four of Brady’s suspension, Tom had a passion to prove that he was the best on the field,” said junior Chris Clancy, who will be rooting for the Patriots.

This passion that Clancy mentioned showed in the remainder of the season, as New England went on to lose only one game six weeks after Brady’s return, in week 10.

“Tom is a big reason that will help the Patriots win,” Clancy went on to say.

“[I think that] the Patriots will win because they have a better offensive strategy,” freshman Reed Burgess said.

So it seems the major factor that the Patriots are specialized in is their general offence. But, Atlanta’s defense has had a total of 12 interceptions this past regular season. So the main question to be looking forward to at the Super Bowl party is: how will the Patriots’ offence stack up to Atlanta’s defense?