Worst Super Bowl of all time? Or simply Most defensive?: The Faceaters Come Out In Force: America Gets the Bludgeoning It Deserves
Wow....
13-3....
More punts than plays in the red zone...
Jared Goff and Sean McVay actually looking scared....
What was the meaning of all of this?
What were we watching?
Can we even make sense of it all?
The fact is....shitty Super Bowl or not, we were due for a low scoring or at least less crazy game: and we still got a close game, with limited margins of error for both teams.
We've been spoiled in recent memory, with only the Panthers-Broncos and Broncos-Seahawks Super Bowls being the worst games in the last 10 years. Remember: The Super Bowl used to be the worst game of the year, with perennial blowouts and disappointing performances.
We still had a high quality (if only on defense) game.
It was literally Wade Phillips vs Bill Belichick, as both defenses controlled the tempo of the game, going from a grinding speed where the clock continued to run without end, to a slog, all with the clock continuously running.
Maybe it was just me, but it felt like this was one of the quickest Super Bowls in modern history and maybe Belichick wanted that: perhaps he wanted Goff to have considerably less time to make decisions and find a rhythm or a groove over the course of a game.
Other then Tom Brady feeding Julian Edelman, who had a crazy day with 141 yards and 10 catches including a myriad of first downs that broke the backs of the Rams defense (whether the Patriots scored points off of the drives or Not, these plays wore the LA front down and the clock...). Even Rob Gronkowski had a big day.
I don't know what to make of it all.
Both the Pats and Rams were only 3-12 and 3-13 on 3rd down respectively, with the Patriots only running 8 more plays than the Rams despite having the ball just under 7 minutes more. The Patriots also had one more drive than LA, too. Both Brady and Goff threw interceptions, as well, though the biggest stats that actually stick out were:
The Patriots: 3 penalties to the Rams 9 penalties; NE only allowing 1 sack for a loss of 9 yards, LA allowed 4 sacks on Goff for a loss of 31 total yards, including directly costing them a few field goal opportunities.
The final stat that has to be said turned the game: The Rams ran for 62 yards on 18 carries; The Patriots ran for 154 yards on 32, showing that they were able to control the clock just a bit more.
That's what this game was: just a bit more....just a bit more than the other and you're over the line....
It definitely had moments of high tension, but there was never a release, never a moment where you said "ok, that's a defining play!"
All we are left with is numbers: 9 Super Bowls and 6 wins.
It's surreal.
What's even crazier is they could be back for another few seasons, still, so I wouldn't get so sick of the Patriots just yet.
Belichick and his Legion of Doom have proven they can shut down any offense, with a first half shutout of the Chiefs while allowing only 1 catch to Tyreek Hill; absolutely destroying the Chargers and the short Philip Rivers passing attack; and now this masterpiece: ripping an offensive genius to shreds without direct communication to his defensive unit at times and this was occurring with the underrated, all-pro former USC safety Patrick Chung injured, sidelined after his apparent broken arm in the 3rd quarter.
The Rams had it allllllll good though in the beginning of the first quarter. They won the toss, then gave Brady the ball: instead of Brady going down and scoring 7-0 and milking 5 or 6 maybe even 8 minutes off of the clock, he was intercepted on his first passing attempt.
Don't even pay attention to the score: in any game of any magnitude against Tom Brady:
THIS IS A MUST SCORE SITUATION.
Teams that do not score off of big turnovers against Brady (without tracking the stat down) I'm sure aren't more than 1-10 when playing him in the playoffs.
If the Rams turned that interception into points, they then could've dictated terms to a rattled Brady. Brady was shaken as Franklin-Meyers, another defensive lineman for the Rams, strip-sacked him for the first time in the entire playoffs.
Although New England recovered Brady's fumble, just imagine if the Rams had a 7-0 lead and had already turned one of Brady's mistakes into points.
We're talking about a Wade Phillips defense that was very disruptive, so brutal on that Pats front and on the edge, that the Patriots only scored 13 points and one touchdown clear at the end of the game. They were good enough to stem the tide while Julian Edelman set a Super Bowl first half receptions record with 7.... the Patriots still couldn't score a touchdown.
I don't know whether this points more to the ineptitude of the Rams offense in Atlanta, or the Patriots being lucky and efficient thanks to the legs and power of Georgia rookie Sony Michel, who should've won the game's MVP with his 94 yards rushing and game winning touchdown. They even had gunner Matthew Slater being a potential MVP candidate with his all important punt coverages, that was how un-offensive (for lack of a better term to describe the LSU v Alabama-esque ball movement) this Super Bowl LIII was. Slater was often touching the ball deep to pin the young, already rattled LA offense in the cauldron of their own 5-10 yard line most of the game. And, the few times they tried to return the punts, Slater came up with a smashing hit that throttled LA.
As for Tom Brady, without the throw to Gronk (that sealed the game by setting up either team for the first time in the red zone) or the 3 back breaking 3rd down completions to Edelman, Brady doesn't have enough of an arm to beat the Rams.We know for a fact with a mentally prepared Jared Goff and an unafraid Sean McVay, who looked like McCauley Culkin after a visit by his old Catholic priest, they would've beaten this lackluster Patriots team.
Though the biggest play of the game has to go to the bomb Goff overthrew to the end zone where a wide open Brandin Cooks waited for the ball to come down. It did, just not in his hands, as Jason McCourty (the brother of Patriots safety Devin McCourty) who was just in the game to replace the injured Chung, swatted the ball out of his hands at the back of the end zone.
That was the play where the Rams should be scoring a touchdown.
It was still 3-0.
That was the play where Brandin Cooks has to fight for that ball and leave his feet and go up and get it.
Great things come to those who wait...................just not when you're playing the Patriots.
Just like the Saints before them, LA will feel an intense hangover from this one: wondering, through sleepless, sweat and booze covered nights, how they let the Patriots hold them to 3 points and win while only scoring 13.
Rams quarterback Jared Goff can't just have a short memory and forget this: he needs to study this game film. If he wasn't so concerned with launching the ball down the field, he wouldn't have missed five or six wide open check downs to Gurley or Anderson that would've moved the chains and kept drives alive.
The Rams have a great future ahead, containing depth, youth, athleticism and now experience at nearly every position.
Though, we always think we'll be back to the big dance to rectify these "youthful" mistakes, But as we've seen with Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Drew Brees: you better win one while you can, whenever you can, because you never know, you may never get back there again.
Nobody else has a birth right to it...
Nobody else is Tom Brady...
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