Super Bowl LIII Review

Super Bowl LIII Review

    Congratulations to the New England Patriots. They’re officially the team of the 2010s with this win. There were some who’d written them off but us die-hard Football fanatics knew better. We knew the Patriots would use this fuel to fire themselves to their sixth Super Bowl title. They now stand shoulder to shoulder with the Steelers as the pre-eminent team of the National Football League.

    Some say six is the devil’s number. While that might be, six is the number used to justify true greatness in any given sport. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Kareem all won six NBA championships. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio all won six or more World Series rings but now a new duo has come to that six threshold for the first time in history.

    Before I continue any further, I know that Super Bowl LIII was very underwhelming. I know the Rams punted eight straight times, one of which was for a Super Bowl record 65 yards. I know both Quarterbacks finished with no touchdowns. I know Tom Brady finished with a 71.4 rating. I’m here to look at the game with a more in-depth lens.

    For instance, many are claiming there’s no way Brady’s not the GOAT after this game. Whether or not he’s the GOAT is a different topic for a different time. He sure didn’t look like it last night but got the job done nonetheless. If we’re talking players, the true GOAT of last night’s game was Julian Edelman, who walked away with a much-deserved Super Bowl MVP.

    Let the Canton talk in regards to Edelman commence.

    I don’t know if it was the defensive game plan by Bill Belichick and Brian Flores or the poor play of Jared Goff that holds more blame for the lackluster three points scored by the Rams offense. The defense did their job, holding New England without a touchdown for 53 minutes. If your defense is keeping you in the game like that, you need to pick up the slack!

    I’m going to get to both McVay and Belichick in a minute but I need to take a moment to discuss Jared Goff. He looked very nervous entering the game, which I can understand. After all, it was his first Super Bowl but no amount of nerves can account for his performance. There were some throws he made that were poor, some decisions that he made that were poorer but nothing compares to his pocket-presence last night.

    Part of the problem was the Rams O-line. They had a few pre-snap penalties that are costly in any game but are the kiss of death in the Super Bowl. Alas, one of these was a delay of game, which falls squarely on Jared Goff, not the defensive line. If they get such a chance at this game again, they must keep their composure.

    I’ve never seen a man so afraid of a three-man front. Goff wears 16 in honor of Joe Montana but whereas Montana would’ve hung in there and taken the beating, Goff’s trigger-happy pocket-presence undid him. While the Rams eventually made the proper adjustments, it was too little, too late when they did.

    Goff and company kept trying to make the play downfield when screens and short passes would’ve done the job. I get that hindsight’s 20-20 and it’s hard to change what’s worked for you all year but after the first quarter or mid-way through the second, someone needed to do something but no one did anything. Should the Rams coaching staff find themselves in this position again, may they make some adjustments like the other teams' coaches would’ve.

    I still don’t know if Todd Gurley was 100 percent but he soldiered on. I know 3.5 yards a carry isn’t the best but considering his lingering injury, I can’t put too much of this on Gurley. CJ Anderson could’ve done better but I can’t give too much blame to the running game if their offensive line turns into a turnstile. How many times did the Patriots breakthrough just because of a missed assignment?

    At the end of the day, it’s Jared Goff who’s going to take the brunt of this loss. The Rams became just the second team in NFL History to not score a touchdown in the Super Bowl. That’s even more embarrassing considering they came in with the second-ranked offense in the league. Goff will be replaying his velocity-lacking passes to Tyreek Hill, who dropped two touchdowns, over and over in his mind but it’s the interception to Stephon Gilmore that will haunt him the most.

    With all of this said, this loss might just be the best thing to ever happen to the Rams. They’re a young team with plenty of promise and there’s a good chance they’ll be back next year or in the coming years. This loss signals to me that these young Rams weren’t ready for a Super Bowl win. The true MVP of this Super Bowl was Bill Belichick, so let this game and it’s tape be a vault of lessons for the Los Angeles Rams.

    What a lesson to be learned. Belichick and the Patriots were at their dominant defensive best Sunday night. The future of the game might be in offense but Belichick has shown the world that defense still wins championships. The ’83 Redskins couldn’t beat the Raiders. The Ravens smoked the 2000 Giants, the 2002 Raiders were buccaneered by Tampa and the 2013 Broncos were boomed by the Legion from Seattle.

    Now the 2018 Rams will be added to that list, three measly points are all they came away with. The NFL is clear which direction they want the game to go in but did they get their desired outcome? No. That’s because Brian Flores’s game-plan, six men in the box to pressure Goff and the Rams top-ranked running game, would sometimes go into coverage and force Goff to hold onto the ball.

    This is an ingenious move that was used by Belichick, Flores and Wade Phillips, who despite the loss, I feel, called an excellent defensive game. The one thing I would say is that putting linebackers on Julian Edelman was not the best option, but it’s better than leaving Gronkowski open. I’m sure Gronk’s being the focus of the Rams Defense was responsible for Edelman’s game but there are some third and longs the Rams will want back for sure.

    Then again, I’d be talking about the whole league if that were the case.

    All in all, I can’t say I disagree with anything else anyone has said. This Super Bowl was trash. The best part of the game was Gladys Knight singing the National Anthem. Maroon Five’s half-time show wasn’t the best. This could’ve been saved had Andre 3000 showed up alongside Big Boi but much like the SpongeBob tribute, an Outkast reunion was nowhere to be found.

     Are there are some positives to be taken away from this game? Yes, there are. Yesterday’s game proved two notions that are as old as time, no matter how many people have tried to convince me otherwise. One of them is that Special Teams are absolutely a third of the game. To anyone who would say they’re not, just look at the Rams average starting field position. How many punts did you count that landed within the Rams 20 yard line?

    And with that awful field position, what did the Rams manage? A single Field Goal because the Patriots defense, and their genius play callers, won this game. I’ve often said that an unmovable object has a better chance of winning against an unstoppable force. The “New NFL” just got a lesson from an old master, and that is that defense still wins championships.

    So the 2018 season ends with the Patriots at the top of the mountain once more. I can’t say I’m that surprised, although I’m sure no one expected 16 total points. I was expecting way more from the Los Angeles Rams, and I’m sure they expected much more of themselves. As I said before, the Rams should take this loss as a lesson. The last time a team was held to three points was on January 16, 1972, in which Dallas clamped down on Miami.

Refresh my memory, what did Miami do the following year?

-By: Thomas P. Braun Jr.