BY STEPHEN YOUNATAN
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots won their 6th Super Bowl in the last 18 years, beating the Rams 13-3 in the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever.
The Los Angeles Rams (the league’s 2nd ranked offence) was held to just 3 points by Bill Belichick’s defence. This win coming 18 years after Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl which also happened to be against the Rams. The game started out with a few miscues, one by Brady that led to an interception. The Rams didn’t really do much to respond however. The fact that a record punt (65 yards) was a major highlight shows how lacking the offence was.
Despite it being a low-scoring game, the Patriots managed to outwork the Rams for every inch on the field. You could just tell the narrative going in, how could you stop the Patriots? Veteran quarterback Brady and long-time head coach Belichick vs the young inexperienced Rams. How could the Rams possibly beat such a well-oiled machine? They would have to score as they did in the regular season. The Rams were even considered to be the better team in this matchup. However, the Patriots machine-like game plan unfolded to perfection.
“I definitely got out-coached,” said Rams head coach Sean McVay. “It was mostly a result of me doing a poor job calling the plays and not giving us a chance to win.” The Rams didn’t even have a third-down conversion throw until the second half. Todd Gurley, the Ram’s key offensive piece was held to 35 yards on 10 carries. There was definitely controversy about Gurley’s health leading up to the game. Gurley was pulled out of the NFC Championship game due to a sore knee. McVay insisted that Gurley is healthy after the game. “He is (healthy). I never enabled us to get a rhythm offensively.”
According to the internet, this was by far the most boring Super Bowl in a long time–if not ever.
With such a low-scoring offensive performance, you would think the halftime show would come in and steal the show after a dry first half. The halftime show began with headliner Maroon 5 performing a few of their hits. Then a classic scene from SpongeBob Squarepants that many fans petitioned for made an appearance on the living room TV set. Followed by Travis Scott and Big Boy before Maroon 5 ended up finishing it off.
Back to the football, the first touchdown had not been recorded until the 7-minute mark in the 4th. But that’s all the Pats needed to win their 6th championship in franchise history. The Patriots then followed up that touchdown with an interception with just over 4 minutes to go. Brady praised the Rams for their play, but in the end the Patriots had done more to win. “That’s a great football team, they’re at this point for a reason, they got a lot of great players, and we just made enough plays.” Belichick couldn’t be happier for his team. “We all did a great job, that was a great team win, I’m just extremely proud of everybody.”
With the win, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick both establish themselves as the greatest quarterback and coach duo of all time, and that is fact.