Super Bowl 53

VS

New England Patriots vs. Los Angeles Rams

Mercedes Benz Stadium

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Sunday, February 3rd, 2019

6:30 pm ET

    January 21st, 2019: Another NFL season has come and gone and to no one’s surprise, the New England Patriots are back in the Super Bowl despite the fact that they were heavily criticized because the Patriots had a shaky season on both offence and defence, finishing with an 11-5 record, their lowest in 10 seasons. People predicted they wouldn’t get a first-round bye and when they did, many people thought they would lose in the first round of the playoffs. That’s an incredible feat.

    Many other incredible stories have floated around the league this year. Many teams had amazing seasons like expected and other teams shocked the world by proving the haters and analysts wrong. Also, quite a few teams that were supposed to have decent seasons simply didn’t.

    The Jacksonville Jaguars, who were one game away from the Super Bowl last season, fell much short of their expectations to get into the playoffs and possibly back to the AFC Championship game this year. They had a lacklustre 5-11 record and their offence and defence reverted back to years prior to their dominant 2017 season.

    Not to mention, the Pittsburgh Steelers missed the playoffs after starting the season 7-2-1. They lost four of their last six games to close out the season including losses to the Broncos, Chargers and Raiders. With Le’Veon Bell not likely to come back, - he appears to want to play for Miami, with Antonio Brown likely to be traded away by the beginning of March - the 49ers, Broncos, Jets and Falcons are all contenders and with Big Ben contemplating retirement, their offence doesn’t look good. This being added to a not so spectacular defence is worrisome for the Steelers going into next year

    The Green Bay Packers experienced something similar. They expected Aaron Rodgers’ return this year after being injured last year would be the spark they needed to get them into the playoffs. It didn’t happen. Packers’ fans went into a frenzy when Rodgers’ got injured in week one before he came back to lead them to victory against Chicago. His injury affected his play all season long and he played well, but not his best. Davante Adams, the wide receiver played well and running back Aaron Jones played well in the few games he played. But due to a lack of depth on the Packers’ offence and defence, they missed the playoffs with a 6-9-1 record. Part of that record includes losing too many games to inferior competition like the Arizona Cardinals and being only 1-7 on the road. The Packers fired coach Mike McCarthy during the season.

    The Seattle Seahawks were projected to have a very bad season, to finish last place in their division and close to the basement of the NFC with a record of 4-12 according to ESPN because of their lack of depth on defence. The Legion of Boom had almost completely dissipated with cornerback Richard Sherman and defensive end Michael Bennett being traded away, Cliff Avril and Kam Chancellor being forced to retire with serious injuries, and with Earl Thomas wanting to go to the Cowboys. He got injured part way through the year too. They still had some weapons but they were not very strong. Their offence was also very underpowered especially because they traded away tight end Jimmy Graham to Green Bay. All they had was essentially Russell Wilson, Doug Baldwin and an unproven Tyler Lockett. Despite this, however, they went 10-6, locked up second place in their division, behind the Rams, and earned a playoff spot. They lost to Dallas in the wild-card game. They were the surprise of the year for sure.

    Not to mention, the Browns, who went 0-16 last year, improved to 7-8-1 this season with the help of excellent performances from their rookie class. Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb, Denzel Ward all had outstanding seasons. They were also actually in the playoff hunt even in mid-December, the furthest they’ve been in terms of playoff consideration in a while. They even had a chance to win their division and a better one to make the playoffs. Browns coach Freddie Kitchens says 7-8-1 is not good and they will improve more, but going from zero to 7 wins in a year is impressive. Good move firing Jackson.

    All 12 teams that made the playoffs generally had good seasons. For the AFC, the first seed Kansas City Chiefs had a great season under the second year QB Patrick Mahomes. He had over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns. The only two other QBs to do that were Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, both of whom won MVP that year and made the Super Bowl. MVP is still a strong possibility, but the Chiefs lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game making a Super Bowl appearance impossible. Speaking of the Patriots, they are on to another Super Bowl after beating the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. The third seed Houston Texans lost their first-round bye because they lost in a head-to-head matchup against the Patriots and they were dominated in the wildcard game by the sixth seed Indianapolis Colts. Houston’s offensive line didn’t protect well, Watson didn’t have a great game, they couldn’t get anything going on offence and their defence gave up way too many yards. The Colts would move on to the divisional round and get dominated by the Chiefs. The fourth seed Baltimore Ravens, who got into the playoffs after beating Cleveland in week 17, eliminating Pittsburgh in the process, lost to the fifth seed Los Angeles Chargers on a forced fumble with 30 seconds to go. The Chargers hung on to avoid a Ravens’ comeback win. The Chargers were then dominated by the Patriots’ run game in the divisional round. Running back Sony Michel had 129 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. The Patriots’ offence steamrolled a helpless Chargers defence. Complete physical domination.

    In the NFC, the first seed New Orleans Saints lost to the Los Angeles Rams on a missed, blatant defensive pass interference penalty with about two minutes left in the game. This led to a Saints field goal, the Rams were able to tie the game in the remaining time and send it to overtime and after a Brees’ interception, the second seed Rams won on a 57-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein, sending them to the Super Bowl. The third seed Bears beat the Vikings in week 17, eliminating them from playoff contention, another team that underperformed this year, allowing the Eagles to take the sixth seed. This bit them in the behind later, because the Bears would lose to the Eagles in the wild-card game on another missed field goal from Cody Parkey. This one hit the crossbar and upright. The Eagles would then lose to the Saints in the divisional round. The fourth seed Dallas Cowboys beat the fifth seed Seattle Seahawks in the wild card game and then the Rams proceeded to run all over the Cowboys with C.J. Anderson and Todd Gurley.

    So, because of all of that, the 53rd edition of the Super Bowl will see the AFC champion New England Patriots will play against the NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams for the right to be called ‘World Champions’.

    This is the Patriots’ third consecutive appearance in the Super Bowl and they will try to tie the Steelers for most Super Bowl victories all-time with six. On the other side of the field, the Rams are making their first appearance in the Super Bowl since 2001 when the St. Louis Rams were defeated by the New England Patriots in New Orleans.

    Coincidentally, the two seed Rams beat the one seed New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game to advance to the Super Bowl. It was an excellent game to

watch and both teams played well on offence and defence. Both QBs Drew Brees and Jared Goff had good games and pretty similar ones at that. He completed 25/40 passes for 297 yards and had one touchdown and one interception. Brees completed 26/40 passes for 249 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

    Despite the excellent game, there was a bit of controversy regarding a missed call that sent the game to overtime. With less than two minutes left, on a third down deep in Rams’ territory, with the game tied 20-20, the Saints tried a pass play. Rams’ cornerback Nickell Robey Coleman made helmet to helmet contact with Saints’ wide receiver Tommylee Lewis before a pass from Brees fell to the ground inside the five-yard line. Not only is this pass interference because Coleman wasn’t looking at the ball when playing the ball, but it is also a helmet to helmet hit and likely hit to a defenceless wide receiver. This penalty should have given the Saints a first and goal inside the five-yard line. The Saints would have then been able to run the clock down and hit a chip-shot game-winning field goal. Instead, because the refs neglected to make the very obvious call, the Saints were forced to settle for a field goal to take the lead 23-20. This left plenty of time for the Rams to drive down the field and tie the game with their own field goal. In overtime, Brees’ threw a costly interception to Rams’ DB John Johnson III, which led to a 57 yard GW field goal from Greg Zuerlein to send the Rams to Super Bowl 53. Even the video game Madden 19 called a penalty on a recreation of the same play the penalty wasn’t called on, that just makes refs look bad.

    There is a special rule in which the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has the authority to reverse the outcome of a game and have a rematch held if “extraordinarily unfair acts” have an effect on the outcome of a game. Nearly 524,000 New Orleans fans have signed the online petition claiming: “Due to refs’ inability to properly officiate at the game, we the undersigned want a rematch against L.A. on Sunday, January 27th,” reads the petition. “It’s the only fair solution to this travesty of epic proportions.” Having a rematch is unlikely, especially on the day of the Pro Bowl, but if any game deserves one this is it. Another tidbit of suspicious information or perhaps just a coincidence: four of the NFC Championship game referees had ties to Los Angeles or the Rams.

    Regardless of the future promises that the NFL makes to be stricter on video replay, challenge rules and future plans to potentially have more referees on the field, the fact stands that the Rams are the NFC Champions and will be representing the NFC in Super Bowl 53. This also makes Jared Goff and Sean McVay the youngest quarterback & head coach duo in the Super Bowl.

   To continue, in the AFC championship game, which also went to overtime, the

New England Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs 37-31 after Chiefs’ linebacker Dee Ford was called offside for lining up in the neutral zone which negated a game-winning interception for Kansas City. There were many other terrible calls in this game, giving substantial proof that both games were horribly officiated, even potentially rigged. Calls were missed and made for both teams, however, the serious calls were all inexplicably called or were wrongly called against the Chiefs.

    The first call was on an apparent muffed punt by Julian Edelman after a Chiefs’ three-and-out. The ruling on the field was a muffed punt, picked up by the Chiefs at the Patriots’ 30-yard line. But, unsurprisingly, the refs reversed the call on the field, despite the fact that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Edelman didn’t touch it. All video evidence was inconclusive, and in order for the referees to reverse the call, they needed to have conclusive proof that Edelman didn’t touch it, which doesn’t exist. Thus, if anything, the call on the field should have stood. Also, the trajectory of the ball did change and in one camera angle shows pretty clearly, the ball hit Edelman’s thumb before going behind his other hand before the ball deflected over his shoulder. Brady threw a pick two plays later, but the Chiefs got the interception just inside the 50, they would have had the ball at the Patriots’ 30-yard line or a touchdown if the player who returned the loose ball wasn’t touched down by contact. 20 yards is huge, especially in a tight game.

    The next play was a very questionable roughing the passer call against the Chiefs, the player only tapped Brady’s shoulder pads and was unjustly fouled. This play in no way, shape or form is entitled to get a roughing the passer call. That is absolutely unacceptable. Sure, this may seem like one very insignificant play, but it meant a lot in terms of the outcome of the game. The Patriots had a third and seven, if the penalty wasn't called, it definitely shouldn't have been called, the Patriots would have punted on fourth down, the Chiefs would have got the ball back up 21-17, and would have had the chance to run the clock out and put more points on the board with their potent offence. Instead, they were down 24-21. People may say the refs were bad to both teams, but only minor and insignificant penalties were called against the Patriots. Those two penalties against the Chiefs were huge and affected the outcome of the game because they kept the Patriots’ drive alive. I’m in no way hating on the Patriots. They are a great team, Brady and Belichick are guaranteed to be in the Hall of Fame and they have significant talent all over their roster. The referees are who everyone can’t stand. We now have another controversy. First, it was “what is a catch?”, then “what is roughing the passer and what is tackling?” and now it is “what is a referee?”

    Let’s ignore the referees for a minute because the game’s outcome wasn’t all their fault. There were things the Chiefs did to shoot themselves in the foot. For example, they couldn’t stop Brady on three third down and longs in overtime. If you can’t do that, do you really deserve a chance to get the ball back after the Patriots score? In addition, the Chiefs apparently don’t know how to line up on defence. Linebacker Dee Ford lined up offside, negating a game-sealing interception. It looked like he lined up offside, however, was he really offside? Regardless, the call on the field was offside, it looked like he was offside and that mistake, as well as a few others, prevented the Chiefs from going to a Super Bowl and cemented Andy Reid’s playoff failure legacy. He is the longest tenured coach that hasn’t won a Super Bowl. He has only made it to one. Finally, despite the fact that the Chiefs didn’t help themselves win because of the mistakes they made; if the referees had made the right calls on the muffed punt and the weak roughing the passer, maybe we’d be talking about a Chiefs vs Saints Super Bowl, if the refs had eyes in the NFC Championship game. Don’t get me wrong, Brady, Belichick and the Patriots are undoubtedly a good team filled with talent all over the roster, but the games should be fairly officiated or else the league is no fun to watch.

    Also, the NFL may have intentionally rigged both of these conference championship games because Los Angeles and Boston are bigger markets than Kansas City and New Orleans. This would give the NFL better ratings on the Super Bowl and as a result, it would make the NFL way more money. The Super Bowl would also get more views and the television channel it is on gets better ratings also. This would explain why the past 10 or more Super Bowls have had at least one number one seed or sometimes a matchup of both number one seeds from the AFC and NFC. This Super Bowl has both number two seeds, but they have bigger markets than both number one seeds, a reason to potentially rig both games. However, there is no proof of this, it’s only speculation, but several articles have been written about this including one from TPS, SB Nation, ESPN, etc.

    So as a result of these questionable, but nonetheless very exciting conference championship games, we have the Rams and the Patriots battling it out for Super Bowl 53. The Patriots are going to try to make NFL history and tie the Steelers for most Super Bowl victories with six. Meanwhile, the Rams will attempt revenge on the Patriots for beating them in Super Bowl 36. The last time an NFC team played the Patriots in the Super Bowl to get revenge for a past defeat, was last year when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Patriots in Super Bowl 52 to earn revenge for when they lost in Super Bowl 39.

    Both teams are very talented all over the roster. The Rams have a very young and talented offence with Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Robert Woods, and a very talented defence, especially in the secondary with Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters, John Johnson and Nickell Robey Coleman. In addition, they arguably have the best defensive line with players like Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh. The Patriots have a pretty good defence, with some good players in the secondary like Stephen Gilmore and the McCourty twins and have a few good linebackers and lineman too like Donta Hightower and Trey Flowers. They both also have excellent coaches. Bill Belichick is an experienced coach who knows a lot about getting to and winning Super Bowls. On the other hand, Sean McVay, 33, is the youngest head coach to ever make a Super Bowl appearance. He is very intelligent and is creative enough in his play calling to win a Super Bowl.

    The biggest mismatch is by far at quarterback. Brady, at 41 years old is the oldest quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, he can win his sixth and Jared Goff, at 24 years old is one of the youngest ever to win a Super Bowl. Same can be said about the coaches. This is Bill Belichick’s ninth Super Bowl appearance with the Patriots and he’s already won five. He is 66 years old and is 28-10 in postseason games, leading the Patriots to 15 division titles in 19 years. Sean McVay is 33, half of Belichick’s age and he is appearing in his first Super Bowl. He has done a fantastic job leading the Rams from 4-12 to 13-3 in a matter of three years.

    According to McVay, Goff is: “... an unfazed quarterback … I think his way to have success and handle adversity the same demonstrates that poise and confidence you want from your quarterback.” Brady has the experience and edge in talent, but Goff will be dominant in years to come. Belichick is more experienced then McVay, but the young Rams’ coach is very vibrant, full of energy and intelligence. It appears the Patriots have the absolute advantage and it seems that the Rams will be in for a challenge on Super Bowl Sunday. But, the Rams have the advantage in at least category.

    The Rams’ defence. Specifically, their pass rush and Aaron Donald’s DOMINANCE. Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, the only unanimous All-Pro this season, led the NFL with 20.5 sacks. He was 4.5 sacks ahead of J.J. Watt, in second place. However, considering the Patriots have done an excellent job protecting Brady during the two postseason games, giving up no sacks, giving Brady lots of time to throw and allowing Sony Michel and James White to run all over the competition, Aaron Donald and the rest of the defence needs to be a factor on Sunday. Their secondary is very good too and can cover the Patriots offensive weapons in Edelman, Hogan and Gronkowski.

    The Rams have three sacks so far in their two playoff games, but the Patriots have faced the Chargers and the Chiefs, both teams who have good edge rushers, not a lot of talent in the middle. The Rams, on the other hand, are good in both places but are better in the middle than on the edge with players like Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh and Dante Fowler. If the middle of their line is strong, they will disrupt Brady and stop the run better than the Chargers and Chiefs because the Patriots’ guards are weaker than their tackles on the outside.

    The Patriots’ secondary has also been pretty good this season, they have the 16th best pass defence and the 22nd best rush defence. The Rams have a top 5 rushing attack with Todd Gurley and the new reliable tank in C.J. Anderson and their pass attack is pretty good too, with weapons like the mobile and agile Goff at QB, Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, Brandin Cooks and more at wide receiver and two very good dual-threat tight ends in Tyler Higby and Gerald Everett. The Rams and Patriots both have excellent kickers, and punters, but if the game came down to a field goal, I’d pick Zuerlein. Gostkowski is more experienced, but Zuerlein was a beast against the Saints hitting two field goals 45+ yards including a game-winner from 57 yards out.

    Also experience and being calm is a big factor when it comes to winning Super Bowls. Both teams have experience. Cornerback Aqib Talib, running back C.J. Anderson -- who’s played amazing in four games with the Rams, two playoff games, in relief of Todd Gurley, -- and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, all ex. Broncos, have the chance to win another Super Bowl. The last time they won a Superbowl was Super Bowl 50 with the Broncos. But, it is very clear that Brady and Belichick want another ring, a sixth ring, just as bad as the Rams’ players want another ring, their first since 2002. This game will be very interesting. Both teams will prepare very well, akin to how they’ve prepared for all games this season. Also, there is widespread speculation that this will be Gronkowski’s final game of his career. The all-star 29-year-old tight end has battled through back, knee, ankle and arm injuries throughout his nine pro seasons, and even thought about retirement after last year's Super Bowl loss to the Eagles. If this is it, the dual-threat tight end isn’t letting on; he is not thinking about retirement now, he is only thinking about the game, he will consider retirement in the offseason, but according to sources, this may be the last game of his career, giving the Patriots more motivation to win to send him off into the sunset.

    Both teams are talented, no doubt, but I think the Rams win the Super Bowl. It will be a very close game, but I predict the Rams win 34-30. I think the game will be close, it will be settled by a touchdown or less. Because the largest margin of victory or defeat for the Patriots in the Super Bowl was when they lost to the Eagles last season. According to the latest odds from Los Vegas, the Patriots are three-point favourites to win the game, with an over/under of 56.5. One of the potential reasons the Patriots are favoured could just be more experience. Most of the guys on the Patriots have been to several Super Bowls, for most players, this will be their third consecutive Super Bowl. For the Rams on the other hand, excluding C.J Anderson, Aqib Talib, Brandin Cooks and a few others, the Super Bowl is uncharted territory for them. So while the Patriots are all relaxed, comfortable and ready to play, the Rams are all anxious and nervous, even during media week leading up to the big game. Comfort is good, but I believe both teams will easily cover the spread, as both offences can score, however, I disagree with the favourite because even though the Patriots have a lot of experience and talent, I feel like the Rams have more young and impact players. I predict the Rams will win. Either way though, it will be an interesting game as long as the referees don’t screw it up. There will be lots of points, trickery, good plays on defence and I think the game will come down to a big defensive play like it has last year and in years prior. I can’t wait!

    Tune into your local CBS television station or your local TSN or sports radio station at 6:30 pm ET on Sunday, February 3rd, 2019, for the kickoff of Super Bowl 53. Tune in starting at 1:00 pm ET for pre-game coverage including interviews, analysis, predictions and more. Who do you think will win Super Bowl 53? Will it be the Patriots or the Rams?