The dynasty continues as the Patriots claim their sixth Super Bowl title
Timothy Holcombe, Staff Writer
The New England Patriots are Super Bowl LIII champions as they took down the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in The Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA on Sunday Night.
The first quarter was largely dominated by the Patriots as the Rams offense struggled from the opening kickoff. The Patriots controlled time of possession as they held the ball for over 11 minutes in the first quarter and out gained the Rams 122-29.
Despite this, New England only held a 3-0 lead after one quarter as the Rams defense came up with key stops deep in their own territory such as Cory Littleton picking off Tom Brady on his fist pass attempt of the ballgame, after the Patriots marched down the field through the use of its running game. Stephen Gostkowski provided the only scoring of the quarter as he connected on a 42 yd. field goal.
The Patriots held on to that lead into the second half as neither team was able to put together very meaningful drives and at halftime the Patriots had held the Rams offense to only 2 first downs.
The Third quarter consisted more of the same as the two teams traded off punts on each of the first four possessions of quarter highlighted by Johnny Hecker, the Rams punter, who had a Super Bowl record 65-yard punt. Then the Rams Offense finally started showing some signs of life as they were able to push the ball onto the Patriots side of field which led to a Greg Zuerlein 53 Yard field goal towards the end of the quarter to tie the game at 3. The kick was the first 50 plus yard field goal in the Super Bowl in 15 years.
The fourth quarter provided the most action of the game in that someone finally broke through with a Touchdown as Sony Michel took it in from 2 yards to give the Patriots the 10-3 lead.
The Rams had the chance to respond as they drove the ball into Patriots territory. Goff then threw a strike to Brandin Cooks in the endzone, but Cooks was unable to make the grab. Replay showed that Cooks may have been interfered with but inevitably there was no call made. Then on the very next play, New England blitzed Jared Goff forcing him an errant throw as Stephon Gilmore, South Carolina alum, picked off the pass and seemingly dashing the Rams Super Bowl hopes.
New England would add a Gostkowski 41-yard field goal to push the lead to 13-3 lead with just over a minute to go securing Tom Brady’s sixth Super Bowl title as the patriots would go on to win by same margin.
For the Patriots, Tom Brady finished the game 21-35 with 262 yards passing and the 1 INT. Sony Michel had 18 carries for 94 yards and the only touchdown of the game. While Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman had 10 receptions for 141 yards.
For the Rams, Jared Goff completed 19 of his 38 passes for 229 yards and 1 INT. Todd Gurley II, ran and had a mere 10 carries for 35 yards on the night. Gurley is considered one of if not the best running backs in the NFL, so this leaves the question, why was Gurley not used more? Here’s what the head coach of the Rams, Sean Mcvay had to say. “I should’ve done a better job of getting Todd more involved. I got outcoached.”
It was clear Sunday night that in the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever that Mcvay still has a lot to learn before he can overthrow the two headed monster that is Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
