Finally, after a long season, the long-awaited time for the Super Bowl has come. This past weekend showed fantastic matchups between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams, and the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots.
The Saints, one of the hottest teams in the NFL hosted a very talented Rams. This game started off in the Saints’ favor with the home team leading at half time. What was interesting is that when New Orleans were leading at half time, they were in the lead 10-0. However, this time was the outlier because the Rams came clutch with two field goals to push the game into OT and then to win eventually. Jared Goff played well despite his struggles late in the season. He completed 25-40 passes, a 62 percent completion rate for 297 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Despite the lack of a run game, it was big plays from people like Johnny Hecker who completed a much-needed fake punt pass for a first down. It seems like the Rams have found a new go-to back in the playoffs as C.J Anderson got most of the carries with 16. However, this time he only put up 44 yards for a small 2.8 yards per carry. The biggest surprise was how horrible Todd Gurley played. For the most paid running back who is sometimes referred to as the best in the league, he had four rushes for only 10 yards; also, a big drop that led to Goff’s interception, as well as another big drop on third down. Brandin Cooks had a big night catching seven balls for 107 yards.
As for the Saints, Drew Brees didn’t play as well as he usually does because he only had 269 yards, completing 26-40 passes for a 65 percent completion percentage. The run game was stopped by the Rams again for a second straight week. Mark Ingram only had nine carries for 31 yards, while Alvin Kamara only had eight carries for 15 yards. The biggest discussion of the game was the blatant missed call by the refs. No. 11 of the Saints was going out for a swing pass from Brees, and No. 23 of the Rams clearly hit him way too early. The problem is not only that it was a pass interference not called, but also a flag for hitting a defenseless receiver, as well as a helmet to helmet hit. This play had three missed flags all in one. However, let’s understand this is only one of the reasons for the Saints’ loss, not the only reason. One big factor why they lost was because of Brees throwing an interception in overtime. The Saints did everything right by winning the coin toss and taking the ball. The issue was that Brees threw a terrible pass that was intercepted leading to Greg Zuerlein’s 58-yard game-winning field goal. Where fans will blame the no- call it has to be noted that Brees threw a pick in OT and they got to the red zone twice where they took field goals.
The next game was a fantastic one that also went to overtime. This is the second time in NFL history that both championship games went into overtime. This game was all Patriots for the majority of the game until Patrick Mahomes stepped it up bringing the Chiefs back. They scored 24 points in the fourth quarter alone to tie it up at 31 and force overtime. Mahomes threw for three TDs despite only completing 51 percent of his passes for 295 yards. The run game was also shut down as Damien Wilson rushed 10 times for only 30 yards. Sammy Watkins had a big day catching four balls for 144 yards. Williams was big in the passing game catching five passes for 66 yards.
The ageless wonder Tom Brady completed 65 percent of his passes for 348 yards. He did throw two interceptions, but what was huge was his fantastic drive in overtime completing three third-down passes eventually getting a rushing touchdown from Rex Burkhead for a game-winning rushing touchdown. Sony Michel had a good game rushing 29 times for 113 yards and two touchdowns. Julian Edelman played well, as usual, racking up seven catches for 96 yards, and was complemented well by Rob Gronkowski who caught six passes for 79 yards. The Patriots will again be in the Super Bowl for a third straight year giving Brady even more ammunition to be considered the G.O.A.T. He continues to prove the doubters wrong time and time again by winning big games.
My prediction is that the Patriots will beat the Rams 31- 27 in Super Bowl 53.
