*Some NSFW language*
Super Bowl Sunday is upon us! Welcome in to your Super Bowl LIII preview provided by yours truly. This year's matchup features the ever-dominant AFC champion New England Patriots vs. the new kids from Hollywood, NFC champion Los Angeles Rams. Like last year's Eagles-Patriots matchup, this is a rematch 17 years in the making. This matchup was what started the Patriots' reign of terror (technically, it was the "Tuck Rule" game that started it) as a young Tom Brady and an unproven Bill Belichick pulled off the upset against the then St. Louis Rams and the "Greatest Show on Turf" lead by Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, and Torry Holt in Super Bowl XXXVI. Now an old, yet wily Brady and proven Belichick square off against new blood in Sean McVay, Jared Goff, and a new Rams team all decked out under the bright lights of Hollywood. There's only one problem: nobody wanted this matchup. Obviously, their roads to get here were marred by a blatant no call on one side and a phantom roughing call on the other down the stretch. Both games made legitimate cases that the NFL is rigged and that the rules of what constitutes a penalty are wildly inconsistent. But enough of controversy, who doesn't want a Boston-LA championship rivalry to extend beyond the Celtics-Lakers rivalry of the NBA? This year's World Series featured the Boston Red Sox and the LA Dodgers. Now it's the NFL's turn, with the Patriots and the Rams. Can this Rams team avenge the pains of yesteryear? Will it all finally come full circle with the Rams being the Alpha and the Omega of the Patriots dynasty? Or will the Pats prevail again and continue their reign of terror across the NFL? I summarize both teams' road to the Super Bowl, keys to victory, and my final prediction of the outcome on Sunday! Let's roll!
New England Patriots
"FOR F*CKS SAKE, AGAIN!?!?!? CAN'T THIS TEAM JUST F*CKING DIE ALREADY!?!?!?" I'm sure all of us NFL fans are thinking the same way as the Pats make their way to their third straight Super Bowl. Make that their fourth appearance in five years and their fifth appearance in this decade. Let's be honest here, the Patriots are a guaranteed lock for the Super Bowl unless Brady retires, Belichick steps down, or both events happened. The latter happens to be the best case scenario. It also doesn't help that the rest of the AFC is full of incompetent trash and teams who are good, but not New England Patriots good. While the rest of the league is playing checkers, the Patriots are playing chess. Most teams try to implement the Patriots' system of long-term sustainable success and fail miserably. Truly, the Patriots' success is a trade secret that is only accessible by the organization as a whole and that gives them the edge over 31 other teams in the league. Nearly 20 years of dominance in one conference speaks for itself.
There have been many times that this team tried to tease their downfall to the media. Do not fall for it. But let's be clear here, the Patriots had a roller-coaster season this year as they had to stave off an overachieving Houston Texans team for the #2 seed. Most of the teams the Pats lost against were against teams that had the unlikeliest of chances to beat them. New England went 11-5 with five of those losses coming from Jacksonville (hungover after that game), Detroit (LOL), Tennessee (eliminated by Luck), Miami (trying to get Gronk to defend a lateral, major LOL), and Pittsburgh (inconsistent and condescending AF). Tom Brady showed signs that Father Time was catching up to him. Gronk looked out of sorts in games and contemplated about retirement. This is the end of the New England Patriots dynasty as we know it. That's what they want you to think! Clearly, there are three things that only matter to the Patriots: postseason, Super Bowl, and championship. As long as they do enough to make the postseason and gain some home field advantage, they're in good hands to do some major damage and remind the league why they're still the gold standard. In their playoff games, they were expected to lose. The Chargers are a more complete team than the Patriots? The Pats completely shut down Philip Rivers and Melvin Gordon in a game that was essentially over in the first half. That and the Chargers have a chronic history of postseason chokes. The Chiefs have homefield advantage and an MVP in Mahomes? Meh, let's beat their suspect run defense to death with Sony Michel. The Chiefs defense couldn't even cover Julian Edelman on third down if their life dependent on it. Patrick Mahomes did enough to rally the Chiefs though. But, the defense let him down, which lead to the firing of Chiefs DC, Bob Sutton. And thus, the evil empire continues their long reign of terror over the National Football League.
Los Angeles Rams
Y'all just had to rob us from a Brady vs. Brees Super Bowl didn't you Rams? But, we won't let that game define the Rams. When the Rams moved to Los Angeles, they needed a fresh, young face to lead the team. Not some old hag like Jeff Fisher, whose best coaching days are behind him. The Rams found their guy, hiring 30-year old Sean McVay from the Redskins to be the youngest head coach in NFL history. Under McVay's 1st season en route to a Coach of the Year award, the Rams escaped from 7-9 purgatory to an improved 11-5 season last year. Todd Gurley posted MVP-esque numbers. Jared Goff caught major strides in his 2nd year and 1st under McVay's system. Aaron Donald was one of the top defensive players in the league, playing under a Wade Phillips defense. Unfortunately, they didn't get too far as their inexperience showed in the Wild Card round, losing to an Atlanta Falcons team fresh off of a Super Bowl appearance. This year, the Rams made some major moves to bolster their roster into a Super Bowl contender, such as trading for Brandin Cooks, Marcus Peters, and Aqib Talib, and signing Ndamukong Suh in free agency.
Right out of the gate, the LA Rams showed that they were the team to beat, starting out 8-0. Many teams have tried their crack at slowing down their high-powered offense and failed with a few exceptional teams. The Rams took the next step by finishing at 13-3 with those three losses coming against the Saints, Bears, and Eagles, all playoff worthy teams in their own right. Unfortunately, they were a tiebreaker shy from the #1 seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs due to the Saints loss. But it still was an impressive season nonetheless. The Rams took care of business, running all over the Cowboys in the divisional round. They then avenged their early loss to the Saints in the NFC Championship in controversial fashion. We can talk about the blatant no-call from Nickell Robey-Coleman on Tommylee Lewis. No question, Robey-Coleman triggered the contact before Lewis could get his hands on the Drew Brees' pass. That contact was also a little helmet-to-helmet. By all accounts, that should be Pass Interference. But, let's look at the game in a bigger picture, the refs didn't stop the Saints offense from scoring at-will and letting the Rams come back. The Saints could've kept calm from the no-call and and carry on to an OT victory. But, Brees threw a lame duck INT and the Saints threw their own chance at another Super Bowl away. Unfortunate, but a win is a win for the Rams and a loss is a loss for the Saints no matter how much the entire state of Louisiana wants a recall or wants to reverse the decision in a court battle (good luck with that).
Keys for the Patriots
If we can infer from the postseason, the Patriots run defense has shut down two of the top-tier rushing attacks in the league. In the divisional round, the defense held Melvin Gordon III and the Chargers' rushing attack to just 19 yards of total rushing yards. In the AFC Championship, the Patriots' run defense held the Chiefs to just 41 total rushing yards. They eliminated both of those teams' best strengths and made them one dimensional. Philip Rivers struggled getting in rhythm due to the pressure from the Pats' D-line. So did Mahomes as he was unable to scramble and do what he did best. The defense has turned it on in the postseason, rendering a scary sign. They'll need to neutralize Todd Gurley, C.J. Anderson and the Rams' top rushing attack and dare Jared Goff to beat them with the passing game. On offense, the Patriots are glad to have Julian Edelman back as Brady's go-to-guy. You look back at last year's Super Bowl against the Eagles and wonder what if they had Edelman who went down with an early season ending injury? Edelman's presence as a third-down threat helps take pressure off the receiving corps and it opens up some opportunities for Gronk to do some major damage down the middle. Gronk, of course will also be a major factor this game as well as his conditioning. Rookie, Sony Michel has been an outstanding bell cow back this postseason. But, he's gonna have a challenge against a tougher Rams' run D with Ndamukong Suh and Aaron Donald anchoring the middle. Look for the Pats to mix it up with him, White, and Burkhead for a change-of-pace in the back field.
Keys for the Rams
Obviously, leading the Rams to a victory will be contingent on how their homegrown star talent will dictate the game: Jared Goff and Todd Gurley on offense and Aaron Donald on defense. Aaron Donald, without question, is the best pass-rushing DT in the NFL right now. He can wreck an opposing team's gameplan all by himself. Aaron Donald has to win his matchups inside to generate pressure up the middle against Tom Brady. Ndamukong Suh and Dante Fowler Jr. could be X-Factors to free Donald up and turn loose. This game against the Patriots could very well go down to one final stop and if the Rams' D is on that field for the final minute, look for #99 to be a game-changer and win the game. On offense, it's been a strange postseason for Todd Gurley. 115 rush yards in the divisional round against the Cowboys, but only 10 yards against the Saints. This game will be completely contingent on Todd Gurley's health (he battled some injuries down the stretch) as he's pretty much the engine that drives the Rams offense (with all due respect to Jared Goff). If Gurley's back to top form, it bodes well for the Rams and takes a lot of pressure off of Jared Goff. It also helps that the Rams signed C.J. Anderson late in the season to give themselves a 2-Back committee to relieve some pressure off of Gurley to do it all. As for Goff? He's played smart all season long, but he won't be afraid to take deep shots to Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods. He has to play turnover-free, manage the game, and mix it up in the passing game throwing to different receivers. If I'm Coach Sean McVay, I look at last year's Super Bowl where Doug Pederson threw all he can handle against the Patriots, even the kitchen sink. McVay's is as much of a risk-taker too. Look for him to throw every play, every sequence in the playbook against the Pats.
Prediction
As I mentioned countless times, if the Super Bowl didn't feature the New England Patriots, my pick would be a little more indecisive. As long as they represent the AFC in the big game, how in the hell can you pick against them? Whether they win or lose, the Patriots will always be the pick to win it all unless they start the post Brady-Belichick era a little too early than expected. Not to discredit the Rams, they have the talent to keep up with the Patriots and this game has the makings of an offensive shootout. The Rams have emerged as a future perennial contender. It's just not their time yet as Brady and the Pats will pull off some miracle in the final drive en route to a sixth Lombardi trophy. In conclusion: shootout, but the Pats D will make at least one key stop and set Tom Brady and the Pats up for a game-winning TD. They do have all of their clutch weapons back.
NE 28 LAR 24
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