By: Jake Carrera | Sports Writer
January 25, 2019
The annual competition to see who can take down the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl is just around the corner; with the NFC challenger Los Angeles Rams taking on Tom Brady and the Patriots in Atlanta Georgia for Super Bowl 53.
For both teams, the trek to the big game was anything but easy. However, New England and Los Angeles both overcame the surplus of talent within the league to take their respective cities back to a title game for another Boston vs LA showdown.
Surprisingly, this would be Tom Brady and Coach Bill Belichick’s 9th trip to the Super Bowl since 2001. Of course, they have won the game five times–which is a stat to some that qualifies Tom Brady for ¨GOAT¨ status; however, it’s important to not count his opponent out no matter how inexperienced they are (see Nick Foles). As for the Rams, third-year quarterback Jared Goff and second-year head coach Sean McVay are both obviously looking from the outside in on competitive edge going into the big game. Goff and McVay’s inexperience puts the Rams behind, but with the right leadership and team they have a shot at taking down New England.
Goff is in the process of establishing himself as an elite quarterback within the NFL, meanwhile Brady is working on continuing his legacy. During the regular season, both quarterbacks racked up similar stats, with Goff falling just short of Brady in most categories, except for passing yards with Goff’s 4,688 to 4,355 for Brady. Besides that, Brady takes the slight upper hand with a 65.8 completion percentage to Goff’s 64.9. But that is also countered with Goff’s 32 touchdowns to Brady’s 29. With such similar stats, the advantage truly goes to the one with simply the most experience and that of course, is Tom Brady.
A quarterback is nothing without a solid receiving corp and defense, and lucky for football fans, both teams are loaded with talent. The Rams have the edge on defense with standout players such as Aaron Donald, Ndamukong Suh, and Dante Fowler holding things down on the other side of the ball. After finally waking up after the first quarter of the NFC championship game last Sunday, the Rams defense neutralized Drew Brees allowing for LA to make a comeback. It was also with the help of wide receivers Brandin Cooks and Andrew Woods who took the charge on offense. New England also boasts about their decent defensive lineup themselves; but the Rams have an obvious edge. Where the Patriots are most dangerous, however,is when they’re on offense with Tom Brady in the pocket and Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman as targets.
Just like anything in the NFL, there is always new controversy, and in this case it involves the legitimacy of the NFC champion Rams. With 1:45 left on the clock in last Sunday’s NFC championship game, the Saints were on the Rams 13 yard line in the midst of a potential game winning drive. Brees was looking downfield for receiver, Tommylee Lewis, when Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman blatantly committed pass interference– yet there was no flag on the play. Outraged, the Saints were forced to kick a field goal and kick it off to LA leaving them plenty of time on the clock to tie the game or secure a win. The Rams took the
prior route and marched right down the field where Greg Zuerlein kicked a 57 yard field goal to tie the game and send it to overtime. It was within the first few minutes of overtime play where Greg Zuerlein, yet again, kicked a sudden death field goal for the win and sent the Rams to Super Bowl 53. Despite this controversy, the Rams are still headed to Atlanta to play in Super Bowl 53 whether the people like it or not. In fact, the Saints really have nobody to blame but themselves. It is their fault that they let the Rams tie them at 20-20 late in the game while blowing a 13-0 lead in the process. The Saints coach Sean Payton was outraged, stating after the game that “They blew the call…There were a lot of opportunities, but that call makes it first-and-10, and we’d only need three plays. It was a game-changing call.” The Rams simply played the game and a blown call ended up working in their favor. However, it’s important to forget about this mishap because as a nation, it’s far more important to focus all of the support and energy into the Rams as they take on the evil empire that is Tom Brady and the Patriots as they look for an NFL leading 6th Super Bowl title.
It is up to Jared Goff and the Rams to put an end to Brady’s early February reign, and it is safe to say sports fans everywhere will be giving their support to Los Angeles come Super Bowl Sunday.
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