Super Bowl LIII: New England Patriots 13, Los Angeles Rams 3

It’s been over a week now since the 2018 NFL season came to a close with the New England Patriots defeating the Los Angeles Rams to win Super Bowl 53. After a week to soak in the Super Bowl, decompress from football (we all needed it), and watch the AAF this weekend, it’s time to put a bow on the 2018 season.

Here are my biggest takeaways from this wild season.

The 2018 season was wondrous. An explosion of passing offenses led to one of the most exciting years on record, with 12 different quarterbacks throwing for 4,000 yards or more and nine more hitting the 3,000 yard barrier. Defensive stars like Aaron Donald and Khalil Mack proved non-quarterbacks can swing the balance of a game with a single play. The two conference championship games, the battles that decided which teams would play in the most prestigious contest of the year, each went to overtime and left no shortage of amazing and baffling plays in their wake.

Then things cooled down a bit. The NFL’s boiling water was thrown into the polar vortex of the league’s final two weeks. And the product that came back to earth was a slurry of half-formed snow and a few impressed murmurs as a world wondered “hey, that wasn’t what I ordered.”

James White knows a little bit about Super Bowl comebacks. After all, he scored three touchdowns and hauled in a record 14 passes when his Patriots overcame a 28-3 third quarter deficit to stun the Falcons in Super Bowl 51.

So when he took one look at the Rams’ fourth-quarter drive into Patriots’ territory trailing 10-3 and dismissed it, his teammates were right to trust his judgment.

No matter what his accolades and career achievements are, Tom Brady doesn’t like being referred to as the GOAT. Even after claiming his sixth Super Bowl in a 13-3 win against the Rams, Brady still isn’t warming up to the idea that he’s greatest quarterback in NFL history.

In an interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, Brady said he would rather be doubted that have his greatness proclaimed.

With speculation around retirement swirling, Rob Gronkowski took to the streets of Boston for what may be the last Super Bowl championship parade of his nine-year career. And for a player who once celebrated the NFL title by pounding beers, catching bottles of Fireball from the crowd, and spiking his empties into the street, Tuesday’s party was a measured, mature event for the 29-year-old tight end.

For approximately 55 minutes.

There are those who want you to believe that Super Bowl LIII was a good game. But... was it? Or are we putting lipstick on a pig for a game that had all the drama of a Week 4 Jets-Dolphins game on a Thursday night?

The praise is coming from everywhere, sources both credible in their knowledge of the game of football and not:

After the Rams 13-3 Super Bowl 53 loss to the New England Patriots, Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth gave the press a profound quote that helped put Super Bowl 53 into perspective.

The Rams may not have gotten the outcome that they wanted against the Patriots, but what Whitworth said has a deeper meaning than a football game that didn’t go their way.

The only way to really run through the full scope of the best ad at the Super Bowl — the NFL’s chaotic, crashing ode to itself and it’s 100th season — is to review almost every frame of it. There’s that much in it, so much that I feel like we can all skip right past Roger Goodell completely and get to the players.

Speaking of ignoring Roger Goodell!

The Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl since the 2001 season by beating the Rams on Sunday in Atlanta, 13-3. During its legendary run of titles, New England has played in a lot of spectacular Super Bowls. The first three Tom Brady-Bill Belichick titles in the early 2000s all came in one-score games. Two losses to the Giants were classics, and so was a later loss to the Eagles. Wins against the Seahawks and Falcons were legendary in different ways.

Not this one. Super Bowl 53 was comfortably the least exciting of any Patriots Super Bowl appearance this century. It was an extreme bore, with the most exciting moment coming when the national anthem did (or didn’t) hit the sportsbook over/under of 1 minute 50 seconds. The offense was putrid on the Rams’ side and not great on the Patriots’ side, either. There were no hugely memorable plays. That’s part of this game’s legacy. These are some other people and entities that made out brilliantly.

Well, someone had to win the Super Bowl. It was ugly, but the Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl over the Los Angeles Rams in a 13-3 game that might be forgotten soon enough.

There were 14 punts total. The teams were a combined 6 of 25 on third down. But hey, no apologies needed from the Patriots. They are the champions again.

There wasn’t much to get excited about at Super Bowl 53, even if you were a Patriots fan. Two of the league’s top offenses combined for just 16 points in a sloppy defensive battle that was won in the trenches rather than through the air.

The highlight of the night for Tom Brady’s daughter Vivian wasn’t anything her dad did on the field en route to his sixth NFL championship. It was the confetti that fell from the rafters at Mercedes-Benz Stadium after the game.

The Los Angeles Rams averaged 32.9 points per game during the regular season. But against the New England Patriots, a 53-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein provided the only three points the high-powered Rams could get on the board.

New England only needed one touchdown to get a 13-3 win in Super Bowl 53.

The Los Angeles Rams’ first offensive play of Super Bowl 53 was a handoff to running back Todd Gurley, who picked up only 2 yards before he was tripped up by a New England Patriots defensive lineman.

Gurley didn’t get another touch until just over six minutes left in the second quarter. He finished the first half with only 10 rushing yards on three attempts.

Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi combined to perform a not good Super Bowl halftime show that featured Adam Levine not playing the guitar, dancing awkwardly and showing us way more skin than anyone asked for. The man sang one song after another, neglecting his instrument throughout, and ripped off his layers in rapid succession.

Folks, this wasn’t it.

In the third quarter of the Super Bowl, CBS’ microphones at field level picked up Tom Brady’s verbal check into a new play before the snap.

Reagan, Reagan, Brady told the Patriots as he scanned the Rams’ defense. Then he handed off to Sony Michel, who ran behind right tackle for 4 yards:

Super Bowl 53 wrapped up the first half with the New England Patriots leading the Los Angeles Rams 3-0. While the Patriots and Rams went to the locker room to figure out adjustments for the third quarter, Maroon 5 came out for the halftime show. They were joined by Travis Scott and Big Boi.

You could bet on five different halftime-related prop bets at various online sportsbooks. The results were as follows:

We have reached halftime of Super Bowl LIII, and the New England Patriots lead the Los Angeles Rams 3-0 at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

It took nearly 20 minutes for the game’s first score, after a scoreless first quarter, but Stephen Gostkowski delivered the first points with a 42-yard field goal for New England. But that was it!

Toyota released a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday featuring Toni Harris, a free safety for East L.A. Community College who early in 2018 became one of the first women in history to be offered a college football scholarship. Here’s the commercial in full:

The commercial starts with a person in a hoodie loading a bag into the trunk of a (Toyota) car on a running track. “They’ve said a lot of things about Toni Harris,” a narrator says, as shots of Harris training and growing up roll over the screen.

Here at SB Nation, we’re big believers in the New England Patriots. All but one of our experts and the OddsShark computer predicted a sixth Super Bowl ring for Tom Brady and another duck boat parade through the tangled streets of Boston.

Those picks were a combination of several factors — New England’s blocking, the Rams’ lack of championship experience, reverse jinxes, the slowly creeping inevitability of Brady dad-dancing amid a cloud of confetti — along with 21 weeks of following each team closely as they took their winding paths to the biggest game of the year.

Two weeks ago, the New Orleans Saints had their Super Bowl 53 hopes dashed thanks to, in no small part, a horrible botched call from the officials. On Sunday, with the big game looming, fans in Louisiana banded together to let the world know two weeks wasn’t enough time to get over the uncalled pass interference penalty that allowed the Rams to escape the state with the conference championship in tow.

Thousands of Louisianans decked in black and gold took to the streets to express their displeasure with a league that rewarded the Rams’ “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” approach with a spot in Super Bowl 53. Parades and second line jazz funerals rang through the streets of New Orleans in a display intended to give disgruntled football fans “something better to do” than watch the team that broke their hearts play for an NFL title.

You know that old saying “Those who can’t do teach”? Maybe there’s a little bit of truth to it, at least as far as the coaches on the sideline at the Super Bowl.

They all have college football roots, but most of them didn’t even see a snap in the pros, much less have standout college careers. Now they’re coaching the best players in the world in the biggest game in the world. But ya gotta start somewhere, and here’s where they all did, led by Miami (Ohio’s) Sean McVay and Wesleyan’s Bill Belichick.

Alright folks, the time is near. The kickoff of the 53rd Super Bowl in Atlanta between the dynasty New England Patriots and the upstart Los Angeles Rams will be upon us shortly.

While there are multiple paths to victory for each team, I’m going to focus on two keys of the game. These are the two main storylines to watch Sunday night.

The Patriots were a slight underdog in Super Bowl 53. For about an hour.

That’s how long it took for bets to start flooding in on New England, pushing the Pats’ from a +1 dog to a -2.5-point favorite as Tom Brady and Bill Belichick prepare for their ninth shot at the NFL title. The swing is ruining the narrative the Patriots have foisted onto themselves as a motivational tool to keep their fourth AFC title in five years from feeling routine; that no one believes in the Patriots.