Offenses struggled badly in Super Bowl 53. The Patriots beat the Rams 13-3, and neither team found any consistency either on the ground or through the air.
Punting was the best part of Super Bowl 53
Both offenses struggled in the Super Bowl, but Johnny Hekker uncorked a Super Bowl record punt and Ryan Allen nearly matched him kick for kick. This game was FASCINATING on special teams.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
But ladies and gentlemen, I hope you didn’t turn the dial early. There were still fireworks if you happen to be a connoisseur of special teams. On Sunday night, we witnessed one of best and highest stakes punter duels EVER, and I hope you were paying attention.
First, let’s start with the record breaker. Pinned deep near their own end zone midway through the third quarter, the Rams trotted out Johnny Hekker to bail them out. Hekker, who may be the greatest punter who has ever lived, unleashed a Super Bowl record 65-yarder that bounced and bounced and bounced (and bounced) to flip the field.
Conveniently, Hekker broke a record set by his Patriots counterpart, Ryan Allen, who booted a 64-yarder in 2015.
And Allen had an outstanding game himself. Both punters traded off pinning the other team’s offense deep. Allen has had punts putting the Rams on the 6-, 2-, and 7-yard lines. Hekker had punts putting the Patriots on their own 8-, 2-, and 12-yard lines.
Hekker’s 65-yarder might not have been the best punt of the game, by the way. His punt that was downed at the 2-yard line was a kick that dribbled 58 yards before a teammate touched it.
All but six of the 14 total punts in the game were downed inside the 20-yard line. The ones that didn’t get downed inside the 20 netted 65 (the record), 54, 43, 40, 39, and 34 yards. (That last punt, by Hekker, may be the only bad kick of the game. For reference, netting anything over 40 yards is considered outstanding for a punter).
For the game, Hekker net 46.1 yard per punt after averaging 43.0 during the season. Allen net 40.6 after averaging 39.5.
Funny enough, Allen and Hekker were teammates together for two years at Oregon State from 2008 to 2010 before Allen transferred to Louisiana Tech and began his outstanding punting career in earnest.
The 2019 Super Bowl might have been ugly, but it was the perfect cap to another banner season in the Golden Age of Punting.
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