Tom Brady Is the Greatest Quarterback Ever and the Defense Played Perfectly: The Affirmative and Surprising Super Bowl LIII
If you bet the over on Super Bowl LIII, you were likely disappointed. If you wanted to see a game that was the culmination of a season with more offense than any other, you were likely disappointed. If you wanted to see Adam Levine croon like SpongeBob SquarePants, you were likely disappointed. In fact, the only ones who seemed to enjoy themselves on Sunday were fans of the New England Patriots or those who only wanted to tune in to see the Super Bowl advertisement for Avengers: Endgame.
But I’m a Patriots fan and I’m very content with the way things shook out on Sunday; there’s no denying that!
It was great, too, to be home for this Super Bowl. I don’t remember the first Patriots win and I only vaguely remember the second two. But the Super Bowl against the Seahawks was seminal and then I was in Amherst for the Falcons game and in Orlando for the Eagles game last year. So it was nice to be home with my family and my mother, who taught me the love of the Patriots and we could even record a podcast about the game together, just one hundred days after we did the same for our beloved Red Sox.
But in a game that sent everyone to bed early (unless you’re a New England fan, of course), what is there really to say about the Patriots, who, at this point, are just perennial contenders and it’s hard to even come up with narratives about them besides “They’re really good and their legacy keeps growing and they maybe weren’t as good this year, but they’re still the fucking Patriots so yeah they won it all again.”
Turns out, there’s a lot!
For one, I want to go out on a limb and make a very bold claim right now. The way the Patriots defense played during Super Bowl LIII was the best I have ever seen them play. Not in a Super Bowl mind you. Ever. In my lifetime, I truly believe the Patriots have never looked so capable and competent on defense. I’m too young to remember the heyday of Ty Law, Mike Vrabel, Asante Samuel, Rodney Harrison, Willie McGinest, and Tedy Bruschi, but I still feel very confident in this claim.
It shows a lot about the difference between Matt Patricia and Brian Flores. Now, no knocks on Patricia. After all, he was there for two Super Bowls, but the gameplan that Bill Belichick and Flores collaborated on was astounding and the adjustments they were able to make at halftime, doubly so. They held one of the most elite offenses ever completely in check. They reverted Jared Goff to his rookie season, they effectively eliminated the impact of former Offensive Player of the Year Todd Gurley (though, the Rams might have done that themselves), and the most yards they gave up to the top notch corps of Rams receivers came in garbage time to Brandin Cooks.
But it was more than just the fact that the Patriots limited the talented Rams offense. They did things that I’ve never seen a Patriots defense do. Usually, their mindset is “bend, don’t break,” but the defense hardly even bent, never letting the Rams into the red zone all game and limiting them to just three poits. They didn’t even break when they had to adjust to Patrick Chung’s broken arm. Usually, the Patriots can get pressure and push opposing quarterbacks out of the pocket, but they hardly ever sack them. In this game, they sacked Goff four times. My personal favorite was Kyle Van Noy turning on the jets to level Goff to his knees.
I felt like I was in another world watching the Patriots defense. It was so refreshing to watch them completely dominate the Rams for the entire game (not just a half, like they did versus the Kansas City Chiefs, mind you). And I think a major reason for that was the tone set by Dont’a Hightower.
Hightower was missing from last season’s Super Bowl against the Eagles and it showed. He doesn’t always make the biggest plays on defense, but his tonal work and the impact he has as a leader and as a playcaller is invaluable to the Patriots. He could basically coach the entire unit directly from the field. More than this, Hightower also had an impact on the box score with his two sacks, but he also came just inches away from a recovered fumble and an interception. If he makes either one of those plays, I bet Hightower would have been the MVP of the Super Bowl.
The player who I felt deserved to be MVP (though, I totally and entirely understand the Julian Edelman pick and I believe he was assuredly deserving) also came from a defensive game-changer as Stephon Gilmore cemented his reputation as the league’s best cornerback by adapting perfectly to Belichick’s new zone coverage scheme (he did admittedly mostly shadow Cooks) and shutting down the targets of the Rams offense. On top of this, he recorded five solo tackles and snagged the interception that clinched the win for the Patriots. Cradling it like it was his baby. Gilmore left me thoroughly impressed all game!
Lastly, I would be remiss to not mention the defensive impact of Jason McCourty, the twin of Patriots stalwart Devin McCourty, as he made what was the play of the game by stretching the length of the field to break up what should have been an easy Rams touchdown to Cooks. It was a perfect play of defense that came from a man who was driven to put a championship ring on his finger!
Of course, as good as the Patriots defense played, the offense had to do something and they fortunately did just enough to win. Riding the coattails of successful special teams efforts from punter Ryan Allen, who left the Rams pinned deep in their own territory frequently, and kicker Stephen Gostkowski, who missed his first field goal attempt, but netted two that gave the Patriots the lead and clinched the win for them, respectively.
The other score came from Sony Michel, a much maligned first round draft pick of the Patriots who proved himself in spades by showing just why Belichick wanted to emphasize the running game during the draft. Michel fit into the system perfectly, even though it was a system that never really had room for running backs who couldn’t catch passes. Of course, Belichick tinkered (as masterful coaches always do) and found that if the Patriots were to be successful, then they had to rely on Michel. The lone touchdown of the game came from Michel and it was a fitting moment for the rookie!
Undeniably, however, Michel never would have gotten the opportunity if he had not been set up perfectly by Rob Gronkowski. Gronk made two big plays on that scoring drive in an effort that turned back the clock to when he was the only NFL star who was completely unguardable. His catch at the two yard line with defenders abound and around him was impeccable and classic Gronk and arguably one of the most impressive and imperative catches of his entire career. If this ends up being Gronk’s last stand in the NFL, then it was nice to see him look vintage as his first, and potentially only, NFL decade comes to an end.
The offense was only kept alive to that point, though, by Julian Edelman, who is assuredly the top target of Brady’s and was basically the only receiver who had a pulse during the Super Bowl. (Philip Dorsett and Chris Hogan had no receptions. Side note: this might be the least impressive receiving corps to ever win a Super Bowl.) The pick to give him the MVP trophy and send him to Walt Disney World is definitely understandable as Jules always got open and always hauled in clutch receptions and I look forward to the endless debate about whether or not he belongs in Canton!
Of course, I have to mention Brady. He wasn’t great in the game, but he continued to add to his legacy, further affirming that he is the greatest quarterback of all-time with his sixth Super Bowl victory, two more than the nearest quarterback and one more than the nearest football player. As surprising as the score and the defense was, the game was also affirmative because it cemented in stone that Brady and Belichick are the best to ever do it. And Brady might just be the greatest sportsman to ever live.
What does it mean to have six Super Bowls? It’s a truly incredible feeling. The Red Sox are easily the best baseball team, in terms of championships, of this new century, but they still have a long way to go to catch the New York Yankees and, likewise, the Bruins have a long way to match the Montreal Canadiens. (Maybe it’s best that they don’t because I worry we’re teetering into gluttonous territory.)
And while the Celtics have the most NBA titles ever, I’ve never been as into them as I have been for the Red Sox and the Patriots. So to have the Patriots now at the top of the Super Bowl record books with the Pittsburgh Steelers is a really cool feeling and it helps them now prop up their legacy and seventeen year dynasty to the point where it’s undeniable that they are the greatest franchise in the history of the NFL and, quite possibly, the greatest in all of sports, considering how the league and the way the league has treated them has been established to make sure the Patriots don’t succeed and yet, here we are. (Natural law is also established to make sure Brady doesn’t succeed, but he’s forty-one years old and is arguably better than he ever was, save the 2007 season with Randy Moss.)
It’s like I said. It’s an affirmative Super Bowl. It reaffirmed everything we already knew and left absolutely no room for debate. It’s the Patriots’ league and the Patriots’ world. We might as well deal with it. Because the Patriots have! And they’ve won six titles because of it.
I had to grapple with some uncomfortable feelings after the game and I want to preface this portion of the piece with the fact that I know nobody wants to hear whatever struggles Boston sports fans had with Boston sports. I know it’s entirely uninteresting and downright groan-worthy. But after the game, I had a very strange feeling.
I’m not sure if it was because the game sapped the energy out of me due to the command the Patriots had all game or if the disgusting mob of photographers and reporters around Tom Brady after the game really pulled me out of the moment, but I was worried that my feeling meant that I wasn’t excited. My favorite football team in all the world had just won the Super Bowl and I wasn’t feeling jubilation. I hated myself for it.
But I’ve come to the conclusion that it wasn’t because it “got old.” It never gets old. It’s the Super Bowl and it’s so exclusive that many teams have never even played in it, much less won it six times. No, that wasn’t it at all. It wasn’t a feeling of disappointment or “I’m used to this.” It was true content. It was true sports fan nirvana. The Bruins and Celtics both won epic titles. The Red Sox dominated in 2007, broke the curse in 2004, and were a team of misfit destiny in 2013. And they won again in 2018 to go back to back with the Patriots for the second time ever and the first since 2004. The Patriots, of course, won three Super Bowls in dynastic fashion, Malcolm Butler pulled off the greatest play in football history, and they orchestrated a comeback for the ages. And I am living in a world where the Patriots and the Red Sox are reigning champions. There’s nothing more I can ask for as a sports fan. It’s true contentment. It’s the perfect feeling. And after all I wrote about above, there’s just, you know, I can’t ask for anything else besides this. And the 2014 and 2016 Super Bowls were filled with such pure shock (they are arguably the two greatest Super Bowls ever played) that the 2018 matchup felt more subdued, but no less joyous. What it lacked in pure adrenaline was made up for entirely by dopamine.
Now, I have friends who are fans of the Detroit Lions, the New Orleans Saints, the New York Jets, the Los Angeles Rams, the Houston Texans, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and so many more who would love nothing more than a Super Bowl title. And now I want that for them. I truly don’t mean to be condescending or smug. I really want it for them. I want everyone else to know this feeling. Sports is just so cruel that everyone deserves to know this feeling, no matter their fanbase.
But it’s never been cruel to Tom Brady. And in my lifetime, it’s never been cruel to the New England Patriots. That’s amazing. And I don’t take it for granted. The Sunday afternoons watching our rotation of beloved players around Brady and Belichick and the February evenings watching them in the Super Bowl never get old. It’s been among my favorite traditions of my youth and I know I’m so lucky and so blessed to have such a successful sports life. And now, it’s that time of the year again. I mean, the Patriots won the Super Bowl. And it’s all good! Sports fan nirvana, baby!
