One of my favorite movies from recent years (yes, I consider the 90s recent) is Apollo 13. At one point during the film, when everything is going wrong with the spacecraft, Ed Harris says to the mission control crew, "What do we have on the ship that's good?" "We'll have to get back to you, Gene." That's kind of how I feel about Super Bowl LIII.
Since there are no shortage of articles decrying this as the worst Super Bowl ever, I'm going to try to pull out the good from it. Because there was some.
Defenses played great. First, hats off to the Rams defense, which held Brady and company to a single touchdown late in the game. The Patriots defense was equally great, although degree of difficulty is less with holding Goff (who pretty much fit the deer in headlights cliche) in check than holding Brady and company down, until a fairly remarkable completion to Rob Gronkowski and Sony Michel run. Had the Rams offense done anything at all, and converted the 2 TD chances it had, maybe we're talking about a different outcome. They got some pressure on Brady and did their part. So did New England's defense. If you're going to complain about too much offense in today's NFL, and most of us do, you have to have some respect for when defenses make plays. There were some great moments in coverage in this one.
Officials didn't decide the outcome. This is kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it's great that no one can look at the officials as determining who won, as with the Rams-New Orleans game. (In retrospect, Patriots-Saints would probably have been a much better matchup; stage wouldn't have been as big for Drew Brees as it seemed for Jared Goff, alas.) The negative, though, is that officials seemed absolutely petrified to make calls of any kind. One key sequence (I thought) was when the Rams had a promising-looking drive killed by back-to-back calls/non-calls. There was a hold that wiped out Gurley's best carry of the game into New England territory that looked questionable. But fine, just one play. A play later, though, Goff was drilled by a Patriot defender while halfway out of bounds on a scramble. Refs throw a flag on that play 9 times out of 10, and if you don't think it would have been called had Brady been the one leveled into the cheap seats, I can't help you.
Collectively, those two plays killed a drive that would at least have ended in field goal range, I think. Defender had Brandin Cooks by the wrist on a "dropped touchdown pass" right before Goff's game-ending (essentially) interception, as well, though I can accept officials being unable to see that one. Bottom line: officials seemed to be told to stay out of this game, a response to them being The Story of the Saints-Rams game.
Prop bets went OK.I tried to tally up my pre-game prop bets column and believe I went 12-8. (Uncertainty comes from certain bets like the "player/coach announcing retirement after game" -- should I be considered to have gone 3-0 on those, or just 1-0?) Anyway, my strengths were betting unders: rushing yards for Gurley, rushing yards for Anderson, rushing yards for White, passing yards for Goff, total touchdowns, etc. And over on Edelman, where the number was just 7 receptions -- his halftime total. Bottom line is the smart money had Goff struggling a little bit, and I think that conspired to keep New England's offense in check too; they realized they didn't need to force very much on offense the way the Rams offense was sputtering.
A couple of good commercials. It can be hard at Super Bowl parties to properly appreciate the commercials. People are talking, walking in front of the TV, etc. But the Bud Light-Game of Thrones pairing was truly awesome -- smart, funny, and then really stuck the landing with the dragon. I like the elevator one about car shopping, too, and of course the one filled with great former and current NFL players. Nothing else really sticks in my mind as most advertisers played it safe, I think, mindful of the contentious climate we live in.
National Anthem. Gladys Knight, pretty good. She's got a past in this business.
In fairness, the article wouldn't be complete if I didn't spend a little time discussing the bad. For example:
Sean McVay. He admittedly called a bad game, and Jared Goff played a bad game. The most damning thing to me is that Todd Gurley caught 1 pass. You have one of the greatest weapons in the NFL the past couple of seasons and he's not involved in the passing game. Yes, maybe he was hurt. But if he was, what earthly reason could the Rams have for not listing him on the injury report? Either he wasn't hurt and the Rams woefully underused him, or he was hurt and the Rams inexplicably didn't list him as injured. AND they underused him. Inexcusable, and the main reason the Rams lost an eminently winnable game.
While Goff got the most heat for the late interception where Brandin Cooks wasn't even looking for it, I was more disappointed by the play where he had a wide-open Cooks in the back of the end zone and he floated it, giving the defender a chance to come across the field to break it up. A good throw there and the Rams are up 7-3 and we have a game. Most likely a game where Brady then nickel and dimes his way down the field for the winning touchdown, but a game nonetheless. That was the throw Goff had to make, and he didn't.
Halftime show. No big deal. Of course the halftime show was lame, everyone knew that would be the case when Maroon 5 was announced. I was surprised they didn't bring out Carrie Underwood to sing the Cardi B part of "Girls Like You" to just up the lame factor. I must have blinked during Big Boi's appearance since I don't recall it, or I was distracted by Adam Levine flashing a nipple or something.
Julian Edelman HOF talk. Give me a break. I'm glad the guy won the MVP (some saps probably voted for Tom Brady anyway), but there is a long list of wide receivers who need to get in before Edelman gets within shouting distance of candidacy. Just one argument against him (although there are plenty, like his career stats) is that when he missed last postseason, Danny Amendola went 11 for 112, 7 for 84 with 2 TDs, and 8 for 152, and nobody thinks Amendola is a special player. Edelman is a nice slot receiver who fills a role in New England's offense that plenty of ordinary guys can and have filled.
But hey, I was planning to stay positive with this article. So here are some more positives: nobody got seriously hurt. The better all-around team with the more experienced coaching staff and players won. Nobody who watched this game can think the Patriots have any aura of invincibility that should scare the rest of the NFL a year from now; surely somebody is going to keep them out of this game next year. And just maybe Bill Belichick will at least think about walking away, because what else does he have to prove? He's the best. Congrats, man. Now please, go away and leave us alone!
Thanks for reading; NFL Draft just 12 weeks away!