New England Patriots - NESN.com
Super Bowl LIII doesn’t get love for its “boring” gameplay but the New England Patriots put on a defensive masterclass to earn a sixth championship.
The Patriots earned a 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Sean McVay’s offense lit up the scoreboard all season long with 32.9 points per game, the second-best mark in the NFL that season. Instead of a shootout, the Patriots won a slugfest and kept the Rams out of the end zone that night.
From a game-planning perspecitive, former Rams running back Todd Gurley since got a briefing of how much more prepared the Patriots felt in that championship setting.
“Talking to a couple of the Patriots defensive players, they were like, ‘Yom this is the easiest game we’ve ever played in,” Gurley shared on DraftKings’ ‘Run Your Race’ show. “‘We just knew y’all was coming with some stuff at halftime or whatever. Y’all just never made no adjustments.'”
New England dominated in preparation and never needed to dive too deep into that bank. Los Angeles failed to create explosive plays and turned the ball over late in the game when Stephon Gilmore picked off Jared Goff, who posted a 16.4 QBR for the game, to virtually seal the deal in the final minutes for the Patriots.
Gurley had just 10 carries for 35 yards against the Patriots that night in Atlanta.
“We just didn’t execute on our part offensively,” Gurley added.
