On February 3rd, 2019, Super Bowl LIII (53) took place in the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The New England Patriots took on the Los Angeles Rams in the biggest game of the year. It was hyped up to be one of the best Super Bowl’s in history, we even predicted a 31-27 score, but it was the exact opposite. It was a defensive battle the whole way through. A 12-3 score in favor of the Patriots giving them their sixth franchise championship, tying the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most. This also gave Tom Brady the record for the most championships by an individual player with six, after tying Charles Haley two years ago in Super Bowl LI.

The Rams won the coin toss and they deferred to New England, giving them the ball first. The Pats drove down the field until Tom Brady threw an interception on his first pass attempt. They ran four run plays up until then, including an explosive first attempt for 13 yards by Sony Michel. This was the first time Brady’s first pass attempt was intercepted in his entire playoff career. The Rams didn’t do much with the ball after that on a quick three and out drive giving the ball right back to New England. The Pats once again drove down the field but it eventually came up to 4th down. They were in field goal range so they trusted their kicker Stephen Gostkowski to make a 46 yard field goal. The kick was no good, which meant we still had a 0-0 game. On another long drive, the Pats failed to score and they punted back to the Rams. Los Angeles only ran one play before the end of the first quarter.

The Rams had the ball to start the second quarter. Once again, they were not productive and didn’t score. The Pats once again drove down the field into field goal range but this time, Gostkowski nailed a 42 yard field goal for the first points of the game. Another unproductive drive for the Rams forced them to give it back to New England. New England went three and out and gave it right back to the Rams. The Patriots defense was unstoppable on 3rd down. On this drive on 3rd and 2, linebacker Kyle Van Noy sacked Jared Goff for a 14 yard loss, knocking them out of field goal range forcing another punt. Nothing else really happened for the rest of this quarter and they went into halftime. The score was 3-0.

The Rams received the ball to open the second half and everyone thought that both teams would light up the scoreboard in the second half, but it was the exact opposite. The Rams, once again, punted to New England. New England once again did nothing with the ball, Marcus Peters made a big break up on 3rd and 2. The Rams got the ball back and went three and out once again. The Rams start to get something going, but Jared Goff gets sacked by Dont’a Hightower for a nine yard loss. Despite this, Greg Zuerlein nailed a 53 yard field goal to tie the game. The score going into the 4th quarter is 3-3, the lowest in Super Bowl history.

The 4th quarter was dominated by New England. The Patriots caused a C.J Anderson fumble, but the ball went out of bounds. After a couple of big pass by Brady, he threw a 29 yard bomb to tight end Rob Gronkowski in double coverage to set up a Sony Michel two yard touchdown. This was the first touchdown of the game. Jared Goff knew it was go time. He led his offense down the field and made some big throws to Brandin Cooks on the sideline,  but on 2nd and 10 with 4:24, Jared Goff knew the Patriots were going to bring immediate pressure, so he had to throw the ball as fast as he could. On a pass intended for Brandin Cooks, the ball was intercepted by Stephon Gilmore and that was the interception that sealed the game. New England eventually put up another field goal to make it 13-3. The Rams got the ball back in desperate need of a score. They trusted their kicker to make the game 13-6 and hoped to recover an onside kick, but instead, Zuerlein missed, and New England took a knee to give them their sixth championship in franchise history. Tom Brady silenced the doubters who counted them out all season. Julian Edelman took home Super Bowl MVP with 10 catches for 140 yards. This Patriots team had the most heart out of any Bill Belichick championship team.