Kambui Bomani
Blue & White Flash/ Sports Writer
The 2019 NFL Season has neared its culmination, and the final two teams are set to commence battle in the biggest game of the NFL Calendar year. The newly minted Los Angeles Rams have completed their NFC resurgence during its third re-establishing season and now have a familiar mountain to climb in the AFC Champion New England Patriots for Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, Ga.
The last time both franchises met at the Super Bowl was Feb. 3, 2002, when the Rams were still residing in St. Louis and Patriot’s Quarterback Tom Brady was making his first Super Bowl start during his prepubescent career.
Seventeen years later, Brady has led possibly one of the weakest Super Bowl Bound Patriot teams back to the precipice of Championship glory for the third straight year amidst a fortuitous challenge the week prior.
Playing against the Kansas City Chiefs on the road before a hostile environment, Brady led a crucial overtime touchdown drive which featured three third and 10 conversions en-route to a two-yard touchdown run by Rex Burkhead for the 37-31 victory. Tom’s numbers from a touchdown to interception ratio weren’t great(1:2), but his completion percentage (65.22 percent) and passing yards (348) were the saving grace for the Pats on their final two offensive drives.
The Los Angeles Rams road to the Super Bowl was flooded with countless accusations of a muddled NFC Championship victory as their Slot Cornerback Nikel Roby-Coleman openly admitted to conducting a pass interference call in the red zone under two minutes that the referees didn’t call with the game tied at 20.
Through all the whirlwind, Los Angeles was still down by three and had to force overtime to even give themselves a chance to win the game and did so behind the arm of Jared Goff and leg of Greg Zeurline. The same had to be duplicated in the extra session as well once the Rams defense forced the Saints offense into an Interception on the team’s first offensive drive.
Goff came through with some savvy pocket awareness and timely throws while their Kicker Zeurline kicked through a 57-yard field goal that propelled the Rams to their first Super Bowl appearance in nearly two decades.
How the two teams matchup from a numerical standpoint is intriguing to say the least as both the Rams and Patriots have two of the top four scoring offenses in the game in 2018. Yet, while both teams offenses are manned by talented signal callers and duality on the ground in terms of running the football, both teams have also leaned their hat on their defensive prowess during very key postseason moments.
For LA, the play of All-Pro Defensive Tackle Aaron Donald has been undisputed as the best talent on the defensive side of the football the last two years. By his side is the notoriously talented but highly tempered Ndamukong Suh who’s been relatively quiet throughout the year but has heated up during the playoffs with a solid showing versus the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round and constant disruption of the Saints run game as well holding them to only 48 yards rushing on the game.
For the Patriots, an emerging pass rush and disciplined secondary play have helped their defense set the tone of the game for at least the first half in both of their playoff matches which have led them to this point. The Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs scored a combined 7 points in the first half during their playoff matchups against the Patriots providing a solid hole the opposition ultimately couldn’t crawl out of when it mattered most.
The legend of Tom Brady will only grow if he amasses his 6th Super Bowl title in nine tries and to do so at the age of 41 would make him the oldest Super Bowl-winning quarterback ever.
Then, for the Rams sake with Todd Gurley and Jared Goff being the upstarts for a new era of football, this could be a stepping stone for the rest of their careers that you can’t pass up. And as the game nears, multiple people have their takes on who will win and why.
“I believe the Patriots will win on the perception of their elite defensive scheme and elite offensive player in Tom Brady who will lead them to victory,” said Ke’jaun Wright, a junior electrical engineering major from DIberville, Miss.
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