NFL 2019 Super Bowl: the restless shade of Mike Martz

[The Mother of The Others]

Will the sport ever recover from this?  This may go down as the moment the nation got over football and moved on to something else.  

[Nictarion]

42 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I think you're confusing them with the Chargers who had next level shit attendance.  

Yep. You’re right. So stupid having 2 teams there. 

[Rockroi]

"I know what it's like to lose....

Last year the Pats lost a Superbowl when they hung 33 points, 600+ yards and lost a Superbowl that they could have won.  Instead, they had nothing to show for phenomenal season.  And add in Brady's "What are we doing this for" comment in response to the still baffling benching of Malcom Butler made anyone think that maybe MAYBE it had finally all caught up to the Pats.  Their utterly arrogant head coach, their head-strong QB and that crazy fraud of a trainer.  Also, Gronk pretty much retired.  

....To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless...

Then they lost some truly baffling games.  When their opponents were motivated -Patricia's Lions, Vrabel's Titans, the Jags (who lost in the AFC Championship game in 2017), the Steelers (who lost the AFC Championship game in 2016), Miami (just because) - the Pats lost.  

And then to turn it on when it mattered the most.  The Chargers were the proverbial "Team-Nobody-Wants-to-Play-in-the-Playoffs" and the Pats dominated them inside and out.  Then to go on the road and beat - in an utter dog-fight - the League MVP and the highest scoring team in the NFL and just pound out that win was utterly unbelievable.  

And then to go from 600 yards and 33 points in 2017 to 13 TOTAL POINTS in this Superbowl... what the fuck?  How did that happen?

...It’s frightening...

If there was one constant in this season, it was how immense the Pats D turned it up in these playoffs.  And in this Superbowl it punched the Rams O in the mouth and the Rams could never put a full drive together; they seemed unable to get off the run; unable to put into place anything besides play action.  Even when they found their stride, they could not live up to the moment.  Other than Suh and Cooks, the Rams as a whole seemed swallowed up by the moment.  And to some degree, so did McVey.  I'm not saying McVey made and BAD decisions, but he certainly never made a decision that was good enough to overcome that offensive sputter. The Pats D faced the #1 and #2 offenses in the NFL in the two championship games and held both scoreless in both first halves.  

...Turns the legs to jelly...

And Jared Goff sucked.  He sucked out loud at almost all times.  Even when he finally seemed to put things together, it was short lived, ultimately sealing his team's fate with a terrible pick into the arms of the best defensive player on the field tonight, Stephan Gilmore.  He ended up with a QB rating of 57.9, which seems about 55 points too high.  Meanwhile, The Rams running game was shit; Gurley is either hurt or comatose; he seemed like he was running in gravy and Anderson seemed like he at all the gravy.

...I ask you, to what end?...

This may have been the worst Superbowl of the Century if not longer.  And yet the Pats did just enough to win; it was the lowest scoring Superbowl ever; it was also their greatest margin of victory (10 points).  And in doing so they, once again, made an entire nation hate them.  

...Dread it...

But in a way... didn't everyone sort of know how this was going to end?  That somehow, someway you would have to sit through this again?  Brady throwing it to Edleman (easily the MVP on O); having Gronk just Gronking it up at the most pivotal time?  Having Gilmore stuff it when it mattered most?  And Dark Hoodie slapping high five at another team's utter inability to live up to the moment? 

...Run from it...

I know people are sick of it, and believe me when I say this... you should be.  If this were the Yankees, Jets or Lakers or ... I don't know... Penguins - I would fucking HATE THIS!  If there was some pretty-boy who was married to a Supermodel and was making some insufferable documentary about himself and he just kept on winning and winning and winning; and they had this hermit as a head coach who seemed to be either cheating or making you wish YOUR team would cheat - I would hate them too.  I get all that.  

And you have been waiting on them to lose the way you waited for Tyrion to kill Tywin and for SOMEBODY to kill Cersei and Jaime.  But there they are,  Still.  Fucking.  Here,  

...Destiny arrives all the same...

The Patriots are the greatest football franchise of all time.  I want you to think about this- The Steelers made their first Superbowl win in 1974.  The Bradshaw era ended in the 1980s but that team won their last SB in 1979.  In 1995 the Steelers made it back to the Superbowl with a new head coach and completely different team.  The distance in time between  the Steelers' SB #1 and that 1995 SB was 21 years. 

The distance in time between the Pats FIRST SB win in 2001 and this most recent one is 17 years.  Its only FOUR YEARS SHORTER than that distance for the Steelers.  But that Steelers team from 1974 bares ABSOLUTELY NO RESEMBLANCE to that 1995 team; that 2001 and 2018 teams have a few things in common, but most notably are Brady and Belichick. 

...And now, it's here...

I won't spend much time on this because the game was so eminently forgettable, but much of that was because Belichick rendered the Rams entire team a non-entity,  Goff looked like David Klingler out there; Todd Gurley, like Ron Dayne; CJ Anderson looked exactly like CJ Anderson.  That team could not move, or even get out of its own way.  The Rams D played great, but it was gashed throughout the game and especially when it mattered most.  And that is almost entirely on Belichick.  In many ways, this was the culmination of his entire coaching career that started with winning games 13-3 and now stands here today in much the same way. 

...Or should I say, I am..."

And standing alone is the only human being- living or dead -who has ever won 6 Superbowls.  Its as if there was some Gauntlet out there with 6 stones in it that with a snap of his finger he could render everything that came before meaningless.  Everyone who has ever played this sport- from the lowly special teamer all the way up to Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Rice and Jim Brown - is behind this one guy; this run-away force who has been to a Superbowl MORE THAN 50% OF THE TIME!  He is the best football player who has ever lived.  And he is now in the rarefied air of rarefied air- is he the best to ever play a sport?  

But That's another story. 

For me... I counted them out 10 times this season; hoping to just make it to the AFC Championship game.  But now to win this way, at this time, when the twilight is the only light I should be looking at,  Instead its another title, when I really don't need anymore. 

I have said this next part a few times- I am only on these boards now because of the NFL thread. The HBO series is out-right bad at this point and I have stopped pretending that Martin is doing anything akin to actually writing the books. But I stay here for one reason- so that the people that I tormented for YEARS can give me my comeuppance for every mean, divisive, arrogant, evil, silly, homer thing I have ever said about the Pats. So that all the times I cheered too loudly or puffed up my team too much that somebody would be there to stick it back in my face.

Believe me, I'm not here to see if the Starks somehow prevail over the Lannisters.  That ship has sailed (or not sailed depending in what part of the metaphor we are attached to).    I'm here only to give the people who have put up with me the chance to take their shot at me.  I would have deserved that.

And this team ... keeps me waiting.  

Its absurd.  Its a thrill.  Its so much fun, nobody would ever, could ever deserve it.  

This will never happen again.  That's because it should never have happened to begin with.  But somebody snapped his fingers and so much of what mattered in football disappeared. 

But I'm still here. 

[Fez]

Meh. I'm not even mad the Patriots won again, I'm just numb from how boring that game was (and how many cheese-related foods I ate last night).

[Maithanet]

Boring Super Bowl, team I loathe was obviously going to win in spite of not playing particularly well, and a worthless halftime show to boot. 

The Rams were just pretenders who didn't deserve to be there.  I knew Goff was going to suck when facing Bill Belichik, and I was right.  Sean McVay was completely outclassed.  Reminds me of the crazy Falcons over Vikings upset that set up a complete snoozer for a SB where the Broncos walked all over Atlanta.  This game wasn't a blowout, but at no point after the first Rams drive did I think the Rams might actually win.  It was just a slow death. 

[Jace, Extat]

Whew! That was a GREAT Superbowl! I especially loved how all the normies must be hating it.

Immense fun was experienced in my house imitating Jared Goff screaming "SEAN!?!?! SEAN!!!!???!!!" every time his first read wasn't there. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

24 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Whew! That was a GREAT Superbowl! I especially loved how all the normies must be hating it.

Immense fun was experienced in my house imitating Jared Goff screaming "SEAN!?!?! SEAN!!!!???!!!" every time his first read wasn't there. 

Hush your stanky mouth. That was probably the worst Owl you or I have ever seen. There have been bad games before, but I don’t recall one that was this bad and boring. At least I was right though. I predicted the Pats would win easily and that Goff would be trash.

[Jace, Extat]

27 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Hush your stanky mouth. That was probably the worst Owl you or I have ever seen. There have been bad games before, but I don’t recall one that was this bad and boring. At least I was right though. I predicted the Pats would win easily and that Goff would be trash.

I definitively predicted a "2 score game that is never really close" myself.

I had a whale of a time. I say this without irony.

[DanteGabriel]

New Orleans would at least have put on a better game, right?

[unJon]

I enjoyed the game. My buddy put in a crazy 250-1 bet of no TDs the entire game that made it a fun sweat through 3.5 quarters. Would have been fun if Rams had made that last FG. 

Congrats to @Rockroi and the other Pats fans on this board. As much as I hate the Pats, it is a monstrous achievement. 

[Jaime L]

12 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

New Orleans would at least have put on a better game, right?

Easily. Jared Goff was a disaster. As good as the Pats defense was, so much of the Rams ineptness was Goff just not seeing open guys (like Cooks running WIDE open in the end zone). Can't see Brees being so completely flustered. 

It's weird for a game with 2 of the 4 best offenses in the NFL but seemed clear both teams needed more playmakers. Was pretty much just Edelman and sporadic flashes of Cooks/Gronk. Rams desperately needed a healthy Gurley instead of the bizarre facsimile they've been running out in the playoffs. Even Kupp or Gordon could've helped open things. 

Instead we ended up with a miserable slog. Feels criminal in retrospect we didn't get to see Kamara/Thomas out there. 

[Bronn Stone]

The Ghost of Gronk needs to put a fork in himself.  It was sad to watch.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I definitively predicted a "2 score game that is never really close" myself.

I had a whale of a time. I say this without irony.

Sorry Cardi J, but I don’t know how anyone outside of New England could have enjoyed that game, and even Pats fans have to be worried if that game was the end of their historic run.   

[Cas Stark]

https://deadspin.com/bill-belichick-stands-athwart-the-future-1832326835

When the most tedious Super Bowl in history had ended and you had picked up your jaw after learning that Tom Brady had not been named the game’s most valuable player out of desperation and habit, you realized that, fittingly, most people did not get what they wanted out of America’s Jesus-Free Christmas.

Oh, New England Patriots fans got what they want, and so did New England bettors and Julian Edelman acolytes and people who think punting is undervalued and people who thought the Super Bowl lost its magic in 1974. You can’t displease all of the people all of the time.

But mostly, this was Bill Belichick’s masterpiece, his Sistine Chapel with video capability. As the game’s pre-eminent historian, he has known more ways to win a game than most of us have learned to watch one, and with every trend in the sport going toward offensive pyrosptectaculars and playbooks powered by dilithium crystals, he decided to force-feed America a three-hour tutorial on Chuck Noll and Don Shula and George Allen and Bud Grant. It was the early 1970s, and you were there.

[sperry]

That was pretty abysmal. Because that Pats defense is not good. Obviously a brilliant gameplan, but with the players they have they shouldn't be able to do that.

Goff was positively Bortles-esque.

 

The interesting thing about all the "are the Patriots done" chatter during the season is that it was grounded in reality, but they still won the Super Bowl! Brady 100% took a step back this year, and even in the playoffs he wasn't particularly sharp. Gronk took an even bigger step back. This was easily the worst of their teams to make it to the Super Bowl, let alone win it. It just a down year league wide and they capitalized. Next year will be interesting, as both the Chiefs and Colts should take steps forward.

[DMC]

3 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I definitively predicted a "2 score game that is never really close" myself.

What exactly does "definitely" predicted mean?  Always thought of predictions as pretty binary - either you make one or you don't.

This was easily the least amount of Super Bowl I've watched in living memory.  At least when I wasn't black/passed out - pretty sure there were a few of those in the early-mid 2000s.  Only watching it during commercials of Mummy/Mummy Returns is some amazingly abject apathy.

[Maithanet]

18 minutes ago, sperry said:

That was pretty abysmal. Because that Pats defense is not good. Obviously a brilliant gameplan, but with the players they have they shouldn't be able to do that.

Goff was positively Bortles-esque.

 

The interesting thing about all the "are the Patriots done" chatter during the season is that it was grounded in reality, but they still won the Super Bowl! Brady 100% took a step back this year, and even in the playoffs he wasn't particularly sharp. Gronk took an even bigger step back. This was easily the worst of their teams to make it to the Super Bowl, let alone win it. It just a down year league wide and they capitalized. Next year will be interesting, as both the Chiefs and Colts should take steps forward.

The Patriots played much, much better in the postseason than the regular season.  It almost looked like NBA teams (like the Lebron Cavs and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers) that take huge swaths of the regular season off, go into the playoffs with a 2 seed, and then flip the switch to dominate.  The team that played in the regular season couldn't do that.  But the defense that rated 16th on Football Outsiders this year held the Chargers, Chiefs and Rams to a combined 7 points in the first half of three games.  Those teams were rated #1, #2 and #3 on offense this year.  It's astonishing. 

[briantw]

6 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

The Patriots played much, much better in the postseason than the regular season.  It almost looked like NBA teams (like the Lebron Cavs and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers) that take huge swaths of the regular season off, go into the playoffs with a 2 seed, and then flip the switch to dominate.  The team that played in the regular season couldn't do that.  But the defense that rated 16th on Football Outsiders this year held the Chargers, Chiefs and Rams to a combined 7 points in the first half of three games.  Those teams were rated #1, #2 and #3 on offense this year.  It's astonishing. 

I think it helped that they got two weeks off in the postseason.  Belichick is tough to beat with an extra week to game plan / cheat.

[Jaime L]

19 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

The Patriots played much, much better in the postseason than the regular season.  It almost looked like NBA teams (like the Lebron Cavs and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers) that take huge swaths of the regular season off, go into the playoffs with a 2 seed, and then flip the switch to dominate.  The team that played in the regular season couldn't do that.  But the defense that rated 16th on Football Outsiders this year held the Chargers, Chiefs and Rams to a combined 7 points in the first half of three games.  Those teams were rated #1, #2 and #3 on offense this year.  It's astonishing. 

It makes it that much funnier to me that the last Patriots DC, Matt Patricia, got the Lions HC job after a Superbowl and playoffs where he had absolutely zero idea how to stop Blake Bortles and Nick Foles. And then they bring in another DC, Brian Flores, with virtually the same talent and he wrecks the 3 best offenses in football. 

Looks like Flores will be the Dolphins HC. This might be the first former Patriots assistant coach who Bill Belichick doesn't have to throw games against out of pity. 

[Maithanet]

38 minutes ago, briantw said:

I think it helped that they got two weeks off in the postseason.  Belichick is tough to beat with an extra week to game plan / cheat.

The Rams and Chiefs got the same weeks off the Patriots did, and the Chiefs were at home.