This is easily one of my favorite Super bowls. Goff is going to take a lot of heat, but the larger blame should be placed at McVay's feet. New England reduced their offense to a scheme different from what the Rams leaned on to get to the playoffs and Sean never made the right adjustments to help his quarterback or spark the offense. The Patriots defense took away any expansive routes by forcing Goff to deliver quickly and playing a shell game with their defensive backs. The Rams never adjusted their rushing attack and everything collapsed at the feet of Goff. Los Angeles got taken to school on that side of the ball. Defensively, LA did a lot of what they needed to do to win the game and ultimately they held the Patriots to a total that was easily beatable. They might have never even given up the Michel touchdown if McVay could have figured out a way to keep the Rams offense on the field long enough to keep his defense with at least half a breath. I mentioned it in the podcast this week about Sony Michel being a player to watch. If the Rams started giving up chunk yardage on the ground it would likely be the difference and Sony was the most likely player to make that happen. All in all, this was a chess match and Belichick had his side of the field better prepared than his opponent.
Americans will bet $6 billion on Super Bowl 53 — legally and illegally As of Jan. 29, five days before the game, 52% of bets are being placed on the Rams, and the Patriots are favored at most sportsbooks by 2.5 points. Source link : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/supe...lars-amid-growing-legalization-200959553.html Looks like the bookies made out nicely after this Super Bowl......
I might be the only one and I think it was largely because I had no dog in the fight but that was one of the most boring Super Bowls ever.
McVay blew it for sure but Goff had many looks where he didn't take it because he was scared of being inaccurate on an intermediate/short throw and getting picked. Instead he took a sack or threw it into the ground on multiple occasions and that isn't just when he was pressured. Nerves got to him and of course the Pats solid D was always creeping into him literally and figuratively but you gotta be better than that. He was for lack of a better term, trash and when he started looking competent he got worse. Now about McVay... Eagles don't forget the premature fame for McVay and the Pederson snub last year. That plus Goff being drafted before Wentz made it so that many Eagles fans were very excited for how this game went. Plus they aren't salty about the Pats after getting one back over them so recently. I wish McVay success in the future, he is a great coach but he just got a solid lesson from the master. Now it's time to see if he learned anything and if he retains any knowledge. It's one thing to have success over a season vs various teams, it's another (Goff and McVay) to have real success vs the best teams consistently and you can arguably say the Rams didn't come out with a W vs any great teams after their bye except for maybe the Rams if you think they lost to the Saints (and Goff didn't do much in the playoffs anyways). Heck I'll just say it. Goff was pure trash after his bye. Close to Bortles level. But the rest of the team was good enough to hold on and Anderson was a big addition that helped the team and McVay but Goff's play was unacceptable in the 2nd half of the season and playoffs despite being in the SB.
What about Gurley where the heck did he go? After the Dallas game you could put his face on a milk carton.
The 'trash after the bye' thing is kind of overblown. He had two very bad outings after the KC game then he slowly started to right the ship over the next two and finished out the year with a high note in SF. He didn't have to do much at all in the divisional round but he played solid in the championship game and led the game tying drive after the worst non-call I have ever witnessed. He had some absolute bullets and some well timed passes mixed in with some inaccurate throws and an ill advised jump ball interception. It's the kind of outing you might expect from a pure pocket passer that had pressure in his face all night and immensely tight windows to throw into. Belichick and Flores should get the lion's share of credit for this one.
Congrats Matty for your Pats........6 SB's and now tied with the Steelers. BUT that was a Super Bore..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Very bad Coached game by McVay........terrible play calling. New England "D" played great and Goff could not get in a sync. I'm sure this will rank as the worst Super Bowl EVER.
Gurley was a no show the Rams O-line and Goff just crumbled under the pressure,the Rams D played well the offense let them down
Bullets aren't everything. It's expected he should have some good throws but he had poor timing, pretty bad accuracy on many "easy" throws and also didn't have the confidence in himself to get the ball into a window on short/intermediate passes that should be made. And about the games after the bye... No I don't think it's overblown. If anything I think you are downplaying it. W Lions 51%, 207 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT L Bears 45%, 180 yards, 0 TDs, 4 INTs L Eagles 66%, 339 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT. He woke up late to get his % and yards up at least. Now you say his SF and ARZ games were good. Well they were vs the 2 teams with the #1 and #2 overall picks while they were fighting for the right for #1. Now the playoffs DAL 53%, 186 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs NO 62%, 297 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT (was at Saints yardage average allowed all season at end of regulation) Not a trash game but at best decent. NE 50%, 229 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT In those last 8 games he also fumbled a total of 8 times. Once vs each team except twice vs the Eagles and somehow he never didn't in the SB despite those hits. I'm calling him trash after the bye and sticking to it. A few okay games and best 2 vs the worst 2 teams in the league don't change my mind.
All of the games count, not just the ones you prefer to throw the stat lines on. He played well up to the bye, came out of it in a funk and slowly righted the ship. He made some nice throws into tight spaces and didn't force throws that could have caused turnovers until late in the game. Having a healthy Cooper Kupp may have been the difference for him in this game, but McVay did nothing to adjust to what Flores and Belichick did to stifle their plan. He didn't need to do anything other than hand the ball off in the Dallas game so the stat line is to be expected. The INT came off of a pass that Gurley should have caught. You can call it decent if you like, I thought it was a solid outing, but calling it trash is nonsense, especially considering he came through to put them in field goal range at the end of the game. I understand that you don't like the kid, I just disagree with you to a degree on this.
I didn't cherry pick games. I specifically said all the ones after the bye. Yes he was close to MVP level before the bye but after the bye something happened. I included all the games after the bye. I listed them all except for the stats vs the 2 worst teams in the league. They were arguably good but they don't really count as much and I noted that. No game was left out of the commentary/stats breakdown. I never said he was trash in each game. In a whole, yes I think he was. He needed to be better and McVay did an excellent job keeping the team above water through his and the team's late struggles and is an excellent coach but yes both struggled with Kupp's losses but should have had something with the talent they had (personally and around them). Bill was just better today while he stunk it up. And I don't have a bias against Goff. I really like him and he was 1b for me in his draft (plus I hear enough Foles vs Wentz stuff to care about Goff vs Wentz right now lol). As for the post I made earlier about the Eagles I posted something on Twitter before after seeing something and then your post made me add an edited version of that after you described the game. I was speaking about Eagles fans in general and not necessarily myself. Flores and Belichick did well and deserved it. They messed them up on D but today wasn't all I was talking about. P.S. as for the Dallas game it was more or less expected but the percentage was still pretty low despite the low yardage. He definitely had some hot moments in that game. Some good plays strung together in a row and not just running like their first TD for example. EDIT: As for not forcing some tight throws that could be picked I'm arguing he SHOULD have tried to make those throws. If he but decent accuracy on many of the shorter passing options earlier in the game instead of throwing it away or taking a late sack then he likely gets them completed but I don't think he trusted himself to make those throws with how he's been playing. I think he was in his own head as much if not more than as the Pats were and that only adds to my opinion on the end of his season.
And those are the games I meant. The stat line of the last two regular season games contradict your statement. I understand that you are discrediting them because of the teams he was playing against but IMO they all count when discussing how he performed coming out of the bye. I'm not saying he played great after the bye. I'm not saying that he played well enough to carry them in this game today and I agree that he missed some reasonable passes and failed to identify pressure in some key situations. I'm saying that I disagree with the statement that he was trash after the bye. No big deal either way. Ain't the first or the last time we are going to disagree on something.
Possibly, but the Patriots did a solid job of building their coverage around what they expected to happen when the Rams were forced away from play-action and I believe that's what took away most of the 'easier' underneath routes and it definitely took away the longer developing routes that they like to work both Cook and Woods with. The coverage by New England tonight was nothing short of outstanding, IMO.
If pretty much the main point we are gonna disagree on is if good games vs the 2 worst teams really count as good in a seas of poor performances before and after then we will definitely have to agree to disagree. It kinda anchors a lot of the rest for both of our views.
That's not what I'm suggesting. My point is that he came off the bye in horrible fashion but worked back into playing better before the end of the season and then well enough to get the Rams to the Super bowl. The Dallas game needs to be taken into context and I believe he was better in the Saints game than what you implied.
