Dull-y Dull-y! The worst Super Bowl ever played (with the worst combination of game and commercials) was won Sunday by the New England Patriots 13-3 over the Los Angeles Rams. New England’s traditional trouble finding scoreboard distance from NFC entries was the story much of the night. Though, a late 10-point flurry ultimately led to the Patriots’ largest margin of victory in its six championships. This despite a final scoring total of just 13 points.
New England (-2.5) 13, Los Angeles 3
Total Yards: New England 407, Los Angeles 260
Yards-per-Play: New England 6.0, Los Angeles 4.3
Rushing Yards: New England 154, Los Angeles 62
Passing Stats: New England 21-35-1-253, Los Angeles 19-38-1-198
Third Downs: New England 25%, Los Angeles 23%
Turnovers: New England 1, Los Angeles 1
Drive Points: New England 10, Los Angeles 0
TD Drive Lengths: New England 69 yards, Los Angeles no TDs
That’s a lot of yards for a game with so few points. Both turnovers occurred in their opponent’s territory. Both teams missed field goals. Obviously neither offense could sustain drives because they couldn’t move the chains. New England was 3 of 12, Los Angeles 3 of 13. The Patriots also failed on a fourth down try.
A handy formula for estimating what a score “should” have been based on yardage is two times rushing yards…plus passing yards…times 0.67…divided by 15. You do that with Super Bowl 53 stats, and you get New England 25, Los Angeles 14. Can’t argue with that. Still clearly Patriots and Under vs. market prices. Neither offense could score what it “should” have because of third down and other failures.
Huge performance from the New England defense. Holding the “should have” total to 14, and the actual total to 3 points from this Rams offense is something special. The Pats rattled Rams’ quarterback Jared Goff while also shutting down the running game. Goff only totaled 198 passing yards indoors on a fast track, 55 coming on a last-second drive down two scores against a prevent.
Congrats to New England and Under backers, and those of you who had a good night on props.
