I got what I wanted as a fan Sunday, and yet, I feel like I didn’t. I wanted a road team to win yesterday. Both road teams won, as I correctly predicted. But the two teams I did not want to see win did, especially New England. It’s the same old song and dance seeing the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and I also really wanted to see Drew Brees win another Super Bowl so late into his career.
In the end, what we got from Sunday is a young head coach and team that are both very legit, Tom Brady continuing to add to his legacy as the G.O.A.T. and one downright, inexcusable, horrible call that has indefinite lingering impacts on the NFL.
Top 10 Takeaways from Sunday’s Conference Championship Games
1. I still can’t get over the no call late in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game. Are you kidding me?! It was so blatantly obvious! The only plausible explanation for this is that the defender’s momentum carried him into the receiver. Yeah, that’s right, but that still constitutes a flag for at least pass interference. I just can’t help but feel bad for not just the Saints but that entire fan base, which may be the entire Gulf Coast region. Drew Brees is nearing the end of the road, and this was maybe his year to win another Super Bowl. Who knows if he’ll ever get back to having another opportunity.
2. As crushing a loss as this is for the Saints, I have to give credit to where credit is due. The Los Angeles Rams did something that no other team has done before them: beat Brees and Sean Payton in the Superdome. Amid all the crowd noise- man was it loud- down 13 in the first half, down 10 in the third quarter, backs against the wall late in the game, and they just kept playing. Think back to when the Rams were down 13-0 early in the second quarter being forced to punt. That’s when Sean McVay took a play out of Sean Payton’s playbook and faked the punt, got a first down and the game had turned just like that.
3. Talent won. The Rams were the more talented team, and that talent took over in the fourth quarter and overtime. Brandin Cooks, who was acquired in the offseason, had seven catches for 107 yards on Sunday. Dante Fowler Jr., a midseason acquisition, showed why the Rams may have made the biggest midseason acquisition this season by pressuring Brees and forcing, essentially, the game-clinching interception on the first possession of overtime.
4. Three years ago, the Rams arrived in Los Angeles an abysmal team. Their first game back in Los Angeles was on Monday Night Football at the 49ers, and they looked anemic. They finished the season 4-12. Jared Goff was talked about being a bust. 0-7 in his first seven starts.
Enter Sean McVay, and a new era of the NFL, and Rams football was revitalized. They were 11-5 last year, pretty good. But they weren’t satisfied. They went out and got Brandin Cooks, Aquib Talib, Marcus Peters, Ndamukong Suh and then Dante Fowler Jr. midseason. After week four, it was evident they had reignited the Greatest Show on Turf that was the Rams offense in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. That offense translated to the epic 54-51 victory on Monday Night Football in week 11. After hitting a late-season slump, I was worried the NFL had caught on to McVay’s coaching and the Rams offense. But McVay caught on to the NFL catching on to him, and that culminated with an adjusted gameplan against Dallas in the NFC Divisional Playoff game. They ran the ball straight down Dallas’s throats and shut down the beast that is Ezekiel Elliott. I knew they would win Sunday. They were confident and had the talent to win in the Superdme and they did.
From where they were three years ago arriving in L.A. and after the 2016 season to now being in the Super Bowl; maybe McVay does know a thing or two about what he’s doing. Maybe he is as great as we thought originally. After all, the Bengals are potentially going to have a McVay disciple as their next head coach.
5. The Patriots won the AFC Championship. What else is new?
6. Okay, I’ll admit it. That was a great AFC Championship game. It lived up every bit to the hype around it, including my expectations. There are no losers from this game. I know Andy Reid came up short once again, but Patrick Mahomes II has given him a new championship window. Mahomes is going to be a star going into the next decade at least, and he will win multiple AFC championships and probably at least one Super Bowl. They did everything they could to put themselves in a position to win. Down 14 at the half and 10 to start the fourth quarter, they didn’t back down to the giant of New England. Heck, Mahomes managed to get the Chiefs in field goal range with just 29 seconds left in the fourth quarter. He’s becoming as automatic as Brady in late-game situations. The only reason why New England scored a touchdown in overtime on their first possession was because they won the coin toss. Kansas City could have easily done the same thing. I guess the great ones have luck on their side.
7. Speaking of the overtime coin toss, the postseason overtime rules need to change. Mahomes not getting the ball at all in overtime is ludicrous. Either give teams at least one possession with the ball and if it’s tied afterwards then next score wins, or, better yet, implement what college football does. There is just simply no way Mahomes should never have gotten the ball in overtime with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
8. If anyone out there picked against the Patriots in this game or against the Chargers the week before, you’re delusional. I was nobody’s fool- great song by the way. I knew the Patriots were going to win. Belichick, Brady and the Patriots just know how to win when it matters most. They’re so fundamentally sound in critical situations. That’s how great teams win games.
9. As many people who can’t stand Brady, Belichick, the Patriots, anything else about the organization, I actually have to appreciate being able to witness a true winner like Brady. I get it, it’s getting old. But it is just incredible to see an athlete so committed to his craft and doing whatever it takes to consistently win. So maybe there are lessons to be learned from the G.O.A.T..
10. This is an interesting Super Bowl matchup. First off, it’s taking place 17 years to the date of when the Rams and the Patriots met in Super Bowl XXXVI. Now, that day was the day the Patriots kick-started their dynasty. What’s interesting is the Rams had an opportunity to win their second Super Bowl in three years going into that game. In fact, in the NFL’s Greatest Game episode, “A Dynasty is Born,” which featured that game, a scene at the end showed then Rams wide receiver Ricky Proehl saying to the camera before the game, “Tonight, a dynasty is born.” Oh there was a dynasty born that night, just not the Rams. Following that game, the Rams ended up plummeting to the bottom of the NFL while New England soared and has stayed at the top since. Now, though, the Rams can sort of get revenge and potentially usher in a new era in the NFL.
Let me be Frank and Cut to the Chase 