The iconic Tom Brady-Bill Belichick factor helped bring the New England Patriots a record-equaling 6th Super Bowl victory on Sunday.
This occurred in the 53rd edition of the NFL’s greatest annual battle at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
In their third straight final, the New England football giants overpowered the LA Rams 13-3 in the Super Bowl’s lowest- ever scoring game.
Its total of 16 points surpassed even Miami’s 14-7 win over Washington in 1973.
Grinding battle dubbed ‘SuperBore’
But although this tight, grinding battle was dubbed the ‘SuperBore’ by the social media it will have left at least two elements of the US football world cheering wildly.
One would be the Patriot supporters who last week packed out the betting shops of New England’s first and currently only legal sports betting state.
The other would be the seven-month-old New Jersey sportsbook industry and their nine new sportsbooks.
These partly because when favorites win big games like this one with many millions of dollars at stake the bookmakers invariably win too.
It is also because not too many punters would have foreseen a spread of 10 points in the Patriots’ low scoring 13-3 win.
It’s not likely either that the majority would have had their money on an under bet with a total as low as 16 points. Punters tend to go for overs odds in total bets.
How the Patriots managed to win
But how did the Patriots manage to win his time against a Daren Goff –fired Rams offense rated among the very best in the NFL this year?
Seventeen years after leading New England to its first title in 2002, Brady once more played a crucial quarterback role in his record 6th Super Bowl triumph. No man before him has ever won it as many times.
He found wide receiver Julian Edelman 10 times with a series of passes that kept the Patriots on the front foot at critical moments.
But his most important maneuver of the day came midway through the fourth quarter when, with the score still at a tense 3-3, he picked out tight end Rob Gronkowski for a 29-yard completion.
This put the Patriots just two yards from the line and led to Sony Michel blazing over for the Patriots game-changing touchdown.
It was the only one in a game where touchdowns were almost as rare as hen’s teeth.
Patriots other points came from a 1st and a 4th quarter field goal kicked by Stephen Gostkowski on either side of the touchdown.
The Rams picked up their only points via a 53-yard, 3rd quarter Zuerlein field goal that tied the scores at 3-all.
“Wish we played better on offense, but we won”
“We’ve been this far and lost which is really tough,” a jubilant Brady said afterwards.
“We had a lot of resolves the last couple of weeks I wish we played a little better on offense but we won. We’re the Super Bowl champs.”
Perhaps a greater hero this year, though, was Brady’s wily old glory partner Belichick.
Belichick’s winning strategy
The 66-old football genius, who heads up the Patriots coaching crew, came up with a defensive strategy that totally stifled Goff and the Rams vaunted offense.
LA’s 34-year-old coaching ‘whiz-kid’ Sean McVay who has been getting some excellent reviews this year, could not come up with any counter-strategy this time.
“It’s sweet. Everybody counted us out from the beginning of the season, mid-season, but we’re still here,” Belichick said.
He believed, in fact, that being written off earlier in the season had proved to be a motivational winner.
