PATRIOTS UPSET RAMS 20-17 ON A 48 YARD FIELD GOAL!

The Patriots and Rams play a game. It is a fair game. The Patriots win. They must have won because they were the better team under those circumstances. This is the logic. This is why the Patriots "deserved" to win.

The "I bet $85 on the Rams, and they lost, and since I f*ed myself by betting on the losing team, which was projected by the eminently logical and consistent pundits to win big, I was unfairly maligned, so the Patriots didn't deserve to win..." argument doesn't hold up.

 

I agreed with Madden.I would have played conservative and tried to win in ot :/ props to billicheck(sp) for having faith in his team.

I thought the game was the best SB in years,not the best ever though.

Brady won mvp based on the last drive but the true mvp was the patriot D.I don't know what A.Smiths final #'s were ? but he could also be considered for the mvp.Smith made some very good runs that allowed the Patriots to keep the ball away from the rams...and also to keep the rams with poor field position.

 

Marshall 17 att 76 yards
Anty 18 att 92 yards

 

First of all, the Pats wouldn't play conservative to try and win in OT. They played aggressively the entire game until just before the 2 minute warning in the 4th when they ran 3 downs in a row. I have to hand it to the Pats coaches for calling a gutsy, aggressive game and it payed off big time. I don't know if it was an iffy call or not, but it was a huge swing when the 98 yard fumble recovery was brought back for a holding penalty.

The Rams IMO were lucky to be as close as they were, but the Pats have the clutchest kicker in football. Man that guy was great. He was loving the whole thing though afterwards and that's good to see in a kicker. He sure doesn't look like a kicker. He actually looks like a football player. I still remember all of the sorry kickers that the Oilers used to have until we finally found Al Del Greco.

I'll stop my drunk ramble now.

The Patriots definitely deserve everything they got tonight.

I do want to say that the Patriots run through the playoffs reminds me alot of the Rockets run in '95. Very clutch. And as a team.

 

Vinatieri scored 8 points for the Patriots, how many did any other single player on their team score? Brady = 6, Law = 6, Patten = 6.

Maybe Vinatieri doesn't deserve the MVP, but he deserved it more than Brady.

As I watched the game I noticed a major weakness of the Rams, Leadership. Be it, coaches, players, or whoever, that aspect of the game was not there.

The Rams had a poor gameplan, executed that poor gameplan poorly, and just gave that game away.

I made the comment that Warner was lobbing his passes when he threw to his weak side (the right) and throwing "side-arm". There just wasn't any zip on those passes. Sure, the rush had something to do with it, but so did the way Warner dropped back in the pocket, how far he dropped back, and the fact that they seemed to refuse to pass to the left until the 2nd half.

Other mistakes: The first three quarters the Rams didn't try to stretch the defense with a long pass (or at least I didn't see any). I mean, just like the run sets up the pass, a long pass keeps the defense honest, whether it's completed or not. Then, neaer the end of the game when they punted with seven minutes left, Warner starts throwing deep balls, when the short ones were netting him 10 - 15 yds every time. I was like, "What the hell?" The defense was obviously playing deep and allowing the short passes. They had time, why did Warner or the coaching staff decide to throw long, right into the teeth of the defense?

I also truly believe the the NFL does not have the best football players in the world. I think out there somewhere there are better football players who didn't get a chance because their 40-time was a tenth of a second too slow, or they lifted 5 lbs less then the coaches wanted, or did 2 reps less than the minimum for a position, etc. I realize you can't coach "talent", but then again you can't coach "field awarness" or just plaing "football smarts" either.

If they did, then I wouldn't be seeing players making the same mistakes high school kids make. Like not making a tackle inbounds when you want the clock to run, or getting tackled out of bounds, when you want the clock to keep running, or not holding the ball with two hands when you know a hit is coming, or not paying attention when you're on the field. I was seriously astonished at the poor level of play, mostly on the Rams side, but some on the Pats side as well. Shouldn't the Super Bowl be a show case for the best that football has to offer?

 

That one was for the Titans. There is a god.

 

How in the world do you not play for the win with 1:21 left and you're playing a high-powered offense in the Rams? Unless you're inside your own 5, you have to go for it.

 

He was wrong, but he was just giving his opinion--John Gruden shared it--see below.

The Patriots had to go for it. The had no MO and their defense was tiring. If they go into OT and lose the flip there is a 90% chance they lose. Even if then won the flip, it is probably 50/50, it wasn't like they drove the ball consistently.

Interesting, John Gruden had the ball on the 35 with timeouts and didn't try to get get the win versus NE ( he ran the clock out to force OT). It was a terrible decision considering the great starting field position, NE had 0 timeouts (if the Raiders did make a mistake at midfield it would be no biggie), the Raiders had no MO on D, and they have vet receivers/QB to make big plays for you. I wonder if that whole thing ran through Belichek's minds and he said we have to at least try to get the W now.