A Super Bowl Like No Other

Sarah DeWolfe | Staff Writer

Super Bowl LII was just as historic as Super Bowl LI, but why was there so much more to the game this time around? There are so many questions and not enough answers. But I do know that when the Eagles squared up against the Patriots the unthinkable happened. The Pats lost the Super Bowl. They were favored in every imaginable way, even history was on their side, or so we thought.

Flashback to a simpler time in 2002 when the Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams for the Lombardi Trophy. They did not win the Super Bowl the following year, but then came back in 2004 to beat the Panthers in the championship. Then in 2005 they completed back to back national titles and beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 at Alltel Stadium. Now, the Pats claimed victory in 2015 against Seattle (Thank you Malcolm Butler) and skipped a year to their next title in 2017 against the Atlanta Falcons (Thank you Matt Ryan/defensive line).

Fast-forward to Super Bowl LII in 2018 where the Patriots are playing the Eagles in another potentially repeat Super Bowl victory. So, shouldn’t the Patriots have won? Nearly identical situations 13 years apart. I thought history was supposed to repeat itself but as we all saw, history was about as effective as the Patriots’ second quarter trick play.

In spite of having the lowest viewership ratings since 2009, the game set records-17 to be exact-like the most offensive yards in a Super Bowl with 1,151 yards. Historic! But both teams were really only able to contribute to that record because neither team played strong defense for the majority of the match. The Eagles defense was more present than New England’s, mostly in the first quarter and some of the last, but other than that it was just a matter of both teams running down the field to either score or botch a field goal (still not over that).

Despite losing what would have been his sixth Super Bowl ring, Tom Brady broke 6 records himself-at the age of 40 might I add. He has the most Super Bowl appearances (8), the most passing yards in a Super Bowl (505), the most career Super Bowl passes (357) and completions (235), the most career Super Bowl passing yards (2,576), and the most career Super Bowl touchdown passes (18) than any other player in the history of the NFL. Brady remains the winningest QB in NFL history.

 

That is not to knock the performance of back-up QB turned Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles. I mean, he himself called the trick play that ended with Foles catching a TD pass. Yes, you read that right, Nick Foles was on the receiving end of a pass thrown by a tight end. He threw for 373 yards with 28/43 completions. He is not the same QB who was released by the Rams. After league MVP hopeful Carson Wentz went down, the Eagles’ season was thought to be over. Obviously that didn’t happen.

Another highlight of the game besides Foles’ disappearing act into the endzone includes Brandon Graham’s strip-sack that caused Brady to turnover the ball and further cement the Eagle’s victory with 2 minutes left in the 4^th quarter. Some things you can expect to see on Sportcenter’s Not Top 10? Patriots’ snapper Joe Cardona’s poor snap, followed by Ryan Allen’s poor catch/set-up, followed by a botched field goal that would have cut the deficit in half. While we’re at it, we can’t forget to add the Patriot’s own trick play where Danny Amendola ended up throwing a decent pass to a wide-open Tom Brady for an easy first down. Except the play didn’t result in a first down, but rather in a failed attempt at a fourth down because Brady barely got his fingers on the ball.

And how could we forget Brandin Cooks’ offensive run in which he attempted to heroically hurdle an Eagles defenseman, key word attempted. Justice was not served for Cooks, however, when he was laid out by Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins in a hard hit to the helmet that left him lying on the field and eventually taken out of the game on concussion protocol.

I can’t talk about Super Bowl LII without addressing the increasingly controversial catch rule. The Eagles scored two touchdowns by Zach Ertz and Corey Clements and both were on the edge of being overturned, but neither were. Ertz was ruled a runner before he landed in the end zone where the ball seemingly touched the ground before he recovered it. Clements caught a ball in the back of the end zone and caused a debate over whether or not he had controlled possession when his two feet landed on the ground.

The blurred lines of the current rule allows for referees to interpret the play themselves. It’s clear that the NFL needs a stricter and more defined ruling on what constitutes a fair catch. This rule has been a game changer in several games throughout the regular season and no team was immune to its effects. If Goodell and the League know what’s good for them, they’ll look to impose a definitive standard for completions.

  With the little information we have in the days following the Super Bowl, we can only speculate why, oh why, Coach Bill Belichick decided to sit cornerback Malcolm Butler in the biggest game of the year. This is the player who single-handedly foiled Russel Wilson and the Seahawks’ Super Bowl dreams with a game-saving interception in the final moments of the 2015 Super Bowl. Yet somehow he was only used in the special teams unit and not in his usual starting position on defense.

Instead, Patriots fans got to drive themselves mad wondering why replacement cornerback Eric Rowe wasn’t yanked from the game after his first blown coverage, or second, or third… Belichick claims it was for the good of the team which is hardly believable. The longer it takes the Patriots to give the real reason for Butler’s punishment, the more outrageous stories will come out.

The real questions now are simple: Will Rob Gronkowski return for another season despite his likelihood of being injured? Is Tom Brady going to reveal the location of the fountain of youth? And is the city of Philadelphia still standing? Hopefully these can al l be answered in the off-season.