53 things we learned from Patriots’ 13-3 win over Rams in Super Bowl LIII
ATLANTA — The 53 things we learned from the New England Patriots' 13-3 Super Bowl LIII win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night:
1.Patriots QB Tom Brady now stands alone with six of his very own Super Bowl rings, most of any player in NFL history. Sorry, Charles Haley, it was fun while it lasted.
1a. Playing in their record 11th Super Bowl — and 10th in Robert Kraft's quarter century of ownership — the Patriots themselves now stand alone with a league record 37 playoff victories.
1b. New England also tied Pittsburgh for the most Lombardi Trophies won (6), now making it a competition for The Stairway to Seven.
1c. Bill Belichick joined George Halas and Curly Lambeau as the only coaches in the NFL's 99-year history to win six titles. His six Super Bowl victories as a head coach are two more than anyone else.
1d.Brady now has 237 career wins (regular season and playoffs combined), breaking his tie with former teammate Adam Vinatieri for the most in league annals.
1e. Brady (41) is still the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and Belichick (66) is still the oldest coach.
2. The Patriots became the first team (and third overall) since the 1972 Dolphins to win the Super Bowl one year after losing it.
3. New England is also just the third franchise to play in three consecutive Super Bowls — so did the 1971-73 Miami teams — and can match the 1990-93 Buffalo Bills record of four by reaching Super LIV next year in South Florida.
4. The Patriots' 10-point win over the Rams was the largest margin, win or lose, of any of their nine Super Bowls during the Brady-Belichick era.
5. Maybe it was East Coast proximity, but Mercedes-Benz Stadium was decidedly pro-Patriots. New England TE Rob Gronkowski said, "The game today was a home game basically."
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6.If this was Gronkowski's final NFL game — he evaded the retirement question all week up through Sunday night, saying at one point he was 51 percent decided (without indicating which way he was leaning) — go ahead and put him in the conversation as greatest tight end in league history. He won't finish with the stats of a Tony Gonzalez or Antonio Gates, but good luck finding anyone at his position who had as great an impact on a per-game basis.
6a. Gronk's 23 career Super Sunday catches for 297 yards are both records for a tight end.
7. The Rams shut New England out in the first quarter. The Patriots have three points — total — in the opening period of their nine Super Bowls under Brady and Belichick.
8. With 10 catches for 141 yards, Patriots WR Julian Edelman was the clear choice for MVP. Must've gotten some good advice from that random dude who gave him a tour of Atlanta a week before the game.
8a. Now with 115 career catches for 1,412 yards in postseason, Edelman ranks second only to Jerry Rice all time in both categories.
8b. Brady has only failed to win MVP honors twice during his six Super Bowl wins. Edelman and former WR Deion Branch picked up the hardware the other times.
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9. Hated to see Patriots S Patrick Chung wind up in a sling, but how much did it remind of Rodney Harrison's injury against Carolina in Super Bowl XXXVIII? Both players remained in uniform on the field after being injured to exhort their teammates.
10. Bravo to New England's offensive line, which allowed one sack of Brady in the playoffs.
11. After leading the NFL with 20½ sacks in the regular season, two-time league defensive player of the year Aaron Donald had none this postseason.
12. Statistically, this was Brady's worst Super Bowl. It marked the first time he failed to throw a TD pass, and his 71.4 QB rating was easily his worst.
13. Brady also joined Jim Kelly and Ron Jaworski as the only Super Bowl quarterbacks to have their first pass of the game intercepted.
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