Super Bowl Recap by Alex Harvey

The bad news: Football season is officially over and we have to wait until September for it to start again. This is going to be a long off-season. The good news: we were treated to an exciting super bowl and the dynasty lead by Tommy Terrific and Billy 5-Aces continues. Better news? Because Rob Gronkowski is likely going to retire soon, the Patriots will have a lot of cap space and a bunch of draft picks. {{more}}

In my (apparently unpopular) opinion, this was a terrific nail-biting game. I don’t care for flashy offenses, I don’t think that every game needs to be a 50-49 shootout. I’m a defensive guy. I like a little grit in my football and last year’s super bowl didn’t have any grit or defense. While a shootout is entertaining sometimes, I don’t think that it’s necessarily good football. A shootout like last year’s game is like a flashy Tarantino film like Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. It was fast paced, with lots of excitement and action. This year’s game was more like The Godfather. It was slower in pace but felt grander in scope.

When Tom Brady threw an interception on New England’s first passing play, two thoughts crossed through my mind. God dammit, we’ve already gotten off to a horrible start against a team that’s arguably better than us and holy hell this is going to be a good game. I got excited when the Patriots defense, which has been famously awful over the past few years (even though Belichick has historically been regarded as a defensive minded coach) stuffed the Rams and prevented them from capitalizing on the turnover. When the Patriots inched down field and then missed a field goal when the drive stalled out the same two thoughts crossed through my mind. These mistakes are going to kill us, just like they almost did in Kansas City and yes!yes! yes! Finally, the great defensive game that I’ve been wanting to see all season! After the third series ended in another New England turnover and a Los Angeles punt, these same two basic thoughts came back. By this point I had decided that whatever the outcome might be, I already liked this game more than last year.

Throughout the game I had flashbacks to Super Bowl XXXVIII, when the Patriots and Panthers played each other. Aside from a few touchdowns scored in the waning minutes of the second quarter, that game was a defensive struggle for the first three quarters, before turning into a shootout in the fourth quarter. That is how I expected the game to go this year. I fully expected the fireworks to come in the fourth quarter. Was this game a tad anti-climactic? Maybe. There was no goal-line interception to seal the win, no last second kick, no overtime touchdown drive. But until Stephon Gilmore intercepted Goff’s pass in the final minutes, I was on the edge of my seat. In my humble opinion this was one of the best super bowls ever played.