Tag: Greg Zuerlein

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

Last night the New England Patriots took home the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII. Yes, you read that right, the score was 13-3. You may have missed this after falling asleep, considering the game was 3-0 until the second half. But, we want to give credit where it is due! Congratulations to these two teams for dethroning the previous record holders, the Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins, who scored a whopping 21 points combined in Super Bowl VII.

Aside from the injury sustained by Patrick Chung early in the second quarter, there were very few highlights – other than the exploits of both teams’ punters. The Patriots’ Stephen Gostkowski made a 42-yard field goal in the second quarter, which was answered by Rams’ Greg Zuerlein’s own for 53 yards. For a while there, we thought this was going to be a replay of the Tennessee Titans-Jacksonville Jaguars game from September. Luckily, the Patriots scored the only touchdown of the entire game (I can’t believe I actually had to write that) when Sony Michel ran it in for 2 yards in the fourth quarter. We almost saw an onside kick on behalf of the Rams with :08 left on the clock in the fourth quarter, but alas, Zuerlein missed his field goal attempt, turning the ball over to the Patriots. Whomp, whomp.

When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell presented Pats’ owner Robert Kraft with the Lombardi trophy for the sixth time in the last eighteen years, the crowd erupted in boos. We stand corrected, while Goodell was speaking, there were jeers. When Kraft spoke, there were cheers. While we like to celebrate good sportsmanship, we also value the fans’ expressing themselves – and found it pretty funny too. I mean, anyone else see the mutual daggers in their eyes?

Now, if it had been our fans on the sidelines or in the booth, calling the plays, we think we would have seen a much different outcome. We’re not saying the Rams would have beaten the Patriots, but we ARE saying it would have been an infinitely more exciting game. Our fans would have been taking risks – they would have run when they were expected to pass, and vice versa. They would have pulled out trick plays to keep their opponents on their toes. They would have avoided punting at all costs, which luckily will not be an issue in the FCFL, as there is NO kicking in the league whatsoever. Bottom line: our fans would have kept people from falling asleep before the half time show. Then again, those who did fall asleep before halftime were pret-ty lucky to miss that Maroon Mess.