What Los Angeles-based media members are saying about the Patriots
"It goes to show you that they do listen to the outside noise."
An exciting aspect of the Super Bowl for each team’s fans is hearing what analysts, reporters, and media personalities from one city have to say about the other team. The two weeks between the NFL conference championships and Super Bowl LIII provide plenty of room for Boston sports media and their Los Angeles counterparts to develop their takes.
With that in mind, here’s an overview of what Los Angeles writers and pundits have said about the Patriots in the lead-up to Super Bowl LIII:
Mike DiGiovanna, the Los Angeles Times: “In defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, the Rams have a proven ‘Brady Buster.'”
DiGiovanna wrote that Tom Brady and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels could meet their match this season in Rams defensive coordinator Phillips, who is one of the most experienced defensive coaches in the NFL Phillips was the defensive coordinator for the Super Bowl 50 champion Denver Broncos, who narrowly bested the Patriots in that season’s AFC Championship 20-18.
DiGiovanna wrote Tuesday that Phillips could very well bring similar defensive schemes back against the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. In 2015, Broncos linebacker Von Miller was able to pressure and hit Brady often, something that has not happened to the Patriots quarterback yet in this season’s playoff run thanks to the effective play of New England’s offensive line.
“Teams that have had success against Brady in the playoffs, like the New York Giants in the 2007 and 2011 Super Bowls, have funneled pressure toward the middle, leaving Brady with fewer escape routes, and pummeled him off the edge,” DiGiovanna noted.
Fortunately for the Rams, according to DiGiovanna, this Rams defense is built exactly to do just that.
Mason and Ireland, ESPN Los Angeles Radio: “The book on Bill Belichick is, he always takes away one thing, your go-to thing.”
ESPN Los Angeles radio hosts Steve Mason and John Ireland understand that Belichick is a quality defensive coach in the NFL. They conceded that with most teams, Belichick’s defense succeeded in taking away an offense’s best attribute. Case in point: the Patriots defense held Kansas City’s top wide receiver, Tyreek Hill, to just one reception in the AFC Championship. He was only targeted three times total.
But Mason and Ireland said they aren’t so sure the Rams have an offensive weapon that the Patriots could gain a genuine advantage by suppressing. They pointed out the Rams have won in different ways in the playoffs. According to ProFootballReference, the Rams ran for 273 yards against the Cowboys and passed for only 186, and flipped the switch against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship, instead running for only 77 yards and gaining 301 yards in the air.
“If you take Brandin Cooks off the board, then Robert Woods and Josh Reynolds have a big day. If you take Tyler Higbee off the board, then Gerald Everett has a big day. If you take Gurley off the board, CJ Anderson has a big day, and vice versa. You could target Goff and come after him, but if you come after Goff every time, then you run it.”
Roggin and Rodney, AM570 Sports Radio: “It is amazing how, in this playoff run the Patriots have had, that they have taken on, from internally, they’ve taken on that underdog role. It’s amazing that they’re the Patriots, they’ve been there nine times with Brady and Belichick, won five of them, and now they’re crying underdog… it goes to show you that they do listen to the outside noise.”
Los Angeles AM570 lunchtime hosts Fred Roggin and Rodney Peete said Monday they found it interesting how apparent it is that the Patriots do listen to the outside media surrounding the team. They referenced mic’d up video clips from the AFC Championship of Tom Brady joking that he’s too old to win in the NFL anymore and suggested that Brady and co. have been to the Super Bowl so frequently they needed a new way to motivate themselves this year.
“Somehow, some way, the Patriots have come up with this idea that they’re the underrated team, that they’re the underdog. Nine trips to the Super Bowl, you’re not underrated. But whatever it takes,” Roggin said.
Jeremy Willis, ESPN Los Angeles: “So, happy birthday, Sean [McVay]. You’ve come a long way in 33 years and lived longer than Alexander the Great and many other young conquerors. But none of them had to face Belichick and Brady.”
ESPN Los Angeles wrote that message to Rams coach McVay in celebration of his birthday on Jan. 24. The article celebrates some of more interesting factoids and stats shared between the youngest head coach in Super Bowl history and the Rams’ 24-year-old quarterback in Jared Goff and 66-year-old Belichick and 41-year-old Brady, who have seen nearly everything at this stage in their careers. Willis noted that when Brady was Goff’s age, he took down an NFL powerhouse in the St. Louis Rams on his way to his first Super Bowl.
“Interesting coincidence,” Willis wrote, before erring back to the challenge the Patriots pose. “But it could be a sad birthday for McVay. Experience often matters when it comes to the Super Bowl.”
Doug Farrar, USA Today’s Touchdown Wire: “If [Belichick] were to decide that letting the Rams’ ground game get their yards and chew up clock, sending five and six defensive backs on the field more often than not, he could present a lot of problems for third-year quarterback Jared Goff.”
Farrar looked all the way back to the 1990 NFL season and Super Bowl XXV for an idea of what Belichick and the Patriots may do to stymie the Rams’ offense on Sunday. Why retread a Super Bowl from nearly 30 years ago?
Belichick was the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants at the time, and when they prepared to play the high-flying Buffalo Bills offense in the Super Bowl, Belichick’s apparent strategy was to drop defenders back, allow Buffalo to run the ball, and hit receivers hard and often when they did pass. The Giants also went to great lengths to keep Buffalo’s offense off the field in that game, running the ball often themselves to keep the game clock moving and bleeding the clock before starting each play.
Farrar sees similarities between the Bills’ offense then and the Rams’ offense now, and could see Belichick giving Goff fits by allowing the Rams to run the ball while putting as many as six defensive backs on the field.
“The other potential similarity to Super Bowl XXV? Belichick’s Patriots teams are beating their recent opponents by leading with the run and taking as much of the clock as they can get,” Farrar wrote. “In their AFC championship win over the Chiefs, the Patriots held the ball for 43:59 to Kansas City’s 20:53, and never let their opponent have the ball in overtime. They ran the ball 48 times for 176 yards and four touchdowns… Given the leaky state of the Rams’ run defense, Belichick would be foolish to avoid exploiting it, and he’s not generally foolish.”
