Pats defense have their moments but they been consistent at the right time compared to last year where they started to really get bad in the playoffs which Philly took advantage of it, Philly caught them at the right time and on the flip. Patriots caught Rams at right time, but honestly many teams did including the Saints who should of been in that game in the first place.

That Pats team that lost the SB to Philly in 2017 had one of their worst defenses in the Bill B era. And yet despite this, it took Nick Foles playing way over his ceiling to beat them and they needed over 40 points.

NE made some key mistakes in that game with the special teams play (leaving 4 points off the board) and Cooks stupidly trying to jump over that guy on the 4th and inches run play (he could've just avoided that guy and got the first down. Will never figure out what the hell Cooks was thinking trying to jump over that guy). IMO if they get the missed field goal and Cooks gets that first down, it's a completely different ball game.

They made drastic improvements on defense this year compared to 2017. On the flip side, they lost some of their offensive power. Brady is 41 years old and looked his age for a good portion of the year. The Pats offense kinda reverted back to their old selves from the early 2000's this year by running the ball heavily. Sony Michel is a stud and they were smart to rest him late in the season, saving him for the playoffs.

The more I think about it, our defense would've matched up well with the Pats in the SB. They wouldn't have been able to run the ball. It would've come down to the question of slowing down Edleman and Gronk. Brady's history against zone defenses would come into play too, but it all depends on if he shows up or not. IMO he had many bad throws in the SB that cost the Pats' drives when they could've been scoring on the Rams.

The biggest question though in a Saints/Pats match up for me remains with our offense that never got out of their slump at the end of the year. I believe Bill B would've followed Dallas' blueprint by taking away MT and Kamara, forcing yet another game with our offense struggling to get anything going with the other receivers. I think we get up to 17 points though. We would struggle, but no way Brees plays awful like Goff did.

Goff looked clueless like a deer starring in headlights in that game. It reminded me of how terrible Cam Newton played in SB 50 or Rex Grossman against the Colts and yet, both of those QBs still managed to put more than 3 points on the board.

Goff heavily relied on a run game, many teams especially at the end of the year knew if they stopped Gurley that Goff would struggle to win it on his own, factor in the absence of Cooper Kupp and Goff looked lost once he went down. Only team that never tried to or poorly failed at trying to implement the strategy was Dallas, which is a team that tends to play Jeckyl and Hyde. I think this season Rams handed a SB berth is about as good as its going to get for them, I think that team starts falling apart and I think McVay is going to become another guy that people is going to realize looks good because Jeff Fisher built him a team and the FO has him a coaching staff.

I agree with you on the running game for Goff.

For the first half of the year, Goff looked like a young Troy Aikman (1991-1994). He had a few dud games like vs Denver, but for the most part, he was in the top 3 of QB numbers, especially with advanced stats. This is why I think a young Aikman is a better comparison than the Kurt Warner comparisons he was getting. Aikman's TD and yardage numbers were never inflated due to Emmitt Smith, much like how Goff could hand the ball off to Gurley, but Akman was right there with the other great QBs of that time span in advanced passing stats.


Like how we declined with Dallas showing the blueprint of how our offense really had no other weapons besides MT and Kamara, something similar happened to the Rams when they went to Chicago.

The Rams I think were exposed due to Goff really being an illiterate QB who can't read defenses. The Bears figured out how to completely throw him off guard by changing their schemes after McVay told him what to change at the LOS and where to throw the ball to. The Pats did this to him as well, hence why he looked like a deer starring in headlights out there.

I thought Goff was a huge bust back in 2016 and I still believe he would be that same bust if not for McVay coaching him like a Madden video game QB. He has to tell him where to throw the ball and what audibles to make.

Goff didn't look that great against us either. Our defense just finally got tired and worn down after holding them down the entire game.

Mark my words - the Rams aren't winning a SB with Goff and I think McVay will take a huge step backwards next year when they go 7-9 or 8-8 at best. I would hate to be a fan of any of the teams who just hired a young coach thinking McVay really is this 'boy genius'.