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Connor Lawless

Quite a few Algonquin students took a sick day for the Patriots' victory parade in Boston on February 5. The parade was led by cannons firing red, white and blue confetti onto the estimated 1.5 million attendees that crowded Boston's streets.

What a surprise, Boston has won another championship with the Patriots’ sixth Super Bowl win against the Los Angeles Rams.

Aren’t we spoiled? Maybe, but it sure feels good.

With both offenses loaded with talent, many predicted that this would be a high scoring game. However, I personally stopped predicting Patriots games; you’ll never get it right. This was the lowest scoring Super Bowl in history and the first touchdown wasn’t scored until the fourth quarter.

The majority will say this Super Bowl was boring.

I respectfully (not really) disagree. Yes, there weren’t a lot of points scored, but does that necessarily mean it was boring?

There weren’t a lot of good offensive plays, but there were plenty of exciting defensive plays. You know what’s more exciting than a forty yard touchdown throw? How about a pass breakup in the endzone by someone who wasn’t even supposed to be there. Yes, I’m talking to you, Patriots’ cornerback Jason McCourty.

People expect football to be played like checkers, but this game was played like chess with one team’s move being countered by the other team. This may have been Bill Belichick’s greatest coaching performance, shutting down one of the league’s premier offenses.

Both of the offenses struggled throughout the game.

“The goat,” Patrtiots’ quarterback Tom Brady, threw an interception his first throw. Not very “Goat” like. The Patriots were getting first downs but couldn’t pull enough of them together to get a touchdown until the fourth quarter. Brady eventually got into a rhythm, but Rams’ starting quarterback Jared Goff, being the kid that he is, looked inexperienced and overwhelmed by the big game and took a beating. Plus, the Rams’ head coach Sean McVay seemed to forget he had one of the best running backs in the NFL, Todd Gurley.

Both of the defenses dominated in a league where the quarterback literally can’t be touched or they’ll get a penalty for roughing the passer. They pressured the quarterbacks all night long, had excellent coverage and shut the run down. The game was back and forth, one stalemate to another. Punt after punt and game-saving play after game-saving play.

The score was 3-3 entering the fourth quarter when finally the Patriots strung together an excellent drive, including a 29 yard catch by Rob Gronkowski that set the Patriots up at the 2 yard line. With seven minutes remaining in the game Sony Michel dove into the endzone like he had dove right into a Super Bowl victory.

The Rams went down the field the following drive and were close to scoring, but Goff floated the football to a waiting Stephon Gilmore to ultimately seal it for the Pats.

One could say that someone who thought this game was boring doesn’t appreciate the game of football. I’ll rephrase that: for bandwagon fans, that was a boring game.

If you were watching at all this season, you know the Pats weren’t an exciting top-notch offense. Their identity was to grind it out and find a way to win, and that’s exactly what they did on Superbowl Sunday. Besides Brady, Gronk and Edelman they don’t have a lot of superstar players, but they do have championship players. Players that don’t have all the fame and money, but players that will go get the job done. That’s what makes this team so special. They are able to adapt week to week and change their play style for the team they are facing. They kept finding a way to win, all the way to another championship.

Now onto the Super Bowl halftime show.

Wow.

I have many complaints about the halftime show. I’ll just say it was rather unique.

First, there was Maroon 5, so basically Adam Levine and some other random musicians. I was watching my TV screen, but I blinked, and suddenly Adam seemed to have lost his clothes.

Adam, we get that you want to show off your tattoos, but please keep your clothes on. There are kids watching.

Then all of sudden, our favorite cartoon character Spongebob appeared on screen. Beloved “Sweet Victory” started playing, but while we were celebrating that Spongebob had made it into the show, “Sicko Mode” started to play. A meteor from outer space crash landed into the stadium. And my nightmare, Travis Scott rapped… without autotune.

Overall, despite the weird halftime, it was finally good to watch a defensive masterpiece. It seems like it has been forty five years since there has been a game like this. Oh, maybe because it has been that long.  

Fellow New Englanders, can we really complain about a game we won? Plus, a whole lot of you missed school to celebrate the win on an amazingly beautiful February day. Who cares if there was only one touchdown?

And for the non-Patriots fans that complained about the game, was it the fact that it was low scoring or was it because it was your favorite team winning again?

But I still have one question remaining: Who is Big Boi?