Geoff, Ryan is actually ahead of Romo barely in Total QBR from 2006-2016 (the Romo Era). Romo has so few playoff pelts on the wall. Your rate stats in the regular season have to be better, it’s fair to say. So I couldn’t bang the table for Romo in the HOF. Romo does beat Rivers and Roethlisberger in that period though.
McVay said Todd Gurley looked and felt good, but that is a little different from the reports this morning that Gurley shouldn’t expect to be a workhorse in this game.
Belichick accidentally leaks his gameplan: The Patriots are going to play their best.
It’s been a long and winding NFL season, full of twists and turns for both of the teams who will take the field this evening. Here, I break down how each team found its way to Atlanta:
Mike, I don’t know about Romo. Would you let Matt Ryan in? What about Matthew Stafford?
Heartily agree, Josh.
Donald shirtless is a huge missed opportunity here.
These player introductions seem kind of lame for a Super Bowl.
Romo says about Goff: “You need to protect him early.” This is a key point. Also, you need to protect him late, and you should aim to protect him in the middle part of the game. He’s terrible under pressure, plain and simple.
Is Romo a Hall of Famer? He’d have my vote.
Romo said that Aaron Donald can be a game wrecker, and that’s a very typical announcer-type thing to say, but it’s actually backed up by the data. According to ESPN’s Brian Burke, when Donald can’t beat his block, the Rams defense is below average.
Since Tony Romo said he’s been waiting to hear the words “welcome to the Super Bowl” his whole career, we’ll just leave this here:
https://sports.theonion.com/tony-romo-realizes-he-should-have-used-ability-to-read-1832056460
A Rematch 17 Years In The Making
For older NFL fans, the quintessential Patriots-Rams matchup happened after the 2001 season, in Super Bowl XXXVI:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8c3Z4nZwtE
But a lot has changed for both teams. The Rams are now the up-and-coming squad with the genius coach who turned around a moribund franchise; the Patriots are now the seasoned former champs trying to add another Super Bowl to their trophy case. But unlike 17 years ago, the established team isn’t a massive favorite — New England has just a 53 percent chance of winning, according to our Elo ratings, as opposed to the 65 percent chance St. Louis had when they were the Greatest Show on Turf. That means it won’t really be a shock if things come down to the wire the way they did back in 2002.
After two weeks of waiting, Super Bowl LIII is almost here! And we’re here as well, ready to live-blog all game long. We’ve assembled our cast of football writers to chime in throughout the evening: Sports editor Geoff Foster, assistant sports editor Sara Ziegler, NFL analyst Josh Hermsmeyer, senior sportswriter Neil Paine and freelance writer Michael Salfino (plus perhaps a cameo appearance or two from editor-in-chief Nate Silver). Follow the action along with us, let us know your thoughts in the comments and enjoy the game!