What Went Down In Super Bowl LII

We always hear about how the great coaches go into the locker room at halftime and draw a bunch of brilliant adjustments up on a chalkboard to turn a game around. Most of the time, cliches like those are just that — cliches. But in the case of Bill Belichick and Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, there might just be something to that old stereotype. Going into tonight (including the playoffs), New England’s defense allowed 5.85 yards per play (30th) and 10.06 points allowed (11th) in the first half, but those numbers dropped to 5.43 yards per play (22nd) and 8.28 points allowed (2nd) in the second half. In other words: Give the Patriots 30 minutes to observe your offensive tendencies, and more often than not, they’ll come up with a way to slow you down as the game draws to a close.