The Rams vs. Patriots Superbowl 53 is the result of controversial overtime rules and poor officiating in the AFC and NFC Championship games.

Controversy

Super Bowl LIII is surrounded by the controversy that first arose in the AFC and NFC championships before it. The AFC championship game was a shootout between MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes on the Chiefs and 5-time SuperBowl winner Tom Brady on the Patriots. I’d say that overall the game was called relatively fairly, with the exception of the punt return for a touchdown by the Chiefs that was called back. This call was misjudged by the officials and could have gone either way and as a result kept the Patriots in the game as it took away 7 points from the Chiefs. After this, the Patriots tied the game causing it to go into overtime. The overtime rules in the NFL are that whichever team scores a touchdown first wins and if they score a field goal the other team has a chance to tie it again or score a touchdown to win (these are the rules in their most basic form). These rules give a significant advantage to the team that wins the coin toss, which in this scenario the Patriots won the toss, and you know what happens from there. The result of this game was a very upset fan base of the Chiefs and a game that was decided by a coin toss.

On the other side of the league the NFC, is even more heated and controversial as there was a blatant pass-interference call that was missed against in the Rams vs Saints game. Drew Brees and the Saints were driving down the field in the 4th quarter when they were down 20-17 and were hoping to score a touchdown to avoid overtime. On 3rd down, Brees threw a pass to Tommylee Lewis and before the wide receiver had the opportunity to catch it, he was knocked down from a brutal hit from Robey-Coleman in the Rams secondary. It was textbook pass-interference and it forced the Saints to settle for a field goal and go to overtime. They ended up losing in over time, as they failed to score and the Rams scored a field goal.

Preview

Regardless of the previous conference championship games and the controversy that surrounded them, we have a very exciting game ahead of us. The dynasty of the past decade, the Patriots, is facing the rising Rams, who have been at the top of the league the past couple of years, and may end up being the new dynasty of the NFL. The Rams appear to be the more complete team, but they face the 5-time Champion in Tom Brady. This will be a difficult task for the inconsistent Rams secondary. In my personal opinion, I would rather see the Patriots fall, as I am sick of seeing them in the Superbowl with their boring play style.