Super Bowl LIII is official: The Rams will play the Patriots Feb. 3 in Atlanta.
Both teams survived overtime on the road to get there, and now the No. 2 seeds will clash to determine the best team in football for the 2018-19 campaign.
The Rams took the spotlight first Sunday, defeating the Saints, 26-23, in a thriller.
New Orleans jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter, but the Rams maintained composure and went into the half trailing by just three.
The moment of the game happened in the second half. Tied 20-20, the Saints took the ball with five minutes to play. After an eight-yard pass to Alvin Kamara moved the chains, Drew Brees aired out a 43-yard dime to Ted Ginn Jr., taking the Saints to the two-minute warning and putting them in prime position to seal the game.
An incompletion followed. Then a rush for no gain.
Then this:
This wasn’t called for pass interference by the way pic.twitter.com/j2kSnpBgQd
— NFL Humor (@NFLHumor) January 20, 2019
With no call on the play, the Saints had to settle for a field goal, which ultimately spelled their demise.
Jared Goff and the Rams took over and worked into field goal range, giving Greg Zuerlein the opportunity to knock home the 48-yard tying field goal.
The Saints got the ball first in overtime, but Brees threw a pick under pressure on their fourth play from scrimmage, giving the Rams the opportunity to close out the game with a field goal.
That's exactly what they did.
The offense didn't make it easy on Zuerlein, but he banged it down the middle from 57 yards out with room to spare, punching the Rams' ticket to Atlanta in the process.
Unfazed by the theatrics in New Orleans, the Chiefs and Patriots put on a worthy encore in Kansas City.
It was all Patriots early, as a Sony Michel rushing touchdown, a Philip Dorsett receiving touchdown and some dominant work defensively gave the Patriots a 14-0 lead going into the half. It looked grim for the Chiefs.
Then Patrick Mahomes and company came alive.
After taking the second-half kickoff, Mahomes connected with Sammy Watkins for 54 yards and followed that with a 12-yard strike to Travis Kelce for the Chiefs' first points of the game. After the early haymaker, the two squads began to trade blows.
Mahomes rung up three total passing touchdowns, Damien Williams added one on the ground, and Harrison Butker nailed a 31-yard field goal, giving the Chiefs a 31-point second half. The teams combined for 38 points in a wild fourth quarter, an NFL playoff record.
And yet... it wasn't enough. Relying on a dominant running game, the Patriots hung on through everything the Chiefs threw at them, eventually forcing overtime, where they quickly sealed the deal.
The Patriots got the ball, methodically worked down the field with 13 plays in 4:50 and punched it in with Rex Burkhead from two yards out. Ballgame.
With that, the Patriots return to the Super Bowl for their ninth time in the past 18 seasons. It will be the team's third-straight Super Bowl appearance. They've gone 1-1 in the past two years, defeating the Falcons in 2016 and losing to the Eagles in 2017.
____________________
Want our latest content at your fingertips? Download the FREE app today:
