Super Bowl LIII — 2018 Season

Result

Super Bowl MVP

Julian Edelman, WR, New England Patriots

Starting lineups

Starting offense

Starting defense

Note: Only 10 of New England's 11 defensive starters could be resolved from the sources checked this pass (one likely nickel-package slot not clearly named) — reported as sourced rather than filled in by guesswork.

Box score

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Game context

Super Bowl LIII was, by scoring, the lowest-scoring and one of the most defensively dominant Super Bowls ever played, a stark contrast to the high-flying offenses — the Los Angeles Rams' Sean McVay-Jared Goff attack and New England's ageless Tom Brady-led unit — that had gotten each team there. Neither team scored a touchdown through three quarters, the first time that had happened in Super Bowl history; New England led just 3-0 at halftime on a Stephen Gostkowski field goal, and Los Angeles tied it with a 53-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal in the third quarter, the longest field goal in Super Bowl history to that point, leaving the score knotted 3-3 heading into the fourth. New England finally broke through in the fourth quarter behind a 12-play, 69-yard drive finished by Sony Michel's 2-yard touchdown run, the Patriots' first touchdown of the entire game and, ultimately, the only touchdown either team would score. Julian Edelman, who led all receivers with 10 catches for 141 yards, was the steadying force in New England's offense throughout, particularly on third downs, and was named Super Bowl MVP — his first, despite having played a central role in multiple prior Patriots championships. Los Angeles's offense, which had scored the second-most points in the NFL that season, was smothered by New England's defensive game plan, managing just 260 total yards and never finding the end zone; Jared Goff, in his first Super Bowl appearance at 24 years old, struggled against New England's disguised coverages and finished 19 of 38 for 229 yards with an interception. New England added a late field goal to make the final 13-3. The win gave the Patriots their sixth championship of the Brady-Belichick era, tying the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl titles by any franchise, and made Brady, at 41, the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl to that point (a mark he would later break himself). It also proved to be the final championship of the Brady-Belichick partnership in New England; Brady departed for Tampa Bay via free agency the following year, ending an unprecedented 20-year run together that produced six titles. For the Rams and 33-year-old head coach McVay, then the youngest coach to reach a Super Bowl, the loss was a painful setback in a franchise revival that had taken Los Angeles from a 4-12 team two years earlier to the championship game; the Rams would return and win it all three years later. Played before 70,081 fans at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Super Bowl LIII is remembered as a defensive struggle that, despite modest television ratings tied to the low scoring, showcased just how dominant New England's championship machine remained deep into its second decade.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Super Bowl LIII
• Pro-Football-Reference: Super Bowl LIII box score