One of the best matchups during Super Bowl LIII will be the one between the Patriots secondary and the Rams wide receivers. These two units have played superb football in the playoffs and helped carry their teams to this stage.
But who has the advantage and play the biggest role to decide the outcome of the Super Bowl?
This postseason the New England Patriots secondary has raised its level allowing the team to stop some of the most explosive wide receivers they have faced this season.
So far, the entire secondary of the Patriots has been great defending third and longs situations. More importantly, they’ve held the Chargers’ Keenan Allen and Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill to three combined receptions and will now try to neutralize Brandin Cooks and the rest of the Rams wideouts.
The Pats’ corners have done a great job of locking up and playing man-to-man. Stephon Gilmore has been great running routes and breaking up passes so he’s likely to take on Rams wide receiver Robert Woods.
J.C. Jackson has been somewhat inconsistent this season but has recently stepped up his game providing very solid coverage most of the time. His main issue before the Super Bowl will be to try to clean up his game as he’s prone to drawing flags on tight plays, as that could be costly against the explosive wide receivers of the Rams.
What makes the Rams wideouts so dangerous is that they’re great at creating confusion and separation against any secondary they’re facing.
Cooks is especially dangerous when he goes on vertical routes due to his outstanding speed and ability to catch the deep ball, so defensive coordinator Brian Flores will likely double-team him most of the game.
Woods is another key piece for Los Angeles as he’s one of the best route runners in the NFL. A usually underrated player, Woods is great with his hands on the ball and talent to gain yards after the catch as he’s good evading tacklers and hard to bring down.
Although the injury to Cooper Kupp was a heavy blow for the Rams receiving unit, they have shown great resilience, as they’ve been able to overcome his loss by stepping up for him and reaching Super Bowl LIII. Now they must perform on the biggest stage there is as they’re going against head coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady and his very experienced and talented group of receivers.
Fortunately for the Rams, who own the second-best offense in the NFL, head coach Sean McVay has so far proven to be a great play caller and offensive architect. In just two seasons he has molded this offense to maximize the weapons that Rams quarterback Jared Goff has available.
McVay is likely to engineer a game plan that will most likely present a lot of problems for the Patriots defense, however, in a game as big as the Super Bowl experience matters so the edge has to be on the Patriots secondary.
In fact, don’t be surprised if Belichick and defensive coordinator Brian Flores come out with a defensive scheme that holds the Rams scoreless in the first half, just as they did against the Chiefs’ top-ranked offense.
