The Rams and Patriots Are Headed to the Super Bowl, After Two Thrilling Games That Both Went to Overtime

If you missed the NFL games yesterday, you missed the best football of the season . . . with BOTH of the conference championships going to overtime for the first time ever.

In fact, only six conference championships since 1970 have gone to overtime.  It’s happened five times in the NFC, and once in the AFC.  It’s also the first time in NFL history that two playoff games have gone to overtime on the same day.

Long story short, the L.A. Rams and the New England Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl, which will happen in Atlanta in two weeks.  The Rams last made the Big Game in 2002, when they were in St. Louis.  That year, they also played the Patriots.

That was the year when Brady first took over as the Patriots’ quarterback, and led them to their first Super Bowl.  In the 17 years since, they’ve been to SEVEN more Super Bowls, winning four more.

This is the Patriots’ THIRD STRAIGHT year in the Super Bowl.  They aren’t the ‘underdogs’ they like to think they are . . . their decline has been grossly exaggerated.  Here’s how it all went down:

In the first game, the New Orleans Saints jumped out to a solid 13-0 lead on the Rams in the first quarter . . . but the Rams chipped away, until they were tied at 20 with less than two minutes to play.

At that point, the refs made a very controversial NO-CALL when they swallowed their whistles after OBVIOUS pass interference by the Rams.  If the play had been flagged, the Saints surely would’ve won.

Ultimately, regulation ended in a tie, and Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw his first career overtime interception, and the Rams won by a score of 26-23.

In the second game, the Patriots jumped out to a 14-0 lead at halftime, and in the process they became the first team to hold the Kansas City Chiefs scoreless in the first half of a home game in six years.

By the end, both defenses got tired, and it was a SHOOTOUT.  Naturally, Tom Brady is going to win most of those.  But Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was up to the challenge, and the Chiefs tied the game before the end of regulation.

The Patriots won the coin toss, and Brady marched the Pats down the field for a game-winning touchdown.  Brady is now 3-0 in overtime games in the playoffs, and his opponents didn’t touch the ball in any of those.

On one hand, it sucks that the NFL’s overtime rules didn’t let Mahomes have a chance in overtime . . . but the Chiefs defense had plenty of opportunities to stop the Brady, and they couldn’t.  The Patriots won by a score of 37-31.