The New England Patriots may have won their sixth Super Bowl by way of defeating the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night, but it was far from easy.
As a matter of fact, the Patriots went into halftime holding a slim 3-0 lead in the second-lowest scoring half in the history of the Super Bowl.
Outside of a kick from Stephen Gostkowski, New England's offense was sputtering, with Tom Brady throwing an interception on his first pass and Gostkowski actually missing a field goal before making one.
But in the locker room at halftime, Pats offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels delivered a stirring speech, and part of his speech consisted of saying how that even though the Patriots only scored three points in the first half, they wore the Rams' defense out, according to Peter King of NBC Sports:
“In the locker room post-game, talk was that McDaniels went to the board to talk to his team and he drew the number '44.' That’s how many plays the Patriots ran in the first half– and how many plays the Rams D was on the field. ‘That’s got to count for something,' McDaniels told his players. ‘That’s gonna pay off in the second half.'”
McDaniels was proven right in the second half, as the Patriots finally broke the Rams' defense in the fourth quarter on a five-play, 69-yard drive capped by a two-yard run by Sony Michel for the game's first touchdown, giving New England a 10-3 lead that it would not relinquish.
Then, later in the fourth period, the Patriots sealed the game with a nine-play, 72-yard drive that ended in a Gostkowski field goal.
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