Well, I can't lie they came out better than I thought they would. Good thing our's came out even better than that!
13 pts
262 Pass yds
154 Rush yds
22 1st downs
NE was 3/12 on 3rd down and 0/1 on 4th down
Intercepted Brady (early)
Strip sacked him too, just didn't recover
Turnover differential was even between the teams
Pass defense was decent for them, and they got plenty of pressure on Brady, but they were wholly unable to stop the run. That was probably most damning for their SB run. They had improved on run D but only against 1 good RB per team, Patriots have 3 good rushers and a WR who can run. Far more multidimensional in the run game than their other 2 playoff opponents. They also probably wished they forced more turnovers. The turnover battle was crucial.
Really this defense proved they had not gotten much better since their bye week. They reverted right back to their bad run-D tenancies. The Pats offense struggled for much of the game against this defense but did just enough, with a lil help from a defense of their own that caught fire in the big game, and came out SB champions. GO PATS!!
