In Super Bowl XXXVI, Willie McGinest helped the Patriots shut down the league’s No. 1 offense. Years later, he believes the Patriots might try a similar approach to do the same against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
At a media session in the buildup to Super Bowl LI, McGinest, currently an analyst with NFL Network, talked about the Patriots’ mindset against the high-powered 2001 Rams and the challenged posed by the 2016 Falcons:
I think when we were playing against the Rams, we knew we couldn’t play a finesse football game. They would run up and down the field on us.