Late in their 13-3 Super Bowl win over the Los Angeles Rams, with a little more than four minutes left and New England up seven, Patriots coach Bill Belichick paced the sideline, stared intently at the Rams’ side, turned on his mic and asked a question I haven’t been able to shake in the wake of Spygate 2.0.
“Josh, where’s [Sean] McVay — I can’t find him,” Belichick asked an assistant. “The plus 40 … alright, I got him.”
Moments later, Stephon Gilmore helped clinch a title with an interception, a tremendous flourish on a game in which the popular narrative afterward was how badly the old master, Belichick, outcoached the young hotshot in McVay, whose dynamite offense was held 29 points and 161 yards under its season averages in the biggest game of the season.