Super Bowl 53: Which players will have the biggest impact?
Stephon Gilmore
Gilmore was one of just two New England Patriots selected to this year’s Pro Bowl. He was also named an AP First-Team All Pro in just his second season with the team. By most accounts, 2018 was arguably Gilmore’s best season as a football player, and many analysts and ranking sites listed his as the top cornerback in the entire league at the end of the regular season.
The seven-year veteran out of the University of South Carolina has carried over some of his success and inspired play to the playoffs, though his greatest test will come today against the Rams’ dangerous group of wide receivers.
Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay likes to start his offense bunched together near the line of scrimmage, with linemen, wideouts, running backs, tight ends, and quarterback all grouped near one another. Then the second the ball is snapped, it’s utter chaos – perfectly, beautifully designed chaos, of course – but chaos nonetheless, with players running in all number of directions.
Its a relatively simple concept, but a difficult one for defenses nonetheless: this idea that the opposing offense now has so much field to work with, and so many different routes available for their receivers to run coming out a tightly-bunched formation in the middle.
This set-up will inevitably force Gilmore to move inside and perhaps cover the slot more than he’s accustomed to, which poses a significant challenge. Gilmore has the speed, athleticism, and fundamental skills to match up with just about any receiver playing in the NFL today, but he usually does so out on the edges, covering the opponent’s X receiver.
With the Rams, he might end up playing much further infield before the ball is snapped, which will test the veteran’s ability to adapt and play outside his comfort zone.
Two weeks ago against the Chiefs, the Patriots effectively neutralized Kansas City’s top two playmakers – Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce – by double-teaming them and playing physical at the line of scrimmage to disrupt their timing with quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
It worked for the most part, but it also left Gilmore alone one-on-one with Sammy Watkins for much of the evening. Gilmore limited Watkins to just four catches and kept him out of the end zone, but those four catches still ended up being big ones and accounting for 114 total yards.
The Patriots can live with that kind of damage if they have to, but it’s a little like playing with fire. Realistically, this week’s version of Watkins should be Robert Woods, as Belichick will likely give Brandin Cooks the double-team treatment he gave Hill and trust Gilmore to blanket Woods singlehandedly.
How Gilmore handles that task could determine whether the entire Patriots defensive scheme is successful on Sunday.