by Jon_48469 2 years ago
Our inaugural season of the Madden 23 cycle has concluded in the best way possible; with an incredible Super Bowl between two great teams that saw us crown a 1st time champ! How did the Bowl play out you might ask (if you were one of the few who missed it)? Have no fear and please stop panicing, because we got you covered:
SUPER BOWL LVII: I'm confident we'll have plenty of incredible Super Bowl matchups this cycle, but right off the bat the bar was set incredibly high. The Atlanta Falcons represented the NFC after entering the playoffs as the NFC South Champ at 13-4. Their first matchup could've easily been seen as a potential NFC Championship game going into the season as they took down the Green Bay Packers in Atlanta (shamelessly plugging the previous blog that has a recap of this game). What did that win them? Just a trip to the City of Brotherly Love and a matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles..... in the snow. A late touchdown there secured the surprisingly high-scoring 41-37 victory and another battle of the birds matchup in Seattle against the #1 seed & 15-2 Seahawks. These two faced off in week 3 of the regular season that ended 47-28 in Seattle's favor; so this game should be another high-scoring affair that favors the hosts right? WRONG! Atlanta came in focused, hungry for revenge, and turned in an all-star defensive effort that shut down MVP RB Kenneth Walker III and grounded the high-flying Hawks enroute to a convincing 31-3 victory.
Their opponent in the Bowl representing the AFC was none other than the LA Chargers. The Bolts came into the posteason as the #3 seed and AFC West Champ at 11-6. Their first matchup was incredibly intriguing as they were paired up against their division rival, the Denver Broncos. These two met twice in the regular season, including week 18 right before the playoffs. Similar to the Atlanta vs Seattle matchup, this game was a complete 180 compared to the regular season finale as the Chargers absolutely dominated the Broncos 44-0. Shamelessly plugging the previous blog again where this matchup was talked about in detail. Their divisional round matchup was a much tighter affair as they hosted the red-hot Buffalo Bills who were riding a 7-game win streak. Defenses ruled the day, in a few different ways. A 50+ yard defensive Pass Interference call set up the Chargers to take the lead in the 2nd half on a short Austin Ekeler TD run, and Khalil Mack & company caused all sorts of problems for the Bills passing game with multiple sacks and countless QB pressures, propelling the Chargers to a 23-15 victory. With the results elsewhere leaving them as the highest seed left, they had the honor of hosting the AFC Championship game against the #7 seed Pittsburgh Steelers who took down the conference's top 2 seeds to get to that point. The Chargers defense stepped up big time, forcing FIVE Baker Mayfield picks (Kenny Pickett makes some of those throws, just saying) to keep the Steelers off the board on numerous occasions. Their offense played efficient behind Herbert who went 16-19 passing on the day; and after it was all said & done the Chargers emerged as 30-16 victors with their sights set on the Super Bowl.
Alright, now that we know who was there we should probably get into the Super Bowl Game Recap itself. This game was everything we could've wanted and then some. A classic back-and-forth affair early on saw us go into the half tied at 10 following a classic Atlanta redzone stop by intercepting Justin Herbert in the endzone; followed by the Chargers defense answering the call and getting the ball right back through a pick of their own to set up an easy field goal right before the break. Riding that momentum, Austin Ekeler took the ball 75yds to the house on the 1st play of the 2nd half to put the Chargers up 17-10 quickly. The LA highs were short-lived however, as Calvin Ridley matched Ekeler with a 79yd catch & run TD of his own to put us right back where we started. Yet another Falcons goalline stand (shocker) resulted in Los Angeles settling for 3 to take the lead to start the 4th quarter, and a strip sack of Russell Wilson led to another field goal putting us at 23-17 LA with 3:38 to go. Down but not out, Wilson rebounded with a nice drive that saw him surgically march his team down the field. A swing pass out to RB Cordarrelle Patterson turned into a 15yd TD after some nice blocking on the outside, and after kicking the extra point the Falcons found themselves up 24-23 with just 49 seconds to go. Rashaan Evans came up with the biggest interception of his life, picking off a pass thrown by Herbert as he was getting hit by a Falcons pass-rusher, putting Atlanta on the cusp of hoisting the Lombardi. Afer gaining the 1st down and LA running out of timeouts, Russ was able to take a knee and watch the clock hit zero. Coach Marks could be seen dancing in the top right corner of his stream screen, showing just how much it meant to finally clinch his first Super Bowl in GZ.
THE ATLANTA FALCONS FINISH THE 2022 SEASON AS THE SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!! Q picks up his first title in GZ and etches his name into the history books as such. An incredible season by both teams, wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if next season's recap is deja vu talking about these same two teams.
The 2022 season in general had it all: lots of entertaining games, handful of close division races, few surprising teams that emerged as contenders, a BOATLOAD of interceptions thrown, records being broken.... the list goes on and on. We are now onto the offseason where teams will most certainly take advantage of free agency, trades & the draft to head into 2023 ready to give their best shot at claiming the elusive Lombardi Trophy for themselves. Congrats & shoutout to all of GroundZero for a great first season back on the Madden grind, can't wait to get season 2 rolling!