EY: Hi, I’m Ethan Yang and welcome to EE-SPN Football Ep. 3. Today, along with my co-host Benjamin Zhang, I’m joined by junior Parth Samdadiya, and together we will be taking a look at the Super Bowl and recapping our opinions. So Ben, why don’t you take it away and start with our first question?

BZ: How did the results of the Super Bowl compare to your expectations going in? Who did you think was going to win?

PS: I did think Seattle was going to win. I didn’t think it was going to be a high scoring game. I wasn’t expecting it to be very interesting at all considering if you look at the past performances of both teams in the playoffs, minus maybe one NFC championship game for Sam Darnold, both of them were I’d say sub-average performances for both quarterbacks and teams. But I was a little bit shocked to have little scoring considering the first three quarters were almost relatively without touchdowns.

BZ: What did you think was the reason for that?

PS: Well, I think both teams for sure made it to that point because they had better defenses than offenses. I mean if you’re looking and complaining like, “Oh how does this team that has such a bad offense make it here?” It’s because defense wins championships. Defense can really take you that far this post season.

EY: As we saw throughout the game, the Seahawks controlled the momentum and even when the Patriots were able to score a touchdown later on, they immediately threw a pick as soon as they were starting to get good drives. So how do you think that impacted their performance?

PS: I think that ultimately just people that start off bad games, you know there is like a high correlation that you’ll end the game off not very strong.

EY: As we saw during the beginning of the game, both of their defenses made great plays and kept the offenses to a very low scoring game — as you said, there were no touchdowns until the last quarter. What do you think led to an increase in touchdowns during the last quarter?

PS: I think part of it is that Seattle probably took its foot off the gas at some point. I mean ultimately Drake Maye did statistically have a better fourth quarter than his previous three quarters, but I do think it might be partially due to Seattle taking a foot off the gas considering they were already up a lot.

BZ: There were a lot of standout players the entirety of this Super Bowl. I guess number one, the most interesting storyline here is Kenneth Walker and how he had to come in after Charbonnet got injured and this was the last year on his contract. What did you think about Kenneth Walker’s performance and what Seattle has to do this offseason with him being a free agent?

PS: I don’t think I follow the Seattle Seahawks enough to give a very detailed comment, but I think obviously both running backs have been impressive throughout the entirety of the season when I used to watch. I don’t know how much they’re going to get paid so I don’t want to make a comment on how much they should be paid or what to do, but I think that retaining both running backs, especially considering there’s more teams with two running backs now in the NFL, would be a good strategy.

EY: Another interesting story is Sam Darnold, who was originally a widely labeled draft bust who then became Super Bowl champion. How do you feel about that along with his career and future?

PS: As much as I don’t like the Seahawks, I do think his story is one story that’s very important to understand: never give up. You can call it the American dream, you can call it whatever you want, but I think ultimately his resilience through his career and ultimately being the fourth quarterback ever to win 14 game seasons on two different teams, never been done before, I think it’s extremely impressive and very encouraging to see that he proved all the haters, including myself at one point, completely wrong as to how he plays quarterback.

BZ: One player on the Patriots who despite their loss had a really good game was Christian Gonzalez. Do you think he’s the best cornerback in the league, or what do you think about his performance?

PS: It would be a very interesting statement to call a single cornerback the best cornerback in the league. I wouldn’t go that far considering I haven’t watched that much of the other relative contenders but I do think that Christian Gonzalez was one bright spot on the entire team. He saved around three touchdowns on an otherwise very lacking roster. I think he did very well.

EY: Transitioning more into the substance of the game, we saw Maye get sacked so many times. How much of the offensive struggles that the Patriots had could be attributed to Maye versus his offensive line?

PS: I do think that the offensive line was a significant problem in this game. Drake Maye’s not the most mobile quarterback from what I’ve watched, so I will say he takes maybe a little bit of the blame, but I think if you’re taking six sacks a game the generally the idea is that the other team’s defensive line was just that much better than your offensive line. I think that can be the main takeaway.

BZ: We obviously saw the Patriots’ head coach Mike Vrabel was very supportive of his players after the game, but where do you think the Patriots go from here?

PS: I think the Patriots, more than the Seahawks, have a much brighter future considering this is technically their second year into the rebuild. I think they need to get new receivers. Running back is fine, but I think there’s holes in the roster that they can address quite easily and I’m pretty sure they have the cap space to do it. I think they have a bright future ahead of them with their head coach as well.

EY: On a similar note but also looking more broadly, neither of these teams were actually top contenders for the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season. How do you think they’ll perform next season as well?

PS: I don’t know exactly what the rosters for either team are going to look like but I do imagine both teams having a much tougher time considering general quarterback and offensive play in the post season. At least offensive play for Drake Maye and regular season at points play for Sam Darnold was a little bit questionable. So I think they both have big holes to address and I don’t see either team making it to the Super Bowl.

BZ: Lastly, what was your favorite moment from the Super Bowl and how do you see your team going forward in the next season?

PS: I’d say my favorite moment from the Super Bowl was the halftime show though I assume that that’s a completely different question. But how do I see the San Francisco 49ers going forward? I honestly don’t know yet. I mean I haven’t looked specifically at how much cap room they have but I’m presuming with the loss of Brandon Aiyuk and a couple other key players as well as injuries, there’s a lot that’s going to be going around. I expect a couple of trades, a couple of big name signings, so I think especially considering last year we had to sign a bunch of players so whatever period people thought we were going to dissipate, I think that has kind of gone but I don’t know where they’re going to go from here more than I have in any previous season.

EY: Well I think that’s all we have for today. Thank you all for listening and thank you to Parth for joining us. I can’t wait to see what happens next season!