Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer played a bigger role in the Super Bowl victory over the Rams than most people might realize.
Albert Breer published an awesome piece in Sports Illustrated Monday, and it’s awesome for football fans everywhere. I’d encourage all to read the whole thing, but there’s one part that really stuck out to me. (RELATED: Patriots Beat The Rams In The Super Bowl)
Hoyer, who played for Rams coach Sean McVay for the 49ers, recognized the Rams offense as being the same that he ran in San Francisco thanks to an ESPN segment of Peyton Manning breaking down Jared Goff. Breer wrote the following:
Before the Super Bowl, he watched an episode of Peyton Manning’s Detail series on ESPN-Plus on Goff, and it hit him right away — the offense is the same. Looking at the Rams tape confirmed it. Then, he saw an NFL Network interview where Goff and McVay discussed the coach being in the quarterback’s ear up until the 15-second play-clock cutoff, which was something Shanahan did with Hoyer. Then, Hoyer went back to Amazon’s All or Nothing series on the Rams; it was about the 2016 season but had footage of OTAs from McVay’s first spring there. Hoyer recognized the language.
It’s stories like this one that make football so cool. By pure chance, Peyton Manning ended up playing a role in the Super Bowl run, and it was all because Hoyer watched an ESPN+ segment with the legendary QB breaking down Goff’s tape.
If you told Patriots fans that Peyton Manning would help them beat the Rams, they’d probably call you crazy. Yet, the facts speak for themselves. Hoyer recognizing the language and offense almost certainly provided a huge boost to the Patriots and the team’s defensive efforts. (RELATED: Patriots Coach Bill Belichick Names His Boat VIII Rings)
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How does an offense not change at all over the course of years and different teams? McVay probably didn’t even think about the fact Hoyer could know everything. Absolutely incredible.
I never would have guessed Brian Hoyer would have such an instrumental role. Again, sports are so damn cool, and sometimes for the wildest of reasons.
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Mad props to Hoyer for catching that ESPN+ segment. The question now is whether or not anybody from the Pats will be reaching out to Manning to say thank you for the help. That phone call would be content gold.
P.S. I hope the Patriots give Hoyer a fat bonus for the help. It sounds like he’s done more than enough to deserve it, despite not throwing a single pass in the game.
