With the two highest-scoring offenses in the 2011 NFL season facing off in the Super Bowl, it was easy to think this year's Super Bowl would be a high-scoring shootout. However, New England's defense had other plans, completely and absolutely shutting down New Orleans QB Drew Bress usually high-octane offense. Brees had a horrible outing, with the New England defense playing the best it ever had. New England sets a record with a Super Bowl shut out, 38-0.


And it was none other than WR Brandon Tate, not Tom Brady, who was awarded with the Super Bowl MVP trophy this time around.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Wanting to seriously challenge New Orleans' defense early in the game, New England came out with a 4-WR set when Brady called Shotgun - Gun Spread Flex - Quick Slants, with WR Wes Welker on the far left and WR Brandon Tate in the slot, but noticed in his pre-snap read that Saints FS Darren Sharper was cheating down, presumably because it looked like ROLB Scott Shanle was assigned to cover Tate. Given all that, Brady called an audible to hot-route Tate to see if he could burn both of them on a streak pattern. After the snap, Sharper probably saw Welker get a jump on his DB on his slant route, went over to assist covering Welker. The result was a one-on-one footrace between Tate and Shanle (as Saints SS Roman Harper couldn't make it over in time), the results of which were captured nicely in this highlight:
http://www.easports.com/media/play/video/44254845



1 2 3 4 OT T
Saints
0 0 0 0 0 0
Patriots
7 21 7 3 0 38 Final

• Scoring Summary

First Quarter

(NE) B.Tate 57 Yd pass from T.Brady(S.Gostkowski kick), 1:16

Second Quarter

(NE) B.Spikes, returned interception 59 Yds(S.Gostkowski kick), 5:48

(NE) B.Green-Ellis, 2 Yd run(S.Gostkowski kick), 0:33

(NE) D.McCourty, returned interception 60 Yds(S.Gostkowski kick), 0:03

Third Quarter

(NE) B.Tate 6 Yd pass from T.Brady(S.Gostkowski kick), 1:07

Fourth Quarter

(NE) S.Gostkowski, 47 Yd FG, 2:29