Welcome in to the full recap of Super Bowl LII between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots where Nick Foles and the Eagles muster enough offense and touchdowns to knock off Tom Brady and the defending champion Patriots 41-33 in a high scoring affair.
We finally have another team and another quarterback besides Eli Manning and the New York Giants that beat Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the mighty New England Patriots! The Eagles channeled their inner Rocky Balboa against Apollo Creed in Rocky II. If you want to beat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, you have to score as many points as them. And they had to continue to put the pedal to the medal. That was something the Falcons didn't do last year and Philly learned from that. It was a close game and a wild shootout. Both the Eagles and Patriots combined for over 600 yards of total offense. The Patriots took the lead only once at one point during this game. But, Nick Foles and the Eagles continued to respond and muster enough yards and scores to get the lead for good. Meanwhile, the Eagles' defensive line were inches away from Brady the whole game. And they came up big with a strip sack before the two minute warning and enough pressure off the edge on the final play of the game to seal the victory.
New England Patriots
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Tom Brady, 28 of 48 passes, 505 yards, 3 TDs. Age 40 and he's still putting up ridiculous numbers. One can argue where his legacy is now after this recent Super Bowl loss, but I don't think it changes any status of Brady after this. He had a couple of wobbly throws down the line and obviously, he was feeling the pressure of this impressive Eagles defensive line. But, he set the tone for the offense to play fast and catch them off guard. He shredded their secondary with a lot of quick throws and he got some time in the pocket to throw deep balls to Hogan and Amendola. The biggest thing is that you never count Tom Brady out. He almost rallied the Patriots again in the 2nd half before Philly quickly regained the lead.
Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan. Amendola lead all receivers with 8 receptions for 152 yards. Hogan piled up 6 receptions for 128 yards. They stepped it up as deep threats while Brandin Cooks was getting all the attention and especially when he got a vicious hit from Malcolm Jenkins. Since that hit, Amendola and Hogan picked up their game and they had their way with a shaky Eagles secondary that gave up big plays all game long.
Rob Gronkowski, 9 receptions, 116 yards, 2 TDs. This was more of the Eagles defense letting off the double team on Gronk in the 2nd half. On the opening drive of the third quarter, Brady connected with Gronk like 8 out of 9 times on that drive. The Eagles were leaving him one-on-one in coverage and Gronk almost 100% of the time will win that matchup. That was especially evident when the Patriots took the go-ahead touchdown for the lead early in the 4th quarter.
Stephon Gilmore vs. Alshon Jeffery. In the first half Jeffery was making all kinds of noise with tough catches for positive yardage. Then in the 2nd half, he was completely held in check when the Patriots moved Stephon Gilmore around to shadow him. That assignment was unintentional, but considering Patrick Chung was getting dinged with some injuries during this game, Matt Patricia and the Patriots' defense had no choice but to move Gilmore. And it actually worked for them.
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Defense. It's almost tough to pinpoint some negatives on the Patriots, but most likely the unit that let them down was their defensive unit. They managed to get to Foles a couple of times and forced an INT, which is more of Alshon Jeffery's fault for keeping the football in bounds. But, they had no answer against the Eagles run pass option (RPO). It's tough when the running game is going for them and Foles is shredding the secondary with quick throws because of his read and react to the defense. The Eagles had a good balance offensively.
James White and Dion Lewis not being utilized more. They're gonna get too many touches in the running game, but they're very good as pass catchers out of the backfield. But this game, White only had 2 catches for 21 yards and Dion Lewis wasn't mentioned at all for pass plays. The Patriots could've used these guys more out of the backfield with the screen game. But, more than likely, the Eagles were ready for that, which is why a couple of screen passes were blown.
Philadelphia Eagles
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Nick Foles, 28 of 43, 373 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 1 reception, 1 yard, 1 TD. The redemption story for Nick Foles couldn't have capped off with a better ending. Many wonder if the Super Bowl would create any nerves or jitters for Foles, but as Stuart Scott would say, he was as cool as the other side of the pillow. Foles played a near perfect game tonight. The 1 INT was pretty fluky considering Jeffery batted that ball back inbounds and it wounded up in the arms of Duron Harmon. Nonetheless, Foles executed the RPO to perfection and he wasn't afraid to make the big throw. He's also now the first QB in the Super Bowl to have a passing TD and receiving TD. The Eagles are gonna have a tough decision with Carson Wentz coming back 100% next season. But most likely, Foles after this game made a case for himself for quarterback-needy teams.
Corey Clement, 3 carries, 8 yards, 4 receptions 100 yards, 1 TD. As I said in my preview, Corey Clement was gonna be one of the X-factors for the Eagles and he showed out big time. His TD will be talked about whether he maintained full possession of the ball, but he was the Eagles best security blanket this game. His big catch and run in the 2nd quarter was also huge which set up the big 4th down trick play to Nick Foles in the end zone. By the way, Clement was also one of the catalyst for that play as he pitched it to Trey Burton on the end around and all Burton had to do was throw a perfect ball for Foles to catch it wide open.
Nelson Agholor, 9 receptions, 84 yards, 1 carry, 9 yards. Agholor was another X-factor for the Eagles. He came up with a couple of huge catches in the 2nd half. Especially when Alshon Jeffrey was held in check for the majority of the 2nd half, Agholor needed to step up and he came through on the biggest stage.
Running game. The RPO couldn't have worked with how LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi ran tonight. Blount had 14 carries for 90 yards and 1 TD. Jay Ajayi had 9 carries for 57 yards. I thought they were really patient in letting the holes open up for them. Ajayi especially. We all know Blount would ram it down the teeth of the defense. I couldn't imagine how sweet it must've been for Blount to score against his former Patriot teammates on that 21 yard TD to give Philly a 15-3 advantage.
Zach Ertz, 7 receptions, 67 yards, 1 TD. Oh, it would've been tragic if the refs referred to the ruling on Jesse James TD when the Patriots faced the Steelers during this season. It was the same exact situation where James tried to extend the ball to the goal line and the ground knocked it loose. Referees ruled it an incomplete pass since he didn't complete the process. It was almost deja vu with Ertz. He dove for the end zone, the ground knocked the ball loose. I'm sitting there and saying they'll probably rule this incomplete like the Jesse James catch. But, the ruling was that Ertz was already a runner and completed the process of the catch. Regardless, the definition of a catch in the NFL needs to revised. Nonetheless, Ertz showed why he is the Eagles' effective security blanket. He was clutch on a couple of 4th down catches and scored the go ahead TD to put the Eagles back on top.
Eagles' defensive line. Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Vinny Curry, Chris Long; the entire defensive line did a nice job applying pressure on Brady. If only they had a better secondary, they could've piled up a lot of sacks. But, time and time, they were inches away from getting after him. They couldn't have gotten a sack at a better time than under three minutes in the 4th quarter. Brandon Graham created pressure off the edge to force the biggest turnover of the game. Vinny Curry applied pressure to rattle Brady before the Hail Mary. The Pats' O-line had their hands full against this unit.
Doug Pederson. To think that this guy was an understudy of Andy Reid. But, this game showed why he's head-over-shoulders better than Reid as the Eagles' head coach. Through and through, he understood the situation that the Patriots can come on back at any time. He understood clock management. He made the right in game adjustments to give the Eagles this win. Coach Pederson showed a lot of guts this game, opting to go for it on a couple of 4th downs and dialing up probably the trick play of the game in Super Bowl history. The Patriots tried to do the same play earlier in the game. I'm sure the Patriots defense was not ready for that because nobody would've dared to try that at the NFL level.
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Secondary. This was one of the problems I pinpointed on this Eagles team prior to this game outside of Malcolm Jenkins. They have a good front seven, but their secondary is not all that great. It showed this game as they left Patriots wide receivers open left and right. Chris Hogan caught Jalen Mills with a double move for a big time catch. I remember on that Week 16 Christmas game the Raiders had against the Eagles this season, Amari Cooper I believe did a double move on the same guy, Jalen Mills and Derek Carr noticed it and threw it deep to Coop for the TD. I have to look back at that. But, going back here, the secondary for the Eagles gave up a lot of big plays, which is why the D-line was getting pressure, but weren't getting the sacks.
Conclusion
When the Patriots lose, America wins. And for all of us regardless of which team we root for, we all admit, we were envious of the Patriots' winning ways. And I'm sure the Patriots losing tnought brought us all satisfaction. That is unless you're an NFC East fan like the Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins because they can't make fun of the Eagles with their 0 Lombardi trophies anymore. Even with this loss, they'll likely be back as long as Belichick is roaming the sidelines and a certain #12 with the last name "Brady" is under center. They'll be back and likely emerge as the favorite representing the AFC in the Super Bowl. But tonight, the Eagles played like there was no tomorrow. Nobody gave them a shot and they've embraced the underdog role once more on the big stage. Like I said, drawing from Philly culture and lore, it was like Rocky II when Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed went the distance and Rocky as the underdog, came out on top as the new champ. And of course, what followed was the famous "Yo Adrian, I did it" line. The Eagles all season long were the embodiment of Rocky Balboa, the underdog that just won't go away. And the City of Philadelphia will remember this Eagles team for a long time as the team that brought them home their first Lombardi trophy. There's gonna be a lot of decisions for the Eagles though with a couple of key players coming back. But certainly, they've solidified themselves as a powerhouse NFC team once again. Philadelphia was long overdue for a Super Bowl championship and after so many years of heartbreak and turmoil, they're finally on the mountain top thanks to their Eagles. "Fly Eagles Fly" indeed. Thank you guys for following my coverage of Super Bowl LII. Until the offseason in March. For now, it's the full-time transition to basketball on this blog. I'll see you guys later.
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