Playing strong offense, defense, and special teams, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the vaunted New England Patriots in Super Bowl 52 41-33, and denied Tom Brady,40, the ageless wonder, his sixth Super Bowl win.
It wasn’t Brady, arguably the best quarterback to play the game, who was the better quarterback on the field at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday evening. It was the Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, remarkably, the back-up quarterback, and the Super Bowl MVP, who shun. The confident 29-year-old playing in his first Super Bowl completed 28 of 43 passes for 373 yards and three touchdowns. He also created Super Bowl history as the first quarterback to score and catch a touchdown.
In fairness, Brady had a good game too. He had a massive 505 passing yards, and also threw three touch downs, but was sacked and fumbled the ball late in the game as he tried to lead his team to its usual came from behind win.
The Eagles went into the game as underdogs. The official betting line made the Patriots a 4.5 points favorite to win. This wasn’t surprising with the eagles having a backup quarterback and a coach, Doug Pederson, coaching in his first Super Bowl and having coached the Eagles for only two years.
Brady fumbled, and assured the Eagles of victory when Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham stripped him of the ball. This set up a 44-year field goal from rookie kicker Jake Elliot with just over a minute left to play.
But perhaps the play of the game was the play called by Eagles coach Pederson just before half time. Faced with fourth and goal at the Patriots 1-yard line, The Eagles decided to try for a touchdown rather than kick a field goal.
Instead, Foles motioned out of the backfield and shaped as if he was calling an audible, but then snapped the ball to rookie running back Corey Clement. Clement then handed the football off to the tight end Trey Burton who tossed it to Foles who had run to the end zone. Foles caught the touch down to give the Eagles a 22-12 lead at halftime.
With the victory on Sunday, the Eagles joined the 2012 New York Giants as the only teams to defeat the Patriots in a Super Bowl, in recent years. The Chicago Bears defeated a New England team, without Brady in Super Bowl 20, 46-10 in 1986.
