The Eagles' Nick Foles holds up his daughter, Lily, after winning Super Bowl LII. - AP

Steelers

Lolley: Fly Eagles fly ... drink it in, Philly

Feb 5, 2018 • 12:17 am

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MINNEAPOLIS -- Maybe more people should have seen this coming.

Perhaps if they had been paying closer attention instead of just acting like this Super Bowl was just another coronation of the Patriots, they might have noticed that this Philadelphia offense was pretty darned good, as well. In fact, until Carson Wentz got hurt in Week 14, the Eagles looked like the best team in the NFL.

Sunday night here at U.S. Bank Stadium, they proved that they were still the best team in the league, beating the Patriots, 41-33, to give the city of Philadelphia its first Super Bowl title.

TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, HIGHLIGHTS

And it was backup quarterback Nick Foles, not Tom Brady, who won the MVP award. Brady had more passing yards, 505-373, and they each threw three touchdown passes. But nobody expected the 29-year-old Foles, who had nearly quit football a year ago before deciding to give it one more chance with the Eagles as Wentz' backup, to outduel the quarterback widely hailed as the greatest of all-time.

Brady might be the GOAT. But on this night, Foles was his better. His one mistake, an interception, came on a pass tipped into the air by his own receiver. Other than that, he dropped pass after pass into tight windows. He converted third downs, going 10 for 16.

Heck, he even did what Brady couldn't do and catch a wide-open pass. Brady's would have gone for at least a first down. The pass caught by Foles went for a second quarter touchdown as the Eagles built a 22-12 halftime lead only to fall behind, 33-32, early in the fourth quarter.

"I didn't switch my mindset," Foles said. "I wasn't worrying about the scoreboard. I wasn't worried about the time. I was just playing ball. I think sometimes you start worrying about that so much, it just starts creeping into your brain. I was just playing."

That's the trap so many fall into when playing against Brady. Are you reading this, Ben Roethlisberger? That's why you panic and throw a pass that gets tipped into the air for an interception instead of playing it safe and going to overtime.

Foles didn't panic. After falling behind for the first time, he got the ball back with 9:22 remaining.

Just over seven minutes later, he threw this 11-yard touchdown pass to Zach Ertz on a slant with 2:25 remaining to put the Eagles ahead 38-33. There was no fear of Brady. The Eagles didn't worry about scoring too early.

They just wanted to score and trust their defense to make a play, even though it hadn't made many in this game.

But when Brandon Graham stripped Brady of the ball for Philadelphia's first sack of the game with 2:09 remaining, that decision to just keep playing paid off. The Eagles got the ball back and ran some more clock before setting up a field goal to make it an eight-point game while also forcing the Patriots to use their final timeouts.

Brady's good. But he would have needed a miracle to go 91 yards -- after an ill-executed attempt at a reverse on the ensuing kickoff -- in 58 seconds with no timeouts.

And so Foles is the Super Bowl MVP who doesn't have a starting job next season -- unless Philadelphia decides to trade him -- and the Eagles are Super Bowl champions for the first time in three trips.

Brady and company, meanwhile, will have to try again next year. But the Eagles proved that while New England is, indeed good, the Patriots aren't infallible. They can be beaten on the NFL's biggest stage -- just in case we forgot.

LOLLEY'S TEN THOUGHTS

1. James Harrison played OK, not great, for the Patriots.

He got a decent pass rush a couple of times and was credited with two QB hits -- the Patriots only had five total. But he was part of a New England defensive front that failed to sack Foles even once on 43 pass attempts. And he also was part of a front seven that allowed the Eagles to run for 164 yards on 27 carries, a robust 6.1 yards-per-carry average.

"We tried everything we could to get a stop and then do everything we could to adjust and go from there," said New England defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, who is expected to be named the head coach of the Detroit Lions. "We just didn't execute the way we wanted."

There's that execution term again. It seems every time a defense is beaten -- including the Steelers -- the execution comes into question. Nobody ever wants to admit they had a bad game plan.

That's not to say New England did. And the Patriots are always given all kinds of credit for the adjustments they make. But nothing they did slowed the Eagles.

And Harrison, who played nearly every snap, was a big part of that. I was especially troubled by how easily he was pushed around in the running game.

That was the kind of thing that never used to happen to Harrison. In fact, when I spoke with Steelers outside linebackers coach Joey Porter in training camp, he said he could pull Harrison off a rocking chair at 50 and he'd be able to set the edge in the running game. Harrison did it successfully a couple of times. But he didn't do it consistently.

In the end, Harrison was credited with one more solo tackle than I had Sunday night.

2. Doug Pederson outcoached Belichick.

Not many people get to say that. But Pederson most certainly did. In the end, I was convinced the Eagles had the better roster. That's why I picked Philadelphia to win.

But, as previously mentioned, Belichick and company are widely credited for the great adjustments they make. If they made any at halftime in this game, they weren't apparent.

The Eagles scored 22 points in the first half. They added 19 more in the second half. Pederson is really good, as this well-designed touchdown pass TO Foles from tight end Trey Burton shows:

Now, Burton was originally recruited to Florida as a spread quarterback, but who saw that coming?

"That play, we've been working on for the last couple of weeks," Pederson said. "(We) just needed the right time, right opportunity, and the guys executed it brilliantly."

The touchdown pass to Ertz also was a beautifully designed play. The early motion made the Patriots think some kind of play was going to the strong side of the field. And that left Ertz by himself one-on-one on the backside. You'll take your athletic tight end in that matchup every time.

The Eagles also didn't back down late in the game after falling behind, converting a key fourth down. They stayed aggressive. Pederson played to win.

3. Philadelphia's pass rush didn't get to Brady a lot, but it did affect him.

When you look at his passing numbers, 28 of 48 for 505 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, you'd think Brady just had his way with the Philadelphia defense. And there was some of that. Brady is still good.

But the Eagles' pass rush, which had just one oh-so-critical sack, hit him nine other times. So on 49 dropbacks, Brady was hit or sacked 10 times. That's not the 40 percent the Eagles typically got during the season, but it had an effect.

Of course, no play was bigger than this strip-sack by Graham:

Brady left some throws out there, especially in the red zone, where the Patriots converted on two of four chances. They also missed on a fourth-down conversion because of pressure.

"I knew they had a good rush," said Brady. "They made a good play at the right time. They made one good play."

4. OK, so the Eagles won. Now what?

Sure, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are in the same state -- sort of. And Pennsylvania now has won seven Super Bowls between the Steelers and Eagles. That's nice.

But now that the Eagles have won it, Steelers fans can go back to being unhappy. The Eagles kept the Patriots from winning their sixth Super Bowl, which is nice. And it's always good to see Belichick and Brady lose.

As an aside, while I was waiting to talk to Harrison, Belichick, Brady and owner Robert Kraft all walked by me looking like someone had not flushed the toilets in their locker room.

The Eagles, however, just won a Super Bowl with their backup quarterback. They've got a deep and talented roster and Wentz coming back next season. This won't be the last time this team is in the Super Bowl.

Can you stomach a Philadelphia-based dynasty?

5. Prince showed up.

OK, not really. But we're in Minneapolis and the city's favorite son -- now unfortunately deceased -- was apparent everywhere this week. Minneapolis is really proud of him.

That was a really nice tribute from Justin Timberlake. If you got up for a halftime snack, here's what you missed:

It all added to the spectacle of this Super Bowl. It almost made up for the ridiculously cold weather. Almost.

6. So where do the Patriots go?

Patricia is likely going to Detroit. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is headed to Indianapolis as the head coach of the Colts. And there's still the turmoil brewing between Belichick, Brady and Kraft, who will reportedly have a meeting in the next few weeks to decide if they will kiss and make up.

It's likely those three will come together and decide they all still need each other. They'll figure it out.

But Brady, who says he's coming back next year, will be 41 next season. And the Patriots have a bunch of pending free agents, including left tackle Nate Solder, cornerback Malcolm Butler and running backs Rex Burkhead and Dion Lewis.

Now, Butler was inexplicably inactive for this game -- playing just a couple of special teams snaps -- and the Patriots obviously gave up on him.

"We just played the guys we thought could help us win in whatever packages we had," Patricia said of the decision to make Butler inactive. "Different situations came up, and we were just trying to move some things around."

In the biggest game of the season? OK.

Rob Gronkowski admitted after the game he will think about retirement this offseason.

"I'm going to contemplate my future," he said.

Solder, while average, is going to command a big raise, as is Lewis. And Burkhead certainly outplayed his one-year contract.

Can the Patriots replace all of that? They've never had to replace both coordinators. And the defense obviously has some serious holes.

The Patriots are now 5-3 in the Super Bowl in the Brady-Belichick era. It's nice they've gotten there eight times. And if not for some boneheadedness by Seattle and Atlanta, they might be 3-5.

7. The Ertz TD was nothing like the Jesse James play.

I knew when it happened some would make that comparison. It was the first thing that crossed my mind, as well.

But Ertz caught the ball, took two steps and then leaped for the end zone. Like James, he lost the ball reaching for the end zone -- though he completely lost it, while James just bobbled it.

But Ertz had established himself as a runner. That's a touchdown and there was no way it shouldn't have been.

8. The officiating was excellent.

Gene Steratore and his group did an excellent job of not calling too many things to make this game unwatchable. Philadelphia had six penalties for 35 yards and New England had one for five.

And it was hard to argue with any of the penalties. It also was interesting that Al Riveron went against New England on a questionable TD catch by Corey Clement in the third quarter.

It was a perfect pass by Foles into double coverage. And Clement got both feet down, but was moving the ball around while he did it. His third step was out of bounds.

The TD was one of those 50-50 things that we've seen overturned by Riveron this season. But in this case, he correctly decided to stick with the call on the field.

Maybe all of the fallout from some of the ridiculous changes in calls he made this season based on minutiae made a difference.

9. There were a lot of missed tackles.

I know everyone likes to think their favorite team is the only one in the league that misses tackles, and the Steelers did miss a lot of tackles this season. But I don't know if I saw a game this season where both teams missed as many tackles as these two did.

Missed tackles and missed PATs and field goals were the theme of this game early. Perhaps it was nerves from being on this kind of stage, but you'd expect better.

10. So what do the Steelers need to do to be the ones raising the trophy next year?

We'll see what Randy Fichtner brings to the table as an offensive coordinator, but he did run the spread offense at both Arkansas State and Memphis. And New England had all kinds of issues with Philadelphia's misdirection and play-action off of misdirection run fakes.

But, as Charlie Batch told me earlier in the week, the offense will be what Roethlisberger wants it to be. And if Roethlisberger doesn't want to run that stuff, the Steelers won't, though he has some experience with it in college, as well.

As for Pittsburgh's defense, was there any played in this Super Bowl? There were 74 combined points and 1,151 total yards. The two teams combined to run 143 offensive plays and had 54 first downs.

And that was with two teams that finished in the top five in scoring defense this season on the field.

Certainly, some of what New England did defensively in the second half was a mirage -- much like many fans would say about Pittsburgh's defense. But Philadelphia's defense was legit all season.

And the Eagles couldn't stop the Patriots, either. They had no answer for Gronkowski, who caught nine passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns. They had miscommunications that led to Danny Amendola running free at times, enough to catch eight passes for 152 yards. Same with Chris Hogan, who had six catches for 128 yards.

But, as stated earlier, the Eagles came up with some stops when needed.

You don't have to have a shutdown defense to win a championship. But you'd better have one that can get after the quarterback, when needed. And an explosive offense.

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