SUPER SUBS
Two backup QBs who won the big game break down how it’s done
MINNEAPOLIS — It can be done. That’s the reminder Jeff Hostetler has for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, a replacement starter heading into a Super Bowl against a future Hall of Famer in Tom Brady.
“This is hard to say as a former Giant, but I respect what the Eagles have done, how they’ve rallied and handled adversity,” said Hostetler, who came off the bench at the end of the season 27 years ago and wound up guiding the New York Giants to victory over Buffalo in the Super Bowl.
That season, Hostetler’s Giants beat the Joe Montana-led San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game, then topped the Jim Kelly-led Bills for the Lombardi Trophy.
Washington’s Doug Williams achieved the same summit when he directed the Redskins to a Super Bowl win over John Elway and the Denver Broncos.
And once upon a time, when he was an unheralded fill-in for the injured Drew Bledsoe, Brady poured the foundation for the Patriots dynasty with a Super Bowl victory over the St. Louis Rams, led by Kurt Warner, who was enshrined in Canton last summer.
Like Foles will be this week, Hostetler was “the other quarterback” in the ramp-up to that game.
“The shadows are a good place to be,” Hostetler said. “[Foles] doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody outside that team. I think that’s the key. He’s not playing Tom Brady.
“The biggest thing is, it doesn’t matter who’s on the opposite side of the field and what they’ve accomplished. That’s the reason you play the games. You never know what’s going to happen each game. For
Nick, that’s one of the ones where you pull yourself away from all that distraction stuff, and just concentrate on football the next two weeks.”
Echoed Williams: “Nick Foles is up against Nick Foles, and nobody else.”
Super Bowl XXII got off to a horrible start for Washington, with the Broncos taking a 10-0 lead on their first two possessions while Williams twisted a knee that looked as if it might end his day.
The Redskins roared back with a record-setting 35-point second quarter on their way to a 42-10 rout.
For Redskins fans, that early deficit felt like a root canal. And, in fact, Williams had undergone emergency oral surgery the day before to repair an abscess under a dental bridge. Reports at the time said Williams was under anesthesia for six hours, but he remembers it as four. Regardless, it wiped out a Saturday’s worth of preparation.
“By the time I got back, the team was loading the buses,” Williams said. “We went to the Lawrence Welk resort outside of San Diego. I got to my room and was medicated all night. Woke up Sunday and I wasn’t in pain. I was probably too hyped to even think about pain.”
Williams started just two games that season — Jay Schroeder was the regular starter — but three times came off the bench to win games.
“From my standpoint, I didn’t come into the league as a backup,” said Williams, whose NFL career began at Tampa Bay. “I had never been a backup. So my mentality has never been a backup mentality. My mentality was always one of opportunity. I got that opportunity, and I brought my starter mentality.”
In his first go-round with the Eagles, Foles had one spectacular season as a starter, with 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions in 2013. In the three seasons that followed — with Philadelphia, St. Louis and Kansas City — Foles never came close to matching his 2013 prowess.
He returned to the Eagles this season to back up Carson Wentz, and stepped in as the starter after the second-year star was injured in a Week 14 game against the Rams. After an up-and-down finish to the regular season, Foles turned in a couple of strong performances in playoff victories over Atlanta and Minnesota.
“You watch how he played last week, and he’s playing like it’s his job,” Williams said. “And you know what? That’s the only way to play, because it is his job.”
Heading into this Super Bowl, Foles has far more playing experience than Hostetler had in 1990, when he replaced the injured Phil Simms.
The Giants were 11-3 when Simms went down with a broken foot. The Eagles were 11-2 when Foles made his first start in place of Wentz, whose season ended with a torn anteriorcruciate ligament in his left knee.
Hostetler, who had waited 61⁄2 years for his opportunity, wound up going 5-0 as a starter — two games in the regular season and three in the postseason.
“I had faced our defense in practice for I don’t know how long,” he recalled. “Those guys were the ones right off the bat who I felt the most support from right away. They knew I could do the job. They’d seen me, they’d worked with me, and they had my back.
“Offensively, it was great because I knew these guys well but I’d never gotten to take the offensive reps. They knew what I could do, and they were happy for me because I was finally getting the opportunity. Six and a half years is a long time.”
He has been in Foles’ cleats.
“These games, they aren’t real kind to quarterbacks without experience,” Hostetler said. “I know Nick has more experience than I had; that’s a huge plus. Similar circumstances. They’ll be underdogs again. It’s one of those ones where nobody — except the guys in that locker room — had given them a chance three, four, five weeks ago. And here they are, one game away.”
He paused for a moment, then added: “You haven’t made it just because you’ve made it there. You’ve got to win it.”