Super Bowl Sunday
Foles, Eagles outgun Tom Brady and Patriots, 41-33 MVP Nick Foles an unlikely folk hero in Philly
Bartender Cody Chambers, wearing a Philadelphia Eagles’ jersey, and server Kirsti Newell stand beside perhaps the most recognizable bit of Americana, the Statute of Liberty, during Super Bowl festivities Sunday at O’Flannigan’s pub in downtown Kelowna.
MINNEAPOLIS — As their delirious fans sang their theme song and their owner lifted the Lombardi Trophy, the Philadelphia Eagles’ finally could breathe freely.
Yo, Philly, you really did beat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in a thrilling Super Bowl that rewrote the offensive record book.
Nick Foles guided the drive of a lifetime, Zach Ertz made a bobbling touchdown catch that had to survive replay review, and an exhausted defence came up with not one but two stands in the final moments Sunday for a 41-33 victory. For the first time since 1960, the Eagles are NFL champions. “Fly Eagles Fly,” indeed. “We’ve played this game since we were little kids, we dreamed about this moment,” game MVP Foles said. “There’s plenty of kids watching this game right now dreaming about this moment and someday will be here.”
In a record-setting shootout between backup QB Foles and fivetime champ Brady of the favoured Patriots, Foles led a pressurepacked 75-yard drive to the winning touchdown, 11 yards to Ertz with 2:21 to go .
Then Brandon Graham stripsacked Brady and Derek Barnett recovered, setting up rookie Jake Elliot’s 46-yard field goal for an 8point lead.
Brady got his team to midfield, but his desperation pass fell to the ground in the end zone.
“For us, it was all about one stop we had to make. We went out here and made that one stop,” Graham said.
The underdog Eagles (16-3), even injured starting quarterback Carson Wentz, came bolting off the sideline in ecstasy while Brady sat on the ground, disconsolate.
It was the first Super Bowl title for Philadelphia (16-3), which went from 7-9 last season.
“If there’s a word (it’s) called everything,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said. “That’s what it means to Eagles fans everywhere. And for Eagles fans everywhere, this is for them.”
Super Bowl MVP Foles orchestrated the victory with the kind of drive NFL MVP Brady, a five-time champion, is known for. The drive covered 14 plays, including a fourthdown conversion.
“I felt calm. I mean, we have such a great group of guys, such a great coaching staff,” Foles said. “We felt confident coming in, and we just went out there and played football.”
The Eagles had to survive a video replay because ball pop into the air as Ertz crossed the goal line.
“If they would have overturned that, I don’t know what would have happened to the city of Philadelphia,” Ertz said. “But I’m so glad they didn’t overturn it.”
The Patriots (15-4) seemed ready to take their sixth championship with Brady and coach Bill Belichick in eight Super Bowls. Brady threw for a game-record 505 yards and three TDs, hitting Rob Gronkowski for four yards before Stephen Gostkowski’s extra point gave New England its first lead, 33-32.
Then Foles made them forget Wentz — and least for now — with the gutsiest drive of his life.
“We couldn’t make a play to give the ball back to the offence,” Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore said.
MINNEAPOLIS — Cast aside once in Philadelphia, Nick Foles delivered the city its first Super Bowl title, and he outdueled the great Tom Brady to do it.
Foles, who took over when Carson Wentz injured his right knee in mid-December, matched the five-time champion and threetime MVP big play for big play Sunday in leading the Eagles past the New England Patriots 41-33.
He threw the go-ahead touchdown to tight end Zach Ertz from 11 yards on third-and-7 with 2:21 remaining, capping a sevenminute, 14-play drive that covered 75 yards, kept Brady cooling his cleats on the sideline and allowed the Eagles’ exhausted defenders to catch their collective breath in a game that featured 1,151 total yards, the most in any NFL game in the Super Bowl era.
Brady threw for more yards — a playoff career-high 505 to Foles’ 373 — but Foles matched Brady’s three touchdown tosses and even caught another. He hauled in tight end Trey Burton’s toss from the 1 that gave Philadelphia a 22-12 halftime edge and made him the first player in Super Bowl history to be on both ends of a touchdown pass in the same game. Brady nearly beat him to it. But the ambling Brady, although wide open, couldn’t quite haul in receiver Danny Amendola’s high pass for what would have been a nifty over-the-shoulder reception which might have gone all 35 yards for the score.
Foles’ only interception was a fluke, but it did help Brady and the Patriots staunch an early stumble to stay in it until the very end when Brady’s desperation pass into the end zone on the final play failed to find its big target, Rob Gronkowski.
Foles was 28 of 43 and wasn’t sacked at all.