SUPER BOWL SHOWDOWN
Patriots, Eagles to tangle Feb. 4
For everything he did to set the Philadelphia Eagles on this flight path, Carson Wentz would have drawn consideration as the league’s MVP had he not gone down in December.
That torn ACL was also supposed to cripple Philadelphia’s Super Bowl chances, but as we know, things don’t often go as expected outside of New England.
“Who would have thought there’d be a quarterback controversy next season?” one reporter sarcastically said in the press box at Lincoln Financial Field in the third quarter Sunday night.
Probably not, but Nick Foles is certainly the surprise hero of the moment.
A day after turning 29, the backup celebrated with an outstanding performance in a 38-7 destruction of the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL’s No. 1 defence, sending the Eagles into the Super Bowl for just the third time — and first since a 24-21 loss to the New England Patriots in 2004.
Thirteen years later, the Eagles get a chance for some payback when they face the Pats at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Feb. 4. Somehow, the atmosphere just won’t be the same as it would have been had the Vikings built off the miracle that defeated the Saints last week.
But that matters not to a city that was buzzing all day and hit an eardrum-shattering crescendo at The Linc.
“I’m just grateful and humble to be a part of this team, and to be in this moment,” Foles said. “It is honestly unbelievable. Words can’t describe it.”
The Eagles defence also stepped up, intercepting two Case Keenum passes, one for a touchdown, and causing a fumble that led to three more points.
“There was a lot of things that went wrong, obviously,” said Keenum, who directed the Vikings to a game-opening touchdown drive the first time he touched the ball. “Opening up the game with how electric that crowd was and going down and scoring, that felt good. I felt like we were on track, and then the turnover was a mistake that definitely brought everyone back.”
The other D played by the Eagles was the disrespect card. For the second straight week, their 13-3 regular season record earned them no love from the oddsmakers. For the second straight week, they were 3.5-point underdogs, prompting a local outbreak in the sales of dog masks.
Not everybody was buying the underdog thing. Preparing for post-game celebrations earlier in the day, Philadelphia city workers greased light standards and sign poles with Crisco to prevent jubilant fans from climbing them.
Foles completed 26 of 33 passes for 352 yards, including two touchdown passes to Alshon Jeffery and another to Torrey Smith.
The clock struck midnight on Keenum, who completed 28 of 48 for 271 yards and was picked off twice.
The Eagles’ defensive highlights started the second time the D stepped on the field.
Minnesota made it look easy on the game’s first possession, mostly running through the best ground defence in the league with a nine-play drive that ended when Keenum feathered a 25-yard touchdown pass into the hands of Kyle Rudolph.
The crowd, which was supposed to make it difficult for the Vikings offence to communicate, was stunned. Philadelphia’s D toughened up after that.
Foles, who operated out of the shotgun and wasn’t able to get going with his first set of downs, found his rhythm with the second.
He orchestrated march of 12 plays, covered 75 yards and ate 6:20 off the clock. The end result was a hard and heavy 11-yard scoring run off the tackle and up the gut by LeGarrette Blount. That made it 14-7 for underdogs.
Keenum’s next chance was cut short by another turnover, this time at the Philadelphia 24 on a strip sack by Derek Barnett that created a fumble that was recovered by Chris Long.
Foles took full advantage. The Vikings D continued to pose no challenge to an attack directed by Wentz’s backup, who was making just his fifth start of the season. Foles was poised as he stood in the pocket long enough for the Minnesota secondary to fall asleep and leave Jeffery wide open to grab a 53-yard bomb, and the dogs were up 21-7.
Foles wrung out three more points before the intermission, getting Jake Elliott in range in the last half-minute with the help of Jay Ajayi’s running and Zach Ertz, who was the game’s leading receiver at the midpoint with five grabs for 76 yards.
Foles and the defence put to rest any hope the Vikings had of getting back into the game in the third quarter. A 41-yard TD pass to Torrey Smith pushed the lead to 31-7. Any hope of a Minnesota comeback was nixed.
Asked the message he passed on to his players after the game, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson smiled.
“We are going to the Super Bowl,” he said. “We are going to the stinkin’ Super Bowl. That’s all you need to know.”
Former Winnipeg Blue Bombers coach Bud Grant remains the only sideline boss to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl — which he did four times between 1969-76 — and now it will be up to the New Orleans Saints to become the first team to play for the title on its own field when next season’s game is held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Keenum said losses are “all hard to swallow.”
“Once you get a game away from playing in the Super Bowl,” Keenum said, “that’s going to be hard to swallow. The way it happened, I mean, they played really well and we didn’t. It’s unfortunate.”