You may think the Eagles have a whole lot of momentum coming into the Super Bowl this Sunday and will simply beat the Patriots; however, you’re going to want to consider that mindset.
Sure, Eagles fans are rallying behind their team and are excited to see Nick Foles handle the pressure of replacing Carson Wentz as the starter, but you have to still be worried about Foles and the fact that he’s going up against a team that includes the greatest coach of all time, Bill Belichick, and the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady. Also, not to mention the duo’s experience of seven previous Super Bowls together.
The Eagles path to the Super Bowl was, in my opinion, not very difficult. The team faced a Falcons squad in the divisional round that was exhausted as it traveled to Los Angeles for its wild card match up the previous week against the Rams, then traveled to Philadelphia after.
Meanwhile, the Eagles were at home for four straight weeks dating back to week 16 against the Raiders until the divisional against Atlanta, with a bye week included during the wild card round. Philadelphia was obviously in a more comfortable position than a Falcons team that barely made the playoffs, and had to get through the Rams while the Eagles sat back to watch.
However, Philadelphia managed to squeak out only a 15-10 win over Atlanta that really should have went the other way, if the Falcons would have made better play calls when it couldn’t convert on a touchdown from first and goal to fourth and goal towards the end of the game.
This showed that the Eagles were mediocre. But Max, what about the debacle of the Vikings in the NFC championship? Let me just say, when you’re a team that has a dome home field and goes on the road to face a cold weather team in the cold with a quarterback making only his second playoff start, the game most likely won’t end well for that team.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the Abilene native Case Keenum; however, when adding all the factors to the match up, it fell out of his and the Vikings’ hands. I’ll also give it to the Eagles for hanging 38 points on the number one regular season defense, but the team was in another comfortable position being at home for a fifth week in a row.
Now comes the boss. The ultimate challenge. Whatever you want to call it, the Patriots are coming for the Eagles.
The Patriots earned a hard-fought victory in the AFC championship over a Jaguars team that defeated a much more experienced playoff team than the Steelers the previous week. People might argue that the Jaguars were an easy way out for the Patriots, however, you’re wrong if you think a team that beat the Steelers would be an “easy” game.
Speaking of AFC teams, the Eagles faced four of them during the regular season. The Broncos, a 5-11 team, the Raiders, a 6-10 team, the Chargers, a team that missed the playoffs at 9-7 and the Chiefs, which the Eagles lost to 27-20.
The fact of the matter is Philadelphia didn’t see exceptional AFC talent on the field this year. The Eagles haven’t faced a Patriot or Jaguar caliber team.
The Patriots have a system that’s won five Super Bowls, hoping to make it an unbelievable six this Sunday. Unless you’re Eli Manning, it’s nearly impossible to beat the system.
Before you go and confidently pick the Eagles to run over the Patriots Sunday, think long and hard about the details of what’s happened over the past weeks. Don’t ever count out the G.O.A.T.s.
