Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles will square off with five-time Super Bowl champion, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on Sunday night in Super Bowl LII for the chance to bring home their first-ever Super Bowl Trophy to the city of Philadelphia. While the Eagles are a 4.5 point underdog, they are still determined to prove doubters wrong and win once again without their star quarterback, Carson Wentz.
Defense wins championships
The Eagles have had the 5th best defense in the NFL this season and on Sunday they must show why this is the case.
According to a tweet by Pro Football Focus, "When the opponent is able to get pressure on Tom Brady on 40% or more of his drop-backs they end up winning the game." Examples of this are the New York Giants, who in both Super Bowl meetings with the Patriots, were able to pressure Brady on more than 40% of his drop-backs. In Super Bowl XLII they pressured Brady on 43.4% of his drop-backs and in Super Bowl XLVI they pressured Brady on 46.5% of his drop-backs. Keep in mind that these are the only two instances when Tom Brady lost in a Super Bowl, so it is safe to say that the more a team pressures Brady, the more likely they are to come away with a win.
"Throughout the entire season the Eagles have been able to pressure opposing quarterbacks on 41.3% of passing plays" reports Pro Football Focus, which is above the needed threshold and seems to be the key factor in taking down Brady in the biggest game of the year.
Fletcher Cox will be the key player for the Eagles' defense and he must win the battle up front in order to get the needed pressure on Brady.
As we saw in the Super Bowl last season, Brady was able to tire out the Atlanta Falcons’ defense over the course of the game, which allowed Brady to take over in the 4th quarter and lead the Patriots to an epic comeback win.
The Eagles will have likely taken note of this and must do everything in their power to keep the Patriots' offense off the field and allow their defense to have as much rest as possible.
Limiting turnovers
As we know, Nick Foles is coming off possibly the best performance of his career two weeks ago in the NFC championship against the Vikings.
Ryan Wilson from CBS Sports reports that, "For the playoffs he has completed 78 percent of his passes with three touchdowns, no turnovers and a passer rating of 122.1 (including a 141.4 rating against the Vikings)." Being a back-up, Foles has never played on a stage like this, and while he is likely to be nervous, he still needs to be aggressive to pick apart a New England defense that has had their struggles this year. For Foles to be successful, the Eagles will need to establish the run and look to use play-action to catch the Patriots off guard. If Foles can continue to take care of the ball like he has done so far in the playoffs, the Eagles will find themselves in a good position to come home with the win.
