The Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event on television every year. This year in Super Bowl 52 there were two fantastic teams that made it a very memorable event. The Super Bowl 51 champs the New England Patriots were projected from the off season to return to the Super Bowl and they did that. The only question was who from the NFC would make it to face them? The answer to that question was the Philadelphia Eagles who finished with a 13-3 record in the regular season but before that ended they lost their starting quarterback in week 15 to a torn ACL. Nick Foles  became their starter after Carson Wentz was injured.  Foles took over the team mid-season and never looked back.  The Eagles struggled the last two weeks before the regular season ended, but a bye week helped and then they faced the Falcons in the Divisional round.

Philadelphia got on track beating the Falcons and Vikings as they headed to the Super Bowl. The Eagles were also an underdog in all of their playoff games they played. On the other side the New England Patriots beat the Titans and the Jaguars to go to Super Bowl 52.  This  would be an obvious showdown with both teams having top five defenses and offenses. The game started off fast and physical with the Eagles taking the opening kickoff 13 platys.  Unable to score a touchdown they settled on a field goal.  On the Patriots first possession they had the same outcome settling for a field goal. Right before the first quarter ended Nick Foles launched a deep ball to Alshon Jeffery for a 34 yard touchdown to take a 9-3. They missed PAT to end the first quarter. The Patriots then got the ball to begin the second quarter and delivered a drive that stalled while the MVP of the league Tom Brady ran a trick play and dropped a pass.  The Patriots went for it on fourth and 6 and didn’t convert giving the ball back to Philly. Philly then drove down the field again and capitalized on the drive with a Lagarrette Blount 21 yard touchdown to go up 15-3. New England would eventually drive down the field and stall for a field goal to make it 15-6.  The Eagles would then start driving again until Stephone Gilmore made a play on Alshon Jeffery to have it tipped for an interception made by Duron Harmon.  The Patriots then drove 90 yards with James White finishing the drive off with a 26 yard power run to make the game 15-12(after a missed PAT). The Eagles had one more drive to get the momentum back.  Philadelphia had the ball on New England’s 1  yard line with 30 seconds left with it 4th and goal. The  Eagles called an amazing trick play where Nick Foles caught a touchdown to finish out the half with the Eagles winning 22-12.

The halftime show was a good one featuring Justin Timberlake and his tribute to “Prince”, but everyone was getting ready for the second half action. Coming out for the half, New England got the ball and took it down the field with the MVP Tom Brady throwing a touchdown 5 yards to Rob Gronkowski to make the score 22-19, But Philadelphia  double covered Corey Clement 22 yards in the back of the end zone to make it 29-19. This play was for several minutes and it looked like this could of got called back because the ball appeared to move before establishing two feet in bounds.  After review, the play was called a touchdown and the Patriots ere down ten points with seven minutes left in the third quarter. New England’s offense also wasn’t backing down as Brady moved down the field for another MVP 26 yard touchdown pass to Chris Hogan to end the third quarter-to make the score 29-26 Eagles. Both defenses were just looking for one stop to change the momentum of the game.  Philadelphia would start the fourth driving down the field but was stalled with Jake Elliot field goal from 42 yards to make the score 32-26.  Tom Brady on the other side took his opportunity  like as he had done in the past and took his team down the field to find an open  Rob Gronkowski (the 4 yards out for a score to take their first lead of the game 33-32 with 9 minutes left in the game). But the Eagles offense was saying whatever you do we can do better.  Foles hit Zach Ertz on 11 yard slant route and watching drive in the end zone and lose the ball and see him catching it in the air the ruling on the field was a touchdown but the play was under review. Every fan in the stadium could only think about the Jesse James catch this year and the Dez Bryant catch in 2014 which were all similar to the Zach Ertz play. The Dez and Jesse plays both were ruled incomplete.  but for some reason, on this day they established Ertz as a runner and has soon has he broke the plane it was deemed a touchdown making the score 38-33 Eagles. Tom Brady then got the ball back down on the 5 with 2 minutes left in the game.  Fans all have been here before and have witnessed Tom Brady’s famous fourth quarter comebacks in many a past Super Bowl, But  in Super Bowl 52 the Eagles wanted to make history. On a second and two Tom Brady got bowl rushed and Brandon Graham of the Eagles striped sacked Brady to come a step closer for their first ever Lombardi Trophy. The Patriots would eventually stop them to a field goal to make it 41-33 and giving the ball back to New England with 1 minute left. The Patriots would eventually have to throw a “Hail Mary” and hope for a miracle.  The ball bounced up in the air and eventually hit the ground with no one catching it as time expired. The Patriots jogged off the field accepting defeat as the Eagles got their first ever Lombardi Trophy for the”City of Brotherly Love”.

After the game the biggest question that will follow them this off season is where was Malcolm Butler. Malcolm is a Super Bowl 48 hero for the Patriots and played on 98 percent of the defensive  snaps for them this year. For the Super Bowl he only played on special teams and didn’t play one defensive snap all game. Their best corner was sat and they gave up 41 points and all the coaches said after the game was ‘It was best for the team’. This question will follow them all throughout the off season and onto next year as Malcolm will probably be leaving. Malcom Butler will become a unrestricted free agent before this  up-coming football season.