NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Super Bowl Sunday Recap: Eagles Take Down The Throne Of Ease!

Episode Date: February 5, 2018

A room filled with heroes- Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal & Chris Wesseling- recap the Eagles' big win over the Patriots in Super Bowl 52.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. We will never forget this. Hopefully with joy in our hearts. Nine seconds left. Eagles by eight. Brady lines them up. He's back again. He steps on.

He's hit. He stumbles. He is throwing it deep for the end zone. And it is batted around. And incomplete. And the game is over. The game is over. The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions.

Eagles fans everywhere. This is for you. Let the celebration begin. The Around the NFL podcast does not advertise on other podcasts. Welcome back to a very special edition of the Around the NFL podcast. from U.S. Bank Stadium Super Bowl 52. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a stadium filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal.

What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Hey, oh, ho! Non-descript afternoon here? Oh, yeah. That was, of course, Merrill Reese, and Mike Quick with the call. It's 12.45 in the morning. This is no afternoon, my friend.

I feel like we've been here for three years, but you're right, yeah. That was the final call of Super Bowl 52, the Philadelphia Eagles. For the first time in their franchise history, our Super Bowl champions, a 41 to 33 win over the New England Patriots in one of the greatest shootouts, Greg. And how are you doing, by the way, Greg? I'm doing good. Okay. It's actually much nicer to cover the game professionally and just be busy and kind of be here live. If you're at home, I would be miserable.

What I was going to say was in one of the not just greatest shootouts in Super Bowl history or playoff history, but professional football history, a game where defenses did not show up to play until one of the defenses made a play that helped seal the game. This is a rollicking game. It's like a seven-on-seven drill for both teams. We were on Sky Sports, Wes and I, and the first thing they were asking, like, how do you assess this performance just back and forth ping pong

and to me it was like two drunk cousins playing Madden and like literally scrapping any element of defense. It's like no punting. No, I mean there was literally no punt by the Patriots the entire game. There were so many oddities about this game. It was incredible. There was not a

stop in the second half other than that Brandon Graham force fumble. Every other possession and the end of the game that the Patriots couldn't come up with. Every other possession was a touchdown, and in a game where there were so little separating these two teams because the offenses just absolutely embarrassed both of the defenses overall, there were just little kind of game management moments where the Eagles were better.

The Eagles closed out the first half with a touchdown, which has kind of been the Patriots move. The Patriots gave away more points on special teams than the Eagles who had their own problems on special teams. as well, but the Patriots are the ones that gave away more points. And unlike third and fourth down, a lot of the plays Nick Foles made were just money plays. Maybe that's why it's not hitting me as hard right now. Because I honestly think, like, he just made those plays, and the receivers made those plays. It took incredible plays on drive after drive and third down and fourth down after fourth down for them to come out on top.

Yeah. The mistakes from the Patriots end, Brady drops the pass. when he goes out as a wide receiver on third down. He scrambles ill-advisedly at the end of the half, taking away a chance maybe for a field goal drive. The end of the first half, yeah. Chris Hogan drops a pass late in the game. Brandon Cook's lack of peripheral vision knocked him out of the game

because he didn't see Malcolm Jenkins coming. You have to be able to see that player coming. There were mistakes all over. On the flip side, the Eagles sort of had done what they'd done all year, incredibly daring do, going forward on fourth and won at one point, which didn't even seen that unusual for them because that's who they are this year. And just, I thought that they pushed New England's defense around. You say daring do?

A little bit of Darren due. A little bit of that. It's like one, it's 1246. New words are coming out, old phrases. Listen, the Patriots didn't execute the way you would expect in this game. And even at the end of the game, and we'll get to it, when everyone and their brother and their sister believed that Tom Brady, going to just lead him down the field, and it didn't happen.

But Nick Foles, to me, is the story of this game beyond anything else. Nick Foles, who was positively mundane in each of his first or many of his starts to start after he replaced Carson Wentz. He played well against the Giants, and then he kind of went in the tank for three weeks, and he was okay to good, depending what you think, in the Falcons game. And then lights out on the NFC title game. and a Super Bowl performance, and he was awarded with an MVP. Oh, I didn't see a car, as we looked down on the field.

I guess they don't give away a car to the MVP anymore. I mean, he's going to be able to have a car use of a car if he needs some of it. Nick Foles, what he did these past three weeks in these two games, was remarkable. Like, he played, I wouldn't say he was better than Tom Brady today because Brady was tremendous, as he always is on this stage. But he went punch for punch with the greatest quarterback ever. Who saw that coming? When I talked to John D. Filippo, the quarterback coach for the Eagles,

and this was off the record, but at the end of the conversation, I was just basically, he talked a little bit about Foles. He's like, Foles is such a high character guy. We love Nick Foles. He's just such a guy that everyone believes in. And so that's great, the person. But then he said, no, no, the player. He said, this team has totally bought into what Nick Foles had done over the past couple weeks.

He said, we are going to beat New England. He was ultra-confident. And this Eagles team all week long expressed total confidence in their quarterback and in themselves. It nearly became the first Super Bowl in history with zero sacks. I mean, it's one of the... You had to wait to the last three minutes for that to happen and it changed this game. It's one of the best quarterback performances in a Super Bowl period. You don't need a qualifier that it was Nick Foles or...

And Tom Brady was great in this game, too. I'm sure there's some plays he would take back, but he had 505 yards against a great defense. So that's not the point. The point is he had low percentage throws, Nick Foles did. I mean, throws that were not easy. I'm thinking about the play. to Aguilar on their final drive where he's on the run.

There's a couple different plays where he threw it on a dime on the sideline. Think about the touchdown passes. The throw to Jeffrey was a very difficult throw. The throw to Clement, which I think, I mean, there's so many big plays. But that's a play that's on third and six. It's a turkey hole shot, as John Gruden would say.

The safety's coming over. You need to have basically every skill that a quarterback needs to have is on that throw. And he puts it right on the money. and his receivers came through and made great plays for him. They did, and I thought it was a little bit of psychological war for after Brady wide open dropped that pass that we mentioned, that you turn around and have Nick Foll's score on a receiving. He caught a touchdown.

Yeah, he was out of his mind in this game. He showed up to play. I think the Eagles, they deserve so much credit, an underdog three weeks in a row in the playoffs. And I was speaking to a sparrow at our beautiful hotel. And by the way, we crushed the over. DJI Fridays. It was close, but then Friday turned into Saturday, and the contest was, it was left in tatters. We had a terrific meetup with our listeners, thanks to everyone that came by.

And I think, you know, the numbers, when you look at the box score, it won't say that I had, you know, necessarily a huge impact. You were basically Malcolm Butler. But I think, no, that's not true. I think, I think the, that would hurt Craig. The emotional lift that I gave the team on Friday night, because frankly, I put in more hours. at that tweet up than anybody else from beginning to end carrying one unnamed person out of the bar. I'm saying I was there and I'm just saying the narrative is the inspiration that I gave everyone from beginning to end. It was definitely a quantity over quality scenario for you, Greg, but we do appreciate your left to stay.

And like Malcolm Butler, who no-showed Sunday, Greg no-showed Saturday night. So it all even doubt. You didn't know Saturday night was a second part of it. No, you were like- We had Patriots friends from all over, uh, Woolcombe. Abraham, Massachusetts, Minichog Regional, we're out to dinner. Where would you have to be the TGI Fridays in the world? Mixed with your glory, there was certainly an aspect of heel turn to, you know, we were there quietly working on this over all week, and you kind of just left us hanging and then swooped in, swooped in when the party was happening, and we get it.

I said the over under, the second it went up, I said there's no problem. That thing's going over. Wait, you had a little bit of blood in your hands at the over under, too, Mark. In what way? A bit of a late arrival. Some people were grumbling behind the scenes. No, here's the thing. I showed up on time.

I had a good friend, and you met him last night. He brought his baby to the meetup and realized that the scene was a bit too chaotic for a baby. So I spent some quality time with him and his family, and then he returned last night to help with the over. So what I was going to say was. So, yeah, thank you everybody that came out. It was great. We even met a dude that's 7 foot 3. That is awesome.

Just to get a 7-footer in your fan base, that's big. At one point, him standing next to a much shorter Patriots fan and not Greg, it's separate. in person. So one of the other people that we converse with around the NFL football Cagnacente, a sparrow, I'll call him, told me that a prominent figure within

the Eagles expressed total confidence that the Eagles would put up 40 on the Patriots and they did just that. This team was confident going into this game and they played that way. So let's now kind of go through the game, quarter

by quarter, maybe we'll touch on JT's halftime show as well, and we'll catch up on our props, Super Bowl props that we made, how we all did. But let's start with the first quarter, and the Patriots win the toss. They elect to receive in the second half, as they like to do. But the Eagles, right away, West, did exactly what they wanted to do, and they probably would have, if they did anything not perfectly on offenses, Brady was on the field a lot in scoring every time. They didn't have a lot of

clock-chewing drives except for the first one and their last one, or their second to last one. The first drive was a great drive. It's stalled at the goal line, but seven minutes of the clock, they get a wild Eagles crowd right into the game with a nice scoring drive.

Well, let's go back to Malcolm Butler again, because this is the big mystery of the game, and the Eagles came out and immediately attacked Eric Roe. And Jordan Richards and Jonathan Batimosy. Malcolm Butler doesn't play a single snap. He played more snaps than any defensive player on the Patriots this season. Nobody can figure out exactly why he didn't play. There were some illness issues during the week, but that showed up on the

very first drive of the game. Yeah, there's, for some backstory, he took a Patriots private plane by himself or a plane by himself and got to the team later in the week, which now you look back at and you wonder what was going on. With that, they said he was sick. But he did wind up. He to practicing later in the week. And I think, you know, if we're going to talk about Butler now, probably the most telling quote after the game was Eric Roe was asked about it. And he said, you know, was that the plan? You know, did you expect to replace Malcolm Butler?

And he said, that wasn't the plan. Well, and another telling quote. I think he doesn't know what to say. Right. Another telling quote was Malcolm Butler after the game saying that the team gave up on him. There's a quote. They gave up on me. F, that's the F word.

It is what it is. So that is going to, and I know Erica Tamposi, the loose canon, who's very emotional. She's a huge Patriots fan, upset about the outcome. I think there are a lot of people like Erica that right now are dealing with anger that, how did our defense get completely butchered in this game? And arguably our top quarterback or our top two cornerback was benched for something that might, maybe not the right time for that. We don't know what the true story is, but Belichick moves in mysterious ways.

Doesn't sound peaceful, though. It's really interesting because I think back to the AFC championship game a year ago, and I remember coming out of that locker room and asking another reporter, what was up with Malcolm Butler? Because he kind of seemed not that thrilled that they won the game, or just he had a strange vibe about him. And the reporter had said to me, that's kind of been his deal all season. And that was a season ago where he wasn't happy necessarily with the team.

I don't know what was going on, but there was drama going on behind the scenes. and this guy who I have said on this podcast many times is my favorite Patriots player of the last decade, it is sad to see kind of like one of the, the author of one of the great Super Bowl moments ever, one of the great underdogs ever, to have kind of this as the bookend for his Patriots career. It's pretty sad.

Crazy. So they kick a field goal, the Patriots go right down the field. They kick a field goal. And then the first touchdown on the game comes on a bang, bang, bang. And again, what is going on with the Patriots defense right out of the game?

Three plays 77 yards. Nick Foles in his first big money throw of the game spots Alshon Jeffrey. Who had a nice first season in Philly, didn't he? Foles under center. Smith in motion on first down. Foles face. He's back. He steps up.

He is going deep. And it is caught by Alshon Jeffrey for a touchdown. So Jeffrey makes the 34-yard touchdown catch. The extra point is no good. it goes wide right. So the first quarter ends with the Eagles up 9-3. That reminds me of two different two-play sequences in the first half where the Eagles hit them for big gains on back-to-back plays.

And that was one of them. I mean, you hit him for 36 on a run, then you hit him, what was it, for 34 in a pass, something like that. And they did it again in a later drive. And it was like the play calling by Peter O's, it was like they were throwing combination punches. and the Patriots were always guessing wrong and kind of playing behind, and they would hit them with these two straight.

You just don't see that. That's not Ben, but don't break. That's just, you're just broken. You were asking a lot from this offense to come out and make big play after big play. And right away, you could tell that everyone was on the same page. The Eagles on third down were unbelievable, extending drives over and over. And it wasn't, they were the farthest thing from conservative. And they were the more balanced offense, I thought, out of the gate,

because they could run the ball well. Garrett Blunt and crew really had their way with New England. There were some huge holes they were running through. So right away, Foles had two big third-down throws on that first drive, and you could tell they were on. So 9-3, the Pats miss a field goal, and it comes on a bad snap. They get deep in territory again. So the Patriots never had trouble moving the ball.

Their quarterback threw for 500 yards. My God, Tom Brady, there's no such thing as a record book. anymore for quarterbacks in the playoffs and in the Super Bowl. He has just put so much distance between himself and everyone, but they go straight down the field. And again, this is not the Patriots that we expect at this level. Bad snap. Gistowski gets in a tough spot where he has to stutter and then he hits the upright with the kick.

And there it is, Greg. I mean, that, again, is a Pats fan, I'm sure you're feeling like, oh, I can't leave points on the board with the way of my defense looks right? Yeah, they ended up giving away four points on special teams, three there with the bad snap. You could say seven, too, when they eschued a 52-yard field goal to throw a deep ball to grunk down the sideline. That's another missed three points. In that moment, which Dan and I had a great view of because our friends at Sky Sports welcomed all four of us down in two different segments. And we were down there for that miss field goal, which had a great view of that miss.

We need to get our seats down there. That was the big take. But it was beautiful to be as part of their podcast. The play before that, though, was one. one of the big defensive plays in the game. Rodney McLeod takes down Brandon Cooks one-on-one. Cooks has got to make him miss. Instead, he tries to jump over him,

and that takes maybe seven points off the board. And even though the Eagles' even was terrible, really, overall, in this game, they did make three or four plays. And it's like sometimes that's what it comes down to. Their individuals, including McLeod, on that plate, made a couple big-time plays, and that was one of them. The Eagles then get on the board. again, a Legerat-Blunt, 21-yard touchdown run.

They go for two at this point. I thought that was an interesting move at the time. It seemed maybe early. They were 15-3. They fail again. The one thing the Eagles failed on offense in this game was two-point conversions. They fell twice in addition to missing an extra point. I know, and I called the missed extra point, and I had said that that was going to be the

difference in a one-point Patriots win. And at one point, it was 33 to 32 in the fourth quarter with a. mixed extra point on the board. So far, would you say, Greg, that I am being a class act so far. Some people would think I'd come out and be gloating. So far, total pro. Very classy.

It's been a fine day for all of that. Yes, you're a classy guy. So 156 now. A lot of back slapping on this episode. And you're thinking to yourself, oh boy, are the Patriots about to fall into a deep hole? But it never really happened that way. 156, after this point,

it's kind of a back-and-forth affair. James White scores a rushing touchdown. And then the Eagles, the Eagles score again. They can't get a stop. And it happens in a very interesting way. Let me go back first and say this. There was a huge play, and we've referenced in twice with Tom Brady, with the Patriots and Josh McDaniels, and maybe his last game.

Maybe. We'll see. There's a report out there that McDaniels might not be ready to move on, which would leave the cults in a very bad way. but a huge play in which Tom Brady was the intended receiver and we have not heard from our boy Scotty Zolak yet

the let's listen to the play in the second quarter in which Tom Brady had a chance to score a touchdown with his legs and his hands snap to Brady to give to James White pitches it back to Danny Emadola he throws a lob to Brady off his hands incomplete the Patriots

pull out of play from the 2015 game against the Eagles. Amandola throwing it to Brady. We didn't hear Zolak. He was just about to say something. I think he was probably, you know, Zolak probably was next level myth this evening. Right.

I've heard some, like, inside info that Zolak very quiet in this game at certain stretches, certainly their extent. So the Patriots are unable to come through there. I think he's going in. I think he makes a couple guys missed. I don't know about that guy. He wasn't going anywhere close.

He wasn't out of bounds like two feet later. I think Brady. cost them six on the play. But this was an arena. I used to cover the Arena League for like one month when I worked at Rotter World. And Arena League games is all about getting like your two stops. And they really were only like two stops by the Eagles all game. And so this miss ended up feeling like a huge mistake because it was one of those two

stops. You say Arena ball. I say Rocky four. It's like there's no defense. Rocky's just like holding Drago with his left hand and punching him the whole time. And Drago's doing the same to Rocky. that's what this football game was. Yeah.

So the Patriots miss an opportunity. Whether or not you think he's going to make some moves and get in the end zone, it's probably a 25-yard game. Calm down. Maybe he doesn't score a touchdown. The Patriots are set up there. He's going right out of bounds after he catches the ball. Did you miss the scramble play when he had a 10-yard head start on Brandon Graham?

He's not running for any second? I think he's got some quick twitch because of all the elastic bands. Anyway, so now, Brady doesn't get it done with his hands. However, there's another quarterback. This, to me, was kind of the biggest play of the game on some level, or at least at this stage. Greg, you wrote about it afterward, and it's up on NFL.com slash Rosenthal, the Eagles, doing what other teams had failed to do against the Patriots in the big money spots. And this came on a fourth down near, it was a long one, almost two yards, late in the first half.

And the Eagles take out their bag of tricks to score another touch. down. Booth to the right. It goes directly to Clement. Clemens reverses it. And the pass goes into the end zone. To Nick Bowles. Listen, a little razzle by Doug Peterson.

I mean, that's a painful thing to listen to for me, for many reasons. But one of which is Trey Burton threw that touchdown pass. Yeah, you got to get that right. But that was, Greg, Walla Walla Onion Hanger right there. to involve your to do a trick play because at three points lead right there I like that they went for it

but then they also said we love our playbook and we're going to take one and stick it to Billy Boy and they did that play was called Philly Spelley. I'll show you a little bit of our growing huge onions and it took onions and it took planning it was a play

they actually had in for the Minnesota game so it's not like he suddenly saw Tom Brady drop a pass and they're like, ooh, I really want to stick it to the Patriots by throwing it better. That's what it was, actually. By just, like, creating this play to, you know, mock them almost. It was a play they almost called against Minnesota. He says they stole it, essentially, from the Bears who ran it on Alson Jeffery's team a year ago.

It worked for the Bears then. It worked for the Eagles here. And the most surprising thing I heard, I think, after the game about it, was Burton saying, oh, when we do that in practice, you can throw the ball anywhere to Nick Foles. Because Nick Foles is so athletic, he'll catch it. It doesn't matter if he's covered or if not. He's going to make that play. And I'm like, really, Nick Foles?

Is Jerry Rice out there? You had a great tweet about that. I mean, it was a killer turn of events from New England because when New England scored James White's 26-yard run to go essentially put them down 15-12. And I turned to Wes and Greg and said, New England's winning this game. Yes, you did.

And I have a pretty good record when I do that. I was way off base this time. Although you also said they scored too early. They scored too early because you gave the Eagles a little over two minutes, and the way these teams were both moving the ball, that's way too much time. And so to go cap off the first half with that, to go up 10 right before the half, I thought that was an absolute killer turn of events for New England. That was maybe the ballsyest Super Bowl call since Sean Payton's onside kick to start the third

quarter in the St. Super Bowl victory. And I can't say enough good things about this offensive coaching staff. Their creative play design, their timely play calling, and God, I have a hope, as much as team copycat against teams that win the Super Bowl, I hope so many more coaches become aggressive on fourth down in key situations like Doug Peterson has been all year, even with his own announcer's questioning him on it. And you're right. Like that was maybe not even the gutsyest fourth down call or call that Peterson made in the game.

I mean, you're absolutely right. It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah, no, the whole thing is crazy. I love that. And he said that throughout the week. his players all said that after the game. That pregame throughout the week, Frank Reich, his coach said,

it said, we're going to be aggressive, whether we're ahead, whether we're behind, just expect it for 60 minutes. That's how we roll. So that made it 2212, and even better, it happened so late in the quarter that the Patriots were not able to do the thing they loved to do, which is they left to bang you with a score right at the end of the half, then get the ball back, and then score again.

And it's a move I do and Madden all the time. I think I learned it from Bill Parcells and Bill Belich. Or they learned it from you, potentially. No, but that's cool, too. I like that idea. So anyway, we're at halftime. Justin Timberle comes out. I like to call it, and I got to be careful of my words,

because Tamposi's already on edge a little bit. She's on tilt. But I enjoyed the show. She's looking at me right now. I enjoyed the show. I thought it was workman-like. He did an 11-song medley. I do have one hot take about it,

but I want to hear your guys' thoughts about Timberlake at hand. Well, I mean, I came in with very little expectations because a lot of times these halftime shows, you watch them and they look a little disheveled from the stadium itself, or at least for worse seated. Then you see it on television, and it's a completely different experience. I found out quickly that we had the reverse, because I thought it was fantastic here,

and I tweeted about, I thought Erica would have loved it, and immediately start getting peppered with tweets. I don't know what you watched, but that's not what I saw at home, and I guess there were some technical issues, so maybe on TV it didn't play this well. I thought he knocked it out of the park from where we were. I mean, I don't think I'm the target audience,

but I was next to Wes. Wes was doing football stuff. He was being a good football writer, not really paying attention. I could not have been more bored by the performance, which I think you accurately described as workman-like, which is not what I'm looking for in a Super Bowl halftime show. I feel like I have so many hot takes on the rest of the game

that I should just leave the floor to you. How am I the one defending the halftime show? I find that it's probably the first time this has ever happened. I thought it was a good show. And my fire take is that everybody calm down with their big think pieces that are coming tomorrow about how Timberlake somehow disrespected Prince by honoring him in Minnesota where the dude was from. It's like, how dare you use a hologram? First of all, you know, grow up Peter Pan, know what it is.

It's not a hologram. It was a projection, okay? So they did a projection that I thought was artfully done. and it called back to Prince's own legendary halftime performance. But everybody needs something to get fired up about on their little hot take machine. Nobody's happy unless they're offended. And then it's like we already have the Janet thing in the holster and we're ready to do that. But let's get out of them about honoring Prince.

Is that where we are, society? Weren't we expecting that to happen? So we didn't want Prince honored in Minnesota? That's what you wanted? Well, apparently Prince had thrown some notable shade at JT. He was not a fan of him throughout his career. and so the Prince fans, they got up in arms. So J.T. took the high road.

Now, here's, all right, here's my other hot take. If Beyonce did the same thing, everybody would have been like, genius. She's done it again. All right. That's the end of the halftime hot takes. We moved to the third quarter, and I thought it was very notable. We're talking at halftime before JT. I think Greg, you and I remarked, where is Gronk in the first half?

And clearly, clearly, it's a, you know, a 1950s football movie, They got the big chalkboard, and it's just, like, throw to Gronk all the time. Because the Patriots get the ball. They go right down the field, and they do this on the final play. With his left foot forward surveys, the defense, and he takes the snap from the gun. He backs up. He throws to the middle of the end zone. Touchdown, Grancowski.

And the Patriots strike first in the second half of Super Bowl 52. The unstoppable rebel force is back. Eight plays, Zolak, of course. eight play 75 yards two minutes 45 seconds Greg and at that point I'm thinking to myself if they just throw it to Gronk every time there's no way to lose the game because he was unstoppable on that drive I mean he was he ended up with 116 yards

and he was their third leading receiver which is ridiculous on its own this is a game and that drive reminded me of it that you know I'm never a big believer in momentum in general but this is a game where you can absolutely say there's no momentum going on either way because every time the Patriots scored one of these. I'm like, ooh, like you're one of those people who don't believe momentum

exists? I mean, I don't believe, I don't, I think there's something to it, but basically every time the Patriots scored, you're heading too many analytics books. Every time the Patriot scored, you're thinking, okay, here we go, and then immediately the Eagles respond, and then immediately the Patriots respond, and then immediately the Eagles respond. Well, I think

you started to go away from the momentum arguments, realize both of these defenses are hideous tonight. They are ultra awful to see. It was shocking that the Eagles couldn't rush Brady at all, especially. talk about that for a second because that is what in two weeks of hype and we had conversations about it

Greg you were steadfast about it and it turns out you were right if you judge this game specifically that is good as the Patriots did in terms of limiting points during the season they were still especially in the last 12 weeks or so they were still a team where you could

move the ball on them and they were helped a lot by how great the offense was and how often they had the ball so you kind of I wasn't I guess stunned, well, 40 points maybe is pretty extreme, but it wasn't stunned that the Eagles move the ball, but the Eagles on defense, where was

the push? Where was this fearsome pass rush? Didn't happen until the two-minute drill. Right. That was one play. Yep. Now they rushed him, I think, three straight plays on the last time the Patriots had the ball, and I think they ended up hitting him more times than any teams hit him all year.

But it all happened late in the game. I was downstairs with the Eagles after and Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Derek Barnett. Every one of them said, here's what we said on the sideline. It's going to take maybe the entire game, but we're going to get to him at some point.

We have to come up with that one play. Because the way this thing was going, whoever made the mistake was going to lose. And that's what they said. We'd have to make the Patriots get them into a situation where Brady, who takes to take too long to pass on one snap. We take them down. It's exactly what happened.

It was surprising to see the Patriots' offensive line win that battle against Philadelphia. I think it was, I would assume they were pretty disappointed by the performance overall. I would have never, I would have never expected that. They are the first team in NFL history, regular season or postseason, to win a game when they gave up 600 yards. Amazing. I mean, later in the game, when the Patriots finally had taken the lead, I thought they were done at that point because it was like, that was the story of the game. You said, you pulled me over at that point, and you were like, I'm going to tell you how this goes.

The Patriots pull it away. They're pulling away in this game. was six minutes left. He's like, and it's going to end up not being that close. But you should know me well enough by now, but that was a little bit. Tweaker, tweaka, tweaka, tweaka, tweaka. And Greg made a face like, eh, no. I never felt good about this game.

So this is when the game kind of morphs into, and I did remark to Greg as well. We were sitting not next to each other, but close to each other. Greg, not on my lap as my original request was for this game. But it started to feel like at a certain point, like that great Cardinals, Packers shootout a few years ago in the playoffs where nobody could stop anyone and I don't know Are you guys a fan of this type of game

Like the crazy show? Because I kind of like the more tense affair Where it's a little more defensive-minded Not no points but I was a little Like annoyed by the like the defenses after a while I would typically not want this all the time I feel like there's all this emphasis on nonstop offense I love the occasional strange like

Seven to Six game that feels shot out of a cannon from five decades gates ago, but tonight I enjoyed it because what we saw, and look, had Brady ever pulled this out, it would have been another example of total magical artistry, but instead we got it from both quarterbacks, so it was perfect for a Super Bowl, in my opinion. I mean, as a reminder, it is, it's obvious, it's a quarterback, it's a passing, it's an offensive league. I mean, if ever there was a sign of it, it's this game. Defense is secondary. It was action-packed, and if you like big plays and momentum swings and one team answering the other one, that was fun. You'd like to see better situational football, one team got clearly out-coached by the other because the Patriots were mistake-ridden

for the entire game. You're dead right. I'd take a Seahawks Patriots Super Bowl. Like that was, you know, there's enough offense, enough defense, and the good guys won. Yeah, I like those Giants Patriots Super Bowls personally. Anyway, so Gronk scores, and then it just becomes an arena league game. The Eagles go 11 plays 85 yards and five minutes. Corey Clement, that is the turkey ball, right? The turkey shot. That was beautiful. That was threading the needle, yeah. And I want, we should touch on this because I think you had a good point on this, Greg. It seems like after the Jesse James touchdown was taken away in Pittsburgh that helped give New England home field advantage of the playoffs, that even though it's not allowed and it would be maybe not something that they would ever admit to, but it feels like the catch rule shifted because that catch by Clement, and it was a catch, come on, let's calm down here.

But that probably, under the letter of the law in the early Riveron era, is probably coming back, right? There were a couple of moments, and I think we heard on Roger Goodell's press conference on last Wednesday during the week that they want to start over from scratch with the catch-roll. And that almost got the sense that it's already been sent out that we don't want any more crazy overturns. And if nothing else, it would have been crazy to overturn either of the Eagles touchdowns.

It was ridiculous that they even reviewed the Ertz won that long. Do the reviews seem 10 times longer, when you're in the stadium, by the way? I don't know. That one was crazy. I'm still waiting for that the Rams Falcons call to be made final on the punt that hit somebody's leg. I don't think there's any doubt that Riveron got a talking to.

And it wasn't just Jesse James. It was the Kelvin Benjamin play against the Patriots where they overturned that one in the end zone. And it was a ridiculous overturn where you had to slow down frame by frame by frame. And they had two plays the night where people thought they might be overturned, two huge plays for the Eagles. The catch rule definitely played a role. rule in this game.

You think Riveron got a wrap on the knuckles? I do think so. I love it. Like the indisputable evidence part of the rule, I think they went back to that. At least that if it's not totally obvious, don't change what's on the field. I do love the image of Riveron being sat in a wooden chair like an old Catholic school, and then a rod just rolls in with a ruler. Right on the knuckles.

Get better. Meanwhile, they are projecting critical tweets from Mike Pereira on the wall in front of them. They make you read those. Oron's a pretty imposing guy. I don't know if you're going to wrap him on the knuckles with a little ruler and set him straight. I love Pereira. He's a Tito slugging Paizan. He got loves Titos.

But, you know, when he's coming after the organization, and he used to have Riveron shop, I wonder if there's a little Pereira, Riveron heat. No, I'm sure. Blandino criticized him, too. Dino Blondina? Well, you know, whatever. All right. Dino is over, bro.

All right. Shots it, but I blind Dino in a big spot. A slight digression on. the main storyline here. So, yeah, so Clement, the call stands, and then, Greg, the Patriots go right down the field again. Chris Hogan scores a touchdown, and the third quarter ends. Yeah, boy.

We'll get to that. We'll get to Hogan, because near miss for the sizzler. 29, 26, 2926 at the end of three quarters. And this is where I will get it. I will mention, shout out to the Patriots. You know, I'm feeling in a good mood tonight over the way things go. But just in general, the one thing I will give the Pats, every Super Bowl they're in, is a banger. This is another banger.

That's not a small thing. Yeah, we're going into the, so as annoying it as it is, to deal 14 and 2 every year, and that's not a small thing. And then an easy AFC playoff road. Yes, it's been very difficult for you. I mean, the trials and tribulations. Yeah, you're not going to believe it, Greg. It has been difficult to be a Jets fan during the Patriot's Dynasty.

It actually is a real thing. These games are always fun when they're in it. And it does, there's a certain ad. Gravitas when Brady's involved in Belichick. I am going to be magnanimous on this one. Well, tonight, you're not allowed to call yourself magnanimous. I do it like once every four months. A lot of human growth happening on this show tonight.

You really got that sense tonight because it was such a heavy Eagles crowd, and you kind of just know that most of the country is rooting against the Patriots. It does make the game a little more special that the Patriots come out and they're getting booted. It almost feels like they're villains, that they're these, indestructible villains. It adds a little bit to the game that you wouldn't have if it was a different team. Every single person with Patriots fatigue, which give me a break on that, is going to miss them when they're gone. You're going to miss them when they're gone because they give you instant classics in the Super Bowl every time they have raised the bar for Super Bowls.

We're in the golden age of Super Bowls because of the Patriots. This is the best run by far, and we lived through some bad ones when we were younger. The AFC not winning for what 14 straight years and a bunch of terrible blowouts, we've seen some crazy stuff. There's the difference, though, Wes, as you retired from the Bengals, so you are just a football fan. So the Patriots being involved

and you just get all these great games, it makes sense that you're making that statement. But there's somebody that is still invested in another team, especially one in the division, I will not miss the Patriots on their gun. Get out of my life. In fact, you can look at this game, potentially, as the beginning of the end,

the funeral here in the Viking ship. It's just weird, like your team's, Your team's been out of the race for two months. The only thing that makes sense is to root for good football. I don't get that. This drive. Endless personal narratives here. This drive to put a bow on this one was a reminder.

I think Josh McDaniels had an awesome game because I think there were a lot of throws that, especially on this drive that I'm thinking, that were not tough throws for Tom Brady. I think he played great. He made great decisions. He does so much before the snap. But this wasn't a game where he was required to make a lot. bunch of crazy

completions. He had a bunch of receivers in stride down the field. He had a share, but he also had a few drives like this where it was not, he didn't need that much. There was guys wide open in the Eagles secondary. All right, so the Eagles then make a massive mistake in their next position in the

fourth quarter. They don't score a touchdown. And in this game, that's a fail because when they're unable, a drive stalls, Jake Elliott hits a 42-yarder, they extend the lead again to six points, But now Tommy Boy is getting the ball down less than a touchdown. And yeah, what do you think is going to happen?

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. 10 plays, 75 yards, 447, cap by that man again, Gronk, who makes a tremendous catch in the back corner of the end zone. Second and goal to go from the fore. They've been running the ball well on this drive. Here we go. Defense hip-hop music. This is unreal.

Are down six. 926 to go in the four. This is like NBA. Hogan, outside of Dorset to the right. Ronkowski slot left inside of Amandola with white to the left of Brady. Amandola in motion left right, bowls on the left hatch. Brady takes the snap. He backs up.

A lob toward Kronkowski left. Reaches out, extends, makes the grab as he dives to the poilon. Touchdown, Patriots, as they tie Super Bowl 52. Big number 87 with a little shimmy with the hips. He's filling it. He certainly is, and that was a great Gronk spike. And who knows, maybe the final Gronk spike, because after the game, Gronk said he needs to think about some stuff about his football future.

I guess the injuries and he just suffered a concussion that maybe makes you think about these things. I'm sure we would probably all agree he probably will be back, but that's another subplot for the Patriots going forward. But Gronk makes a great catch, an epic Gronk spike, and now the Patriots are ahead. I mean, that drive coming out of the second half is the reason why we know he's not retiring. It's just like that drive against the Steelers to win the game. No one else can do that.

He's still on top of his game. He's not walking away. Give me a break. Yeah, it's the rare off season where he doesn't have like a five or six month rehab stint to deal with on top of the season. And I applaud the Eagles' excitement in terms of the fans. We congratulate, you know, Colleen Wolf and John Gonzalez

to Eagles' greats having a great time out in the city of Minneapolis. Great Eagles fans. They're great. They're the MVP's tonight. But can we calm down on playing the Rocky theme and the Rocky stuff on third downs?

That was a little bit on my radar. I was like, what game are we at? I saw a lot of other people that aren't fans of the teams tweeting about this too. It's like, how are they getting the Eagles third down Rocky music? So let me get this straight.

We are not suffering Patriots exhaustion, but we're already tired with the Eagles success. I'm just like, this is a neutral site game and we're showing Rocky on every third. It seemed like a Philadelphia home game when you got Rocky played It did feel like a home game. It was strange.

Well, yeah, the fact there was like 39,000 Eagles fans also played in. But I did enjoy some of, Greg, who's, you know, staring down the barrel of 40 now. You had some great old man grumbles during this game. That one was one, and that was fair.

Your other one, I'll let you explain it because I'll give you points on that one as well. I've got a year in a month, though, in 40 for the record. Well, I would like, and I would just request, you know, the in-stadium entertainment manager to give us 30 seconds of quiet every once in a while to talk to your neighbor. Do we need, I love Cardi B.

We don't need Cardi B in between every single play and just whatever other entertainment they have in between every commercial. You couldn't, at no point were they not playing insanely loud things at every second of the game. Your application has been accepted. You know, Scott Hanson of NFL Network, he's a. pro but they had like talking for two minutes give me a break a show during the game that was on the loudspeaker and Hansen's got a booming voice and then it's like bang loud song bang sound effect bang rocky clip it's like you're calling the super bowl a bit gaudy a bit overproduced love what i'm hearing from dan and gregg on this issue right it's like this is

not tuesday night wolves versus bucks like we don't need to generate crowd excitement it's the super bowl and while we're here What's the deal with all this hip-hop music? That's not music. I sing a Frank Sinatra. That's music. Good luck getting Sinatra at this Super Bowl. Or Eddie.

Mark Brady, that are right, shadow league figure. Can we play some Sinatra? Is that cleared? No. He gave a no. Hard no. No Sinatra tonight. All right.

Hard negative. This is, yes, 33, 32. And that's what I said to Greg. It's over. the only way the Eagles win this game is if they managed to pull off what they did on that first drive but finish it out the way they needed to so they needed to keep their own defense off the field

because their defense had failed had failed for 55 minutes of game time and the Eagles then have the drive of the history of the franchise 14 plays 75 yards and most importantly with Tom Brady unconscious and Gronk spiking and swiveling his hips and getting Zolak all fired up. Seven minutes of game time, and it ends most importantly with this. Empty backfield, four receivers right, back goes fulls, fires, slant, touchdown.

Zach Ertz. An embarrassing performance by the Patriots entire defense, especially their secondary. I believe that was Devin McCornie, who got burnt on that play. they pro football focus had a tweet at halftime that they had missed more tackles in the first half than any game they've played since 2006 when they started tracking missed tackles it was just an awfully coached game i thought the patriots were disappointing in their lack of fundamentals all around that's why i do want to hear more and more about the malcolm butler situation because whether or not he whatever he did you're ticketing him to start this game

and suddenly the other players say after it was not the plan for him not to be on there that throws things out of the loop. If suddenly one of us vanished today and wasn't doing the show and wasn't doing their job, it's like it kind of changes the whole afternoon. The biggest compliment I can give the Eagles is that they are so well coached that by the time you get to the end of this season with Nick Foles on her center, this drive encapsulated that, they look no different to me than when Carson Wentz was the quarterback. That's good coaching.

And I don't know if some of it was coaching certainly. I think Eric Rowe, for instance, ended up playing pretty well. Patrick Chung goes out with an injury in the second round. Eric Rowe did not play well. good second half, I do. Yeah, but the first half matters. Right. He got picked on.

I think overall, he made plays, and Jeffrey made a couple of plays against him, too. But Batimosy and Jordan Richards, and you had certain matchups like Marquis Flowers on Cory Clement, and different matchups that the Eagles' offense was able to orchestrate was a great job by the coaches. But to me, it comes down to players. We talk about coaches so much. Those mistackles are kind of on the Patriots players. And a lot of these plays, as much as the match.

up was great. Foles on that drive was so great, and especially that fourth down play, really stands out to me. I think that it's gotten overlooked just in the immediate aftermath. That took a lot of guts. They went for fourth and two at their own 45 with $5.50 to go. More onions. More onions. Maybe even more onions than the play on the goal line, if you think about it, because if you don't pick that up, the Patriots have the ball. They're in scoring position. And on that play, Trey Flowers gets immediate pressure. He hits Nick Foles. Foles moved in the pocket very well. He had great pocket movements throughout the game.

I don't know. He had it in the NFC championship game too, but he slides very subtly, completes a two-yard pass to Ertz, who beats Stefan Gilmore, who had an incredible game overall. And Gilmore, you could tell, was really upset after the play.

And I thought about that. That was really a game-changing play that Ertz wins that match-up, and that Foles kind of makes the play on his own. Wasn't it a common sense called by Peterson? As gutsy as it was on the surface, he knew what we all were seeing that the Eagles, if they punt that ball away,

they'd probably never get it back. So they really just had to get that fourth down. It was a had-to-have-it-play, and the players played. And that was their mentality, the whole game. It's super aggression. And the next play, I think it was the very next play after that was where Foles is either on a sprint right

or he's scrambling to his right, and he throws a gorgeous, like, pee on the move to Aguilar, who taps his toes and gets in before he goes out of bounds. Like, these were high-level plays. to win a Super Bowl. He had three money completions in a row on that drive. And I mean, he did it all night. And again, we're talking

to Dick Philippa, one thing he said, we just pound fundamentals. We talk about it every single day. And the one thing that they coach well, that when you make a mistake, they quickly find a way with their quarterbacks to get over and just stress their fundamentals. And it sounds cheesy. It just sounds like coach speak, except we're watching Nick Foles

do something that we really haven't seen since maybe Joe Flacco had that magical January. Wes. Go ahead. No, I was going to say, you know, some people believe that Joe Namath sold his soul to the devil to win a Super Bowl and the Jets are still paying for it. Do you think that Nick Foles sold his soul? Because I know you were not expecting Foles to do it again in this setting and now he just put together two of the best games in NFL playoff history. He seems to be a hyper religious man like on a Kirk Cousins level,

so I would not assume that he sold his soul to the devil. Yeah, not sure the devil's involved in. But I do think he's about the best example we have yet of the fact that you cannot separate the quarterback from his coaching staff surrounding talent and the coaching staff's ability to instill the upmost confidence in a player with their play design, the RPO's, with their play calls, the timing of the play calls. And Nick Fools, we saw so many coaches give up on him. Chip Kelly gave up on him. Jeff Fisher gave up on him.

Andy Reid didn't resign him with the Chiefs. I mean, there's a lot of coaching staff that Nick Fools just didn't work well under, and it didn't always have the best talent, especially with the Rams. but on this team, I can't say enough about that coaching staff. And really, I mean, Nick Fools made me E. Crow a couple of times now. He's got to give him all the credit in the world for how well he's played. Is the Foles-Westling family line clash that seemed to be at the heart of all this? Is that solved at this point?

Well, I don't know that he's ever going to be my favorite quarterback to watch, and I would suggest buyer beware for any team who thinks he's going to be like a guy to go trade for. He's under contract for next year. You're not getting Doug Peterson and John DeFillivis. Lippo and Frank Reich along with him when you sign him or trade for him. I was thinking Carson Wentz in the locker room after the game. He kind of had like a weird look in his face. And it made me think like he was kind of,

it kind of must be a surreal feeling for him to be the centerpiece of this best team in the NFC, go to the background. And then all of a sudden, fast forward to the winning locker room in the Super Bowl. And no one is going to say, oh, who's starting next year. Someone did to Alside Jeffrey actually. And he was like, come on, bro. Yeah. But I understand it

If you had some weird thoughts And it's had like this is kind of a Bittersweet moment Because this I might never get back to this moment With the team And the other guy did The understudy did it just It's kind of a weird spot for him

Look at that Panthers team from a couple years ago It shows you how hard it is to get back to these games Even if you play at the level Wentz did this season It doesn't mean the team's gonna do with it They're so close you can tell Fools and Wenz They really get along in Foles You know more of a veteran than Wence and it still has to be so strange for Wentz because it's not his moment.

Some guy was, he was the type of guy who was asking the same question at every player. And his question was, how did Carson Wentz's leadership over the last three weeks, like really help out, you know, you win the Super Bowl? And Trey Burton's answer was great. He was kind of like, you know, Nick Falls just had one of the best games ever, man. That's the guy I'm talking about, kind of. Like, he just didn't even want to entertain it. I hope that writer got his angle.

And it should be said that Ertz is. play. He caught the ball, took two or three steps, lunged to the end zone, lost possession of the ball when he reached over the goal line, and especially, you know, poor souls like me are thinking, oh, the pads are going to get a call here. But the old rap on the knuckles river on said, nope, that's a touchdown. It's not a Jesse James situation. They, uh, Gene Starator, who had a nice game, uh, said he had possession. He began to, you know, move up field. So once he dove losing possession of the ball okay touchdown no contract i like that with zero evidence that anything has happened at all with riveron it's we simply have them in a place who's like catch catch catch catch that's why it should

be everybody gets a catch and the the last thing since this is the last time really fools had the ball meaningfully and was throwing the ball it is a great reminder of how uncertain all of this is and that it's a point football it's a point we we hammer over and over on this podcast but we had this big discussion, you know, a very vociferous debate when Carson Wentz got injured. And the debate was, can the Eagles possibly win a game or two in the playoffs with Nick Fools? Is that even humanly possible? And, like, for the most part, the idea was, like, no way can Nick Fulton could they even win a game with Nick Fools. And not only that, not only did they win a game or two, they won the Super Bowl in the greatest shootout in NFL history over one of the greatest offenses in NFL.

FOS three. There's just nothing you can be certain. It's an argument to completely close shop on analyzing football. Maybe maybe we piped down on that. Shut up. Predictions. Predictions are tough. And then. No more predictions on this show. 38 to 30. Ooh, speaking of predictions.

Lock it up for the old zooser. I have a comment on that because we got a little testy on the other show. Before we get into something where people deciding, because we're tied now at the top. Oh, who has it more based on this? This was, you called it, it went your way, we're going to take that trophy,

we're going to saw it right down the middle, and I'll put half on your desk, half on mine. That's how you solved this thing. This is a King Solomon riddle. You want to saw it in half? I got to give it to Zusser then. He loves the trophy more than you. He wants to keep it intact. Why aren't we the co-champions?

Why don't we just put it on the plate? That works, too. All I'm trying to be magnanimous now and say that I, it was wrong for me to be testy on the other show about the whole thing. It is a parlor game. We have tied. It's how it ends. I'm happy for you and for me. And Greg, your attempt to, you know, completely scrap the whole thing

and try not to win, you almost won. So you have to get better at throwing these kind of contests, please. I tried to really scrap it with the old double lock. You guys were in on that at the time. And we look forward to next season when Wes will be with us for the full season, and he could be in it to the very end. So that's settled. Now the biggest play, the biggest defensive play,

in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles, at least in the Super Bowl era. By the way, did we say that the... I said it at the very time of the show. This is Super Bowl 52 that we watched today. They never won the Super Bowl before. What a momentous moment for Philadelphia Sports. I hope that city is going to be okay

because it's going to be crazy. It's not looking like it so far, but yeah. So everyone thinks, everyone in their brother and their sister thinks Brady's going to take the ball, down five, score the game-winning touchdown. But that is not what happens because the Eagles defense, and specifically that pass rush, which is so praised throughout the season,

and rightfully so, and then disappeared for 55 minutes, showed up when it mattered most deep in Patriot's territory. Brady surveys the defense and takes the snap. Tom stands in. He loads up. He's hit. The ball's out. The ball's out.

Philadelphia has it. Burnett comes away with a fumble. Tom Brady was hit from his right. Sure. Stunning. stunning because everyone thought Brady was going to go down the field and instead all of a sudden the Eagles have the ball back and they are now in the driver's seat for the Super Bowl. I mean, Eagles fans, Patriots fans, writers, the whole stadium knows that Tom Brady's the two-minute

master, that that's what he's built his career on is making a science out of the two-minute drill and he didn't get a chance to lead it down the field. It threw very little fault of his own. He couldn't have possibly seen Brandon Graham coming on that play. Yeah, it came pretty quick. he would have, I'm sure he would, you know, wish that he could have reacted a little quicker. He had such great protection all day that was just a normal four-man rush, and sometimes it comes down to just one play. It's like, okay, you had a bad defensive game, but Brandon Graham beat

Shaq Mason on that play. Shaq Mason, maybe the best, you know, guard on the Patriots. Graham rushing from the inside, maybe the best pure pass rusher on the Eagles. He won that play, and that's, like, I'm happy for Graham, just getting to know him very little over the last few weeks, a really likable guy on the team that I think everyone really loves, and for him to have that moment's pretty special. Well, he was downstairs, and his little baby, or actually like a three or four year old

little cute little girl was singing her little version of Fly Eagles Fly, and he was trying to answer questions about that play over and over, and what he did pound home was that they sought wherever they could one-on-one matchups, and that's exactly what happened. If we kept getting one-on-one matches, we're going to finally

take Brady down at some point. They just never lost faith that it would happen, and it happened at the most critical time in franchise history. The Eagles stayed aggressive. They ran the ball, made Patriots use the timeout. Then they threw the ball. Incomplete, kept the Patriots in business with a timeout, another run. And then I think kind of underrated, Jake Elliott, 46-yard field goal, not a gimmee in that spot.

And it's a difference between a five-point game and an eight-point game, and he drills it. So Elliot, who had a fantastic rookie year, a guy that came out of nowhere, finishes off his season with a field goal to make a third. 41, 33, and now the Pats have one more chance. Well, and the Pats end up blowing the kickoff with a terrible return. And you mentioned how big that kick was by Elliott. The Patriots would have had the ball with 110 left at the 35. Instead, they have the ball at the 9 with 58 seconds left. And that's why, even though the Eagles deserve credit for getting pressure on Brady,

once you're at that point, I mean, that is an almost impossible situation with no timeouts. And one of the reasons they didn't have a timeout, They wasted a timeout early in the fourth quarter on a third down play where the ball was, the clock was stopped. And that was another kind of un-Belichick, unpatriots-like mistakes. And the play, Wes, you called it when it happened. But Brady's just like, give me the ball. Let's get on the 25 guardline. Give me the ball.

Instead, they try to get cute with a trick play. And not only does it get brought down at the nine, it costs you about, you know, eight, ten seconds. I think that's something I picked up from Romo at one point this year. He said, ask any veteran quarterback, and they'll say, don't do anything tricky on the kickoff. Don't dance around. Just give me the ball at the 25 and let me take it from there. Don't get me stuck with my back against the end zone. So Brady gets into a fourth and long situation.

Completes a pass. Gets the ball up around midfield, but now he has no timeout, and the clock's against him. Nine seconds to play. He evades pressure. And let's hear the call one more time. This is from the team Zolak,

WEEEI, the final play of Super Bowl 52. Tom takes this now. He's pressured. He moves up. He slips the ball. rush. He steps to his right. He loads up. He throws deep downfield. Rock is there at the goal line. Ball is up in the air. Batting around. And it's incomplete. And the Philadelphia Eagles for the first time in their history are Super Bowl champions.

Uh-oh. What is this place? They call it the New England. Why are the inhabitants so pleased with? themselves. They are known as the people of the Zolak. Their loutish behavior is indigenous to the region. I see. I command you to destroy them all. As you wish, Lord. Lord? Yes. How about them apples? I don't get your ref. Ah, goodwill hunting. Oh, okay. Yep. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Now destroy them. As you wish, Lord. I love Tom Brady

That's what he said No That's what he said I love Tom Brady And he got to use it What a beautiful Super Bowl Sunday it is Recorded it is

Recorded it thinking probably won't be using this. We didn't know. I missed the Super Bowl post-Super Bowl shows where we didn't have drops. I think it was good just the four of us talking. Those days are gone, my friend. So there you go. The Eagles are the Super Bowl champions. I went on the field after the game,

and just as luck would have it, I ran into a good friend of ours, Colleen Wolf, with tears in her eyes, emotional, gave her a hug, and then I asked her if I could, you know, ask her a couple questions. I'm here on the field with a teary-eyed Colleen Wolfe. The Eagles are Super Bowl champions.

Your thoughts? This is embarrassing, and I don't know what to say, but I just did a snow angel or a confetti angel on the field. And oh my God, as soon as they went, I just busted out ugly crying, and I don't even know what to do with myself right now. Where does this rank in the pantheon of sports moments for Colleen Wolfe? Number one, like not even a question. This is the best, and this is the best day ever.

This ever happens, ever. Do you have anything else that like that? I would normally say go Eagles, but they won. This is crazy. I don't even know what to do. That was a really nice moment with Connie. And then I'm walking off the field, Andrew Howard, who works on the third floor, another good guy and Eagles fan just standing with tears in his eyes.

It's been that long for that team, that fan base. It's ridiculous. I mean, and Eagles fans, some Eagles fans maybe aren't sweetheart. but the ones that we know, especially in our company, good people that never got this moment, so you can see how it affects them. There is John Gonzalez tweeted out because he was at the game with Colleen.

You know the whole rig of morale. Yeah. We don't have the sound clip. No, we don't need it. No need it. Yeah. So their friend, though, Kristen Sudden. John Ronald Gonzalez, born March 12th, 1977,

is an American sports writer, who's married Annabelle media broadcaster, Colleen Wolfe, John, who is a priest who resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two dogs. Sugden, their friend, one of Colleen's friends from Philadelphia. He tweeted out this video,

and I'm sure, She couldn't be anything more than pleased that it's out there, but she just breaks down in tears, uncontrollably. It's like when you see someone who hasn't seen their veteran husband or wife come back from Afghanistan after four years. I mean, she utterly lost it. And it's like, I totally get it. We were talking about this downstairs, Dan,

as Jets and Brown's fans or any fan of any team that's never been there, you cannot imagine the feeling. No, I can't, and I said that to Colleen. It would be amazing to just have this feeling. So I was happy for her. But it makes you think, hey, if it happens to the Eagles, Maybe the Browns one day. Sure. Why? Of course.

Why not? Why not? And that moment, listening to Colleen was one of the best moments I think we've ever had in the history of this podcast. And it's one reason, as a Patriots fan, we've had it pretty good. And I think this loss will get more annoying, I'm sure, personally, after I, like, leave and see it during the week and think about it. But Patriots have had enough. You know, I'd rather them have made it to their eighth Super Bowl and lose this one than not have made this. this game, and they got beat by a better team tonight, and the Eagles fans deserve it,

and the Eagles, this Eagles team deserved it, and they get their moment. I think the peak of sports and the peak of fandom is when they generate unbridled joy. And the Patriots weren't generating unbridled joy, like, to the extent that the Eagles winning their first Lombardi trophy would. All right, boys, before we check in with our props, a quick word from our sponsor. Oh, yeah, it's almost just from end season. You know that, guys. I'm going to do a little experiment,

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They'll just spend lots of money to help out us and our sponsors. Men, just for men. It's not... Women do not have to buy that product, according to the... Unless they buy it for their men. Well, that's true. Unfortunately, based on at least the attendance at our, you know, meetup, we could use a few more lady listeners out there. I think it was all men there.

The only females were there, and we've seen this other meetups, are the wives and girlfriends that are unmercifully dragged to the event and don't want to be there at all. We want to hear from our... I think we had one who was there of her own volition. What a sweet woman she is. All right, let's go over the props. We'll start with Chris Wessling. First, you went four and four for the game.

Patriots score a first quarter touchdown. No. Once again, they've been in eight Super Bowls now. Five wins, three defeats. They have never scored a touchdown on the first quarter. To me, it's just... Cost them, especially in this game where you needed to... I flew too close to the sun.

I should have just went with, they'll break their streak of not scoring at all in the first quarter, but I didn't think I could reel you guys in. You probably wanted to take it. It's a delicate balance. And I think it's just another example of bad coaching in New England, and maybe it's time for a change. Let's freshen things up in New England, please. Also, you had your Al Michaels or Chris Collins will use the word goat when referencing Tom Brady.

I didn't get any tweets other than jokey ones, and it didn't matter anyway because no one took you up on it. Right, that was just a complete and utter dud. All right, this one's from Mark Sess. who went four and eight. Ouch. Chris Hogan has 160 plus receiving yards. This one cost you four sandwiches. And you know what?

He came close. At a halfway point, he had over 80 yards. I think he was about 130 in the third quarter. And then he had a drop, a costly drop, on the Patriots' last drive. That probably would have put him right on the cusp or over. But it didn't work out. Tough loss. I think that, you know, I'll live with it.

It was a pretty good instinct because he only had 24 yards combined in the previous two games. And if you had just said, you know, 120, we probably would all take that. Ultimately, I lost four sandwiches. So it absolutely incorrect production. And it was unfortunate that Brandon Cook's injury, I think, made Hogan an even bigger part of the game. It didn't work out. Here is your other prop. A play in Super Bowl 52 receives a nickname and tops the helmet catch.

No, that didn't happen. It didn't happen. It cost you four more sandwiches. How about the fun bowl? A little reckless. The fumble. The Brady Fumble. Is that in Ernest Biner play?

Yeah, that's been used. I think I lost that, too. How about Philly Special? The fourth and one catch by Nick Foles. I don't think that counts. That's not getting... But that's the top of the helmet check. There's nowhere in more close.

Greg Rosenthal, a 6 and 4 record. Nice job by Greg. Because you got Nick Foles throws for over 300 yards. In fact, this was the only one anyone got right. Oh, wow. We're terrible. Dan, Mark.

About those predictions. Dan, Mark, and Wes. All took you on on that. I believed in you, Nick Bowles. I did. That's true. And if you just would have had a more logical second one, maybe you would have cleaned up. But Doug Peterson will fail on a terrible challenge, and that cost you a four sanguages.

You believed in him, too, huh? That was the donation. You really spit the bit on that one. The old Zusser went five and six. Tom Brady wins Super Bowl MVP. You got the field. Close. Only Patrick took me on that, and he gets a sandwich.

there. I mean, he did throw it for 500 yards. You know Dan's living well when he doesn't even lose sandwiches on that. And Zach Earths and Nelson Aguilar combined for at least 160 yards. I believe it was very close. I think it was in the range of 150

but I fell short, but you know what? I'm going to live with it because the Patriots lost the Super Bowl today. Not going to get too greedy. And finally, the big winner. 151 yards. Oh, very close. The big winner. Kevin Patrick finishes 6 and 2.

Dionne Lewis will have more rushing yards than Legerat Blunt and Jay Ajai. He lost two sandwiches there. And then Dan Hansis will not break news post game. I don't think I broke news as the lights go out at U.S. Bank Stadium. It's time for us to go. But I did get that exclusive with Connie Fox. But exclusive is not the same as breaking news.

I don't think anyone outside of this podcast is going to count that as news. Well, I lost a sandwich here. So I'm in the business of trying to. to get you back into the conversation that you did break news somehow. Get something going here for me, please. Yeah, he does a great job, Nick Fortier. He has this one still open, so maybe he's waiting to see how we

come down on it. So there you go. That's it. Another season, gentleman, is in the books, if you could believe it. I think this is our fifth Super Bowl show, the night of the Super Bowl. It's an honor working with you, boys. Isn't it a tradition that we do one big takeaway

from the Super Bowl? Before you guys do one big takeaway, I have a have a presentation of sorts. Okay. What do you go? So while I get this, hang on, one second. You guys went over your locks,

and we discussed before we left for the Super Bowl. Yeah. A potential trophy from the listeners that's going to be waiting for us in California, which it is. Right. But before we get that, we have one that I had specially made

just for the winner, along with the proper engraving plate. so let me get it for you guys. Wow. What is, Lindsay Fultown's got something cooking. Did you bring the saw for Mark to saw it in half? No, we resolved that one peacefully,

as everyone is now aware. Lindsay now crawling under a table, keeps her balance, very impressive work. But now she's throwing a chair. A box is being opened, and out comes. Look at this.

Oh, a gorgeous. Whoa. Around the NFL. No. That is they gave it the mark. Oh. Oh, wow. Okay.

And for the listeners, it is a gorgeous trophy. Mark, I'll let you hold on to it for now. This is beautiful. And maybe we'll take a photo with it. But a lock trophy that celebrates our first ever full season, not the most successful season in terms of success, but it was fun, as it always is on this podcast. Might be feeling differently about that tie thing.

This looks very good right here with my name, It looks sexy. That's one of the better-looking trophies I've seen. It's really nice job, Lindsay, and whoever else was part of that. Thank you. So there you go. All right. I don't know.

Do we have time? Why don't we save our takeaways, Wes? Let me just throw in one real quick. Here's what I've learned. The Patriots have taught us in their eight Super Bowl appearances. Same thing the Eagles taught us this year. NFL comes down to a few key plays in almost every single game. The key is to get there.

The Eagles could have lost in the opening. round of the playoffs against or on the second round on holio jones's play yeah legacies in new england are defined by a few plays in all of these games the important thing is to get there eight times and that's how you build your legacy but this is another one that came down to just a few plays and that's how you win in the NFL it's how they got the top they got the buy i mean that that's why carson wents is such a big part of it i mean they put themselves in position i don't know if nick foals going to win three games on the road in the playoffs but he won these two and And then he just scorched the Patriots.

Just get there. Who knows what will happen? All right. Greg, still has not processed what happened today. I'm looking forward to your tape study when it really sets in. I'm definitely not doing any tape study. We are now going to go back and have one, maybe a couple more drinks of Fridays, if they'll have us. And then we're going to get on a plane and get out of town.

It has been great. All the people that we met, the listeners, here, in Minneapolis, great people, friendly people, Mark, Minnesota nice, even. Yeah, I was mocked for suggesting that on the last show, and I'm sticking to it. I think they're mostly very kind from what I can see. We all agree with you on that. No, I was openly mocked. It was a bit of a showy moment by you.

It was, and it didn't exactly, it seemed a little bit fake on my part, so you're right. But, no, everyone was really nice here, and we enjoyed it a lot, and enjoyed the stadium. This is a great facility. But that's it. That's the 2017 season, if you'd believe. and another one in the books for the Around the NFL podcast. So until later this week when we, Mark, the offseason begins. Now it's you in Mexico with your legs up and the big old daquiry.

It's coming. We're officially past midway of the season. Would you agree, Mark? Okay, yeah, I think we've crossed that midway threshold at this point. All right, let's get out of here. We've done enough time here at the U.S. Bank Stadium, and that's it. Dan Hansa signing off for the Quiet Storm, co-champion. of the lock trophy uh the mailman uh the old boss lindsay falton loose cannon behind the glass

till thursday This is an I-heart podcast.