Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 2/6/18.

Let's get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

[BLG Note: I want to apologize for not getting a ‘Linc’ post up yesterday. And for the general lack of coverage here on BGN. Traveling home from Minnesota has been a nightmare. Flight cancellations, a six hour overnight layover in Kalamazoo, just awful. I’m so tired and I just want to be back home. But hey, the Eagles are Super Bowl champs, how bad can things really be?]

The ultimate vindication for Howie the Creator - NBC Sports Philadelphia
You know how cool it was watching the Eagles win the Super Bowl? Now imagine you put the team together. Imagine that the team you watched on Sunday was crafted by your own two hands. Nearly every player picked by you for one reason or another. The pressure and the reward. That’s what it had to be like for Eagles vice president of football operations Howie Roseman. Once stripped of his personnel power and banished to the supply closet, Roseman returned with a vengeance, even more bold than he was before, and he put together the team that won Super Bowl LII. He drafted Carson Wentz. He traded Sam Bradford. He traded for Tim Jernigan and Jay Ajayi. He signed LeGarrette Blount and Alshon Jeffery and Chris Long and Patrick Robinson and Stefen Wisniewski. And he brought back Nick Foles. He helped hire Doug Pederson and Joe Douglas. He drafted Derek Barnett. Roseman put this team together. And then he watched it do something all the others in franchise history couldn’t.

The Philly Special is a perfect example of why Doug Pederson is a great head coach - BGN
After Doug ran The Philly Special, I couldn’t help but think back to last season’s first Eagles-Cowboys game. The Cowboys attempted a wide receiver pass in that matchup. Then, not long after, the Eagles had Josh Huff throw deep to Jordan Matthews. It didn’t work out, but I love the idea behind stealing an opponent’s trick play to use it against them. It reminds me of how Pederson isn’t afraid to call back-to-back screens, like he did in the Eagles-Falcons game. That’s part of what makes the Eagles’ offense so hard to defend. Pederson is constantly keeping his opponents guessing. He’s playing chess while other NFL head coaches play checkers. It’s such a joke he didn’t win Coach of the Year.

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie fulfills lifelong dream - NFL.com
In the aftermath of Wentz’s injury, Lurie, an eternally positive, thoughtful and genial man with a passion for social justice, heard his share of dismissive comments, one of which he relayed to his players last Friday afternoon during a surprise speech at the end of their practice at the University of Minnesota. His 10-minute talk to the team, one witness said, was “an 11 on a scale of 10” in terms of inspirational power. Yet it wasn’t Lurie’s greatest motivational feat before a Patriots game: That happened late in the 2015 season, when the Eagles, who were reeling from a three-game losing streak in what would be the last of coach Chip Kelly’s three seasons, showed up at Gillette Stadium for a road game against the heavily favored Pats -- and Lurie, in the minutes before the team took the field, went locker to locker, firing up his players by telling them just how badly he wanted to beat that opponent. The Eagles delivered, incidentally, pulling off a 35-28 upset.

’Don’t be afraid to fail’ – Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles’ perseverance came from watching his father - PhillyVoice
“The big thing is don’t be afraid to fail,” said Foles. “In our society today, with Instagram, Twitter, it’s a highlight reel. It’s all the good things. When you look at it, you think, wow, when you have a rough day you’re life isn’t as good as that, you’re failing. “Failure is a part of life – that’s the part of building character and growing. Without failure who would you be? I wouldn’t be up here if I hadn’t fallen thousands of times, made mistakes. We all are human, we all have weaknesses. I think throughout this, just being able to share that and be transparent, I know when I listen to peoples speak, and they share their weaknesses, I listen because I can resonate.”

The Goat Slayer - Iggles Blitz
Nick Foles played the game of his life against the Vikings. I just didn’t see how he could play better than that. But he did. The numbers were great, 28-43-373 with 3 TDs and an INT. You really need context to appreciate how good those numbers are. The NFC Championship was a blowout. Foles played at a high level, but there wasn’t a lot of pressure on him after the first few minutes. The Eagles fell behind 7-0, but Patrick Robinson tied the game at 7-7 with his pick-six. From then on, Foles played even or with the lead. Once the 2nd half rolled around, Foles had a big lead to work with. Playing with a lead allows the QB to relax. Every play isn’t life and death. The Super Bowl was anything but relaxing. The Eagles did get out to a 15-3 lead, but the Patriots kept punching. Eventually the Eagles trailed, 33-32. Foles looked the same late that he did early in the game. He was playing out of his mind. He looked like he was having a blast out there.

Monday Eagles Hangover: Dreams and Nightmares, 2018 - Iggles Blog
Here’s the big secret: the 2017 Eagles don’t actually care about any of our bullshit. There’s no magic. We just were blessed with a fearless team led by a fearless coach that looked the bad guys in the eye and didn’t back down -- again and again and again. They were here to win, and they weren’t afraid. And as the fourth quarter clock ticked down, and I was tensing up in the stands, convinced that this was the moment that Tom Brady would do a Tom Brady thing, Brandon Graham did a 2017 Eagles thing. And here we are. Here’s what I know after the Super Bowl: that was the best Eagles game I will ever see, and this is the best Eagles team I will ever root for. I loved the way they played, I loved the way they talked, I loved the way they danced. I loved their politics and their music and their catchphrases and their celebrations and their jokes and their t-shirts. This season was joy, and we’re smart enough to know that we don’t get seasons like this very often. I am so happy I went, and I feel so grateful I was able to do it.

How the Eagles beat the Patriots at their own game, and why the upset was historic - ESPN
To pull off their Super Bowl upset Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles out-Patriots-ed the New England Patriots. The stories we all know by heart about the Patriots are the ones we’re telling about the Eagles this morning. How they’re never out of any game, even if they’re missing a star player. How they come up with critical plays at the exact moment they need one. How they leverage a coaching advantage by taking risks the other team is afraid to take. The Eagles won a shootout Sunday night by slipping off their underdog masks and playing like they had nothing to lose.

‘A Team Makes a Miracle’: How the Underdog Eagles Became the Unlikeliest Super Bowl Champs - The MMQB
How many times have we seen this before—Brady, with the ball in his hands, with a chance to win the game? Even Pederson admitted he was thinking, “it’s too much time.” On the sidelines, he challenged the defense. They hadn’t sacked Brady all night. Maybe now was the time. “I know people were probably watching at home thinking, where’s that Philly rush,” said defensive end Chris Long. Enter Brandon Graham. He was a first-round pick in 2010 out of Michigan who had been deemed a bust early in his career; before that, he played for a high school team in Detroit whose facilities consisted of a dirt field with no bleachers or lights. “He’s been an underdog his whole life,” said Rod Oden, his high school coach at Crockett Tech who was in the stands for the game.

Corey Clement is second rookie with 100 receiving yards, TD catch in Super Bowl - PFT
The Eagles got big plays from just about every one of their skill position players on offense on Sunday night against the Patriots and running back Corey Clement had more than one of them. Clement had a 55-yard gain on one throw from Nick Foles and a 22-yard touchdown that stood up to a replay review on another one in the third quarter. “I really wasn’t too nervous, but at the same time, when they slow everything down you kind of get the bubble guts and you’re like, ‘Damn. Did I really catch it?’ I knew I secured it, it was all about the feet,” Clement said after the game. “At the same time, you have to make big plays when big plays are brought to you.” Clement had four catches for 100 yards overall and joins Torry Holt, who also caught a touchdown, and Cris Collinsworth as rookies with 100 receiving yards in a Super Bowl.

The Day After, A Wonderful Reality - PE.com
Turns out, the first full day as a Super Bowl champion is pretty remarkable, too. The Eagles found that out on travel day as they left Minnesota and returned to the new home of the Lombardi Trophy, the City of Philadelphia ...

Super Bowl LII Recap: The Eagles Were Built to Dethrone the Patriots Dynasty - The Ringer
How did Philadelphia triumph over a New England team known for dramatic Super Bowl comebacks? The best team in football simply stayed true to who it’s been. Plus, Malcolm Butler is inexplicably benched, the 2018 Hall of Fame class is announced, and more.

Refocused Super Bowl Edition: Philadelphia Eagles 41, New England Patriots 33 - PFF
Edge Brandon Graham, 89.3 overall grade — Graham made arguably the play of the game with his strip-sack on Tom Brady with a couple minutes left in regulation, which allowed the Eagles to both extend their lead to eight and burn more time off the clock. Graham led the Eagles with seven total pressures (one sack, two hits, four hurries), and it was his highest-graded pass rushing performance since Week 1 of the season.

Nashville’s Derek Barnett Wins Super Bowl with Eagles - TitansOnline
Former Brentwood Academy and University of Tennessee star Derek Barnett made an impact in Super Bowl LII, and afterward he received congratulations from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

The day after: Eagles are Super Bowl champions - The Athletic
Jason Peters had a cigar in his mouth. He grabbed a bottle of Hennessy and gathered all of the offensive linemen for a celebratory shot. They poured the liquor in Gatorade cups and toasted one another. “I appreciate, y’all,” Peters said at first, giving a fist pound to Halapoulivaati Vaitai. “Damn, that’s gonna make me throw-up,” he continued, after drinking up.

Philadelphia Eagles season in which much went wrong ends up with everything going right - PennLive
The Philadelphia Eagles knew their win over the Rams that night clinched a divisional title, the most recent notch in a long line of accomplishes for a surging team. Players were also aware, however, that the prognosis of quarterback Carson Wentz’s knee was poor. They had an inkling then of what was to come. Their MVP candidate would head to injured reserve with a torn ACL, and experts across the country would sour on Philly’s chances of making a deep postseason run. Players didn’t know how to feel. Fans panicked. Coach Doug Pederson even admitted in an interview session recently away from television cameras that Wentz’s injury left a knot in his stomach and a few stray doubts in his mind. So Jenkins, a Pro Bowl safety and team captain, added extra oomph to his postgame speech that day in Southern California. He put more feeling into his voice.

Five reasons the Eagles won the Super Bowl - Daily News
Doug Pederson outcoached Bill Belichick. Nick Foles had yet another spectacular postseason performance. Plus three other factors. -

Cris Collinsworth is now Public Enemy No. 1 in Philadelphia - New York Post
The venom that Eagles fans didn’t direct at horses, Tom Brady and their own city following the team’s Super Bowl LII victory was saved for Cris Collinsworth. The NBC color man introduced himself as Public Enemy No. 1 in Philadelphia on Sunday night, when he reacted with incredulity to a pair of Eagles touchdowns remaining touchdowns in the season of the overturned catch.

Clutch Encounters: Super Bowl LII - Football Outsiders
Right from the start this one had an offensive feel, with the Eagles converting a few third downs on a nice opening drive that ultimately ended with a field goal after a bad false start penalty in the red zone. The Eagles favored picking on cornerback Eric Rowe, who saw his share of action on a night where past Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler did not play a snap on defense. Butler was a starter all season and was deemed healthy enough to play a little on special teams, but not on defense against a team that features three solid wideouts and tight end Zach Ertz. Belichick told NBC at halftime that “I made the decisions that give us the best chance to win,” but who could possibly buy that as being the case here? Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia cited “packages” for not getting Butler involved. Butler’s post-game response was “They gave up on me,” followed by an f-bomb and the classic “It is what it is” line. Hopefully more headlines will come out about this one, but Butler’s apparent benching in the biggest game of the year for Rowe and Johnson Bademosi is one of the oddest Super Bowl stories you’ll find. The thought that Butler could not help the Patriots here is too tough of a sell, but there are some throws that are hard to defend for anyone. Foles hit one of those to Alshon Jeffery for a 34-yard touchdown with Rowe in solid coverage with 2:34 left in the first quarter.

Super Bowl 2018: Patriots had second-worst defensive day of the Bill Belichick era - Pats Pulpit
The Philadelphia Eagles scored 41 points over 10 drives against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII for an average of 4.10 points per drive, a truly outstanding mark. Only one time has been able to best that scoring rate on offense against a Bill Belichick defense, when the 2005 Indianapolis Colts posted 40 points on just 9 drives for an average of 4.44 points per drive. In fact those are the only two teams to average more than 4 points per drive on offense against the Patriots (I’m eliminating defensive and special teams scores from the equation and not including drives that end in kneeldowns).

With Eagles’ win, there are now just 12 NFL teams that have never won a Super Bowl - SB Nation
And then there were 12. Until Sunday night, the Eagles were one of 13 NFL teams that had never won a Super Bowl. That all changed with Philly’s improbable win over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII. That should give hope to fans of the other 12 teams still waiting for a Lombardi Trophy. Philadelphia had been to two Super Bowls before this season. They lost to the Raiders, 27-10, in Super Bowl XV following the 1980 season. Their other loss came to none other than the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX 13 years ago. New England won, 24-21.

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