The Eagles and their fan base are feeding big off their "underdog" mantra, and the oddsmakers are serving extra helpings, immediately installing the Patriots as uncommonly big favorites to win Super Bowl 52.
So the Eagles haven't had to manufacture a “nobody believes in us" theme as most teams do. They earned this.
And they’ve earned the belief that they can pull it off one more time. Yes, against the defending champion, dynasty-growing, Lombardi-collecting Patriots, just like with the Falcons and Vikings before them.
SUPER BOWL 52: Pick against spread for Eagles vs. Patriots
The Eagles likely don’t want to hear that they might be the better team, better equipped to do what the rest of the NFL — specifically the Jaguars on Sunday — has not done.
In fact, the rest of the league might not want to hear that the Vikings would have given the Patriots as tough a fight as the Eagles will. Both bring more to the table than the Jaguars, who have deficiencies the NFC finalists do not.
It doesn't seem conceivable that any defense can keep Tom Brady in check all 60 minutes if the Jaguars couldn't. But the Eagles can.
Brady, of course, makes plays and makes decisions that Matt Ryan and Case Keenum couldn’t make on their best days … but the Falcons and Vikings, respectively, got as far as they did by protecting their quarterbacks and giving them chances to be great, and the Eagles disrupted both badly. They held them to a combined 17 points, hit each one with a soul-sucking goal-line stand, and on Sunday turned the Vikings over three times, taking it from Keenum twice (and shifting momentum permanently their way on the first-quarter Patrick Robinson game-tying pick-six).
Yes, the Falcons did think they had the Brady formula in last year’s Super Bowl (including a tremendous pass rush and a seemingly back-breaking pick-six). Brady routinely makes fools of teams that think they have him cornered.
The Eagles’ offense, though, is going to give the Patriots headaches the Jaguars didn't provide. Nick Foles and that offense won’t take themselves out of the game the way the Jaguars did, and Doug Pederson, Frank Reich and the coaching staff won’t let them.
They won't coach to not lose, as Doug Marrone and Co. did, and they won't coach while looking over their shoulders at Brady, wondering what they had to do to keep him at arm’s length.
The Eagles have a great chance to have a lead in the fourth quarter — as the Jaguars did last Sunday, the Falcons did last year and the Seahawks did three years ago. When they do, if they're smart, they’ll keep their foot on the Patriots' throat, the way they did against the Vikings and the top-ranked defense in the league.
Foles, of course, has defied expectations in filling in for Carson Wentz. But beneath that is a truth not enough people were willing to acknowledge: The Eagles are deeper and more dangerous in more places than anyone else. Foles has great teammates, great weapons and great coaches around him.
SUPER BOWL 52: Odds for Eagles vs. Patriots
The Eagles are great enough to not be such big underdogs against the Patriots. They’re great enough to beat them, keep that trophy collection in Foxborough at five, and finally start one of their own.
They're great enough to etch into the history books, “Nick Foles beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl.”
Super Bowl 52 prediction: Eagles 26, Patriots 24
