Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 454: Dark Horse Battle
In previous years, when one team performed a miracle, it was enough to shock the entire league.

This year, both teams staged a fairy tale and overturned everything as dark horses. It is no wonder that the NFL is in chaos inside and out.

but.

Let’s be honest, how did the Philadelphia Eagles achieve self-redemption?

As the season started, all eyes were on second-year quarterback Wentz, who was even far ahead in the odds for regular season MVP. It is conceivable that when Wentz was ruled out for the season, especially at a critical juncture approaching the playoffs, the enthusiasm of the Philadelphia Eagles froze into ice in an instant.

However, in desperate situations, the Philadelphia Eagles stood firm, demonstrated the strengths of a mature team, and relied on two weapons to complete the reversal.

First, backup quarterback Nick Foles is a surprise player.

This quarterback, who was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 2012th pick in the third round of the draft, has always had a mediocre career without any outstanding performances. He is generally considered to be a qualified backup quarterback, and that's all.

In the third year of his rookie contract, the Philadelphia Eagles chose to trade him to the St. Louis Rams, after which Foles began his wandering career. After being laid off by the Kansas City Chiefs at the end of last season, Foles returned to the Philadelphia Eagles as Wentz's backup, completely under Wentz's shadow.

After Wentz tore his ACL and was ruled out for the season, Foles showed his adaptability by quickly adapting to Peterson's tactical system. He was given the task of playing the role of firefighter in the last three games of the regular season, playing steadily and ending the season with two wins and one loss for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Moreover, amidst the doubts, they staged a drama that turned out to be unexpected in the playoffs, perfectly replicating the wonderful performance of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Flacco in the 2012 season, and directly beat the confident Minnesota Vikings defense in the NFC Final.

The Philadelphia Eagles swept their opponents, won the NFC championship, and advanced to the Super Bowl.

This feeling and this scene could not help but awaken the memory of the entire alliance that had been dormant for eighteen years.

In the 1999 season, a player named Kurt Warner went from being an undrafted player to an NFL starter at the age of due to an injury. However, in his first starting season as the St. Louis Rams quarterback, he won the regular season MVP, Super Bowl MVP and the Super Bowl championship.

To this day, Warner is still the most legendary Cinderella player in NFL history; at the same time, Warner is also the last NFL player to win both the regular season MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season.

Previously, everyone said that Minnesota Vikings backup quarterback Keenum was writing the Cinderella fairy tale and was expected to inherit Warner's mantle; but who knew that, in a turn, people realized that the real successor to Warner should be Fowles.

Sure enough, in the world of competitive sports, there is never a shortage of miracles.

then.

Foles, an abandoned player who returned to the Philadelphia Eagles after being cut by the Kansas City Chiefs, is now about to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to face the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl final, which is another topic that people talk about with relish.

Obviously, it will be interesting to see how Foles performs when facing the Kansas City Chiefs again.

Second, the defense is a stable metronome. The defense is ignored, forgotten, underestimated, and despised, but it always plays the role of a superhero to save the day at critical moments. After Wentz was ruled out for the season, they stepped up to take over the game, ensuring that the offense could move forward without any worries, leading the Philadelphia Eagles all the way to the Super Bowl final.

In the 2017 season, when people talk about the rise of the Philadelphia Eagles, their attention is often focused on offense.

Peterson's dazzling and neat on-the-spot offensive tactical layout and the overall transformation and growth of second-year quarterback Wentz swept away the haze, injected new vitality into the team, and showed a completely different look.

but.

Real professionals know that, like the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, their smooth and aggressive offense is indeed eye-catching from the field; but from the data, the real hero who helped the two teams enter the Super Bowl is the defense.

As mentioned before, when people discuss the defensive powerhouses this season, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Minnesota Vikings are at the forefront. Coupled with a star-studded Pittsburgh Steelers, the Philadelphia Eagles have largely been kept in the dark, playing the pig and eating the tiger all the way.

This season, there are only four teams in the league whose defense has lost less than 5,000 total yards:
Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Pittsburgh Steelers, and… Philadelphia Eagles.

In the team's overall defensive ranking, the Philadelphia Eagles ranked fourth in the league, even better than the sixth-ranked Pittsburgh Steelers. Although their pass defense ranked tenth, their ground defense ranked second in the league.

Additionally, the Philadelphia Eagles' red zone defense ranks fourth in the league.

In other words, this team can often show strength and tenacity in the confrontation between strong opponents at critical moments. This is the fundamental reason why the Philadelphia Eagles still marched into the Super Bowl after Wentz was reimbursed for the season.

In the upcoming Super Bowl showdown, the Philadelphia Eagles' ground defense and the Kansas City Chiefs' ground offense will inevitably engage in a tit-for-tat clash. There is no doubt that this will be a highlight.

In the second week of the regular season, the Philadelphia Eagles underestimated Levi's ability and failed to effectively limit Levi's ground running; at the same time, Peterson insisted on focusing on passing offense and almost completely abandoned the ground offense. As a result, the Philadelphia Eagles finally ruined a good game.

In this reunion, it is obvious that the Philadelphia Eagles will not make the same mistake again. How will Peterson arrange the offensive tactics to make up for the shortcomings of Wentz's absence and hide the truth from Reid? How will he arrange the defensive tactics to limit Reid's offensive strategy, especially Levi's performance this season?
At the same time, the Kansas City Chiefs should not rely on their old reputation. How Reid avoids the mistakes of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC finals to limit Peterson's offense, and how he breaks the stability of Peterson's defense through varied offensive tactics will be a key matchup.

Precisely because of the familiarity and even the certain degree of similarity in their playing styles, the on-the-spot performance of the two teams will determine the outcome of the game.

As mentioned earlier, it can be seen from the Pro Bowl and All-American First Team/Second Team rosters that neither the Kansas City Chiefs nor the Philadelphia Eagles relied on star strategies to win. They could not have come this far without the strength of the entire team. Even the players who performed well relied on the overall outstanding performance of the team, which further highlights the unique charm of the sport of rugby.

From different perspectives and to different degrees, both teams are dark horses. They were not on the championship team before the season opened, but they still made it to the Super Bowl stage.

Who will be able to go all the way will be the ultimate suspense of the 2017 season.

(End of this chapter)