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The Philadelphia Eagles punched their ticket to the Super Bowl after a dominant 38-7 win against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday evening.
Eagles Show Off Defensive Prowess
For the second straight week, the Eagles defense shut down their opponent. After holding the Falcons to just 10 points last week, Philadelphia held a hot Vikings team to just 7 points. They forced three turnovers, one of which was an interception that was returned 50 yards for a touchdown by Patrick Robinson. The Eagles made timely plays to shut down Minnesota any time the Vikings had momentum. Philly did not allow a score in the red zone, forcing Minnesota to go 0-3 on red zone attempts. Two of those drives resulted in live-ball turnovers and the third was a turnover on downs.
P-Roblematic throw.#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/9JZhjDCSDb
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 22, 2018
Vikings Go Cold
On the opening drive of the NFC championship, Minnesota quarterback Case Keenum marched the Vikings offense down the field with little resistance and threw a 25 yard touchdown to Kyle Rudolph with 10:14 left in the first quarter to give them a 7-0 lead. The game quickly went downhill after that, and the Vikings didn’t score for the final 56 minutes and 14 seconds of the game. The following Minnesota drive resulted in a pick-6 from Keenum that gave the Eagles all the momentum they needed. Keenum had two more turnovers on the day and struggled against the elite Eagles’ defense. He finished the game with 271 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions, and 1 fumble lost.
Keenum said, “A lot of things went wrong” for the Vikings.
Foles On Fire
Ever since Nick Foles took over for the injured Carson Wentz, Foles’ performance has been hard to predict week to week. Sometimes he looks like a mediocre quarterback, but other times he looks like he could be an elite QB. In the biggest game of his career and against a top-ranked defense, Foles put up a fantastic performance. The 6th year journeyman completed 26 of 33 passes for 352 yards and 3 touchdowns. Foles was efficient, careful with the ball, and made big plays for the Eagles all game.
9-30-9-82.#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/9pLkmiJ5st
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 22, 2018
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson said that Nick Foles “has been everything we knew he was.”
Super Bowl Bound
The Philadelphia Eagles are on their way to the Super Bowl to face the New England Patriots, the same team they played in their last Super Bowl appearance in 2005. The Eagles will be looking for their first ever Super Bowl victory when they take on the Patriots on February 4th at 6:30 p.m. ET.
