Super Bowl Preview with Greg Cosell

It's Super Bowl week! Greg Cosell and the guys go all in on the big game, including the Patriots ability to exploit the Eagles defense (15:10), how Jim Schwartz will pressure Tom Brady (19:50), and New England’s chances of containing Philly’s run-pass option (33:10). Finally, they argue Danny Amendola’s merits as one of the most clutch receivers in postseason history (21:30) and share stories about Doug Pederson’s time as a backup quarterback in Philadelphia (47:59). 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the NFL Films Podcast. There it is, PAULI.
Music can only mean one thing, the Lombardi theme. Today
we discuss Super Bowl fifty two. We're here, folks, the
culmination of the season. This is the song you'll hear

(00:22):
when the trophy gets carried out. But before that happens,
they need to play the game, and that's what we're
gonna discuss. We're here with NFL Films Guru Greg Cosell.
They will reflect them the championship games. We'll look forward
the Eagles Patriots ready cause I'm ready. Welcome back, Greg
to the NFL Films Podcast. Thanks again for joining us.

(00:43):
It's good to be with you guys. You know I
was thinking up, Paul. Somebody asked me this today. How
many years in a row now I've been to a
Super Bowl? And I think it's been I've been to
everyone since. So this is straight. Two would have been
the uh Wills Atlanta by Chance Rose Bowl season. Yeah, yeah,

(01:10):
I think that was because one is the the first
Minnesota Super correct, right? Right? So you weren't at that
the first Minnesota I was not. I was not. I
know where we need to start. See this is an
important did you guys. Notice this week the AP oh yeah,
it's yes, ahead, go ahead, released a change and how

(01:34):
they would like to name super Bowls. I don't know
where the AP gets off deciding that how they're gonna
just all of a sudden, we're gonna describe super Bowls differently.
So now the preferred nomenclature on the AP style guide
is to describe super Bowl fifty two, not to call
it super Bowl fifty two, but the eighteen super Bowl.

(01:58):
That doesn't work, which it's doubly it's problematic on multiple levels.
But we don't need to discuss that. No, yes we do.
I'm not done here. The number one, it's not season,
which is a huge issue. This is season. Is he
going to jump into the Steelers here? Do you think
we'll see? We'll go ahead and let him go. Let

(02:19):
it ride right on this one. I'm right on this
one second. Of all, it's super Bowl fifty two, and
any sports fan, every football fan, knows it's super Bowls
by the numbers of It's part of the whole fun
of the It's the kitchy, ridiculous fun of the Super
Bowl is that each one gets a number. I have
to say, he's so right that it's not even worth

(02:39):
talking about anymore because I think there's a consensus in
the room, right. I mean, I don't know, great, it
doesn't I can read language, I I I. All I
know is I prefer the five and the two and
not the Roman numeral because that's I'll give you the
numbers if you want to lose the Roman numerals. Although
are these are the styles are in New York? Might not,

(03:02):
might not agree, Jamie Weston and and our friends at
NFL Marketing. But in terms of eighteen super Bowl, get
out of here, a p get out of here. Ridiculous, sin,
it's just wrong, sin yea. This decision yes to direct

(03:22):
is anger towards something. I'm not angry. You're angry, all right,
let's jump into this game. Well, do you want to
jump in and jump back? Do we want to talk
about the championship games? They were They were interesting for
different reasons? Is that I think? Well, I think there

(03:42):
are a few leftover questions. But by the time people
listen to this, you know, we're recording this about a
week out of the super Bowl, So so if you're
listening to this, it's a few days before the super Bowl.
Are you there. You know, all right, so there's a
couple left over things, maybe like let's let's give it

(04:02):
a shot and see if it's worth it. I got
one go ahead. What the hell happened in Minnesota? You know,
it was a fascinating game because the score made it
seem as if they played really poorly. But what I
found interesting is late in the second quarter, Minnesota is
driving with its second long drive of the first half

(04:25):
in a fourteen seven game. Okay, and it was third down,
and let's say they score a touchdown, then we're fourteen fourteen.
Let's say they kick a field goal and we're fourteen ten,
and maybe we just have a tight ballgame. And and
then you get that one play which I thought was
the key play in the game, the Derek Barnett sack
fumble recovered by the Eagles, and then the Eagles ended

(04:47):
up scoring ten more points in the last three minutes,
and that changed the game totally. You know, it's funny
and and as you guys know, and it's probably why
we're having this conversation. I think in terms of xs
and os and what struck me on that play and
everybody ripped the protection concept of the Vikings because they
had the tight end Morgan work across the formation to

(05:09):
try to block a defensive end. And one of the
first things I thought of was on third down, the
Eagles bring Graham inside Brandon Graham, so you have Brandon
Graham and Fletcher Cox inside and if you block it
kind of conventionally, normally you end up with a guard
matched one on one on one of those guys, and

(05:29):
that's usually a matchup that favors the Eagles. So I
was thinking by doing what they did, which is called
a full slide, they slid their line to the right,
that takes care of the one on one matchups. But
by doing that, you then have to work your tight
end back or have someone blocked the defensive end. And
they got caught. And but I think that that play,

(05:50):
to me, was the play that changed everything about that game.
That was actually kind of a tight, hard fought game
up to that point. I agree. I remember thinking they're
driving down the field, they had already had the pick
six when that fumble happened, I thought, well, now Minnesota's
in trouble, because in a game like that, it seems
you can recover from maybe that pick six again to

(06:10):
your point you go down the field and you scoring
up and the quick turnover after the long drive diminished
any momentum Minnesota. Yes, totally changed. It's again and this
is good. Let's spin forward. Because we talked about Fletcher
Cox last week, you're talking about this play on the
defensive line. Chris Long to me is one of the
fascinating characters who I think has had an amazing, interesting
season and is gonna probably become one of the stars

(06:33):
of Super Bowl Week, probably for the second straight year,
being that he was with the Patriots and everything that's
gone on this year with him both on and off
the field. Tell me about Chris Long and the Eagles
front four in this matchup against this Patriots offense. I
actually think the Eagles fronts better than the Jaguars front
and I think that, you know, Chris Long is part
of that. It's a rotational front. Long as a defensive end,

(06:56):
Derek Barnett, Vinny Curry, Brandon Graham, you know this now
come situational who plays where? But Chris Long to me
has had a much better year than I would bet
even the Eagles anticipated as a pass rusher. I think
they saw him as a really sort of stable, solid
player who could play the run really well, you know,
do your job, so to speak, maybe provide some pass

(07:20):
rush here and there. But I think he's done a
much better job as an edge pass rusher and has
been a really important part of what's maybe the best
defensive line in football. And they don't have the one
guy with eighteen sacks, and that's why some people may
not think of him that way. Okay, so we we
find ourselves in this place yet again, that a team

(07:43):
appears to have the personnel the front for to match
up with Tom Brady and the Patriots offense. So I'm
gonna ask it this way, the Patriots. This is now
the eighth Super Bowl, which is just preposter to even
say out loud. For Brady and Belichick together eight and

(08:03):
sixteen years, it's absolutely ridiculous. Nothing like it will ever happen. Again,
Let's see if we can't rank this Eagles front against
some of the others that have faced the Patriots in
the Super Bowl and given them. The Seahawks had an

(08:23):
excellent with Avriel and Michael Bennett in the gang. We
know the Giants, that was the strength of their team
in two thousand seven with Stray hand and Tuck and
and everybody else. And eleven they still had a good
front four um the earlier Eagles of oh four. You know,

(08:44):
I don't remember, uh specifically. It was also a different
Patriots team, right, a little bit of a different Yeah.
So yeah, I mean the Patriots hadn't made the turn
to really that Brady's team yet in the strict sense.
So so we can kind of rule out those first three. Yeah,
it's really the last five Super Bowls that we're talking about. Seven, eleven, sixteen,

(09:11):
and seventeen. I noticed the years I'm using or not,
And I know what you're ultimately, I know what you're
ultimately asking cause. And it's a hard thing to answer
because there's individual plays very often that impact games obviously.
I mean people look, for instance, at this last game
with the Patriots at the Mundola twenty, when you are
are on third and eighteen, and there was a case

(09:32):
where the Jaguars do what they basically do. They rushed
for and they predominantly predominantly play zone behind it. So
they rushed for and they played quarters coverage of z
own concept. They didn't get anywhere near Brady. No, they
got and that was and that was a deep drop
to that wasn't a quick game throw because the ball
had to go beyond eighteen yards. He could have he

(09:54):
could have stood back there for five more seconds, right,
So you know, here you're talking about a situation play
that it's third and eighteen. If you're a Jaguars fan,
given the way their defense has played all the year,
you're probably feeling pretty good before that play that it's
third and eighteen, We've got the lead and they're not
going to get a first down, and yet you get
no pass rush whatsoever. And a Mendola runs a dig

(10:18):
route and just sits right in front of one of
the safeties and it was actually just a pitch and
catch completion. It was really not a hard throw. No,
well it was still it was a good throw. No, no,
I'm not, but I mean, it wasn't a throw that
he had to put into a tight window or I
mean a Mandola was open. And now going back, now,
is there a case where maybe at by that point

(10:38):
in the game, the Jacksonville pass rush was tired, you know,
and that's always hard to know. Much of the game,
the Jaguars controlled the ball, so the Patriots through three
quarters did not run many offensive plays. In fact, I
remember looking at one point, and it might have been
near the end of the third quarter, they'd only run
something like thirty nine plays at the time of possession.

(10:58):
I remember they showed the affected with you the third quarter.
It was definitely tilted towards Jackson. That's not a tired front,
it's just one that was getting it was one that
was getting blocked. And you have to give the Patriots
o line a ton of credit. So that's why I
say it's so hard to answer that question. Is is
the Eagles defensive line, as we sit here abstractly and
try to break down the game better than the Patriots

(11:20):
offensive line. It is, But that doesn't mean in certain
situations they're not going to get blocked. We don't know that.
Or maybe in certain situations they win and they sack
Brady or they cause a bad throw. It's you get
into it probably sounds like Bill Belichick, your situational football,
those critical moments and those critical down and distances that

(11:41):
that determine the outcomes of games. You said, it's funny
you say you got to give the Patriots offensive line credit.
That's something no one ever does. You never know, ever
talks about the Patriots offensive line, which was not great
the scene. Brady got beat up more and he has
in recent years. That is correct. All of a sudden

(12:02):
they get to the playoffs, low and behold, and just
shows you the way Belichick thinks. Because I think of
it this way, the last six seven weeks of the
regular season, the Patriots had kind of morphed into a
team that ran the ball a lot and ran it well.
Dion Lewis had a couple of games with more than
twenty carries. He'd become almost like a feature back. I

(12:23):
think he ended up the season with almost nine yards rushing.
Then you get to the two playoff games, certainly against Tennessee,
and they don't even attempt to run the ball. That
was my choice. There was no commitment to running. They
didn't even do that much of it against Jacksonville. So
you get to the playoffs and what their m O
had been for the final six seven games of the
regular season suddenly was no longer their m O. That

(12:46):
it isn't how well did the Jags tackled Dion Lewis,
by the way, and they were flying around, goodness, he
could I've never seen Dion Lewis tackled like that. That
defense really is fast, and it's a very fast defense.
But you know, and again, one of of things that
the Patriots do exceptionally well, and I've stated this before,
I think they do it better than any team in
the league, is they line up in base personnel with

(13:09):
a fullback on the field James Devlon. So they have
a back, a fullback, a tight end, and two wide
receivers base personnel. And they are as multiple or more
multiple with their formations out of that personnel package than
any team in the league. And you saw that. I've
seen it all year. But there's numerous examples of that.

(13:32):
One was just the second player this a f C
Championship game when he hit Cooks for thirty one yards
on a seam ball. It was twenty one personnel. He
had Cooks in the slot to the short side of
the field and Telvin Smith is lined up over him. Now,
Kelvin Smith is athletic, and that's great, but normally teams
play zone in that situation, and Kelvin Smith was his

(13:52):
own player and Cooks ran right by them. So let
me understand is that what you're saying is they the
net result is a great level of the set and
the fact that they can run so many things out
of the same personnel groups. It harder for the defense
to predict what might be coming well, because defenses predominantly
when they're in their base defensive personnel. So let's say

(14:13):
for the Eagles, it would be four down lineman, three
linebackers for defensive backs. Normally, when teams are in base
defense on first down or normal down and distance could
be second and four normal down. In distant situations, you
pretty much know what their coverage will be based on
film study, because their coverage is fairly predictable. That's why

(14:35):
a lot of people say first intent is the best
down to throw because you tend to get predictable fronts
and predictable coverages based on film study. Third and nine,
the defense ends up having the tactical advantage. They can
do so many more things, but on first and ten
or second and three, that's not the case. So what

(14:55):
is this Eagles defense that you've been You've been very
complimentary the Eagles defense so far today, if you're playing Patriots,
if you're Josh McDaniels right now, what is the weakness
that you see in that Patriots defense, you're gonna charge
I'm sorry, the Eagles defense, excuse me that you're gonna
try and exploit. Well, you know, I think that the

(15:15):
Eagles are predominantly high percentage, single high safety, so they'll
play a lot more zone in normal down and distance,
which means it's covered three. Okay, the Cook's play I
described a moment ago came against cover three with Jacksonville.
So that's what they'll play, so their voids. So that's
where the Patriots are so good with their route design,

(15:37):
route concepts, uh, to break down zone coverage. They are
really really good at it. One of the best teams
in the league. Uh. And that's where pressure comes to
bear because ultimately, and and not to bring back band
memories for cause with the Steelers, but ultimately, if you're
gonna play zone, there has to be some pressure because

(16:00):
in the quarterback because zone, ultimately, no zone is really
built to defend beyond what we would call five step
drop timing. If you get to here's the way it works,
and I think this is really clear. Three step drop timing.
The ball is out in one point five seconds. Okay,
five step top drop timing, the balls out in two

(16:22):
point one seconds. That's what zones are built for. If
you get to seven step drop timing, which is two
point six two point seven seconds before the quarterback will
release the ball, zones are not really built for that
because there's voids in every zone. Otherwise everybody would play
the same zone. So if you get beyond five step

(16:43):
drop timing, beyond you know, you get to two and
a half seconds, three seconds, the advantage goes to the
quarterback and the offense. And when you have a quarterback
like Brady, you know what he's gonna find receivers. Receivers
in voids Amendola time, because that's what I'm here. If
you're the Patriots, well it's anybody. I mean, it's not

(17:04):
just a Mendola, it's however they choose to attack with
their route concepts. But you need to speed up if
you're playing zone predominantly. And I'm not saying the Eagles will.
I think they will on first down. I'm not sure
what they'll do when it gets to you know, second
a long or third and long or situationally, but you
know you need to speed up, Brady. So all right,

(17:26):
so two things just for for for us lay people.
I want to unpack there since since we may be
looking at at at a good deal of cover three
in this game. Very quickly, what is cover three? Cover
three is where you play with your two corners and
a single high safety, as they each are responsible for

(17:48):
a third of the field. Now, the deep safety is
responsible for the deep third, the corners are responsible for
the entire third short intermediate deep. So normally when the
Eagles play cover three, their corners play with a cushion. See,
it'll be very interesting to me to see if early
in the game that the Patriots attacked throwing quick hitch hitches,

(18:12):
because the Eagles will give up some of that, and
and then and then you're gonna get into potential double moves,
which the Eagles have struggled with at times. Both Jalen
Mills and Ronald dark I wanted to bring that up
at some point. They've been susceptible to the double half.
How come we didn't see that in their too postseason
games at all? Today they try its teams, Uh was

(18:34):
in Minnesota, Atlanta tried to No, Atlanta tried it, I
remember specifically Atlanta tried it in the second half with
Mohammed Sanu on Jalen Mills and Mills did not bite,
and Mills have been beaten in the last couple of
weeks of the regular Darby as well. So the thing
is the Eagles when they play Cover three, they play
with their corners with a cushion, meaning off coverage. Their

(18:56):
corners are not up close to the receiver, so very
off and what you try to do is you try
you throw balls in front of them for completions. And
that's why I mentioned the hitch which the Patriots. We've
seen many games over the years where Baby just seems
like he's you know, he just drops back and keeps
throwing hitches and hitches and hitches, and every play game
six yards and you know it's a good game. So

(19:18):
we'll see. But I think you know, the Eagles tend
to play off coverage with their corners, and I was
gonna say, if you give Brady six yards, he'll do
it straight exactly. So he has more patients than any
quarterback in history. We've seen it. We've seen it in
Super Bowls, we've seen it in championship games, and he

(19:41):
will he just never gets impatient. That's his greatest strength.
I think he'll if that's what the Eagles. If the
Eagles are going to concede something, he's that he'll take
it all day. What will Jim Schwartz do to speed
him up to bring pressure? He talked about the back
end with the cover three. What will the front and
the Landers do? That a great question. I mean the
Eagles this year have been pretty basic up front. You know,

(20:05):
there's been times they stunted, but they don't do a
lot of that where they loop, you know, a rusher
behind another rusher um you know, with two weeks to prepare.
I can't answer that specifically, but you know, it's not
been a team that's been let me ask you multiple
with what they do up front? How have they brought pressure?
How they succeeded bringing pressure this season? They succeed a

(20:28):
couple of ways there when when it gets when they're
in their sub package, meaning it's not their base defense,
when they either have five or six defensive backs on
the field, that's where they tend to bring Brandon Graham inside.
That's one thing they do. So Cox and Graham are
inside as pass rushers, very difficult to block them with
one on one with a guard. The center will usually

(20:49):
help out one or the other he can't help both.
The other thing that they've done quite a bit of
this year, and I'll be anxious to see if they
do it, is they line up in what we call
a five across front, meaning they'll take a linebacker or
it's usually Nigel Bradham, and he'll he may not be
a rusher, but he starts out head up over let's
say a guard. So now you've covered up all five

(21:11):
offensive linemen, which they don't know who's coming and who's
not coming, so they have to pass set to the
player right in front of them. Very often when they
do that, they put Fletcher Cox head up on the
center because they always feel that Fletcher Cox is a
mismatch for any center in the league, and they will
feel that way in this game against David Andrews. We

(21:32):
mentioned Danny Amundola, who had a tremendous fourth quarter against
Jacksonville in the championship game, And I want to play
a clip from our wonderful show Turning Point that air
this week. It was a celebration of his performance. But
but let's listen to this for a minute, and then

(21:53):
let's discuss Tom Brady had good reason to be confident.
He still had wide out Danny m and Dola to
throw too. And his five seasons in New England, Amundola
has developed a reputation as a clutch performer in the playoffs.
Cut down Wow. Last year in Super Bowl fifty one,

(22:17):
Amundola was a key figure in the Patriots historic comeback
two for the time to step throwing an Amadol screening
up reaches across the gol lock. It's a tie, god Dola.

(22:38):
Since two thousand thirteen, Amundola has more postseason receptions than
Rob Gronkowski. Every time the playoffs come. He's always stepping
up his game. He's just Danny playoff Amundola. All right, Now,
I have nothing against Danny Amundola. The place he made
against Jacksonville were tremendous. But at the risk of criticizing

(23:03):
NFL ourselves, here we really as Danny Amendola suddenly a
playoff legend. Well, first of all, that that brings us
back to a point that I was hoping to make anyway,
and now it leads in beautifully. He caught two fourth
quarter touchdowns this week. Okay, they were both the red
zone plays. The Patriots have been in the red zone

(23:23):
more than any team in the NFL this year, and
they're obviously very good with their touchdown efficiency, But you
have to understand why they're so good. They do it
all based on past design, because obviously Brady is not
making second reaction outside of structure plays. It's not Aaron
Rodgers moving around waiting for someone to get open where

(23:44):
the defense breaks down. Those two touchdowns that Amndola caught
in the fourth quarter, I'm not saying anybody could have.
That's not my point. I'm not trying to take anything
away from Danny Amendola, but those were so just what
I was saying earlier, those were so well designed instructure.
Both times the Jaguars were playing zone coverage. The first

(24:05):
one was a great example of moving zone defenders out
of their zones or or forcing them threatening them within
their zone, and then bringing a Mendola into a void.
The second touchdown, Brady actually looked to Brandon Cooks, That's
where he wanted to make the throw. He did not
feel comfortable making that throw. And then Amundola came across

(24:28):
the back of the end zone and and it was
in Brady's vision, so he made the throw. But I mean,
the first play I think was designed for Amendola. The
second one was not. So Again, if you haven't seen
the Championship game edition of Turning Point NFL Turning Point
on NFL Network, I I strongly advised drop everything and

(24:50):
it is. It is as good a football show as
we produce, and I believe that there is on tv UM.
But I think Paully that my point has just been
proven by by Mr coast Selda. Danny Amendola made great
plays in that game, But like, play long enough in
this system, with this quarterback and this coaching staff, in

(25:12):
all of these postseason games, and yeah, eventually you're gonna
make a lot of big plays in the postseason. He's
a system. They throw the ball a lot. I mean
Dion Branch with an m v P and a Super
Bowl And I love Deon Branch. He was in our
broadcast boot camp. I spent a lot of time with him.
He's a terrific guy, you know. But I think when
a team passes a lot and has a great quarterback

(25:35):
who finds people, uh, someone has to catch the ball right,
he throws it right between your numbers? Did your job
in the back line? Play was pretty good? It wasn't good.
It was it was a really good They've run that
play before. I've seen that play before, but like again zone.
But we've watched Danny Amondla on this team for several years.

(25:57):
We watched him side by side with Julian Edelman um
who is truly terrific. I mean, I think we saw
Julian Edelman last year was an absolutely great football player
who dominated games. I don't think we've ever seen Danny
Danny Amendola perform at that level. We've not seen Danny
Amondola deliver a performance that even Brandon Cooks. Like Brandon

(26:21):
Cooks was downfield, he was somewhat, he was a big
play player all season. But in that championship game, you
had that drop, which was another great call against an
anticipated zone coverage. Without going into detail of of the zone,
it's you know wouldn't work unless you see it. But
he dropped that ball which probably would have been a touchdown. Well,
there you go, Brandon Cooks dropped the ball. That's the difference.

(26:44):
I guess I think you're You're also the the legend
of Amendola, although it didn't play out in that clip
in that game, is also a function of the punt
return with a punt. Now I know the party. He
made four two touchdowns, the punt return and the third
and eighteen. This is not to take anything away from
what was an incredible performance by a really good football player.

(27:06):
I just take issue with all of a sudden he's
gained a reputation as a clutch player and like there's
a legend that we're burnishing. It's like, dude, you play
in the championship game eight straight years, You're gonna make
some big plays and that kind of stuff doesn't mean anything.
People are just bored saying how good Tom Brady is. Kind.
I know. Look, wait, well, Greg, you while you're in

(27:28):
your room looking at tape, the rest of us here
at NFL Films are here to mythologize and burnished legends.
I've done my share of that. I've been here thirty
eight years. Yeah, I know, you know, I know, But
you know, you live in the world of facts. We
live in the world of mythology. Most of the time.
It's it's wonderful one we can intersect. But you know,

(27:48):
I think I think maybe we got a little bit
ahead of ourselves. Playoff Dola. Maybe we'll see if he
shows up this week and you have to, you might
have to eat your words on M and NB. I'd
be happy to. I hope he succeeds like he's true.
We we saw a long time around. We discovered Dani
Avendola in two thousand eight on Hard Knocks. Now we're

(28:09):
taking credit, Yeah, we discovered. I mean Belichick would have
never found him. He's like the fourth Hard Knocks star.
By the way that Belichick has picked up Chris Hogan, Hogan,
Danny Woodhead, all these guys. Was Hogan the guy with
the Dolphins and Danny Woodhead was with the Jets in
two thousand Tens got cut by Rex and immediately picked

(28:32):
up by the Patriots, and Mendola was with the O
eight Cowboys, got cut personally by Jerry Jones, which Jerry
never did. Jerry loved him. He was great, ended up
getting cut and here he is. He's made it ten
years and had a great career. Some great career, I
mean Danny Avendola, like all the Kudos in the world.
The guys had a terrific career. So what we've learned
is Belichick does his personnel work by watching Hard Knocks.

(28:55):
That's what I'm extrapoling, clearly, the case. All right, let's
talk about we talked about one side of the ball
a little more than the other. Let's flip it now,
Patriots defense. Another page. We talked about McDaniels. All talk
is that he's going to be leaving the nest, as
they say. The other coordinator, Matt Patricia, another potential head

(29:18):
coach and waiting here in a couple of weeks. And
you know where he coached early in his career, Paul,
you probably don't know this well. I know a little
bit about my Patricia, but I don't know where where
he coach at Amherst College. Do you know where he
matriculated in college? Greg, But you'll tell me, uh, God's country,
Upstate New York, Troy Renstler Polytechnically, he did coach for

(29:39):
two years at Amherst College. So is that where it
was that his first coaching Jim, you know, I don't know,
of course, it was way after I was there, but
that's where. Sure, there's a long line of Amherst assistants
who have who have become a legendary defensive coordinators and
NFL head coaches. Lombardi, right, was he at Amhurst? Okay,
West Point Lombardy. So what will Patricia do to make

(30:02):
sure he Because it's it's basically the aerospace engineer Matt
Patricia against Nick Fuels. You have to start. It's not
just Nick Foles. The Eagles have distill in it. But
you're gonna multiple a run game as there is in
the NFL, multiple as multiple a run game with different
run concepts. You know what, I'm gonna ask you to
explain what I mean a little bit. Come on. Well,

(30:24):
as in everything with football, there's concepts. That's how you start.
You start with concepts. That's how it's taught. You know,
the running game is not hey give the ball to
the back and just run around, you know. So there's
different kinds of concepts. There's zone run concepts. They're what's
called gap scheme concepts where you see the guard pull
across the formation what is often called power or counter.

(30:47):
You see outside concepts what is often called G scheme
G for guard, where the guard pulls not across the formation,
but outside the formation. There's toss sweep where you can
pull too offensive lineman, very similar to almost the Lombardi
sweep back in the day. So there's many There's something

(31:07):
called wham, which the Patriots do a lot of. Will
you bring a tight end from a wing position into
the middle of the defense and he blocks a defensive tackle.
So offensive linemen can work up to the linebacker level.
So this is multiplicity of designed and correct if I'm
not mistaken. They also have multiplicity of personnel direct alright,
So so the their their run game is exceedingly multiple,

(31:30):
and what do you envision in well in this game
exceedingly Let's let's look at what the Patriots I strenuously
object there there's strenuously multiple asked an answered, Let's um,
let's uh, let's go to what the Patriots defense is.
Just conceptually, what they're built on is front multiplicity, meaning
all different kinds of deep of looks with their deep

(31:53):
down lineman, front multiplicity and coverage consistency. They're not one
of those teams that plays, you know, eight nine different
coverage looks. There are a man based defense. Now there's
some things within man, but mostly it's a team built
on front multiplicity and coverage consistency and stability. That's the Patriots.

(32:13):
It's very much a do your job, and I know
that's a cliche, but it's but it's It's true. That's
why it became a cliche. It's very much a do
your job defense. So against this multiple running game, my senses,
they'll mix and match their fronts throughout based on Belichick's
film study. He's way smarter than I am, so I

(32:35):
can't tell you what he's gonna do, but they'll mix
their fronts a lot, they'll mix personnel a lot, and uh,
you know, based on his study, he'll have in his
mind a very good sense of what runs the Eagles
will do in given situations with given field position, and
therefore hope to defend those runs. And you've made the
point about it's more than just Nick Foles they're playing,

(32:57):
of course, but we can't overlook that. What will the
role of this quarterback and his strength or shortcomings, How
will that play into what? Again, we always say the
pages want to take something away, how will that impact
their approach. One of the things the Eagles will do,
which Jacksonville hurt the Patriots with, particularly in the first half,
is what we call r p O s run pass option,

(33:19):
and really the goal with that is to make sure
you don't have negative plays. Run pass options are not
necessarily geared you know for explosive forty yard plays. But
what do you are is you you come up the quarterback.
There's in a sense to play calls built into one.
There's a run part and a pass part. The offensive
line will block for the run. Now the quarterback will

(33:40):
decide based on the front and look. It could be
based on box count, meaning how many defensive players are
in the box, whether it's what we call a light
box or a loaded box. It could be based on
the position of one specific second level player, meaning a linebacker.
It could be based on any number of those things.
And then the quarterback decides, do I hand it off

(34:01):
because the run game is favorable based on numbers, or
do I throw the pass play. That's part of the
run pass options. So that's a fundamental of the Eagles offense. Yes,
and Jacksonville hurt the Patriots with it. All those plays
to Grant in the first half were run pass options.
Not all of them, but but most of them. We

(34:22):
have a a bite from the sideline of the NFC
Championship game that one of our cameras picked up and
I was gonna bring it in so we could listen
to it. But it's very hard to hear um, But
it's Carson Wentz sitting on the bench talking to someone
about how hard it is to play against us. I
would hate to have to play against us because we

(34:42):
do so much different things. And he's going on and
on about it, like we just and I and you
just referred to it with the exceedingly multiple running game,
is that and and I guess the r p O
s Does it extend also to the past. One of
the things the Eagles do exceptionally well, and I think
really good offenses do this is they run the same

(35:03):
concepts out of totally different personnel packages and looks, so
everything looks different and ends up being the same, which
which helps the offense because they know the concepts. The
opposite of the Patriots. The Patriots are that you said,
there's they use they're very multiple out of the same formation,
whereas you said no, no, no, I said they're very multiple,

(35:23):
same personnel. Now I said, they're they're very multiple with
their formulation. Right. So the Eagles, like the Eagles have
various concepts in the past game. One's called flood. It's
a three level stretch concept to one side of the field. Okay,
Another is dagger it's it's you know, without going into
all the details, but they have specific concepts and combinations

(35:45):
that they get to out of different personnel, different formation looks.
So you can't just look at the formation and go, oh,
they're gonna run that, you know, which surprisingly a lot
of teams do in the NFL. And you know, I
think that's one reason for instance that let's say, you know,
Sean McVeigh and Jared Goff had such a good marriage
this year. It was really well defined offensively and difficult

(36:05):
for the defense. And is Doug Peterson in game now?
Is Doug Peterson sort of the brain behind that? Is
he calling the plays as he well, he's calling the plays.
But but you know, I don't think the Eagles look
obviously they did the flee flicker last week, and they
obviously felt they had him on the ropes at that
point they wanted to try to put the game away.
They'll do some of that in this game. It might

(36:26):
not be a flee flicker, but they all have even
the week before it gets against Atlanta. I don't know
if you remember the specific play when Agila ran for
twenty one yards down to the three yard line. That
was a specific package type play that looked different than
their normal plays, but it also looked the same a
little bit if you if you study them. So they

(36:46):
do those kinds of things, but they also have clear
staples that they will run every single week, and Doug
Peterson is very aggressive. They are not going to get conservative. Well, yeah,
I was gonna say, you just said something that must
be music to the ears of Eagles fans that you
said that Peterson essentially as a killer instinct he does
and and going for that flee flicker trying to go

(37:08):
for a kill shot. That is what you need to do.
Up on the Patriots specifically how many times they will
kind of lose their nerves. Jacksonville criticized for having the
two time outs and fifty five seconds left at the
end of the first half. I don't ever seeing that
fifty five seconds to time outs and a fourth year quarterback.
You know, it's one thing if that was a rookie quarterback.

(37:29):
But anyway, that's beyond the beside the point. But but
but last year in the Super Bowl, Atlanta got up
to three famously, of course, and but they didn't get
They were criticized for not getting. Yeah, they didn't get
conservative that fumble by high Tower, which is just a
blown assignment by Freeman, which was as basic as it gets.

(37:51):
When I came back to the office after the Super
Bowl and watched that tape, that that would have been
a touchdown. Ryan was just getting ready to deliver the ball.
Aldric Robinson was wide open thirty yards down the field.
That would have been a sixty or seventy yard touchdown,
and Freeman just missed a routine block. That's right. So
and and the criticism was you should have just sat

(38:11):
on the ball and kicked the field goal and the
game was over, right, So you know, the thing is,
here's the way it works, which you know cause and
you know Paul as well. Our our response to the
game is guided by the result of the game. And
I try to you know, I'm not saying I'm as
smarter than anybody else, but I try not to look
at games that way. You know, it's easy when you
have the result to say, well, that should have happened instead,

(38:33):
That's easy. I try not to look at it like that.
But on balance, I would think, if I'm an Eagles fan,
I'm I'm I'm given confidence by the by the signs
that Doug Peterson has shown calling games and and keeping
his foot on the gap cots for whatever this means.

(38:53):
And we know that Tom Brady is always an X
factor because he's Tom Brady, but whatever, for whatever this means,
I would argue that the Eagles have an advantage with
their old line versus the Patriots D line. I would
argue the Eagles have the advantage with their D line
versus the Patriots O line. If you're just looking at town. Now.
This is separate from tactics, which are then which we've

(39:14):
discussed a bunch and that's a separate issue. But just
in terms of personnel, I would make that argument. I
think you always want to have the advantage. Again, not
to bring it back to the Giants, but the you
always want to be if you're the quote unquote underdog.
Have have a strong defense, and that's why I just
feel like the Eagles they looked so good the last

(39:35):
couple of weeks, and which you just said, why I
thought it was what you just said. They have a
strong defense, and they're also good on the line, and
as we've another sort of fundamental well, that's a good
place to be when you're going into a big game
is strong and now on both sides of the ball.
Now you get into the tactics, particularly the offensive tactics
by the Patriots. They're so good at compensating foreign camouflaging
some concerns on their own line. They're phenomenal with that.

(39:57):
Just a real quick point. You know a couple of
things I think about as I look at this matchup.
We know Belichick's phenomenal in situational football. He doesn't care
about yards on defense. He cares about stopping teams from scoring.
I think a couple of things to look for. I
think on third down, I think you'll see him double
Zack Arts on occasion on third down. And in the
red zone, I think you'll see him double Arts and Jeffrey.

(40:19):
He's very well known when you get to the red
zone for doubling two receivers, and I think he'll feel
that Jeffrey and Arts need to be doubled in the
red zone. If you're doubling two receivers, somebody has to
be no, no, no. If somebody does not have to
be open, you can double two. You can't double more
than two. It's a numbers game. You can you can
you can still match up man to man on the

(40:39):
other three receivers, uh, man to man with no help.
But you can somebody, somebody presently is going to have
a favorite. Well, they might not view it that way.
They could double Jeffrey with Eric row and and a
safety and then puts to find Gilmore on in their
mind their best corner and put Butler and Gilmore singles,

(41:00):
use their other guys in the double. Yeah, you can
always double two, you can't double three. And wouldn't it
also then open up more running possibilities if you're if
you're spending so much time in the back end. Well, well,
he's only going to do that on you know, he's
not going to do that on first intent. I'll do it,
and you know that's purely situational. That's when he's going
to have sub package on the field, either five, six,

(41:21):
or seven defensive backs. No team in the NFL played
more snaps with seven defensive backs than the Patriots. I
wanted to move off the field for a minute, Sure,
let's do it. I didn't do it. When we when
we well, when we get to this point, there's usually
some analysis of these two teams what they did to

(41:42):
separate themselves from the pack. Over the course of the season.
And one thing I've been thinking about over the last
week here is the way these teams were constructed, particularly
by by the g MS, by Howie Roseman, by whoever
is working with Belichick, the the multiple people in the
in the Patriots front office. These all these teams are

(42:05):
so close in talent. I think these pickups you make
every off season, the one year free agent signings, the
veteran free agents, the one or two trades, even the
mid season trade, those little edges you can pick up
on the margins. If those pay off, then that seems
to be an area where you can differentiate. And if

(42:27):
you look at both of these teams, they had an
incredibly high success rate this year. It's funny you say
that because look at the Eagles backfield. Okay Blunt was
a free agent signing in the off season, a GI
was a midseason trade. Cory Clemmon was a free agent,
he was not drafted. So I mean you look at
their and it's a very good and multiple backfield and

(42:49):
what they bring to the table, all of which allowed
them to overcome the loss of Darren Sprawls. Correct, it
was totally forgotten now like that when you do a
great job personnel wise, you are able to overcome injuries
like the loss of Sprawls, the loss of Peters, of
Jason Peters, some thinks the best left tackle in football. Yeah,

(43:09):
they lost Jordan Hicks. They lost their middle linebacker. And
while he might not be a household name, he's a
really good player. And who did the Patriots lose Julian Edelman,
their their number one wide receiver, Dante high Tower, the
lynchpin of their front seven, their middle linebacker. There was
also a pass rusher rock in the middle of the

(43:29):
championship game, Malcolm Mitchell, who was a young receiver that
allows the key factor in the Super Bowl year ago, right,
And both of these, like we saw a lot of
teams get filled by their key injuries, these two teams
were constructed with depth, with with enough depth to overcome
a lot of serious injuries. Too important. And it's also

(43:51):
a tribute to the approach and the coaching because you know,
you loser Jason Peters and you have to put Vitai
in the game and left tackle who was not drafted
to be a left tackle, you know, even though I
remember liking him coming out of college, but he was
not drafted to be a left tackle. And while he's
had some snaps that are bad snaps obviously, but he

(44:12):
has not derailed the offense. There's another injury. I mean,
Carson Wentz goes. Yeah, he's pretty good. By the way. Well,
they picked up Nick Foles, who had played in Philly
and who played in Casey last year. When you know
for Andy Reid, which is methodology wise, the same offense. Yeah,
I mean now, and then look at the performances in

(44:32):
these championship games. Cooks had a big game. Gilmore made
the key play. That's the big free agent pick up
New England in the off season. Made the winning play
on fourth and fifteen. Beautiful play up Harrison, James Harrison,
Oh my god, he had the sack on third down.
He's like a recurring character in this podcast. Well, but

(44:54):
Harrison made the play. He could make you want you
know what's fascinating about that? Just to show you. And again,
like I said, Belichick's way smarter than I am. So
I know if he did it based on intuition, based
on a field, or if it was planned out. But
Harrison all game long had not played one snap in
their sub package and in crunch time, he was on

(45:14):
the field in their sub packages, which you know, when
I was watching the tape, I was, I was watching
because even the week before he played only in their
base defense, and then all of a sudden and crunch
time against Jacksonville, he's on the field and their sub
packages just breaking tendencies? Is that what that is? Only
Belichick I tell you that, And he's probably not going
to share that with us, not this week next Yeah,

(45:37):
I mean maybe in an obvious, obviously rushing situation like that,
because they don't have a pure pass rusher, yeah, which
which he is. You know, if he gets one on
one against the left tackle, he's got a shot and
you might see that that It's funny you say that
now thinking about that. You could see that in this
game against Viti. Uh al Sean Jeffrey was a one
year signing who then sense, yeah, but a great one

(45:59):
years sign Chris Long was a one year veteran pickup,
and as was Laceric Blunt And we talked about him,
Paul when you brought him up, and he's been big
for the Eagles and to Patriots. You know they want
They both won rings last year. Again this isn't a
tactical thing, but we've we've heard enough stories over the
years those guys are really important this week, Yes, keeping
the glue together, keeping guys with their nose to the grindstone,

(46:22):
and super Bowl week when we've we've seen other guys
go astraight. I mean, those are the kind of leaders
that could make a difference in what could ultimately a
three or four or seven point game, which we've seen
so many recently. So I guess, I guess. I guess
it's there's a yet duck quality. Yeah, of course that
their moves paid off. They made it to the super Bowl.
It's to his point when it works. But the other
thing that's interesting too to me, just to sort of
finish up talking about we talked about players. I think

(46:45):
we know about the Patriots coaching staff. We don't need
to discuss them. The Eagles have a veteran coaching staff. Now,
I don't know how many have coached Super bowls. Uh
was Jim Schwartz with Tennessee when they were in the
Super Bowl and lost to the Rams? I don't think so,
I think. But the point is they have a veteran

(47:05):
NFL coaching staff. So again, I know, maybe they haven't
coached in Super Bowls, but they've been around the block
a few times. You know, this is not I don't
think this will be a bright lights, big big city
thing for for them. These are guys who've been in
the legal a long time, have coached, and I think
that they have a pretty good feel for how you
go about this. This is a really unique team in
history cause this is the number one seed in the NFC.

(47:28):
They were what thirteen and three? They lose their quarterback.
We've talked about Jeff Hossteller on this podcast before, but
they're following that model. But again, they were the Niners
with the number one seed in Eagles with the number
one seed. They went into the playoffs with this back up,
back up. They've been the underdog. Now they're gonna be
like three weeks in a row and if they win

(47:51):
the Super Bowl. I mean, it's the perfect again, the
perfect Philadelphia underdog story. If if, if you're gonna get
your first Lombardi Trophy in your Philadelphia and that'll be
played up, this is quite a good fit. I especially
love the Peterson aspect of it because if you remember,
for those of us who were in Philadelphia at that time,
and and and Greg, you and I were working at films.
I don't think Paul had gotten here yet. When Andy

(48:12):
Reid was hired, this was in Philadelphia. He drafts Donovan McNabb. Correct,
he brings in this backup quarterback, Doug Peterson, who's going
to be his bridge. We've been within Green Bay. He'd
been with him in Green Bay, and he's going to
start for that first season until McNabb is ready to play.
Doug Peterson was treated worse by the Philadelphia fans than

(48:36):
maybe any athlete in history. Just ravaged, ravaged from the minute.
He was not a good quarterback. That's that's something you
just said right there. He was. I mean, it was
ruth am. I we know I'm given to hyperpose. No
you it might be extreme, but the point is because
he tended to throw interceptions, which normally doesn't play well

(48:58):
with the Philly fan base. But they killed him. They
killed him, so he in a way, Peterson was was
forged in the in the fires of I got Philadelphia, Bile.
I'm going to tell you a very quick funny story
that first training camp. I was actually out at training camp,
or maybe it was O T s whatever it was.

(49:18):
So I'm standing I was actually standing with Ron Jaworski
and Doug Peterson's out there and he throws interceptions on
three consecutive balls. Okay, so I just turned to Jaws
and called Jaws man, he's terrible. His agent happened to
be standing right next to me. He let me know
I've got the data on Schwartz that he has had

(49:41):
a fascinating crew. As you know, he was with Belichick
in Cleveland, Yes, in the famous so he might have
seen football life Cleveland, you would know he was. He
was a low level office boys essentially. Then he went
to Baltimore ninete defensive assistant Tennessee Tite, so he was there.

(50:03):
He was there. He was not the gym short he
was just starting out. He became the thought he was.
I just didn't remember it. You know. I was in
two thousand, which is the famous year when they were
beaten by Race. He's a really smart guy, by the way, Georgetown,
I think, yeah, he's a really smart guy. And then
he was with the Titans for a long time, had

(50:24):
coach of Lions with the Bills as defensive coordinator for
a season, and then he came to Philly and is
often presumed to want to He's gonna wind up being
a head coach somewhere along the line. Yeah, well, well
so that just you know, again, that just drives home
the point that the Eagles have a veteran coaching staff
that's seen a lot won't be shook. I don't think so.

(50:45):
And I don't think they'll change their aggressive approach. I
think that's that's just who they are. Let's move Greg
off the X and no tactical page for a second.
You said you've been in NFL films how many years?
Thirty eight? So you were here in I was in
the eagles first Super Bowl was you were here in
two thousand four? Obviously, and you're here now this is

(51:10):
their third shot at bringing home the Lombardi Trophy. Uh,
you've been as close to watching the evolution of the
Eagles in the last thirty but wait, wait the right r.
Can you imagine, Greg, what will this what will this
championship mean to this fan base by the last seven

(51:30):
thirty thirty seven years? You know, it was an odd feeling.
I almost got this sense that it was unexpected that
they got there this year. In other words, there are
some years where you feel like, hey, everybody's excited about
the Eagles and then they disappoint them. You know, as
many fan bases, that's the way it is. This year,
I kind of felt like, wow, we're in the super Bowl.

(51:53):
That's really cool. Like it wasn't an expected I mean,
maybe it was expected before Wentz got hurt, but I
don't I'm not sure how many people really thought. You
know what. I can't speak for people, but I just
my sense, my vibe of the city, and now everybody's
really pumped up. Let's well, it's fitting that like everybody
left him for dead. Yeah, just the one time everybody

(52:16):
nobody gave up on this team, and they can nobody
better try and say otherwise, because they absolutely did give
up on this Eagles team the minute and for good reason.
The whole thing was built around Carson Wentz. Well, Greg
makes an interesting point too. I mean, coming into this season,
let's go back for a minute, the Cowboys were thirteen
and three last in two thousand and sixteen. The Giants,
I think we're eleven and five. They made the playoffs, okay,

(52:40):
so at best, and the Redskins were solid with a
decent quarterback and Whence showed promise, but he wasn't. They
were no one anticipated. Well, you know again, I don't
want to say no one, because that's hard. I mean,
I loved ones coming out of North Dakota State. I
can't sit here and tell you I expected him to
have thirty three touchdown passes through twelve games. You know,
that be silly to say. But I thought he'd make

(53:02):
a significant jump from his first year to a second year.
But but the kind of jump he made was was
really impressive. The expectations were not. No, they were not.
On Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia for the Eagles season,
I'm sure there was hope. And then they won Week
one and then they lost Week two in Kansas City,
and I think people thought, Okay, that's that's an expected loss.

(53:22):
You know, we're a solid team, but you know, hey,
that's an expected loss. They're the underdog, number one seed
for the third week in a row. With the lost,
with the lost, I mean, I never I don't remember
a story like this in history. And this is where
it comes. Before writing the story, the fact that they
could do it against the Patriots, the Death Star only
underscores the drama of of how excited the fan baseball.

(53:45):
You know, we know the storylines because obviously we all
know the storylines. Okay, but I think the Eagles have
a very legitimate chance to win this game. I agree,
I can see it. I totally agree at the same time,
and I think part of our part of our own
enthusiasm is that, you know, our task as professionals is

(54:06):
to tell these stories once these games are played, right,
and we're just aching to tell a news story. You know,
it's so funny to hear you say that, because sometimes
I just stop and think that it's pretty amazing without
patting ourselves on the back. But I just think about
this sometimes. I think I've been here long enough where
I can say this, the fact that we do what
we do with events that people know the outcome, it's

(54:31):
pretty amazing to think about how we present it and
how cool it is, and how you know exciting it is,
and how you still feel it with emotion and everybody
knows what happened already. I mean that that's a tribute
to the men and women in the field who are
who are capturing unbelievable visuals and and unbelievable sounds with
with the microphones. But but I think, and I've been

(54:52):
vacillating on this all week, you know, between this urge
of we just need a new story to tell, and
this Eagles story would be a lot of a great one.
It would be a lot of fun to tell, vast
letting between that and but on the other hand, as
many times as we've told this story that ends with
Brady Belichick and Craft on the podium, someday it is

(55:13):
going to be over and we are going to look
back on it and say that was as good as
anybody ever did it, for as long as anybody ever
did it. And you know, I don't know that when
Jordan was at the end of his run in the
nineties with the Bulls, that that that the that the
people who were telling that story in the NBA, we're
aching for a new story to tell. I think everybody

(55:34):
wanted to keep watching Michael Jordan do that and see
how many years in a row he could do it.
And for some reason, the vibe around the Patriots now
is like enough already, And I don't know why that is,
but it's a little different than it was with the
Jordan Bulls. Well there, of course, their fans aren't saying
and I can tell you this. I remember being a
kid and just watching sports and reading about sports and

(55:56):
thinking how cool it must have been because you know
that the teams you read about the winners. Boy, it
must have been cool to watch the Steelers. Boy, it
would have been cool to see the Packers of the sixties.
And it's like you never thought you were going to
get to see those things that those are things you
read about, but now we're seeing it right now, and
you know or certainly this it's something that stands alone

(56:18):
because of its longevity, because of these these three principles,
the owner, of the coach, and the quarterback who have
managed to stay together for all of these years. It's
an incredible sports story that we will tell forever, that
anyone who talks about sports will talk about forever. They
have set a new standard in professional football, and a

(56:41):
lot of people just want to see it end. Well.
As with any winner, long time winner, they're polarizing. Some
people love them, some people don't don't love them. That's
the way it works with any really long time winner,
with you seeing them from a different perspective, looking at
the tape, looking at the way, a more scientific uh

(57:03):
point of view, watching all of it unfold. What is
your own response seeing it happen again this year, Well,
the way I guess, just to sort of the cliff
notes version, as someone who studies tape, I would say,
and this is not necessarily profound, but it's rare, the
consistency of execution over time. You rarely see the Patriots

(57:29):
play what would be viewed as poorly. I mean, sure
if they lost some games, no question, but you rarely
watch the Patriots and come away feeling, wow, they really
played poorly. And when they do, like I remember this year,
the last game of the season against the Jets, Brady
did not have a good game at all. Okay, I
remember watching that and thinking, I'm interested to see him

(57:51):
go into the playoffs now, But it was such an
aberration that it was. It was almost odd to watch
because you're seeing things as you just don't see. So
the consistency of high level execution over a long period
of time, I don't know if people really can get
a great intellectual handle on that. How amazing that is

(58:15):
because this is sports. It's high level athletes all across
the board. I mean, you know, and to do that,
to execute like that so often for so long. That
is really hard, and we don't even know what it's
what it looks you know, we don't even know what
to do with it because we don't know what it
looks like. It's such an aberration. There's no your eye

(58:36):
isn't used to seeing what you just described, so it's
almost like you can't compute or appreciate what they're what
they're accomplishing. I think I feel like that way about.
I don't watch Alabama closely, but I can't even really
have what they're viewed as a bad half against Jacksonville
and people are you know, oh my god, I mean,

(58:56):
you know, as as if something is really wrong with
the the world. Well, that's the thing over these last
two years is that in that Atlanta game and in
that Jacksonville game, they were so badly outplayed for big
parts of the game, and it's almost like they're undead
at this point, like if you're gonna kill them, you
better put a stake through their heart. And you know,

(59:16):
which is what we're talking about earlier. Peterson is going
to have to have if the Eagles get up fourteen three,
seventeen three, keep the foot on the gas and keep
going anyway, I think at this point, as we wrap
things up and head into Minnesota, into the Bold North,
as we're being told to call it it is, you
know what, it's freaking cold up there. It's gonna be brutal.

(59:39):
The we we have reasons to look forward to this
game and its outcome on both ends. Where watching the
ultimate NFL dynasty or we're watching this wonderful, amazing story
unfold for Philadelphia. I mean, I'm excited to hang with
those quiet, low key Eagles fans out. This is gonna
be one of those Pro Bowls. Because if you're a

(01:00:01):
Patriots fan, you're you've probably spent your money going to
two or three of the other Super Bowls. You're not
gonna drop another wad of cash to go to Minnesota
where zero degrees. This is gonna be a fill it out.
This is gonna be a green invasion. This is gonna
be like like Super Bowl forty in Detroit where it
was all terrible towels. I think we're gonna see a crowd.

(01:00:24):
This is going to be a road game for the Patriots,
I predict. Have you checked the weather, of course, and
well I I fly in on Wednesday. It's gonna bet
it's all starting Thursday, Paul high is eleven. It's awful
and in fact, I think comes Saturday, the low is
supposed to be below. There's from Thursday through Monday. It's

(01:00:44):
it's it's single digits. It's it's a ridiculous cold snap
minna soda. It's the super Bowl, though, we're going We're
gonna do it. It's gonna be great. We're gonna make
great movies afterwards. We're gonna talk about it, uh sometime
in the near future. Fellas, this has been an increased
good one, an incredible run. We I've enjoyed talking to
you both so much this month, and hopefully we get

(01:01:05):
to do it again. Hopefully I hope enjoyed listening to it.
I love talking football, Paul. You know, thanks, fellas, it's
been an education. One more to go this year in
two thousand seventeen, because it's okay to say it's two
thousand eighteen right now, it's just not okay to call
this the two thousand eighteen super Bowl super Bowl. That's
that's the super Bowl. This is We can all agree

(01:01:27):
and let it be a good one hit it. Thank
you Rich, thank you Mike Kennedy, Thank you to our
own guru, Greg Costel. You can watch the Super Bowl
version of ESPNS NFL Matchup the weekend of the Super Bowl.

(01:01:48):
Check it out. It's gonna be awesome, fact filled. PAULI.
Follow NFL Films on Twitter at NFL Films, Follow Greg
at Great Hostel. Check us out on YouTube, on Instagram,
on Facebook, all your favorite social media platforms. Watch all

(01:02:08):
our shows everywhere. From the home of America's Football Movies
in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, on Paul, I'm Keith. Enjoy
the Super Bowl. Everyone m