Nick Foles did what Tom Brady could not.

Doug Pederson’s calls served to outmaneuver Bill Belichick.

The guys who wear dog masks downed a dynasty in a wild Super Bowl LII, perhaps the wildest Super Bowl of all, a 41-33 victory by the Philadelphia Eagles over the New England Patriots.

Foles, making his sixth start of the season for the Eagles, threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass. He was named Super Bowl MVP.


Pederson, in his first Super Bowl in his second season on the job, made call after call, including one that will go down as one of the most thrilling blends of guts and creativity in Super Bowl history.

And so the underdogs beat the reigning kings.

It essentially ended on a play as sudden as all the ones that had made the game spectacular.

Despite what would end up being a record night from Brady, who brought the Patriots back and put them ahead midway through the fourth quarter, the Eagles earned their first Lombardi Trophy in three tries.


The Patriots never punted, and Brady threw for a Super Bowl-record 505 yards. No postseason game ever featured more combined offensive yards than the 1,151 for which the Eagles and Patriots combined. It was just the third Super Bowl ever in which both teams scored at least 30 points.

After falling behind for the first time when Rob Gronkowski’s touchdown with nine minutes, 26 seconds to play made it 33-32, Philadelphia converted a third-and-six from its 29-yard line and a fourth-and-one from its 45 and drained seven minutes from the clock on a 75-yard touchdown drive.

After Zach Ertz’s touchdown with 2:21 to play put the Eagles up 38-33, the Patriots took over at the 25-yard line.

A completion moved them to the 33, but on the next play, as the pocket collapsed around Brady and he cocked to throw, Brandon Graham knocked the ball loose and Derek Barnett fell on it at the 31.


A field goal extended the Eagles’ lead.

The Patriots took over at their 9-yard line. A hail mary into the end zone fell to the turf. Silver and midnight green confetti fell from the roof of U.S. Bank Stadium.

There was play after play – many in succession – that made this perhaps the most exciting of all the games with the Roman Numerals.

Pederson wasn’t perfect. He almost paid for a decision to go for a two-point conversion (that failed) early in the game.


But it was the call and execution by his offense on a one-yard play at the end of the first half that helped keep the Patriots from their second Super Bowl victory in a row and sixth in 17 years.

After a 55-yard catch-and-run by Corey Clement got Philadelphia to the Patriots’ 8-yard line and two Clement runs took them to the 1, Foles threw incomplete on third down.

The Eagles lined up before Pederson called a timeout.

Philadelphia came out to go for it again with Foles lined up in the shotgun in front of Clement.


Just before the snap, Foles practically tiptoed a few steps to the right, just to the right tackle was bent over. The ball was snapped directly to Clement, who turned left and pitched the ball to tight end Zach Ertz running in from the left side.

Foles stood still for a moment and then jogged outside and into the end zone. Ertz lofted the ball to him with no Patriot anywhere near the quarterback-turned-receiver.

The lead was 22-12 with 34 seconds remaining in the first half.

The Patriots could not get down the field in time for any points, and we got to Justin Timberlake’s halftime show with a two-score game.


The Patriots got the ball to start the third quarter.

Rob Gronkowski, who caught just one pass on five thrown his way in the first half, caught four in the ensuing drive, including one for 25 yards, one for 24 on the next play and five plays later a five-yarder in the end zone.

Had the Eagles settled for a field goal before halftime, the Patriots would have led 19-18.

Instead, after what might have been a demoralizing eight-play, 75-yard drive by New England, the Eagles still led by three, 22-19.


Philadelphia marched down the field as methodically as ever, 85 yards on 11 plays, getting the lead back to 10 when Clements hauled in a pass just in time as he ran through the back of the end zone.

That didn’t last long, as the Patriots went 75 yards in seven plays, a 26-yard touchdown pass to Chris Hogan getting the Patriots back to within three.

At that point, the teams had combined for 903 yards. Of those, 516 yards came on 16 plays of 20 yards or more. With 3½ minutes to play in the third quarter, Brady had thrown for 404 yards, which would ave been the third-most ever in an entire Super Bowl game.

On the Eagles’ next drive, before the third quarter was over, the record would be broken for most combined offensive yards in a Super Bowl. (The total of 1,151 would end up being 229 yards more than the previous record that had stood for 29 Super Bowls.)


In the first half, the teams combined for 12 plays of more than 20 yards. The Eagles had two plays longer than 30 yards and a 55-yard pass. Brady completed passes of 43, 46 and 50 yards before halftime.

The action was at least as entertaining and energetic as Justin Timberlake’s halftime concert.

Early, a 36-yard run by LeGarrett Blount set up a 24-yard touchdown pass from Foles to Alshon Jeffery on the next play to give the Eagles a 9-3 lead.

They took a 15-3 lead on another pair of back-to-back strikes – this time reversed, a 21-yard Jeffery reception followed by a 21-yard scoring run by Blount.


The short pass to Russ Burkhead went for 46 yards on the Patriots’ first play from scrimmage on the next possession, which ended with a field goal.

A beautifully placed pass to a sliding Jeffery for 26 yards seemed to have the Eagles on the way to another score on their next drive, but the next pass ended up in the Patriots’ hands when Jeffery tried to make his third spectacular catch of the game.

This one bounced off his hands twice and into the hands of Duron Harmon.

New England took over at the Eagles’ 10 and took just seven plays to get in the end zone – the final two of those a 43 yard reception by Chris Hogan and a 26-yard run by James White.


The two minute warning came after the kickoff.

It was just a break before a drive that concluded with Pederson making the fateful decision.

All that, and there was a pass off Tom Brady’s hands on a an end-around flea-flicker in the second quarter that would have prolonged a Patriots drive that instead ended two plays later on a fourth-down incompletion.

That would end up being but a footnote in a game that dropped the Patriots to 5-3 in Super Bowls with Brady and Belichick.


kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com