Doug Pederson called for a pass to his quarterback on fourth down, went for two-point conversions when the chart said otherwise and stuck with the same aggressive approach in the biggest game of his coaching career.
The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions because they were not intimidated and would not back down, just like their coach.
“We just wanted to stay aggressive,” Pederson said. “My mentality coming into the game was that I was going to stay aggressive with Nick [Foles] and allow his playmakers to make plays.”
Photo: Reuters
They made one big play after another on Sunday in a 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots to win the franchise’s first NFL title since 1960.
Pederson was criticized for being too aggressive in his rookie season when the Eagles were 7-9.
He did not change his philosophy this season, but his players executed the plays.
On fourth down from the one with 34 seconds left in the first half, running back Corey Clement took a direct snap and pitched to tight end Trey Burton, who threw to Foles for a touchdown that gave Philadelphia a 22-12 lead.
“A quarterback going out on a route? I was pumped to go over there and talk to Doug, and we agreed to do it,” Foles said. “We worked on it for a long time and executed perfectly. We’ve been working on it for a month.”
Burton was recruited as a quarterback out of high school by Florida. He was confident he would make the right throw and Foles would make the catch on a play called the “Philly Special.”
“Coach has some guts,” Burton said. “People don’t realize how great of an athlete Nick is. I would’ve thrown to him even if he was covered. He would’ve gone up to get it.”
Other teams who failed to topple New England after taking leads in playoff games were too conservative.
Atlanta blew a 28-3 lead in last year’s Super Bowl and Jacksonville had a 20-10 fourth-quarter lead in the American Football Conference championship game, but the Eagles never let up, the same way they went after Minnesota in a 38-7 victory in the National Football Conference title game two weeks ago.
“We wanted to be aggressive,” running back Jay Ajayi said. “We understood that this is a team that doesn’t quit, that plays four quarters, and we were going to have to be aggressive all game long. We showed that. We wanted to set the tone early and we wanted to keep our foot on the gas.”
Pederson’s aggressive nature almost backfired when he went for a two-point conversion early in the second quarter because Jake Elliott had missed an extra point on the team’s first score.
When it failed, the Eagles led 15-3 and that loomed large when they fell behind 33-32 in the fourth quarter, but Pederson did not hesitate going for fourth-and-one from the Eagles 45 with 5 minutes, 39 seconds left in the game and the team trailing by one point.
Foles tossed a two-yard pass to Zach Ertz and later connected with Ertz on the go-ahead touchdown pass.
“Doug has been aggressive since he came here,” Ertz said. “That’s part of our identity. It’s a big reason we’re here and now we’re champions.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite