And Philly - who averaged about 2 offensive holding penalties a game during the year - got called for zero (same with NE). Either of those likely stops a drive. And I was texting an Eagle friend of mine during the game and he was lamenting their blown coverages and I was lamenting their incredible catches. He said, "You can't count on blown coverages all game," and I said, "Well, true, but you can't count on Philly making perfect passes and incredible catches all game," and he said, "True."They also got one stop on a completely fluky tip-drill INT and another stop on an unforced error when Ertz false-started on 2nd-and-2 and Philadelphia had to settle for a field goal. The Eagles also only had 10 offensive possessions. It was every bit as bad a performance as the 41 points suggests.
And yet.... it happened. All game long. I mean, to count on a great catch or two...sure. They had a BUNCH of them. It was exceptional, and many of them came with great defense all over the play.
So yeah, the Pats' defense was B-A-D. But Philly's offense also played out of their minds.