The New England Patriots are preparing to face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII, and although it would appear the Patriots are huge favorites to take home their sixth Lombardi Trophy of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era, the Patriots coach has a different idea.
Belichick discussed the Eagles’ strengths on both offense and defense Wednesday during his press conference, and he made it seem like Philadelphia might be downright impossible to beat.
“You’ve got to defend every blade of grass,” Belichick said. “There’s no place they can’t get to. They get to everywhere, They get there a lot of different ways. That’s a big challenge for the defense. Run the ball in the A-gap and going up on the sideline, all the places in between.
“They do a good job creating conflicts for the defense,” Belichick continued. “And that’s difficult, too. When a guy gets a key, and two different plays look like the same play, if he’s right on one, he’s wrong on the other. A lot of those plays are run by the quarterback, so both plays are in play and the quarterback makes a decision on what to do as he reads the defense. You can’t be right defensively, is the philosophy there.”
If you’re thinking, “Wow! The Eagles sound hard to defend,” just wait until you hear the praise the Patriots legendary head coach heaped on Philadelphia’s defense.
“It’s a lot more than (a front) four. I wish it was four. It’s about eight, nine. (Fletcher) Cox is as good as anybody in the league at his position. He’s a very disruptive player, hard to block, run, pass, no matter what it is, good edge rush. And they come hard every play; those guys come hard every play. There’s no plays off so you have to block them hard every play.
“It’s a very disruptive group, hard to run against, hard to throw against, and they’re well coached, very instinctive in their screens and plays like that, that you think will take the edge of the pass rush, don’t look as good as you think; when you run them they don’t look as good as you think they will. Draws, screens, play-action — they blow those plays up too. They have a lot of good players. They have good inside rushers, good outside rushers.”
The Patriots and Eagles will face off in Minneapolis on Feb. 4, and if you believe a word Belichick said, then it’s going to be tightly contested game.
