The Eagles knew going in that it was going to come down to third down.
If they were going to beat the Vikings in Sunday night’s NFC championship game and make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in 13 years, they were going to have to make plays on third down.
Their defense was going to have to shut the Vikings down on third down. And their offense was going to have to make plays on third down against a defense that was the best in the NFL at muzzling teams on the “money’’ down.
And they did it. Boy, did they do it.
Jim Schwartz’s aggressive defense forced two Vikings first-half turnovers on third down that the Eagles turned into 14 points.
And quarterback Nick Foles turned back the clock to 2013 and absolutely owned third down as the Eagles coasted to a stunning 38-7 win over the Vikings that punched their ticket to Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis in two weeks.
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Foles completed 10 of 11 third-down passes in the win for 159 yards and two touchdowns, both to Alshon Jeffery. The Eagles converted 10 of 14 third-down opportunities in the win.
His impressive performance came against a defense that had held opponents to a league-best 25.2 percent success rate on third down this season.
Last week, the Vikings held Drew Brees and the Saints to just two third-down conversions on nine opportunities. Brees owned the league’s sixth best third-down passer rating (94.2) this season. He had completed 67.8 percent of his third-down attempts. Against the Vikings, he was 1-for-4 for five yards and was sacked once.
On the other side of the ball, Schwartz’s defense continued its seasonlong third-down dominance. After the Vikings drove 75 yards on nine plays on their first possession to take a 7-0 lead, defensive end Chris Long hit quarterback Case Keenum and forced a third-and-8 interception that cornerback Patrick Robinson returned 50 yards for a game-tying touchdown. It was the Eagles’ 20th interception in 18 games this season and the 10th on third down.
In the second quarter, rookie defensive end Derek Barnett beat left tackle Riley Reiff around the edge and stripped the ball from Keenum on a third-and-5 at the Philadelphia 16, killing a Minnesota scoring opportunity.
This was a Vikings offense that had committed only 14 turnovers this season, the third fewest in the league. Keenum had just seven interceptions during the regular season, but four of them had been on third downs of 8 yards or more.
Seven plays after Barnett’s strip sack and Long’s fumble recovery, Foles hit Jeffery on a deep ball for a 53-yard touchdown on a third-and-10 with 1:09 left in the first half that put the Eagles up, 21-7.
Foles and Jeffery connected again for a second third-down touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
Foles and the Eagles converted six of 13 third-down opportunities in last week’s win over the Falcons. Foles was 5-for-7 for 70 yards on third down in the win. Before that, however, he had struggled on third down.
Carson Wentz led the league in third-down passing before tearing his left ACL in Week 14. In 10 regular-season quarters as Wentz’s replacement, Foles was just 11-for-27 for 86 yards on third down.
The Eagles, who at one point before Wentz got hurt, were the league’s top third-down offense, converted just eight of 35 third-down opportunities with Foles behind center in the regular season.
They needed to stay in third-and-manageable situations against the Vikings, and they did. Just three of their 10 third-down situations in the first three quarters were eight yards or more.
And even when they faced third-and-longs, they converted them. Foles’ 53-yard scoring heave to Jeffery was a third-and-10. He hit tight end Zach Ertz for 11 yards and a first down on an early third-and-10, and later hit Ertz for 15 yards on a third-and-8.
Schwartz’s defense finished the regular season with the team’s best third-down success rate since its last NFC championship game appearance in 2008. Opponents converted just 10 of 65 third downs of eight yards or more against them in the regular season.
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