MINNEAPOLIS • One man is perhaps the greatest quarterback in National Football League (NFL) history. The other is a career fill-in.
Nick Foles was supposed to be the worst quarterback Tom Brady had ever faced in a Super Bowl.
But when it mattered most, Brady failed at the one play he needed to make, while Foles executed his perfectly. And it might well have made all the difference in Philadelphia's 41-33 victory over the Patriots.
On Sunday, each team ran essentially the same trick play - with a receiver throwing a pass to the quarterback to sneak downfield undetected. Brady dropped his pass, while Foles caught his.
It seems like such a small thing to decide such a significant game - the success or failure of a quarterback to catch a ball rather than throw it. But it is the Patriots' ability to surprise that has made them the NFL's most dominant team over the last two decades.
If Brady had held on, he probably would have sailed into the end zone and the Patriots, who trailed 3-9 at the time, would have gone 10-9 ahead, changing the entire tone of the game.
The throw from receiver Danny Amendola was perfect but it just skipped off Brady's fingertips.
Foles did not have such concerns when collecting a looping pass from tight end Trey Burton.
With the Eagles on the Patriots' one-yard line with 34 seconds left in the half, he heard his coaches suggest a play they had run repeatedly in practice for the past several weeks - one in which he would slip off to the right and end up with a touchdown reception.
"I said, 'Let's run it'," Foles recalled after the game.
And when he ducked into the end zone undetected, the pass landed gently in his arms, giving the Eagles a 22-12 lead. The play made history and made Foles the Most Valuable Player. With the reception - the first of his six-year career - he became the first player to throw and catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl.
The bold move, nicknamed "Philly Special", reflected the aggressive nature of Eagles coach Doug Pederson, who said his faith in Foles as a backup had never wavered.
"I'm so happy for Nick," he said. "A lot of people counted him out and didn't think he could get it done. I believed in him, the staff believed in him, the players believed in him. We just needed time together."
THE GUARDIAN, NYTIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
