How would the Eagles handle a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl?

28-3.

With eight minutes and 31 seconds left in the third quarter of Super Bowl 51, the Atlanta Falcons were sitting on what should have been an insurmountable lead over the New England Patriots. The world was a quarter and a half away from supplanting “The Patriot Way” with “In Brotherhood” as the new standard-bearer for sloganeering selflessness.

But the Falcons blew it. Instead, 28-3 became the quadratic equation for sports screw ups.

A year later at another Super Bowl with a different NFC team looking like the next sacrifice to the Patriot dynasty, it’s impossible to escape 28-3. It’s everywhere here in Minnesota, emblazoned on the T-shirts of Patriots bros and whifting from every conversation about how this year’s Big Game might unfold.

I’m honestly surprised there isn’t a store specializing in exclusive 28-3 merchandise at the Mall of America, ground zero for Super Bowl 52, even a kiosk.

What if it does happen again this year? What if the Eagles end up with a big lead in the second half of the game, and the Patriots again put their imprint on history and the culture?

I spent the week gauging the preparedness of players and coaches about that very scenario.

Here’s what the Eagles said.

DL Fletcher Cox:

The thing about this team right here: We don’t let off the gas pedal. We’re always trying to put our feet on people’s throat. This team just don’t show up for three quarters and shut it down. We’ve also been in dogfights where we’ve been down in the fourth quarter, where the defense had to step up.

Gas pedals were a common refrain from the Eagles I spoke with.

RB Jay Ajayi:

Keep our foot on the gas.

That sounds like a good answer. The Falcons were certainly trying to “keep their foot on the gas” by making more work for themselves than they needed to.

WR Torrey Smith:

You better keep going. Them boys aren’t quitting. Keep going ‘til the clock hits zero.
It’s just kinda understood. If we’re down the same way, we’re going to fight to the end. You just have to do you job. They have a quarterback that’s capable of going off at any second.

This was a better answer. (Bonus points for working “do your job” into the mix).

RB Corey Clement:

Keep running the football. You want to drain the clock out, because you never know if the Patriots can pull it out of their hat. You gotta keep your foot on the gas. It’s almost as if we’ve got to play five quarters. You’ve got to prepare for everything.

This is the correct answer for the team sitting on a big lead in the second half. Run the damn ball, kill the clock. The Patriots don’t need more than a few seconds to bury the dagger. Don’t give it to them.

But the best answers I got, the ones that ought to give Eagles fans some hope, came from the coaches.

Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp talked about the situational awareness, in detail, that matters against a team like the Patriots in a late comeback situation.

It starts before the fourth quarter. On special teams, they started to unload their war chest. They came out and they hit the surprise onside kick. They did not get it, believe it or not. Then they came out and Atlanta punted the ball and they had their returner go opposite. They tried to get Patrick Chung on the outside to field the ball, disguise play.
You’ve got to be ready for that kind of stuff, all the fakes, the tricks, the gadgets. They’re going to do everything they can to try to win the game. And you’ve just got to be sound and play smart.

But there’s a world of possibilities a team like the Patriots could pull out in a game like that, things like Fipp mentioned. How does a team prepare for all of that?

For Fipp, it starts before the season.

It’s a good thing we have 20 plus weeks to do it. If you go into this game, especially against a team like New England, and think you’re going to get ready for all those situations in these two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, you’re in trouble.

Offensive coordinator Frank Reich distilled it down even further.

We always talk about being aggressive but not reckless. I’m not going to go back and try to second-guess anything that happened, but there is a time to run the football. There is a time to have a short, controlled passing game, whatever the case may be. That’s the art of coaching.

Move the chains, and let the clock do the rest, “the art of coaching.”

So what about the Patriots and all their grim sayings about work and doing your job? How are they prepared should they find themselves down again late in the game?

Not dwelling on the past is a big part of the Patriots’ strategy, er, excuse me, The Patriot Way.

RB Dion Lewis:

It’s a different game.
Hopefully we’d do the same thing we did last year. Hopefully we start a lot better than we did last year, limit the turnovers. We can’t play the game like that. We know that. You ain’t going do that twice in a row.

S Patrick Chung

That’s over. It’s a whole new game, a whole new team, a whole new scheme. It was a blessing to get that win, but you’re only as good as your last game.
If it happens this year? We’re gonna try to come back.

The only guaranteed comeback is the one that never happens in the first place. Cornerback Malcolm Butler, himself a Super Bowl savior, made that point perfectly clear.

Just hope it turns out the same way it did last year. As a team you don’t want to put yourself into that situation. That’s a hard situation to get yourself out of. The goal is to start fast, and don’t put yourself into those positions.

But when the Patriots were in that situation last year, they didn’t spend much time doubting themselves. Butler added:

Keep fighting, keep fighting. Our leader, Tom [Brady], said it was going to be the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, and it came to reality. Just focus on Sunday. Nothing in the past can help us on Sunday.

If it does happen, the Patriots have prepared for it. They prepare for everything, a point head coach Bill Belichick made perfectly clear when asked about the possibility occurring again this year:

We prepare for all the situations that we can going into the game. As the game unfolds, we’ll adjust as we go, whatever that happens to be. Every game’s different. Every situation’s a little bit different. We just do what we normally do and prepare our team the best we can, go out there and execute the best we can.

It wouldn’t be the Patriots without a stern lesson in preparation and adjustment from the head coach. It sounds square, but it’s that emotionless approach that allowed us http hepcats to replace our stock of Crying Jordans with a snapshot of the 28-3 scoreboard.

The Eagles’ assurances make it sound like we won’t have another 25-point blown lead. But if it happens, we’ll be ready.

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