Nick Foles Lit Up The Vikings To Set Up A Patriots-Eagles Super Bowl

For the second straight weekend the top-seeded Eagles hosted a playoff game in which they were an underdog in, and for the second straight weekend they came out on top.

Where the Eagles looked shaky in their 15-10 divisional round win over the Falcons, they were dominant on Sunday night against the Minnesota Vikings in a 38-7 win that punched their ticket to the Super Bowl. The Eagles will take on the Patriots there, where they will undoubtedly be underdogs once again against Tom Brady and company.

The main reason the Eagles have been underdogs the past two weeks was the injury to Carson Wentz that forced Nick Foles into action for the remainder of the season and playoff run. While Foles managed their first playoff game well and didn’t make any crucial mistakes, nothing he did against Atlanta was especially inspiring. On Sunday against the NFL’s top-ranked defense, Foles shredded the Vikings to the tune of 352 yards and three touchdowns on 26-of-33 passing.

Minnesota jumped out early on the Eagles on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Case Keenum to Kyle Rudolph, but that would be the last time the Vikings scored on Philadelphia. The Eagles’ offense started slowly, but a pick-six by Patrick Robinson in the mid-first quarter evened the score and provided the first spark for Philly.

In the second quarter, the Eagles came alive with 17 points to run away from the Vikings for good behind some big time plays from Foles, none bigger than this bomb to Alshon Jeffery to go up 21-7.

Foles wasn’t done dialing up big plays in the passing game, hooking up with Torrey Smith on a flea flicker that was an absolute dime to the pylon.

Once expected to be the Achilles’ heel for the Eagles in making a deep playoff run, Foles was (for at least one game) absolutely incredible. He made a number of perfect throws and hit a few incredible throws under duress, like this toss to Nelson Agholor.

The Eagles will now head to Minnesota in two weeks to face the Patriots as underdogs once again. Considering how great the defense looked in getting pressure on Case Keenum and how the Jaguars’ pressure flustered Tom Brady for much of the AFC title game, they have to feel like they have a pretty good shot if they can get anything close to this level of play from Foles.