The Philadelphia Eagles Finally End Their Super Bowl Drought

After years of waiting Philadelphia can celebrate winning their first-ever Super Bowl victory. The game was a hard-fought battle with minimal defense being played for both teams. This game consisted of 2 power-house offenses squaring up against one another.
Here are some mind popping stats from the record-breaking Super Bowl.

—The 1,151 combined yards by the two teams is the most in any NFL game ever. The 74 combined points are the second-most ever in a Super Bowl.
—Tom Brady set a new Super Bowl record with 505 passing yards, breaking the record he set in last year’s win over the Falcons (466). Nick Foles threw for 373 yards, the fifth-most ever in a Super Bowl. He also broke the postseason record of 489 yards, set by Bernie Kosar in 1987.
—The Eagles are the fourth team in NFL history to win the Super Bowl after having a losing record the year prior, joining the 2001 Patriots, 1999 Rams, and 1981 49ers.
—The Patriots are the first team in NFL history to put up more than 600 yards of offense in a game and lose.

—Foles is the 28th quarterback to win the Super Bowl MVP award. He is also the 10th different quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl despite starting the season as a backup, and the first to do so since Tom Brady in Super Bowl 36.

—LeGarrette Blount and Chris Long are the third and fourth players in NFL history to win back-to-back Super Bowls with different teams, joining Deion Sanders and Ken Norton Jr.
—Brady is the first QB in NFL history with at least five passing touchdowns and zero interceptions in multiple postseasons. He has 10,226 career postseason passing yards. No other quarterback has more than 7,339.
—Blount now has 11 postseason rushing touchdowns, tied with Marcus Allen for the sixth-most in NFL postseason history.

—James White now has four touchdowns in the Super Bowl, tied for the third-most by any player ever. Only Jerry Rice (eight) and Emmitt Smith (five) have more.
—Corey Clement joins White as the only running backs with 100-plus receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in a postseason game since 1999.
—Rob Gronkowski now has 12 postseason receiving touchdowns, tied with John Stallworth for the second-most all-time. Only Jerry Rice (22) has more. Gronkowski also has three career receiving touchdowns in the Super Bowl, tied for the second-most in the game’s history.

Predicting studs and duds for Super Bowl LII

Super Bowl LII is finally here. This game features last year’s winner and a Philadelphia Eagles squad that entered the 2017 season with 40:1 odds to win this Super Bowl. On the Patriots side, a win would earn quarterback Tom Brady his sixth Super Bowl ring. As for the Eagles, they are making their first Super Bowl appearance since playing in the title game in Feb. of 2005. Now, the Eagles must rely on quarterback Nick Foles to continue with his amazing postseason success. Will Philly pull off one more underdog win? Or will the Patriots — with their years of postseason experience — manage another victory? Soon enough this story will play out. In the meantime, here are our stud and dud predictions for Super Bowl LII.

Stud: Zach Ertz, tight end, Philadelphia Eagles
While Nick Foles has been playing well he still isn't a starter in the NFL and having a big target like Ertz should make things a little easier for Foles in the passing game. I expect Ertz to have a big game in his first ever Super Bowl.

Dud: Dion Lewis, running back, New England Patriots
Although Lewis was a big boost for the Patriots offense last season (especially through weeks 10-17) this season Lewis hasn't been very productive. After the Patriots lost LeGarrette Blount to the Eagles in free-agency everyone believed Lewis would be the premiere back in New England. But he quickly fell out of favor to Rex Burkhead in their week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Since then Lewis has been averaging less carries and should have a minimal role in the big game.

Stud: Patrick Robinson, cornerback, Philadelphia Eagles
After the Eagles lost Ronald Darby in week 1 to a dislocated ankle somebody in the Eagles secondary needed to step up. And it came from Robinson the Eagles had acquired him off the waivers from New Orleans and quickly became the heart and soul of the Eagles young secondary. He managed four interceptions, defended 18 passes and tallied 45 combined tackles. Robinson also gathered another interception which he returned for a 50-yard touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game. I  believe Robinson will be able to play a big role in forcing Brady to work outside of his comfort zone.

Dud: Torrey Smith, wide receiver, Philadelphia Eagles
Although I believe Smith has drastically improve his play in the playoffs, he did lead the team in drops in 2017 with four. And he also had a couple of drops in the NFC Championship game, although I don't think Smith will have a bad game per say i just believe that Smith will have less depended on by the Eagles.

Super Bowl LII Preview

The New England Patriots will be facing the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, tune in live on NBC kickoff is at 5:30 CT

In my first official post on my new blog, I would like to take the opportunity to talk about a major sporting event that will be taking place 10 days from today. The 52nd Super Bowl is set to be a good one between one team that everyone expected to be here, and a team that has surprised everyone including their own fans this year. Representing the AFC this year will be the New England Patriots, and representing the NFC side of the bracket is the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles have been an amazing story to follow this year, starting with the emergence of their two-year star quarterback Carson Wentz. Being a fan of the Eagles I was able to witness Carson's growth from year one to year two. Wentz was for most of the season considered the clear front-runner to win this year's MVP award until an abrupt left ACL tear ended his 2017 season. Many suggest you can still make a case for Wentz to be crowned this year’s MVP, but others believe the quarterback the Eagles must defeat in the Super Bowl (Tom Brady) is now the clear front-runner for this year’s MVP award. At the age of 40 Tom Brady silenced all his doubters and led the league in passing yards for the third time in his long career, but this time he's done it while being the oldest quarterback to do so in the history of the NFL. And he did it without his favorite target Julian Edelman who tore his ACL during a pre-season game in August. But overcoming obstacles has just become a part of Brady's game. If the Eagles are to have any chance to de-throne Tom Brady and win the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl win the defense must show up and be in Tom's face every play from start to finish. Many believed that the Jaguars defense would be able to disrupt Brady long enough to gain a lead early and run the clock out with their premiere rookie running back Leonard Fournette. In my opinion, that plan seemed to be working well as the Jaguars carried a 14-10 lead over the Patriots into halftime. The Jaguars defense was doing their job in the first half to perfection, getting pressure on Brady almost every time he dropped back and holding him to zero passing touchdowns in the first half. After halftime though the Jaguars defense seemed tired and couldn't get enough pressure on Brady, which prompted the Patriots comeback in the fourth quarter. One of the reasons why I believe the Eagles defense will have success in the Super Bowl is because the Eagles have the best front seven in the NFL. The Eagles run an aggressive 4-3 defense which allows the Eagles front seven to be rotating to keep players from being fatigue in the latter part of the game. One way Tom Brady and the Patriots can keep the Eagles from subbing in and out is by going in a no-huddle offense. I can almost assure you that Brady and Belichick will have a plan to keep the Eagles from subbing in and out whenever they want. No matter how you look at it I believe Super Bowl 52 will be an intense close game that should be entertaining to watch. Football Power Index (FPI) has the Patriots favored to win at 53%, while Vegas has the Patriots as 5 point favorites. As a devoted fan of the Philadelphia Eagles I hope that they can find a way to win their first ever Super Bowl victory, but as a fan of the game I can't see Brady and Belichick losing this one. Now maybe if Wentz was healthy we would be having another discussion...

What ColumnSports is about

Hello my name is Gabriel Garza and the creator of the ColumnSports blog. Sports is an important part of our world today and with this blog I hope to bring an interesting take on things that are happening in the sports world. I am a huge sports fan and have been for some time now. My favorite sports teams consist of the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox,San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers, and FC Barcelona. During my posts I might be a little biased towards these teams as are all sports fans, but I will be talking about more than the teams I listed. I will try to talk about all types of sports to open my audience to all types of sports followers. In my first post on my new blog I will be talking about the most watched sporting event, the super bowl. I have a lot to talk about this upcoming super bowl especially since it includes my favorite sports team. The purpose of ColumnSports is to discuss breaking news and topics about sports that many people are discussing around the sports world. I hope you enjoy my blog and if you do please subscribe or leave a comment about a topic I should discuss.

Sincerely, 

Gabriel Garza