Super Bowl LII

By Bianca Vucetich, Junior

Hundreds of millions saw the New England Patriots vs Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl LII match in Minneapolis. This intense game hit record after record in NFL’s Super Bowl history. LII sported one of the lowest Super Bowl temperatures at -3 degrees Fahrenheit, the 2nd highest scoring Super Bowl ever, and the 1st time that the Eagles ever won a Super Bowl game. Despite the cold temperatures everyone still pushed forward during the pregame. Hamilton Star, Leslie Odom Jr., sang a beautiful rendition of “America The Beautiful” and P!nk sang the National Anthem afterwards despite having the flu. Before the halftime show with Justin Timberlake, football fans everywhere were awed by watching the intense back and forth offensive plays between both teams.

In the game of pure offense, the first half seemed like a intense ping pong match with the players hitting back the ball every second. The scoring back and forth between Brady’s offense and Foles’ ended the half with one of the most historic Super Bowl plays the world has seen.The first quarter ended with Eagles in the lead of 9-3. In the second quarter, Brady attempted a trick play. The play is executed beautifully with 2 passes between the offense to confuse the Eagle’s defense until wide receiver, Danny Amendola, threw the ball perfectly to finish the creative and genius play. That’s when the ball slips out of Brady’s butterfingers, which marked the beginning of the end for the Patriots this half. This caused a turnover to the Eagles, who later on made their rendition of this play which made headlines and was marked down as one of the best trick plays in Super Bowl history.

Similar to Brady’s failed play before, there were two passes within the offense to confuse the defense, then quarterback Foles slips through the defensive lines ready to take the ball to touchdown victory at the end zone. Foles is able to catch the ball thrown by offensive tight end, Trey Burtonand. Foles made the touchdown as Eagles fans rejoice and Patriots fans stare at unbelievable awe. The Eagles were not only able to pull of a touchdown during a fourth down, but somehow pulled of a trick play similar to what the Patriots couldn't even pull off before. With that miraculous touchdown, the Eagles took the lead of 22-12, which eventually did give them the best advantage during the Patriots attempts during the second half of the game.

Before the game was to continue the great Pepsi Halftime Show had presented Justin Timberlake with his numerous hits. He started off with the hit song, “Filthy” from his new album, Man of the Woods. He also hit the dance floor with his other famous hits including “Sexy Back” and “Suit & Tie”. He also did a special tribute to Prince by singing his song, “I Would Die 4 U” as he projected a recording of Prince performing the same song on waving white banners. Finally he decided to finish off the performance with his hit song “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” by running up into the stadium audience. At this moment the traditional Super Bowl meme was created, as Justin Timberlake went up into the audience to continue singing he managed to get a selfie with thirteen-year-old Ryan McKenna. The struggle for Patriots’ fan Ryan to unlock his phone for the selfie has taken the internet by storm in the form of a meme as a screen capture of whatever google search seems fit in the situation of the kid looking at his phone next to Justin pre-selfie. The fake phone screen included fake google searches like, “Who is Justin Timberlake” or “Can’t stop this feeling lyrics.”

Finally, after the spectacular halftime show the game resumed as the patriots continued to face off against the Eagles. After the third quarter ended with Eagles in the lead of 29-26, the Patriots desperately did all they could to try and catch up for at least a tie. However, the Patriots got the ball for the last time with 1 minute left on the clock, at this point they’d have to score a touchdown then get a 2 point conversion to tie. This attempt wasn’t impossible for the popular Tom Brady and the Patriots team to pull off, yet it was still a very difficult task. The Patriots carefully moved up the field trying to get to their end zone for a touchdown. Yet there was 8 seconds left, and Brady had no choice but to try and pull off a large throw to the end zone hoping that one of his receivers could catch it for a touchdown. Yet his hail mary prayers were left unanswered as the throw was incomplete. That was the end of it. The Philadelphia Eagles have finally won their victory over the New England Patriots with the final of 41-33, taking the Super Bowl title away from the Patriots.

The people of Philadelphia rejoiced, they threw a Parade and have earned their bragging rights as the Patriots fans grieve over their loss. Will they make their comeback at the next Super Bowl? Will the Eagles defend their title? Or could our Miami Dolphins at least make the playoffs and make their way to the Super Bowl by some miracle? We’d have to wait and see throughout the 2018-2019 NFL season and watch the 2019 Super Bowl final battle at Atlanta, Georgia.

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