If Brady can soak in all the credit for victories, then he should also take some of the blame. Statistically, Brady played great. However part of a quarterbacks job is to change/control tempo and keep your defense off the field. I think Foles clearly outperformed Brady in that area. Philly lead the time of possession with basically 34 minutes, as compared to NE 26. Maybe that extra time off the field helped Philly's defense, which may have also impacted the stamina to get that strip sack.
I thought the Ertz touch down was clearly a touch down, even without the replay. I'm still uncertain as to why Collinswoth was seemingly trying to create some sort of controversy. I didn't need a replay to see that he took three steps with the ball, which made him a runner, and then crossed the goal line with the ball. Even when he crossed the line, both of his hands were on the ball when he hit the ground, and he caught it again after the ball popped up in the air. The ball was never on the ground without Ertz's hands on the ball.
Doug Pederson had a great game plan and was not afraid to be aggressive when necessary. Far too many times, coaches play everything by the book when playing the Pats, and they wonder why they usually fall short. I only questioned two calls from Philly. Why run the ball on second down with 2:03 left in the game? I thought they should have ran play action or an RPO and threw the ball to try and get the first down. The clock was going to stop on that play regardless because of the two minute warning. The other thing I was surprised at was why Philly didn't take a chance on an onside kick after one of their second half scores. The Philly defense couldn't stop Brady once, so what difference does it make if you miss the onside kick and Brady ends up only scoring on a 50 yard drive, as opposed to a 75 yard drive?
As for Malcom Butler, I'm not sure if we'll ever know what really happened. If I had to guess, did Butler or his agent, take the time during the two weeks leading up to yesterday to bring up his contract to Bill? Butler literally did make the game winning play to win the Super Bowl 3 years ago, so I don't think it's out of the question of Butler or his agent bringing that back up. Was Bill trying to make a statement that he didn't need Butler to win a Super Bowl? Bill could have ended most of this controversy if he simply said he was benched because of a disciplinary reason, instead of the obvious bogus one he gave.
