Super Bowl LII NFL live scores, blog: New England Patriots vs Philadelphia Eagles

Match result:

The Philadelphia Eagles have won a tight, memorable contest at Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, defeating the New England Patriots by eight points.

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Final score
New England Patriots 33
Philadelphia Eagles 41

Match preview:

The 52nd Super Bowl will be played out on Monday morning in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This year we see the Philadelphia Eagles take on the reigning champions, the New England Patriots.

Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting at 10:30am AEDT.

There is no doubting the legacy that this current Patriots side is leaving. They have all-but achieved everything in the game. This will be their eighth Super Bowl since the 2001-02 season, they have won five of those, losing twice to the New York Giants.

But they won’t be facing Eli Manning today.

Instead Nick Foles. A quarterback who was drafted by Philadelphia in 2012, started a fair few games due to injury, then was let go after three seasons.

This year, the Eagles bring him back as the understudy to Carson Wentz. Foles got his chance in week 14 when Wentz went down with a torn ACL against the Rams.

Not over-awed by the occasion, he took the bull by the horns and now has two playoff wins under his belt and a ticket to the big dance on Monday.

The problem for Foles lies with the opposition. The Patriots are led by two of the most tactical football minds to ever be involved in the game. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady will be remembered for a long time. Yes, they deflated a few footballs, but who hasn’t pushed the boundaries to get an edge?

They are clinical in everything they do. Every player knows his role and follows it perfectly. If you were to write a book on how to play football, you would watch a lot of this side. They had to expand the stadium to squeeze in all the Super Bowl banners.

On the other side of the coin, we have the Eagles, who have one of the best defenses in the game. But last week we saw them score 38 against the best defense in the game in the Minnesota Vikings.

The Patriots, however, won’t offer as much defensive prowess, so scoring points shouldn’t be a problem if they play the same way.

The issue is stopping the juggernaut that is Tom Brady, Danny Amendola, Dion Lewis, James White, we could go on like this all night, but we know they are stacked with talent. The Eagles defense will need to be rock solid to keep them in the game.

Eagles defensive backs Malcolm Jenkins and Mychal Kendricks will not back down from a challenge and will be key players in this one. Also, look for sack-leader Brandon Graham to drop Brady at least once.

Injuries to watch
Patriots: Tight End – Rob Gronkowski (concussion), should be ok to play, but its hard to tell with a head knock.

There is no major injury concern for either team, but both sides will be feeling the pain after playing 22 games each, including preseason and playoffs.

The stats that matter most
The team wearing white jerseys has won 11 of the last 12 Super Bowls. Patriots wearing white today.

Americans are set to consume 1.4 billion chicken wings on the day.

325 million gallons of beer will be consumed. That’s a gallon for every man, women and child in the country or 3.8 litres each.

Nearly $5 billion will be wagered on the game.

Justin Timberlake will perform at halftime for the second time in his career, although we don’t expect a guest appearance from Janet Jackson this time.

A 30-second ad during halftime will run you in excess of $5 million. That’s $166,666 per second. Might need to pass the hat around for this one.

Prediction
Every time I watch the Patriots, it seems like they don’t even break a sweat. They steam roll teams without getting out of third gear. They might be behind by 25 points, but they don’t panic. They just execute.

I love a fairytale ending, but I can’t see this game going any other way.

Patriots to win 23-17.

Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting at 10:30am AEDT.