The Philadelphia Eagles edged out the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 52 in large part due to their offense, which was masterminded by head coach Doug Pederson. But Pederson was understandably wary of Tom Brady, and he had a simple instruction for his defense as to what they needed to do against him.
As ProFootballTalk’s Michael David Smith notes, NFL Films video caught Pederson on the sidelines imploring his defense to continue getting after the Patriots’ superstar.
Article Continues Below“You keep hitting number 12,” Pederson told his defense. “Keep hitting him. Keep hitting number 12.”
The Eagles' excellent front four hit a lot of quarterbacks many times throughout the season, but they didn’t exactly do as good a job as their coach would’ve liked against Brady in the Super Bowl. Despite getting hit nine times, the reigning NFL MVP still burned Philly’s defense for a Super Bowl record 505 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
However, he did have that one costly turnover when Brandon Graham followed his coach’s message and hit Brady late in the game to record the team’s lone sack of the Super Bowl. Luckily for the Eagles, that hit was hard enough to knock the ball loose and cause the game-clinching turnover.
Obviously, there’s a lot more complexity to coaching in the NFL than merely telling players to hit the quarterback. But sometimes, it’s just that simple. Although they struggled to do so for much of the game, one of the few times the Eagles hit Brady like their coach wanted, it virtually won them the Super Bowl.