It’s been a wild first 30 minutes of action in Minneapolis on Sunday and the game has reached halftime with the Eagles up 22-12.
They got touchdowns from Alshon Jeffery and LeGarrette Blount to continue seeing big rewards from the offseason retooling of their roster by personnel chief Howie Roseman, but a missed extra point by Jake Elliott and a failed two-point conversion kept them from stretching the lead any further.
Jeffery also had a ball carom off of his hands and into the waiting mitts of Patriots safety Duron Harmon near the goal line. The Patriots drove for a touchdown after that takeaway, which was their first since Week 15 of the regular season, and cut the Eagles lead to three points.
It would grow back to 10 in a hurry. Corey Clement broke loose for a 55-yard gain on a wheel route to put the Eagles right back into scoring position and they opted to go for it on fourth down from the one-yard-line with less than a minute to go in the half. They used some trickery to get the ball to tight end Trey Burton, who delivered a perfect pass to quarterback Nick Foles for a touchdown.
Foles, who had no catches in the NFL before that play, is 13-of-22 for 215 yards. Blount and Jay Ajayi have combined for 99 yards on 10 carries and Jeffery has three catches for 73 yards.
The Patriots tried a similar play earlier in the half, but a wide open Tom Brady, who has thrown for 276 yards, couldn’t reel in a pass from Danny Amendola. The Patriots also saw kicker Stephen Gostkowski miss a field goal and an extra point to add to their woes.
It’s the third straight Super Bowl that has seen the Patriots fall behind by double digits. They’ve been able to rally back to win the last two times and they scored nine straight points before Foles’ score to put themselves in position to do the same thing this time. They’ll get the ball to start the third quarter and try to erase the Eagles lead.