By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

There’s a line in “Spaceballs” where Rick Moranis’ character, Dark Helmet, says “So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.”

As soon as New England defeated Jacksonville, cementing a spot in their 8th Super Bowl over the past 16 years, that was the first thing that popped into my head.

Of course, after Philadelphia completely manhandled Minnesota, I suddenly had that part of movie playing in my head on a loop. (Good lord, I hope the commercials will be enjoyable).

That being said, allow me to be one of approximately 7,385 articles you’ll read on Super Bowl LII.

There will be fair number of juicy stories, mainly coming from the Patriots side. (Did Tom Brady finally win Patriot of the Week?!?!?)

You’ll get your share of “experts” over analyzing every last detail, down to the Eagles conversion rate on 3rd and 3, during their 1st possession of the 2nd quarter.

To me, it’s all going to come down to how Philadelphia performs. I know that sounds kind of basic, but let me explain.

You pretty much know what you’re going to get from New England, for the most part. Their defense will give up a fair amount of yardage, but will tighten up in the red zone. Besides the two drives Jacksonville had at the beginning of the game, they were only able to score 2 fields goals.

Offensively, Tom Brady will do what Tom Brady does in the Super Bowl, basically he’ll throw for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns.

You can almost count on all those things taking place.

So, the question is what will we get from Philadelphia? In regards to this, there are two specific things I’m curious to see.

The first, revolves around Philly’s defense. The Eagles are known for being opportunistic on the defensive side and that hasn’t changed over the past few years.

As great as Tom Brady is, and has been in Super Bowl games, he does take chances that Philadelphia should be able to take advantage of. As someone who had their defense in his fantasy league, when they get an interception they are looking to score. More often than most, they find the end zone.

Don’t get me wrong, Brady will take advantage of their aggressiveness; can Philadelphia capitalize on Brady’s mistakes as well?

The next concerns both the Eagles head coach and offensive coordinator, Doug Pederson and Frank Reich, respectively.

You know the Patriots are going to come up with some sort of scheme to slow down Philadelphia’s running game, which has been one of the league’s best throughout the season.

Knowing that, can Pederson and Reich put together a game plan that will ease the comfort level of Nick Foles, so that he’ll be confident to make the throws you know he is going to have to make.

So far in playoffs, they have done a terrific job with this against two defenses in Atlanta and Minnesota, that should have been more dominant than they were.

Philadelphia has an awful lot of talent on that side of the ball and should be able to move the ball with more success than New England’s first two playoff opponents.

When all is said and done, who will walk away victorious? Well, I’ve learned not to bet against New England, so I guess I’ll go with the Patriots.

Then again, I may not even watch the game- it’s been a while since I sat down and watched “Spaceballs”.