I agree with several of the posters here that a general lack of talent with the defensive front 7 was the major factor in the loss. Go back to the start of the season. We had just lost Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard to free agency, moves that were anticipated. Then Rob Ninkovich retired. After that Kony Ealy proved that he was no longer the player who sacked Peyton Manning 3 times in the SB and he was cut. Then the injuries started. Dontae Hightower, Vince Valentine, Shea McClellin and Derek Rivers all went on season ending IR. During the season, age finally seemed to catch up with Alan Branch and he played his way to the bench. The pasting and patching soon began. Several aging veterans and PS/ST players were signed on to fill holes. The seven defensive front starters for the SB were Trey Flowers, Malcolm Brown, Deatrich Wise, Lawrence Guy, James Harrison, Elandon Roberts and Kyle Van Noy. All good players, but hardly a muderer's row of talent. The wonder isn't that the Eagles scored 41 points, but rather how this team made it as far as they did with this defense (the answer, of course, is TB12 plus weak opponents and effective coaching). Benching Butler only exacerbated what was already a sorry situation. Unless BB adds some talented free agents, all the IRed players return in top form or we strike defensive gold in the 2018 draft, next season may be even tougher than this year was.