Brevard Native, Philadelphia Eagles’ C.J. Gardner-Johnson is Third Straight Cocoa Tiger to Reach Super Bowl

By  //  January 29, 2023

2023 is the third straight super bowl with a former Cocoa Tiger on the roster

2020 SPACE COAST SPORTS HALL OF FAME: High Impact New Orleans Saints Player Chauncey Gardner-Johnson from Cocoa Tigers Football Recognized as Among Best Young Players in NFL.

(PHILADELPHIAEAGLES.COM) – Former Cocoa Tigers defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson will try to win his first Super Bowl when his Philadelphia Eagles take on the winner of the Bengals-Chiefs AFC Championship game.

It was on Sunday as it has been the entire season: The Eagles’ offense started fast and scored a touchdown on its first possession for the 10th time and then played a patient, multidimensional game the rest of the way.

The defense played physical, fundamental, and technically sound football, changed the course of the game with its pass rush, and took the ball away.

And as the frenzied, deliriously happy crowd at Lincoln Financial Field stayed on its feet for an entire afternoon and roared its approval as the Eagles dismantled the San Francisco 49ers 31-7 to advance to Super Bowl LVII, its second Super Bowl appearance in six seasons, one word came to mind.

That’s what the Eagles have been in a season of 16 wins in 19 games.

They’ve won offensively behind a great offensive line, a quarterback who made the leap to stardom in his third season, a standout room of pass catchers, a take-charge group of running backs, and a coaching staff that, on a weekly basis, found and exploited the weaknesses of opposing defenses.

Philadelphia’s defense, bolstered by an infusion of talent acquired even into the middle of this regular season, did on Sunday what it’s done since September.

A Haason Reddick sack on the sixth San Francisco snap sent 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy to the sidelines with an elbow injury – the Eagles led the NFL in quarterback sacks this year with 70 after registering just 29 in 2021.

The Eagles shut down the 49ers running game save for a Christian McCaffrey 23-yard touchdown run. And Jonathan Gannon’s group, which led the NFL in takeaways for much of the 2022 season, registered three of them on Sunday, one late in the first half that the offense promptly turned into seven points and a 21-7 advantage.

A team built to win it all is now just one victory away from its second Super Bowl Championship.

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