This year’s Super Bowl experience was unbelievable. It was such a fun game and from the viewer’s standpoint, it was really exciting to watch since it was so back and forth throughout the night. The fact that we won made it even better!

My first Super Bowl experience while I was with the Seahawks in 2014 was incredible. I earned my first Super Bowl ring on a night I’ll never forget. This time around, I had to watch from the sideline. Obviously, that was tough — the flesh in me wanted to be out there and playing so badly. But it was so good to know for a fact that God had me exactly where He wanted me this season. And our season might be over, but our team has such a bright future with high expectations to get there again.

When our season started out, most were ruling us out for the Super Bowl. We are a young team and newly brought together. But all the way back in April when we started OTA’s, we were just starting out as a team but we could tell we had the right culture of guys, the right coaching staff in place — offensive, defense and special teams — and enough talent to get it done. As the year went on and we had so many injuries, it deterred us a bit; we wondered if we could withstand it. But the character and core of this team was so strong and we were able to overcome literally every injury.

We knew going into the Super Bowl we had a really good team and opportunity to win, but with all the setbacks there were things we definitely had to overcome. Through it all, we believed we could do it and that’s exactly what happened.

Our team really progressed throughout the year. We had a young team with guys who are still developing as players and who needed to step up and fill in for those of us who were injured. As the season went on, all of us gained more and more confidence in our team as a whole as each player continued to step up his game.

With all the setbacks and injuries that came to a number of our key players and so many new guys having to step up, it was so cool to watch as God got all the glory. Everyone had written us off — we lost our left tackle, middle linebacker, running back, safety and then finally our starting quarterback. People were saying, “Somehow they managed to make it this far, but now they’re really done.” In their eyes, losing our star quarterback was the final blow.

But look at what God did through it all! From the world’s eyes, nobody gave us a chance, but God takes what is impossible and makes it possible.

“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” — Matthew 19:26

— Chris Maragos, Philadelphia Eagles safety