PHOENIX — While the fight song for the Philadelphia Eagles may be “Fly, Eagles Fly,” the offensive formula that carried the team to the Super Bowl was more grounded.

With a trio of capable running backs, one of the best running quarterbacks and a dominating offensive line, the Eagles eschewed the pass-happy approach that has taken over the league in recent years to rely more on the ground game to overwhelm opponents physically.

“It’s like a boxing match,” running backs coach Jemal Singleton said. “Hopefully we’re getting enough body blows in the first and second quarter that when it comes to the third and fourth quarter, those body blows get a little bit heavier and you start to diminish your opponent a little bit. That’s part of what we try to do is just stay physical throughout the game.”

Few teams have done that as well as the Eagles, who have run the ball on half their offensive plays and averaged 153.9 yards rushing per game, including the playoffs – which would be the highest mark for a Super Bowl champion since the 1998 Denver Broncos. Philadelphia’s 39 TD runs are the most ever in a season.

The Eagles have a variety of options to fuel the running game with Miles Sanders leading the way with a career-high 1,269 yards and 11 TDs in a contract year.

“This year was kind of one of those years where I just wanted to make everybody feel me,” Sanders said. “So I just took it upon myself to just control what I could control and just go out there and ball out every game, every time I touch the ball and make everybody pay for it.”

He has done that and gotten plenty of help from Boston Scott and Kenneth Gainwell, as well as quarterback Jalen Hurts. Gainwell leads the team with 160 yards rushing this postseason, with Scott adding two TD runs.

“It’s a really cool situation because we are all able to do pretty much everything you want,” Scott said. “Whatever is asked of us, whether it’s pass-block, running routes, running in between the tackles, outside speed, we can all do it.”

While some teams try to fool defenses with motion, the Eagles prefer a more static approach, believing a line led by All-Pro center Jason Kelce and right tackle Lane Johnson can control the trenches without using deception. Philadelphia used motion on just 34% of running plays – about 10 percentage points lower than the next-lowest team.

“You might know what’s coming, but the NFL is all about matchups,” Johnson said. “So they’re going to put matchups on and create matchup problems for the D-line, for linebackers with our schemes and what we do.”

While the backs get the majority of the yards on the ground, the threat of Hurts running fuels the run game for the Eagles. They were held to 154 yards rushing in the two games he missed with a shoulder injury – about half their season average. Hurts has rushed for 833 yards in his 17 starts with his 15 touchdown runs the most ever for a quarterback in the regular season and playoffs combined.

But just his presence is what makes the run game so successful.

“Even if he’s handed the ball off, he may hold a guy for one step that allows us to hit a crease and gain 10 more yards we wouldn’t have gotten had he not been a threat as a runner,” Singleton said. “He’s a big part of our run game, a big part of what we do. I wouldn’t say honorary member, he might be the president of the entire deal.”

NFL AWARDS: Nick Bosa made it a landslide for the AP Defensive Player of the Year award. San Francisco’s All-Pro defensive end received 46 first-place votes after leading the NFL with 18 1/2 sacks in the regular season.

Dallas linebacker Micah Parsons finished second with 101 points, far behind Bosa’s 237. Parsons didn’t get a first-place vote but had 30 second-place votes and 11 for third.

Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones came in third with 56 points. Jones had one first-place vote.

• Justin Jefferson ran away with the AP Offensive Player of the Year award. Minnesota’s All-Pro wide receiver got 35 first-place votes and earned 192 points, outdistancing runner-up Patrick Mahomes by a significant margin.

Mahomes received 10 first-place votes and finished with 75 points. Jalen Hurts came in third with 52 points, including three first-place votes. Miami Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill got one first-place vote, finishing fourth. Bills quarterback Josh Allen received the other first-place vote and ended up eighth.

Jefferson led the NFL with 128 catches and 1,809 yards receiving in his third season with the Vikings.

• Geno Smith, who earned his first Pro Bowl berth after becoming a full-time starter for the first time since 2014, is the AP Comeback Player of the Year. The Seattle Seahawks quarterback received 28 first-place votes to beat out San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey. The 32-year-old Smith threw for 4,282 yards, 30 TDs and led Seattle to an NFC wild-card berth.

• Brian Daboll, rookie coach for the New York Giants’ won the AP Coach of the Year honors after leading the team to its first playoff appearance in six years. Daboll received 16 first-place votes to outpace 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who got 12. Daboll totaled 123 points to Shanahan’s 100 in the closest race of all the 2022 AP NFL awards.

Jaguars Coach Doug Pederson finished third with 75 points, including five first-place votes.

• New York Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner won the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year award Thursday, taking 46 first-place votes.

Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson finished second with 129 points, getting three first-place votes. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen came in third with 73 points, including one first-place vote.

• Jets’ wide receiver Garrett Wilson edged out Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker for the AP Offensive Rookie of the year award, 156-129. Wilson led all rookies with 83 catches and 1,103 yards receiving. Walker led all rookies with 1,050 yards rushing and nine TDs.

Wilson received 18 first-place votes, one fewer than Walker. However, he got 19 seconds to Walker’s eight. Wilson had nine third-place votes, also one fewer than Walker.

• DeMeco Ryans will take the AP Assistant Coach of the Year award with him to Houston. The new Texans head coach received 35 first-place votes after guiding the league’s No. 1 ranked defense in San Francisco.

Ryans, who spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator of the 49ers, earned 206 points. He was named on 48 of 50 ballots.

LAWSUIT: Ten retired NFL players are accusing the league of lies, bad faith and flagrant violations of federal law in denying disability benefits in a potential class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in Baltimore.

The men said they left the game with lingering physical or cognitive injuries that make their daily lives difficult if not excruciating. They also said they are not alone.

“They’re a small fraction of the players who have been wronged by the NFL’s disability plan. These former players deserve far more from an organization worth billions of dollars than a sham process in which there’s no chance of success,” said lawyer Chris Seeger, who separately has been class counsel in the $1 billion settlement of NFL concussion claims.