Malcolm Butler wasn't the only person shocked by Bill Belichick's decision to bench him for the entirety of Super Bowl LII. Across the field, Eagles coaches and players also couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"After the first series or two. We were like, '[Butler's] not in the game!'" an Eagles assistant told TheMMQB.com's Andy Benoit. "They have 23 [Patrick Chung] in there. That's crazy!'"

Philly's coaching staff already knew that an average New England defense struggled to defend bunch formations and even before learning of Butler's fate, had planned to exploit that on Sunday night. And that task became immeasurably easier with Butler stuck on the sidelines for what Belichick described as strictly a football decision.

According to the Eagles' assistant, the plan was to go after backup cornerback Eric Rowe because "we could get Alshon [Jeffery] out there against him."

And why were the Eagles so confident that Rowe was a liability?

"We had Rowe on our team here in Philly, we knew that was a mismatch," he said.

For some context, Butler played 1,038 snaps during the regular season, roughly 97 percent of the Patriots' total defensive snaps. Rowe, meanwhile, was on the field for just 261 snaps. And while Butler didn't have a great 2017 campaign -- he even characterized it as a "sh---y season" -- he graded out much better than Rowe; Pro Football Focus ranked him 48th among all NFL cornerbacks; Rowe was 188th out of 209.

This probably goes a long way in explaining why Rowe was surprised to learn he was starting.

"No, that wasn't the plan," Rowe said after the game. "It wasn't official until kickoff. ... I feel for [Butler]."

Butler, meanwhile, was as perplexed as the rest of us.

"They gave up on me. F---. It is what it is," Butler said, via ESPN.com's Mike Reiss. "I don't know what it was. I guess I wasn't playing good or they didn't feel comfortable. I don't know. But I could have changed that game."

Butler's right.

And for all the talk of Bill Belichick, Football Genius, it's hard to reconcile that with his decision to bench Butler for, in his words, strictly football reasons. Because that's insane.

Perhaps Eagles wide receiver Torrey Smith put it best, telling Benoit: "...[P]ut it like this: I definitely did not study No. 25 [Rowe]. I watched him a little bit, but I didn't study him."