The 10 best and worst Eagles Super Bowl moments: From the Philly Special to a ‘pick sick’

The last time the Eagles reached the Super Bowl, Nick Foles and Brandon Graham used the occasion to become franchise icons and Zach Ertz made up for a Ricky Watters-like mistake. For who? His teammates. For what? The Vince Lombardi Trophy.

This will be the Eagles’ fourth trip to the Supe. Here are some highlights and lowlights from the previous three.

10. What a trip. Super Bowl XV was an unmitigated disaster, but in the interest of full inclusion, here’s a highlight from 1981. The Eagles lost to Oakland, 27-10, but boy did owner Leonard Tose throw a party while in New Orleans. He paid for more than 700 friends, family and others to join the team on Bourbon Street. The guest list included head of Philadelphia’s Catholic church John Cardinal Krol, profane comedian Don Rickles and the hairdresser for Tose’s wife.

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9. T.O.’s heroics. Six weeks after suffering a fractured fibula and severely sprained ankle, Terrell Owens went against doctors’ orders and put up nine catches for 122 yards in an Eagles loss to New England in Super Bowl 39. After the game, Owens patted coach Andy Reid on the shoulder and told him, “We’ll be back. I have no doubt we’ll be back on this stage.” Unhappy with his contract, he had several meltdowns the following season and never again came close to reaching the Super Bowl.

8. That was close. Tom Brady’s heave covered more than half the field, but eventually fell to the ground as the Eagles won their first Super Bowl, 41-33. Brady in the previous season’s Super Bowl had rallied the Patriots from a 28-3 deficit, so it was serious squeaky bum time when he had the ball in a one-possession game.

7. Corey’s day. Former Glassboro High star Corey Clement had the game of his life on the biggest stage. Clement set up Nick Foles’ rather memorable touchdown (see below) with a 55-yard reception, and also had a 22-yard TD grab that Patriots’ fans still gripe was not a catch. Oh well. Clement led all Eagles with 100 receiving yards, easily his career high.

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6. Freight train coming. Brandin Cooks, New England’s leading wide receiver, had one catch in Super Bowl LII — a 23-yarder which he then pirouetted right into a blindside hit by Eagles’ safety Malcolm Jenkins. The collision knocked out Cooks, who had 100 yards receiving two weeks earlier in the AFC championship game.

5. Through the fingertips. The Patriots were unable to complete a trick play pass to 40-year-old quarterback Tom Brady when the ball slipped harmlessly through his fingers. Brady was open, too, and would have gotten to the fringes of the end zone had he been able to make the catch.

4. Air Alshon. The first touchdown of Super Bowl LII was a thing of athletic beauty as Alshon Jeffery hauled in a 34-yard dart from Foles late in the first quarter. Jeffery had just one more catch that night, an over-the-shoulder gem on the next drive to set up the Birds’ second TD. This allowed the Eagles to play with the lead for most of the game.

3. The Ertz touchdown. A year after getting roasted for whiffing on a block in a dismal loss to Cincinnati, Ertz scored the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl LII with a diving play that was all determination. Ertz changed his legacy that night. Four of his seven catches, including the touchdown, converted third downs. And he had three catches on the game-winning drive, including another that converted a gutsy fourth-down from the Eagles’ side of the 50.

“Last year [2016] was really a difficult year, not only for myself but for the team,” Ertz said. His missed block came during a late five-game losing streak which led to a 7-9 record.

“I never really shied away from that situation that I had to endure. There were some people that would say stuff, but it was tough obviously. . . . The fans never gave up on me. I told them at the time that they would never question my effort again, and I am lucky to be in this situation playing for this city. I will never take it for granted.”

2. BG’s strip sack. Tom Brady dropped back to throw 50 times in Super Bowl LII, he was sacked only once. Brandon Graham blew past New England guard Shaq Lawson, knocked the ball loose from Brady where it bounced fortuitously to Derek Barnett with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game. It didn’t cement the game, but it did help the Eagles turn a five-point lead into an eight-point one with a subsequent field goal. Brady got the ball back, but with only 65 seconds and no timeouts. Arguably the biggest defensive play in team history.

“All game, we were one step away, one step away from Brady,” Graham said afterward. “But he kept getting the ball out. He started making some plays. But we didn’t get frustrated. We kept coming. We knew sooner or later something was going to open up.”

1. Now that was Special. It was fourth and goal with the first half winding down in Super Bowl LII. Even Merrill Reese wanted the Eagles to kick the field goal. What happened instead was history.

Foles should have won an Oscar for his deception in selling the play (”Kill! Kill! Lane! Lane!”). The direct snap from Jason Kelce to running back Clement was precise. The end-around toss to Trey Burton was peerless. And finally, the perfect pass from Burton to a wide-open Foles for the most unlikely touchdown in Eagles’ Super Bowl history. For Doug Pederson to call that play, termed “Philly Special at that moment in Super Bowl LII was a signal that the Eagles had come to Minneapolis to win this thing.

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Moments before the snap, left tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai had the same reaction Eagles’ fans would have after it. “I looked at [left guard Stefen Wisniewski],” Vaitai said. “We were like, ‘We’re really doing this?”

Similarly, check out the look between offensive linemen Brandon Brooks and Lane Johnson around the 1:30 mark of this video.

Precious.

10. Lost in history. Had the Eagles defense blown Super Bowl XL, especially after forcing the Patriots to start their final drive on the 9-yard line with no timeouts, it would have surpassed the ‘64 Phillies in all-time gags. They gave up 505 passing yards, had no interceptions in 49 attempts and allowed 33 points. But Graham saved the day.

9. That ain’t cool. The police department of New Orleans, site of Super Bowl XV, received calls of anonymous death threats on three of Oakland’s players. With the game lopsided, Kenny King, Lester Hayes and Cliff Branch went to the Raiders locker room with less than two minutes left, according to coach Tom Flores.

8. Ominous sign. Ron Jaworski’s first pass of Super Bowl XV – the first Eagles’ pass ever in a Super Bowl, in fact – was intercepted by Rod Martin and brought back to the Birds’ 30-yard line. Martin had three interceptions that night, a Super Bowl record that has stood for 42 years.

7. Rare lapse. Harold Carmichael committed an illegal motion penalty when he started upfield too soon on a play in which Jaworski hit Rodney Parker for a game-tying 40-yard touchdown in the first quarter of Super Bowl XV. “I just made a mistake,” the normally reliable Carmichael said afterward. It was a familiar refrain.

6. King for a day. A couple plays and a punt later, Oakland quarterback Jim Plunkett found Kenny King on a scramble play that turned into an 80-yard touchdown. It was a Super Bowl record then and put the Raiders up, 14-0.

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5. Just not concentrating. On the subsequent drive, the Eagles appeared to have held the Raiders to a 45-yard field goal attempt (certainly not a gimme in those days), but Carl Hairston was offsides on a third-and-8 and the Raiders got an extra play. Five plays later, they punched it in for a touchdown. The Eagles were tighter than a Swiss wristwatch.

4. Fitting sequence. The Eagles had four plays from the Raiders’ 11-yard line at the end of the first half. Three were incompletions. The fourth, a 28-yard field-goal attempt by barefooted kicker Tony Franklin, was blocked.

3. Two punts. Lots went wrong in Super Bowl XXXIX, including Dirk Johnson shanking a 29-yard punt late in the second quarter that allowed New England to start from the Birds’ 37-yard line. The Patriots took advantage of the short field and tied the game just before half. Conversely, at the end of the game, New England’s Josh Miller executed a beautiful punt to pin the Eagles on their own 4-yard line to start their final drive. Two incompletions and an interception later and all the Eagles could do was watch Brady kneel out the clock.

2. Pick sick. Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb said he had a cold prior to Super Bowl XXXIX, but he was not physically sick during the final moments of the game. Teammates, including center Hank Fraley and wide receiver Freddie Mitchell suggested otherwise in the days after the game. Regardless, McNabb threw three interceptions that night, a season high.

1. Clock mismanagement. The Eagles were down 24-14 with 5:40 left in Super Bowl XXXIX, but were in no hurry despite the deficit. Even the Patriots were stunned. “I remember being on the sidelines saying, ‘We’re ahead by 10 points, right? I mean, Do I have the score right?’” Patriots coach Bill Belichick told NFL Films.

Sources: Inquirer research, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pro-Football-Reference.com