Eagles Today

Ten Super Bowl LII Memories on Fourth Anniversary of Historic Victory

Personal recollections from the Eagles' 41-33 victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on Feb. 4, 2018

Ed Kracz

In this story:

The same two things greeted me every morning when I walked into the Mall of America in Minneapolis, where the media center was, during the days leading up to Super Bowl LII.

They were the life-sized banners of Tom Brady and Nick Foles, hanging from an atrium ceiling that draped down about three stories into the heart of the mall.

I shook my head each time and thought the same thing… no way Foles beats Brady.

Then it happened. The backup went toe-to-toe with the greatest quarterback of all time and won, 41-33.

Four years later, the memories haven’t died. They haven’t even faded.

I suspect they never will.

The Eagles’ 41-33 victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII was the greatest moment in Philadelphia sports history.

There shouldn’t be any controversy about that statement.

I’ve lived through some great moments dating back a long time, covered several championship moments, and honestly believe that night in Minneapolis stands alone.

My two top recollections from that game, that week, are probably like everybody else’s – the Philly Special and the Brandon Graham strip-sack.

For me, it is in that order, too.

The Philly Special was a derivation of a play other teams tried in some form previously, but never in as big of a spot as Doug Pederson and Nick Foles used it. Fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the final 40 seconds of the first half against a dynasty. The ensuing TD gave the Eagles a 22-12 lead at halftime.

It may be a long time before anybody sees a quarterback catch a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl the way Foles did on that play.

Here are 10 more memories for me:

10. Bryan Braman’s tackle on the ensuing kickoff after the Eagles went up 41-33. The Patriots tried a reverse on the kickoff, but Braman never bit, snuffing it out for a 1-yard loss putting New England at the 9 with 58 seconds left. It felt like the final nail in the Patriots’ coffin at the time, not knowing they’d have one more crack at a Hail Mary after getting to midfield.

9. Tom Brady drops a wide-open pass. It happened in the second quarter on third-and-five when Danny Amendola hit Brady in the open field, but Brady couldn’t catch it. Foles showed him how to do it later in the quarter with a TD catch. The Patriots failed to convert on fourth-and-5, and the Eagles took the ball and scored a touchdown when LeGarrette Blount ran 21 yards in for a score to give the Eagles a 15-3 lead midway through the second quarter.

8. Corey Clement’s 55-yard catch-and-run that preceded the Philly Special. The rookie runner was fun to watch in the open field and came on the ensuing drive after NE had pulled to within 15-12.

7. Corey Clement had an answer to another Patriots TD that had made the game 22-19 when he caught a 22-yard TD touchdown on the Eagles’ ensuing possession. Clement led the team in receiving yards with 100 on four catches.

6. Foles was just so much fun to watch. He was in the proverbial zone and wasn’t going to be denied. He finished 28-for-43 with 373 yards, three touchdown passes, one touchdown catch, a passer rating of 106.1, and the MVP award.

5. Foles’ 34-yard throw to Alshon Jeffery and Jeffery’s twisting end zone catch was the first TD of the game and let New England know they weren't going to back down. The catch was even more remarkable when it was learned days later that Jeffery played with a torn rotator cuff.

4. Rodney McLeod’s tackle of Brandin Cooks on a third-and-two, end-around from the Eagles’ 9-yard line was a beauty. Cooks tried to hurdle McLeod, but McLeod never went low. He stood tall and tackled Cooks with his face planted in Cooks’ belly. The play netted one yard, so the Patriots tried a 26-yard field goal which Stephen Gostkowski doinked off the upright.

We have reached the Zach Ertz portion of the list:

3. The Eagles tight end caught the touchdown that put the Eagles ahead after the Patriots had grabbed their first lead of the game at 33-32. It was an 11-yard strike that Ertz handled cleanly then turned upfield a bit and launched himself horizontally into the end zone. The play withstood a lengthy review because the ball had come out when Ertz hit the ground, but the ball had already crossed the goal line. The score came with just 2:21 left in the game, but a missed PAT pass made the Eagles’ advantage just 38-32.

2. Before the TD, Ertz kept the drive – and the Eagles’ championship dreams – alive with a fourth-and-one catch that went for two yards. Ertz drove off the line of scrimmage just far enough, turned, and made the catch on a quick-hitting play.

You could make the argument that Ertz could have been the MVP based on just those two plays alone, though he did end the game with seven catches for 67 yards.

1. This one is personal. After the game and all the podium interviews, the locker room opened and the players were gathered around Doug Pederson, who was finishing up a speech when I walked in. He turned it over to Malcolm Jenkins to break the team down and after he said some fiery words while everybody cheered, he told his teammates to take a knee, and I kneeled, too.

It was then that everybody started linking arms as the Lord’s Prayer was recited. I felt an arm link with mine, looked over and it was Ertz.

This is where my story doesn’t veer away from many others, because it was then that I thought of my dad, who had passed away in November of 2015 and I began to cry because he would have loved this moment being a diehard Eagles fan.

I then blinked away the tears as best I could, dried my face, and went back to work inside a locker room that was in full celebratory mode.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.

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Ed Kracz
ED KRACZ

Ed Kracz has been covering the Eagles full-time for over a decade and has written about Philadelphia sports since 1996. He wrote about the Phillies in the 2008 and 2009 World Series, the Flyers in their 2010 Stanely Cup playoff run to the finals, and was in Minnesota when the Eagles secured their first-ever Super Bowl win in 2017. Ed has received multiple writing awards as a sports journalist, including several top-five finishes in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards.

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