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As you may have seen, the Philadelphia Eagles used a play from Super Bowl LII to beat the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday evening.
But it’s technically not the one you think. Nelson Agholor throwing to Nick Foles was reminiscent of Trey Burton throwing to Nick Foles back in February, yes, but tonight’s play was not exactly the Philly Special.
A key difference with this play is that the ball was snapped to Foles and NOT directly to Corey Clement, unlike last time.
No, this wasn’t the Philly Special.
It was the play the Patriots ran against the Eagles in the Super Bowl when Tom Brady was wide open and DROPPED THE BALL.
Eagles OT Lane Johnson on Nelson Agholor’s throw to Nick Foles, tells team broadcast it wasn’t Philly Special: “It was the same play the Patriots used — the one that Tom dropped.”
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 7, 2018
Doug Pederson acknowledged as much during his post-game press conference.
“It’s where we got it from,” he admitted. “We just put different people in the game.”
And he talked about the thought process behind it.
“Well, um, it was a play that we had put in for this week. It was a play that was in our their down menu. We were on the correct hash mark. And it was the right time of the game.”
The play call name?
“Philly Philly, was the play.”
Philly Philly is originally what Foles suggested to Pederson in the Super Bowl, but that’s not what he meant to say. Foles did mean to say Philly Special. Tonight’s play was truly meant to be Philly Philly this time around.
Novelty value aside, this play call by Pederson was a huge turning point in the game. Lincoln Financial Field felt kind of lifeless as the offense was struggling to move the ball all night long. Thankfully for their sake, Big Balls Doug knew how to get the Eagles back on track.
It’s fun that, on a night where the Eagles celebrated their Super Bowl win, Pederson was able to use a treasured memory from that game to help the team win THIS season. It’s even better that Pederson spent this offseason insisting the Eagles “retired” the Philly Special and wouldn’t use it again.
Technically, he was right. The Eagles used a slightly different play.
From the team they beat in the Super Bowl.
nick foles playing the hits pic.twitter.com/TeD5A14Yg1
— SB Nation (@SBNation) September 7, 2018