The Philadelphia Eagles

2017—18 season · Super Bowl LII

Super Bowl LII · U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis · February 4, 2018

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Eagles 41 · Patriots 33

The Philadelphia Eagles win their first Super Bowl championship.

Start the season

Underdogs no more

01 The season

Best year in franchise history, built from the ground up

The 2017 Philadelphia Eagles went 13–3, won the NFC East, and claimed the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs — a franchise record for victories in a regular season. Head coach Doug Pederson’s team played aggressive, modern football, outscored nearly everyone they met, and did it with a defense that forced turnovers in bunches.

Then came a cruel plot twist. On December 10, in a blowout win over the Rams, star quarterback Carson Wentz tore his ACL. The season looked finished. Nick Foles — the backup the team had quietly signed back in March — stepped in and never lost again.

Through the final four regular-season games, the two playoff games, and the Super Bowl, Foles started six straight and won six straight. The city’s old “wait until next year” slogan became, simply, “this year.”

Record
13–3
Regular-season finish
1st, NFC East
Total points scored
355 in the regular season
Turnovers forced
31, best in the NFL
02 The playoff run

Three games. Two upsets in the making. One championship.

  1. Divisional round

    Jan 13, 2018 · Lincoln Financial Field

    Eagles 15

    Falcons 10

    A chorus of Eagles defenders batted down Matt Ryan passes on the final Atlanta drive to survive a scare from the defending conference champions.

  2. NFC Championship

    Jan 21, 2018 · Lincoln Financial Field

    Eagles 38

    Vikings 7

    The top-seeded Eagles obliterated Minnesota in a 38–7 NFC title game snowed in by the loudest home crowd in NFL playoff history — and a blocked punt run back for a touchdown. It set up a date with Tom Brady’s Patriots.

  3. Super Bowl LII

    Feb 4, 2018 · U.S. Bank Stadium

    Eagles 41

    Patriots 33

    The Eagles’ 41 points stands as a Super Bowl record. Nick Foles threw 373 yards and three touchdowns — then caught a fourth. This one needs its own section.

03 The play

“Philly Special”

The boldest call of the game — and maybe of any Super Bowl.

Late in the second quarter, the Eagles faced fourth-and-goal at the New England 1-yard line. A field goal would have been the safe, sensible play. Pederson called the trick instead: the ball snapped directly to running back Corey Clement on a reverse, then tossed to tight end Trey Burton, who floated a pass to — of all people — quarterback Nick Foles.

Foles caught it alone in the end zone. It was the first touchdown reception by a quarterback in Super Bowl history, the widest smile of the season, and it swung the game. The underdog was winning the Super Bowl on its own terms. When asked about the call, Pederson just shrugged: “It won the game.”

“I saw the play in the second quarter last year and told Doug, if we get an opportunity, I want to run it.”— Nick Foles, Super Bowl LII’s Most Valuable Player
4th-and-goal · 1-yard line · the play that changed everything
40 20 40 O O EAGLES OFFENSE O 88 9 D D D D D D D PHILLY SPECIAL

A reverse, a toss, and a quarterback catching a touchdown — the play re-watched by every fan since.

04 The victory

From a strip sack to a parade of green

With the Patriots storming back and the Super Bowl on the line in the final minutes, defensive end Brandon Graham knocked the ball loose from Tom Brady with 2:16 to play. Linebacker Derek Barnett fell on it. The offense tacked on a 46-yard field goal, and Brady’s Hail Mary fell incomplete.

Final score: Eagles 41, Patriots 33. The city that had chased a championship since the 1960 NFL title game finally had one — its first Super Bowl trophy after nearly half a century of waiting. Hundreds of thousands lined Broad Street for the parade on February 8, 2018. The song afterward was always the same one.

Dedicated to the 2017–18 Philadelphia Eagles

First Super Bowl championship · Forever underdogs Green

Go Birds.