A 72-year streak the Eagles would love to end, an All-Pro cornerback serving burritos and a crazy Nick Sirianni stat.
It’s Super Bowl Week and that means 10 random Eagles observations … every day!
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1. The Eagles haven’t recorded an interception in their three Super Bowls (or in their last NFL Championship Game). Of the 23 teams that have played in at least two Super Bowls, they’re the only one that doesn’t have an INT. In fact, the Chargers and Titans are the only teams that have played in one Super Bowl without picking off a pass. Opposing quarterbacks – Jim Plunkett and Tom Brady – have a 120.3 passer rating against the Eagles in their three Super Bowls and have thrown 103 passes and eight TDs without an INT.
In the first 56 Super Bowls, 49 winners have had at least one INT. Among the seven teams that won a Super Bowl without recording an interception? Of course the 2017 Eagles. The Eagles also won the 1960 NFL Championship without an interception of Bart Starr. Including his 34 attempts, the Eagles have faced 137 consecutive passes in championship games since their last interception. When was the last one? It happened 73 years ago, when Frank Reagan picked off Rams QB Bob Waterfield at the Eagles’ 2-yard-line early in the fourth quarter of the Eagles’ 14-0 win at L.A. Coliseum in the 1949 NFL Championship Game. Reagan was a Philly native and Northeast Catholic graduate and played college ball at Penn and then spent several years as Villanova’s athletic director after his NFL career.
2. There are 66 offensive linemen who’ve played at least 50 snaps this postseason. In Pro Football Focus’s postseason ranking of those 66 guys, Jordan Mailata is No. 1, Landon Dickerson No. 2, Lane Johnson No. 5 and Jason Kelce No. 8. No wonder the Eagles are mauling people. What’s crazy is that Mailata is at the top of both the run-blocking and pass-blocking lists. Isaac Seumalo is a ways down both lists.
3. When the Eagles fly to Phoenix today, it will be their first time on an airplane in 42 days. That’s unbelievable. After the Eagles got home from Dallas late on Christmas Eve, they finished the regular season with two home games, had a bye week, played two home playoff games, then had another bye week. There’s something to be said for sleeping in your own bed, staying in your usual routine and avoiding long stretches at 33,000 feet.
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4. Marty Schottenheimer, Chuck Knox, Dave Wannstedt, Jason Garrett, Jerry Glanville, Marvin Lewis, Don Coryell, Jack Del Rio, Ted Marchibroda, Jim Mora, Wayne Fontes, Dick Nolan, Dick Jauron, Steve Mariucci, Norv Turner, Dennis Green, Bum Phillips and Wade Phillips were NFL head coaches for a combined 230 seasons, and Nick Sirianni has taken more teams to the Super Bowl than all of them combined.
5. In their three Super Bowls, the Eagles have only had six running plays of 10 or more yards. Three by LeGarrette Blount in 2017 (10, 21, 36), two by Brian Westbrook (11, 22) in 2004 and one by Jay Ajayi (26) in 2017. They might double that total in Arizona. In two playoff games so far this year, they have 16 running plays of at least 10 yards: Seven by Kenny Gainwell (12, 12, 12, 14, 16, 17, 35), five by Miles Sanders (11, 12, 13, 18), two by Boston Scott (10, 10) and two by Jalen Hurts (12, 14). The rest of the league has 65 double-digit runs this postseason in 19 games.
6. If the Eagles win the Super Bowl, they’ll have more wins this year at State Farm Stadium than the Cards. Arizona was 1-8 this year at home, including a 20-17 loss to the Eagles in October.
7. In December 1988, the Eagles spent a week in Tempe to practice in warm, dry conditions before the Fog Bowl in Chicago. Eagles kicker Luis Zendejas had settled in Tempe after playing at Arizona State, and he owned a small taco and burrito take-out stand not far from where the Cards’ training facility is now. Luis invited all the beat writers to stop by on a day off from practice, and a couple of us drove over to check it out. There were a handful of people on line at the take-out window, and when we got to the front of the line, who was there taking orders? None other than Zendejas’s ASU and Eagles teammate, Eric Allen, the best cornerback in Eagles history. He was helping out. Ringing people up. Nobody had any clue who he was. By the way, best burrito I ever had.
8. Devon Allen, the Eagles’ practice squad receiver, isn’t the only Olympic hurdler with connections to Super Bowl LVII. Allen placed fifth in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and fourth in 2021 in Tokyo, and he ranks third in world history with his 12.84 time this past June in New York. Jasmine Camacho-Quinn was the gold medalist in the 100-meter hurdles in 2021 in Tokyo with a time of 12.37. She ranks No. 5 in world history with a 12.26 in the Olympic semifinals. Camacho-Quinn’s brother? Eagles edge rusher Robert Quinn. The Quinns are from South Carolina, but their mother hails from Puerto Rico, which allows Camacho-Quinn to compete for Puerto Rico. Curiously, Allen and Camacho-Quinn both have a very high-profile DQ on their resume. Allen was the victim of a disputed DQ in the World Championships final in Eugene this past summer. Camacho-Quinn was DQ’d out of the semifinals of the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
9. The Eagles have allowed 14 sacks in their last nine postseason games. Seven were on Josh McCown.
10. Kenny Gainwell’s postseason emergence reminds me a little bit of 1992. All year, Herschel Walker was the Eagles’ leading rusher. He ran for just over 1,000 yards, but honestly he wasn’t very good. He averaged only 4.0 yards per carry and was awful in the postseason (11-for-41, 3.7 average). Walker was the superstar and Heath Sherman an unknown sixth-round pick, but after getting just 30 carries in the Eagles’ first 10 games, he gradually usurped Walker’s role as RB1, and he finished the season with a 5.2 average, which led the entire NFL. In the wild-card win over the Saints, Sherman ran for 105 yards and Walker had 12. The difference this year is that Miles Sanders has been outstanding, it's just that Gainwell has as well, and he’s earned his bump from 4.5 touches per game in the regular season to 14.5 in the playoffs. Sherman took over because Walker wasn’t productive. Gainwell is just another weapon for an already loaded offense.
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