25 Years, 25 Wins – Part One
Posted: June 21st, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 47 Comments »I’ve been in a reflective mood recently. That helped me to think of an interesting idea. Choose the best win from each of the past 25 seasons. I’m going to leave playoff games out of this because they’re too obvious.
The first 10 games…
2012 – PHI 23, TB 21 — I considered going with the Ravens game or the Giants game, but there were weird circumstances with each win. We needed the Giants to miss a FG to clinch that game. There was the OPI call that was controversial and greatly affected the Ravens win. Down in Tampa, we made the comeback and had the winning play at the end.
2011 – PHI 34, DAL 7 — Do I need to say much about this? We out-gained them 495 to 267. Mike Vick played his most complete game as an Eagle and Shady McCoy ran wild on the Dallas defense.
2010 – PHI 59, WAS 28 — Many might pick the Miracle at the Meadowlands II, but that was a miserable 52 minutes followed by an unbelievable 8 minutes. The Skins game was a curb-stomping for the ages. The Eagles piled up 592 yards. Vick was at his most spectacular. Amazing performance. I almost picked the win over the Colts, believe it or not. Beating Peyton Manning for the first time actually meant more to me than the Skins game.
2009 – PHI 45, NYG 38 — Do you remember this shootout? There were 5 TDs of 60 or more yards. The Giants piled up 512 yards of offense, but couldn’t keep up with the Eagles scoring. DeSean Jackson destroyed the Giants with 6 catches for 178 yards. He had a 60-yard TD catch and a 72-yard punt return TD. Wild, wild game.
2008 – PHI 15, PIT 6 — We faced the Steelers in a tough, physical defensive battle and won. Big Ben was sacked 9 times and the Steelers gained just 181 yards. The game was sealed when Dawk blitzed and strip-sacked Ben late in the 4th quarter. Dawk recovered the fumble and that was that. Not pretty, but fun to watch.
2007 – PHI 56, DET 21 — One of the more bizarre blowouts I can recall. The Lions were so inept that guys were just wide open, over and over. Kevin Curtis looked like TO, Jerry Rice and Calvin Johnson rolled into one. He caught 11 passes for 221 yards and 3 TDs. Brian Westbrook was 14-110-2 as a runner and 5-111-1 as a receiver. This was like the video game where you know how to score on any given play. Eagles were good, but the Lions were beyond awful on D. Speaking of awful, I assume you remember the throwback (or was that throw up) uniforms the team wore. View at your discretion.
2006 – PHI 23, DAL 7 — I’m sure some of you may have chosen the first Dallas game, when TO returned to The Linc and lost in dramatic fashion, but the rematch was better to me. You have to understand what was going on back then. Tony Romo was 6-2 as the starting QB. He hadn’t had an awful game to that point. The world loved Gomer Romo at that point. He was a winner. He smiled. The Eagles were given the task of going to Dallas on Christmas day for a nationally televised game. Romo was dating Carrie Underwood and she was at the game. The TV cameras were showing her a lot before the game and early on. The set-up was incredible. The nation was going to watch Romo and his girlfriend have a smilefest as the Eagles went down hard. But the Eagles defense had other ideas. Romo was sacked 3 times, picked off twice and constantly harassed. He finished 14-29-142. That was his worst game of the year and the beginning of him having some bad luck. Dallas didn’t win the division in part because of that loss. They went to Seattle and Romo had the botched hold. He’s struggled with big game questions ever since. Nice.
2005 – PHI 37, KC 31 — One of the best comebacks of the Reid era. Dante Hall (remember him?) returned a KO 96 yards for a TD and the Chiefs led 24-7 in the 2nd quarter. The Eagles outscored them 31-7 the rest of the way. There was no run game so Donovan McNabb had to carry the team. He threw for 369 yards and 3 TDs.
2004 – PHI 27, MIN 16 — The first ever Eagles game I attended. MNF. Both teams had Super Bowl aspirations. TO vs Moss. McNabb vs Culpepper. Great storylines. And it turned into a great game. It was fun to watch Jim Johnson’s creative gameplan. Lito Sheppard spent much of the night chasing Moss around (and limiting him). Jevon Kearse was the Joker. He lined up all over and did a bit of everything. McNabb had a great TD run and hit TO for a score. There was an electric atmosphere that night. Felt like a playoff game.
2003 – PHI 17, GB 14 — Another MNF game. It was 39 degrees at kickoff and pouring down rain. The Eagles had no Dawk on D. The offense was struggling. Things didn’t look good. It is tough to win at Lambeau on a good day, let alone with all these issues. Turned out to be a very odd game. The Packers ran for 241 yards. Normally that should mean a win, but they had 6 fumbles. The Eagles only recovered 2 of them, but other fumbles meant lost yards or opportunities. Brett Favre only threw for 109 yards and was picked off by Nate Wayne, who had come over from Green Bay in the offseason. McNabb led the Eagles on a late comeback and hit Todd Pinkston for a 6-yard TD with 27 seconds left in the game.
I will post the final 15 games in the near future. I might break that into 2 parts or just do it all at once. We’ll see.
If things remain quiet in June/July, I might go back and write more extensive notes on some of these games. We don’t have any Lombardis, but there have been some great moments in the last 25 years.
Tommy, great post. I agree with almost everyone, but I was surprised 44-6 against the cowboys didn’t make the cut for 2008. We beat the Cowboys, made the playoffs, and kept the Cowboys out of the playoffs. Personally, that is my favorite Eagles victory in the past decade(regular season of course).
Showed the game to my son just the other day. Best part of the game game is Romo forlorn on the ground with his hands aside his helmet wishing the earth would bury him and get him out of there.
Whats the best way to find old games to watch. I usually mess with Torrents, but they are limited….Other then DVR/dieo tape, whats the best way to watch old Eagles games?
Truly was great, but I’ve got so many other Cowboys wins that I decided to go with PIT. If you took away factors like that, probably would have made it. Heck, I could choose Dallas for just about every year. 🙂
That is true. There really is nothing better then betting the Cowboys… Well, maybe beating the Giants.
Tommy—
I agree with the Steelers game; at that time, their Defense had given us fits, and it seemed (just like with Peyton) that we couldn’t defeat them. When they came to the Linc that day, we slugged it out with them. 1 touchdown, 1 safety, and 3 field goals on the day for both teams.
Dawk’s blitz, strip, and fumble recovery was amazing. Man I miss that guy
Quick link to a youtube video that I love about that Cowboys game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rBA41f7A0c
Cracks me up every single time.
Yes. Gotta pick the “Eagles porn” game from 2008. Dawk was in full-on Wolverine mode, forcing two fumbles that were returned for TDs. IIRC, that was his last game at the Linc. I was there and it was awesome.
Absolutely a great day for our Birds. The fun started in the concourse watching the Raiders upset the Bucs to open the door for the Eagles, and it just got better. Amped crowd made for one of the best atmospheres ever at the Linc.
For 2004′ the MNF game with the against the Cowboys with the 24 second scramble and heave was my highlight. I watched from a hospital bed after an operation and it was a fabulous way to aid recovery.
What I remember from the Eagles Lions game of ’07 was how poor Kolb looked in relief at the end when coming on for clearing up duty. One drive, 2 sacks conceded, 1 fumble given up. To me, he looked like a deer in the headlights, which considering the context of the game, I found very disappointing.
Other than that, one of your favourite all-time Eagles was the only TE to catch a pass for us that day.
Loving history as you might tell, I can tell you that I have erased most of 2005 from my mind but there was a game in which Mark Simoneau scored an extra point and that memory of it isn’t tainted, so we probably won. Other than that, I remember a 400lb Shawn Andrews, the rest, as I said, has been bleached.
simoneau attempted more than just the 1 kick that season, didn’t he? i vaguely remember him doing a horrid kickoff and a fg attempt or something. maybe i’m imagining that lol
that 2007 lion game was just a fun day.
deseans TD on the 1st play vs the redskins was incredible. Put that CB close to desean and you are in trouble!!!
Yes! That was the Safety LaRon Landry he dusted. Landry was talking sh*t to him before the game so on the first play DJ jets by him and leaves him eating a face full of turf.
he dusted the CB AND Laron, they had the CB up on the line pressing him at the start, djacc got past both lol epic
The best thing about that game to me was that DJax went over to the broadcast crew before kickoff and said to them, “We’re going long on the first play. Don’t tell anybody.”
A few memories:
2003: I won GREAT Flyers tickets based on correctly guessing the 31 point total from that game in a bar contest! And Pinkston scored………..as opposed to running away from a pass (and Sean Taylor) in the open field!
2008: We should have won our 2nd Superbowl that year (in addition to 2002), but the horrible coaching by Andy and JJ made us 5 TDs (+28 .vs -7) worse vs. the Cardinals in the matter of a few weeks. Our D would have destroyed the Steelers once again in that game.
One of my Favorite memories that I remember so clearly is the first half of the NFC championship loss to the Rams..Hugh Douglas leaping onto Kurt Warners back is an image I will Never forget. That Moment is immortalized Like Dawkins Donkey Konging Algie Crumpler, Sheldon Brown Debackling Reggie Bush, Opening up the preseason with the BOMB to TO against the Ravens, TO doing the ray Lewis Dance to mock him, westbrook showing the ultimate team player by downing the ball short of scoring a walk in touchdown because playing it safe and winning the game was more important than his stats
I’m glad wins over the Giants and Steelers made the list. There aren’t two more despicable fan bases in sports.
Also, anybody else want to pre-nominate the House of Pain game .vs Houston in 91 as the game of the year for that season? I don’t want to get ahead of Tommy on this, but watching Wes Hopkins put the forearm to the face of that Houston WR is pure gold! The hit is at 1:20 ish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLzkBm9Ljhg
steelers win was probably my favorite…not surprising that I would chose the defensive battle..
Tommy,
I just read your post on PE.com and I also share your hatred for Sapp’s analysis. It usually consists of ” blah blah sack the quarterback blah blah!” Then he does his big smile and it’s over, leaving me confused an annoyed!
Jimmy Bama had a Twitter battle with him in 2011. Sapp said on NFLN that the Eagles couldn’t run the ball. Jimmy tweeted at him that we led the league in rushing yards per game. Sapp responded that we only had the 8th most yards or something like that. Jimmy pointed out that’s because of the bye week. Sapp wouldn’t acknowledge that. Talked down to Jimmy the whole time.
Only really started following both of you about a year ago. Sorry I missed that! Even if we were 8th, we could still clearly run the ball. That fact alone proves his ignorance.
Ha, I remember that. Sapp should retire his voice-box.
Sapp can be a bit of a dope, but I kind of like him.
1) He’s from THE U!
2) He just gave the greatest breakdown of one of the most overrated players in the history of the free world. Read some TRUTH about a piece of New York trash.
http://tbo.com/sports/bucs/sapp-takes-more-shots-at-strahan-20130619/
Is the 2003 game when Ahman Green went off? If he had held on to the ball we would have been toast. The rain was coming down and he was wearing those rubber elbow pads that looked pretty slick. We should start handing those things out to the opposing teams when it rains.
Green went for 191 in that game. Killed us.
[…] Tommy also listed his best Eagles win of the season for each of the last 10 years. Some years the Eagles were plentiful in great wins. For example, […]
Best game of 2012 was week 17 when we were finally put out of our misery.
A note about why I left the 44-6 win over Dallas off from 2008.
I went through each schedule carefully. I have favorite games in my head, but wanted to make sure not to overlook something. I considered the context of the win. What did it mean then? How about now? Did we play well or did the opponent lie down? Things like this.
The 15-6 win over PIT in 2008 was a game that went down to the wire. Pressure-packed. It wasn’t fully of offense and big plays, but was a lot of fun to watch. We played the rugged Steelers and beat them at their own game. We had more sacks than they had points. Also helped that we beat the Super Bowl champs.
The 44-6 win was awesome. So much fun. Glorious day. But that wasn’t a special Dallas team. They missed the playoffs (due to our win). That game did feature big plays, but they were strange. Dallas drove to our RZ twice, only to have us get the ball and go score defensive TDs. The offense didn’t do anything special. Gained 303 yards. Dallas just made mistake after mistake. They lost as much as we won, if that makes sense.
Another factor is that half of the 1990s wins will probably be against Dallas. Chose other wins over Dallas. Didn’t want to get in a rut of picking too many Cowboys games.
I loved that PIT game for all the reasons you said. And yes, the 44-6 game was strange. You could say the two fumbles in the RZ were Dallas mistakes, or you could say it was Dawk beasting in his swansong as an Eagle (double mixed metaphor!). I pick the latter.
Remember the context on that game. We were all but eliminated from the playoffs until 4:15 PM, when the Vikings poop the bed. Suddenly, we’re in a winner-goes-to-the-playoffs game and kickoff is upon us. The atmosphere in the stadium was unbelievable.
But Jerry’s face Tommy. They kept showing his face. Otherwise love your work.
This is a simple, but very compelling counter-argument. Well done.
Tommy–
Can you PLEASE!! pick the 24-0 drubbing our win over the Cowboys in 1989, on Thanksgiving? We had 11 sacks that game………. it was the first game I actually remember thinking “wow, I really like the Eagles”!
Up until that point the Eagles were the team of my family– after that, they were my team.
Love the work you do but if you asked me the single best victory in the regular or post season it would be the 44-6 game to get into the playoffs. Seeing Jerry Jones face repeatedly during that game (not to mention T.O.’s) is something that I will never forget. It was humiliating and I loved it. Also Dawkins showed the world why he is HOF material. Again.
This is the game that immediately jumped to mind. It was such complete dominance by the birds and B-Dawk. That game, some of his past hits, and the strip sack of Roethlisberger are some of what I’ll always remember about Dawk. Favorite Eagle ever and the best for my money.
I completely understand the logic of going with the Pit game in 2008 and the Was game in 2010, but in terms of historical games that every Eagles fan will remember and want to tell their kids about, the Dallas game and the Miracle at the Meadowland are the games that will be remembered. You’re absolutely right that they may not have been the “best” games, but in the Giants game for example, even with 52 minutes of misery, those 8 minutes are what make sports incredible.
Lots of truth in what you say. I was trying to not make knee-jerk decisions and really study the situation.
I’m more down on the Giants win than most. Part of my feelings come from the fact that proved to be big time fool’s gold. Since then, we’re 12-23. That win hurt us more than it helped us.
It was an amazing accomplishment. I certainly don’t deny that.
How bad was last year when the “best” win came against a 7-9 team? If Foles ends up being a quality NFL QB, that might be the game to point to where things started. I think the win against Cleveland in week 1 last year was the “win” that summed up the year best.
For 2010 – I understand why you left the MM2 game out because I was throwing things and screaming at the TV for 3-1/2 quarters. However I can’t remember a win that made me happier at the end other than maybe the 1980 NFC Championship game. It was the freakin Giants, man!
First time I’ve vehemently disagreed. The best win in ’08 was the blowout against big D in the season finale to make the playoffs and eliminate Dallas in spectacular fashion. One of the most fun games ever.
i agree i loved that game two fumble recoveries for tds lol
Let’s hope the vehement disagreement is over how the Super Bowl parade should be done.
The Tuesday after they win it. CASE CLOSED. If you remember in February of 2005 they were talking about not doing on that day (if we’d have beaten the Pats) because our scared law enforcement and civic “leaders” were peeing themselves over having to actually work a parade and Fat Tuesday. Cowards.
2012, the best game was by far the Tampa game simply because it provided us the most hope going forward out of any games that we saw last year…
Defensively, I would say 3/4 or atleast half of the Bengals game provided the most hope for our defense going forward…
Much of the success in the Giants and Ravens game has no bearing on our future. You can take some good away from the Ravens game, with guys like Meco,Boykin and Kendricks playing their tails off…in hindsight the Giants game was just a squeek by win between two miserable teams..
I actually get more hope from the most recent loss to the redskins(the 2nd time we played them) when Foles got hurt, than I do fe Giants win
The Ravens game is the best of last year. Just as close, and more fun to watch. Plus it was over the eventual Super Bowl champs.