Ron Jaworski made a great throw, and Charlie Smith was open in the end zone. The Eagles had a first-quarter touchdown—until the refs threw a flag. Harold Carmichael, who would become a Hall of Famer, went in motion before the snap. He’d left too early. The play was called back, the Eagles punted, and three plays later Oakland Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett hit Kenny King for an 80-yard score. The Eagles lost the Super Bowl, 27-10.
That was Super Bowl 15, which was played in 1981, in New Orleans. I thought about that play during the first quarter of the Eagles’ absurd 40-22 blowout over the Chiefs last night in Super Bowl 59. I’d been thinking a lot about Super Bowl 15, the Eagles’ first and only previous New Orleans Super Bowl appearance. Never mind that it happened before I was born; oldheads in my neighborhood who had attended the game filled me in during my childhood. They talked about that Eagles Super Bowl trip as if they’d made a medieval pilgrimage to the Abbey of Saint Gall (patron saint of birds). They also complained about the penalty, still, a decade-plus after the fact. It was bullshit, they’d say, not pausing to apologize for the word. They believed that the Eagles could’ve won if they’d just been able to tie the game at 7 there.
The situation was different this time. The Eagles had moved the ball to midfield on the first drive of the game. Hurts made a great throw to A.J. Brown on fourth-and-2, Brown caught it, and the Eagles had the ball in the red zone. Then there was a flag. Both Brown and Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie were handchecking downfield, during which Brown hit McDuffie in the face mask. Tom Brady was about as animated in his disapproval of that call as he was all game, but the offensive pass interference flag stood and the Eagles punted.
Jaworski had already thrown an interception before that touchdown was called back—on his very first pass of the game, actually. He'd go on to toss two more in the loss. He’d only thrown 12 picks all year. The first pick was kind of flukey: Wilbert Montgomery ran into Stan Walters, which ended up sending Jaworski’s pass into the hands of Rod Martin. I can be a nervous guy about the Eagles even when they’re winning, and even when I feel that they’re absolutely going to win the game. That feeling was creeping up again, this time through some sort of inherited dread grounded in a game that happened years before my birth. When I dropped my wedding ring in the bathroom trash can not long after, I kind of figured it was just going to be one of those nights. I was not the only one nervous, obviously: As I found my ring, I saw an empty prescription bottle of lorazepam, which treats anxiety, sitting next to it. It could’ve been for recreational use, but c’mon. It was the Super Bowl. The person who had emptied that bottle was definitely using it to calm himself down.
I did the opposite. I looked for parallels with that loss in a game that had just started. Maybe Jalen Hurts would have a similar game to the one his predecessor suffered through in New Orleans. Jaworski was chased all night in Super Bowl 15—“Jaworski kept shaking Raiders off his anatomy like a Labrador retriever shedding water,” the Daily News’ Stan Hochman wrote. I started getting a little nervous how the offensive line would hold up, too.
That was stupid. I was stupid. I have been stupider about the Eagles in the past, admittedly, and I will almost certainly be stupider about them in the future. But I turned on a dime pretty quickly once I was able to change my focus from the 44-year-old game haunting this one to the football that was actually happening in real time. Jalen Hurts got the ball back, the Eagles ran two great pass plays to get big gains from Dallas Goedert (20 yards) and Jahan Dotson (27 yards). Dotson’s TD was overruled by replay, but Hurts scored on the tush push one play later.
Hurts even threw an interception the next drive, a bizarre back-footed heave under pressure. But Hurts did not go the way of Jaworski (not to say Jaws never recovered—he owns eight golf courses and is also a longtime pitchman for a hot water heater company nowadays). The Eagles got good field position after stopping Kansas City’s next drive and cashed in a FG, and it was 10-0. Then Patrick Mahomes was sacked on consecutive plays before throwing a pick that Cooper DeJean returned for a touchdown. Hurts didn’t even have to do much the rest of the first half. But he did get that touchdown back: After another Mahomes pick, Hurts found A.J. Brown for a score and a 24-0 halftime lead.
I did not need benzos to stay calm at that point. In fact, I was confident the game was over. The Eagles were up 24-0 and looked every bit that dominant. The defense was playing so well that I did not think Andy Reid would be able to adjust. The offense had moved the ball on its first three drives pretty easily, despite scoring just one touchdown. I thought things would open up more in the second half as the Chiefs went for broke to try to get back in the game, but I believed that the game was over. I was not nervous. I was sure the Eagles were going to win the Super Bowl in a blowout. They did.
I don’t know if Ron Jaworski’s three-interception game in 1981 was a result of panic. But I do know that Jalen Hurts did not panic. He only missed five passes all game. His throw to DeVonta Smith that made the game 34-0 was one of the best passes of his career. He rushed for more yards than any player on either team. He guided the Eagles to a victory in a game when Saquon Barkley had 25 carries and averaged just 2.3 yards on them. The game was so out of hand that Tom Brady had time to joke around about Kevin Hart’s ubiquitousness. (Tom Brady said this?!)
The Eagles team that got to Super Bowl 15 did so by finally vanquishing the Cowboys, the best team in the NFC in the 1970s. That Super Bowl was not an afterthought at all, but it was somewhat of a bonus stage. The Eagles didn’t get back until Super Bowl 39.
But all of that was a long time ago, and feels like it. This Eagles team, this whole Eagles franchise, is very different. They got back to the Super Bowl two years after losing one. They got revenge on the team that beat them. Hurts had an incredible performance in his second straight Super Bowl. The Eagles were so, so cool under pressure in the freaking Super Bowl. This was not the case in SB15, or SB39 for that matter. The defense was torched in SB57, but Hurts came back from an early fumble to play a great game. On Sunday night, it all came together. Basically everyone on the Eagles was unstoppable.
The Eagles were under the most pressure that pro football can exert, and overcame it easily. Near my house, fans celebrate sports victories by gathering at an intersection that has a Sunoco and a Dunkin’ Donuts. When I drove through last night, one guy was shooting off fireworks in front of the Planet Fitness. Another fan had printed out an Eagles logo and attached it to a Swiffer. He was waving it like a flag. I high-fived a baby out my car window. I knew this was the end of Eagles angst for me—for a lot of people, maybe. They’ve been to three Super Bowls in seven years, now, and they won two of them. After all these years, I can finally relax.
I think.
