Philadelphia

The Forgotten Play That Put Eagles in Super Bowl LII

It was actually Nate Sudfeld, Nick Foles' backup, who threw the longest pass Sunday night.

It just didn't count.

After Sudfeld took the final snap in victory formation with 36 seconds left in Sunday's NFC Championship Game, he took one step to his left and launched the football into the stands.

He wasn't supposed to throw it.

"I don't think so," Sudfeld said in the locker room. "I wasn't really thinking. I was kind of just excited. It's been a crazy year. I think that was the furthest I've thrown it in a game. Actually, it was after the clock."

Then he started thinking …

"Oh, did that count as a …"

No, it was after the knee.

"I was going to say, that was an incompletion," Sudfeld said, relieved that his final stat line just includes three rushing attempts for minus-4 yards. "I launched it."

Sudfeld, who spent most of the season on the practice squad, wasn't even added to the active roster until November. He became the backup after Wentz's injury. He played in his in his first NFL game in the regular-season finale.

Even though his job was simply to take a knee three times, he got into his first playoff game Sunday night. No wonder he was so excited that he tossed the ball into the stands, almost reaching the second level.

After Sudfeld threw the ball - he admitted it came out of his hand nicely - he spun around before turning back to admire how far it traveled.

"Our equipment guy was like, 'I was coming out to get the game ball and I saw you launch it. I was like, 'Ah it's a good launch, it's all right.' I launched it," Sudfeld said again. "Pre-snap I wasn't even thinking about doing it. It was really exciting."

The forgotten play
Patrick Robinson's pick-six was undoubtedly the biggest play of the Eagles' 38-7 beatdown Sunday over the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game. It was such a huge play it has overshadowed another play that needs to get its due.

Rookie Derek Barnett might have saved the game too.

"I don't even know what to say," Barnett said. "It was a big play [and] I was there at the right time. As a defense, we were just happy to get off the field in that moment because they were trying to get seven. We were happy to get off the field."

In the second quarter, down 14-7, the Vikings had gotten the ball all the way down to the Eagles' 16-yard line. On 3rd-and-5, Barnett beat tight end David Morgan to get to Case Keenum and knock the ball away. The Vikings' 61-yard drive ended without points.

"It was huge," Chris Long said. "Those are big swings in points. We didn't get any turnovers last week, and we knew that turnovers would be a big part of this thing. We needed to stop the run and get turnovers, and we did both."

No memory
Of course, the biggest play of Sunday's NFC Championship Game was that pick-6 from Robinson. First, Chris Long forced the pressure and then Robinson picked off a wobbly pass and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.

The building went nuts. It was so loud the press box shook.

And Jim Schwartz doesn't have a clue how he reacted.

"I have no idea," the defensive coordinator said Tuesday. "I hate to be mic'd up or a camera on me because I have no idea what I look like, sounds like, things I say. People say that I say things during the game and I have no recollection. I'm probably speaking in tongues a little bit.

"I might have been still, I might have been jumping up and down. I was just glad we scored a touchdown. That was a play, we didn't start off real good and we just had that penalty on special teams, they had good field position. There were a lot of things that went into that and obviously that changed the game for us. After that, wasn't much else to it."

Contact Us