Frank Reich and Doug Pederson put the “Philly Special” in their playbook during the postseason after seeing the Bears run it successfully against the Vikings in 2016.
“We saw it on film,” Reich said, “and there were several different variations of that play that we’ve seen people run. We were, in particular, copying the Bears’ version of it, and we’ve just been working on it. The part you work on is not so much the execution, but the acting part of it and the timing of it and then get it to perfection.”
The Eagles considered running it against the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game but were concerned the Vikings might recognize the play.
“We were wondering, ‘Could we run it against the Vikings after the Bears had already run it against them the year before?’” Reich said. “We were ready to run it two weeks ago, but the opportunity didn’t come up, and we didn’t need it. It probably worked out for the best to hold it against these guys.”
The trick play worked to perfection as Trey Burton threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Nick Foles with 34 seconds left in the second quarter.
“That’s something we’ve been working on,” Foles said. “Doug and I were talking, and I said, ‘Let’s just run it.’ It was a good time, and the end was a little wider than I thought, so I was like, ‘I really need to sell like I’m not going anything,’ and it worked. Trey made an amazing throw, right on the money. I just looked it in, and yeah, we’ve repped it for a while, so I was excited to get it run in the Super Bowl.”