The Eagles moments that define Nick Foles

Nick Foles announced his retirement from football on Thursday — more than 12 years after the Eagles drafted him in the third round out of Arizona.

It's been over 10 years after his insane 27-2 run, and nine after his still baffling trade out of Philadelphia by Chip Kelly...for Sam Bradford...

And going on 7-8 since he signed back and took the Eagles into the playoffs in place of Carson Wentz, leading to the still unbelievable underdog run to the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl title, Super Bowl MVP honors for him, and the championship parade of a lifetime to the Art Museum steps, with all the other ups and downs in between.

Foles didn't have a Hall of Fame career, and doesn't have the full body of work to go down as the Eagles' greatest quarterback ever either.

But he has had a uniquely incredible one, filled with stretches of unreal performances, iconic plays, and a crucial, since unmistakable role on the team that finally got Philadelphia to the mountaintop.

There are a ton of moments to look back on now that he's calling it a career – and we certainly didn't capture them all here – but if there are a handful that really define Nick Foles, the once unknown quarterback turned Philadelphia Eagles legend, these are it...

The Tampa Rally

Dec. 9, 2012 at Tampa Bay | Week 14

The Eagles had fallen completely apart.

Michael Vick was hurt, the "Dream Team" experiment by this point was an obvious nightmare, and the Birds hadn't won a game in over two months in what was clearly becoming Andy Reid's last year as head coach.

With the season lost and Vick out with a concussion, Reid gave a young Foles, who the Eagles had just drafted in the third round out of Arizona that April, the reins at quarterback to close out the schedule.

And in Week 14 against the Buccaneers down in Tampa, it was one of the first signs that there's maybe something to this guy.

The Eagles fell behind 21-10 entering the late stages of the fourth quarter, but Foles and the offense responded with an eight-play, 72-yard scoring drive that ended on a dart to Clay Harbor in the back of the end zone to keep Philly in it, despite a failed two-point try.

Then, after the Eagles' defense forced a Tampa punt spotted at their own 36, Foles and the offense stepped back out with 2:44 left and started chipping away.

Facing a 3rd and 14, Foles hit receiver Jeremy Maclin across the middle to take a 23-yard chunk into Tampa Bay territory, then soon after, on a do-or-die 4th and 1, Foles took the snap, scrambled a few yards then slid down for a new set of downs, and lined up quick for the spike to stop the clock – with a bonus five yards thanks to Tampa having too many men on the field.

The Eagles got pushed back into another fourth-down situation, this time with only 16 seconds left from the Tampa 23, and on the snap, Foles fired away to a Jason Avant streaking across the middle who got downed at the 1 with the clock running.

They rushed downfield to get the spike off, leaving only two seconds on the clock, but with some time to think it over from a Bucs timeout.

Reid, Foles, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, and Trent Edwards as the backup talked things over.

Reid and Mornhinweg had some goal-to-go plays at the ready, per Zach Berman for The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time. Foles saw a rollout play to Maclin as one of them. He wanted that one.

The Eagles lined up with the game on the line, and on the snap, Foles took a few steps right to see Maclin right there and falling toward the sideline in the end zone.

Foles put the pass right where only Maclin could get it. Touchdown. Eagles win, for the first time in weeks.

"He showed great intestinal fortitude and desire and all the intangible things you look for," Reid said after that game.

And it was only the beginning of such an improbable legend.

The magnificent seven

Nov. 11, 2013 at Oakland | Week 9

Andy Reid was out, and Chip Kelly was in with an offense that prided itself on moving from play to play as fast as possible.

Vick got hurt, Foles came in, and he thrived within that system.

Getting the start for Week 9 against the Raiders coming back from a concussion, Foles scorched Oakland through the air for 406 yards and an NFL-record tying seven passing touchdowns in a 49-20 Eagles win. He went 22-for-28 on his attempts for that game. He threw more touchdowns (7) than he did incompletions (6), which was only just the start of an insane run that saw the Eagles win seven of eight on the way to the playoffs, with Foles throwing an absurd 27 touchdowns to just two interceptions in the process.

A knee-jerk reaction

Jan. 13, 2018 vs. Atlanta | NFC Divisional Round

Carson Wentz tore his ACL against the Rams just over a month prior, and Foles who had signed back with the Eagles before the season after a bad year in St. Louis and then a re-establishing one with Reid in Kansas City, was suddenly the guy again going into the playoffs.

He looked solid against the Giants, but shaky against Oakland and then outright flat against Dallas to close out the regular season with a date against the defending NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons set for the divisional round at the Linc.

Few might remember it now, but there was so, so much concern leading up to that game and so much made of the Eagles being betting underdogs, despite being tied for the NFC's best record at 13-3.

And the first half of that playoff game, it was a struggle, and sent things well on their way to justifying that concern.

Then there was a bounce the Eagles' way that changed everything.

They were trailing the Falcons 10-6 with only 22 seconds left in the first half and still back in their own territory.

Foles dropped back and then sailed a pass over midfield into nothing but white and red jerseys that, nine times out of 10, would've been a devastating pick.

But this was the 10th time.

Safety Keanu Neal jumped up for the ball, but it slipped right through his hands and took a huge bounce off his knees right into the grasp of Torrey Smith, who sprinted straight to the 50 before getting brought down. Foles hit Alshon Jeffery for one more 15-yard chunk after a timeout to push just a bit further, which set up a Jake Elliott field goal that took the Eagles into the intermission only down one, 10-9.

They battled for two more field goals to pull ahead in the second, then counted on the defense to withstand Matt Ryan and star receiver Julio Jones down to the final play.

They did, they won, and the dog masks were out.

You know what happens next.

The flea flicker

Jan. 21, 2018 vs. Minnesota | NFC Championship Game

But we're talking about it anyway.

With a lot of championship teams, there's that one moment where you see it happen and you just know they're taking this all the way to the end.

Foles and the Eagles were already punishing the Vikings in the NFC title game, but then they came back from the half with the ball and rolled out a flea flicker that Foles launched from midfield down toward the goal line for Torrey Smith.

Smith hauled it in over his shoulder and broke the plane even with the Vikings' Harrison Smith cracking down on him. Touchdown, Eagles, to go up 31-7, with the Linc going the craziest it may have ever had.

The Eagles could've ran anything that night, Foles could've thrown anything that night, and it would've worked. Or as Chris Long put it more succinctly: "Anyone could've gotten it that night."

Foles was on an unreal heater, the Eagles were far and away the NFC's best, and there was nothing Minnesota could do about it.

Bring on the Patriots.

The drive to stay alive

Dec. 23, 2018 vs. Houston | Week 16

A slight detour to a year later, when Wentz had once again been rendered inactive due to injury, putting Foles back under center with the Eagles' playoff hopes on the line.

A breakout Texans team closed a 15-point gap late, pulling ahead with a touchdown that put them up 30-29 with only 2:04 remaining and a kickoff that left the Eagles pinned deep within their own territory.

Facing a 3rd and 10, Foles lofted a deep pass over the middle to Alshon Jeffery, who lept up and got it for a big first down, but Foles took a nasty shot straight to the chest from Jadeveon Clowney that left him lying in the grass and in pain.

Backup Nate Sudfeld stepped in for a play, but then Foles came right back and hit Zach Ertz for a pivotal 20-yard gain by the right sideline that got the Eagles into field-goal range with 1:23 left. All they had to do from there was drain the clock and get Elliott as close as possible, which Darren Sproles handled with a checkmate of a 16-yard run that brought the ball down to within Houston's 20.

The offense ran the clock down to three seconds from there, Elliott converted on the 35-yard chip shot to seal the 32-30 win and keep the Eagles alive, and Foles – who threw for a franchise-record 471 yards that game – showed he still had magic in him even after the biggest run in the team's history.

'You want Philly Philly?'

Feb. 4, 2018 vs. New England | Super Bowl LII

It's the play that encapsulates everything about Foles and the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles.

Facing a 4th and goal on the biggest stage of them all in Super Bowl LII, and against the league's biggest monster of them all in Tom Brady and the dynasty Patriots, Foles, during a timeout, ran up to head coach Doug Pederson by the sideline and with zero fear in his voice asked if Pederson wanted "Philly Philly?"

"Yeah, let's do it," Pederson replied just as calmly after a pause to think about it.

Cue one of the biggest plays in Eagles history, and arguably the greatest play in Super Bowl history:

It took more, a lot more, like a perfectly threaded touchdown pass to Corey Clement with three guys on him, a stretched-out dive across the goal line from Ertz – followed by a thankfully inconsequential juggle back when the NFL still wasn't sure what a catch exactly was – the only stop and turnover on Brady all game from Brandon Graham, one more long field goal from Elliott, and then finally the defense holding on until the very last play, but the Eagles got it done.

They actually did it. They won the Super Bowl. Foles, who was only ever supposed to be the backup to Wentz, instead went on to win Super Bowl MVP. And Philadelphia, all the fans, they got the parade they had waited decades for but never knew if they would ever get to see.

But they did, with the image of Foles taking the ball in and trotting across the end zone on the Philly Special living in sports immortality as the play that helped finally bring it all on.

"I won't forget Nick Foles having the game of his life on the biggest stage possible," longtime center Jason Kelce, fighting tears the whole way, recalled of that moment during his retirement speech earlier this year. "And the biggest d*** on the team going up to Doug Pederson and asking for the Philly Special, and Doug Pederson having the biggest balls in the stadium to say 'Yeah, let' do it.'"