These Eagles had the 10 best Super Bowl performances

Six more days, Philadelphia.

As the Eagles prepare for Super Bowl LVII Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, it's a good time to reflect on the Birds' history in the big game. This will be the fourth time the Eagles have advanced to the Super Bowl. They did so after the 1980 season against the Raiders and lost. The Eagles also lost Super Bowl XXXIX to New England. The Birds, of course, did finally hoist the Lombardi Trophy on Feb. 4, 2018, dethroning the Patriots in the process. 

Let's get after it and rank the 10 best performances by Eagles across all of those Super Bowls. 

I'm not including any Eagles from the team's 27-10 loss to the Raiders in Super Bowl XV because they were three-point favorites and ended up losing by three scores. The Birds were down 14-0 in the first quarter and 24-3 by the end of the third quarter. None of that cuts it. Sorry. 

I obviously value winning way more than losing, but there is a single Eagle from the 2004 team that lost against the Patriots in Jacksonville, who, however, does crack the list. Props to him and certainly props to all of the 2017 figures on here. 

10. Nelson Agholor

It's overshadowed by how haywire the end of his Eagles tenure went, as he'll now forever be defined by the "Unlike Agholor" meme, but Nelson Agholor stepped up time and time again in Super Bowl LII.

Agholor had nine catches for 84 yards in Super Bowl LII against the Patriots, the most receiving yards an Eagles receiver recorded in Minneapolis. Five of Agholor's eight catches went for first downs and all of those first downs were on scoring drives. Three of those first-down catches came on back-to-back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter on the Birds' game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.

A split with Agholor was more than necessary after the 2019 season, but as the immortal David Bowie said, "We could be heroes just for one day." In Agholor's case, that's correct.

9. Malcolm Jenkins

The soul of the 2017 Eagles, Malcolm Jenkins' contributions weren't eye-popping in the box score on Feb. 4, 2018, as he recorded four tackles and a pass deflection, but his impact was always felt. I like to joke that the Patriots "forgot" they were allowed to throw the ball to Rob Gronkowski in the first half, but credit should go to defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and his defensive Swiss Army knife, Jenkins, for keeping the future Hall of Fame tight end in check. 

I'd be remiss not to mention Jenkins knocking Patriots wide receiver Brandin Cooks out of the game with a vicious hit in the first half, his defining moment of this game. The injury, which had to change the complexion of New England's offense, would be an illegal hit by the NFL's current standard. No regrets from Jenkins though:

8. LeGarrette Blount

LeGarrette Blount is possibly the most effortlessly cool Eagle I've watched play. He came to Philly on a one-year free agent deal in 2017, fresh off earning his second ring with the Pats and leading the NFL with 18 rushing touchdowns. His 4.4 yards per attempt with the Birds tied a career high and he became the "Runaway Train" of a well-rounded, talented backfield. 

Even with how often the Birds threw the ball against the Patriots in Super Bowl LII, Blount destroyed New England on the ground, going off for 90 yards on just 14 attempts for more than 6.4 yards per carry. Blount had a monster 21-yard touchdown run in the second quarter:

I'm a sports writer and not an NFL player for a reason, but helplessly trying to arm-tackle a 247-pound tank like Blount seems like a bad move, right? 

Blount did this after the TD:

Like I said: effortlessly cool. 

7. Terrell Owens

Wow, the only guy not from the 2017 squad to make the list! 

It's deserved.

Terrell Owens was a godsend when he arrived in Philadelphia in 2004, the franchise's first true star wideout since Mike Quick's peak. In 14 regular season games with the Birds that year, he had 14 touchdowns. Checking with my sabermetrics team, I believe that's a touchdown-per-game average. Owens' season, however, was cut short when he sprained his ankle and fractured his fibula on a now-illegal horse-collar tackle from Cowboys safety Roy Williams in Week 15. 

Owens missed the remainder of the regular season and the Birds' first two playoff games, but gutted it out and suited up in the Super Bowl itself against the 2004 Patriots. Clearly hampered by those injuries, Owens still hauled in nine catches for 122 receiving yards, the most ever by an Eagle in the Super Bowl. If the Birds had somehow prevailed in that 24-21 loss, Owens was the clear-cut Eagles choice for Super Bowl MVP.

As everyone knows, Owens and the Eagles imploded in 2005, ruining his partnership with Donovan McNabb and setting this franchise back. Older Philadelphians probably have a more negative viewpoint of Owens than me, but watching that game against New England as a 10-year-old, Owens looked like a superhero out there. 

6. The 2017 starting offensive line

Cheating? Perhaps, but the Eagles' success in 2017 (and 2022...) begins with their offensive line. Future Hall of Fame left tackle Jason Peters was one of the many injuries the Birds sustained that year. Second-year fifth-round offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai stepped in and didn't miss a beat. Stefen Wisniewski was inserted into the lineup at left guard early in the season and helped glue everything together. Then there were Pro Bowlers Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks and Lane Johnson. I assume you know enough about those guys already....

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Three stars, a journeyman and an unheralded young left tackle went about dismantling the defense of the greatest football mind in history like they were scrimmaging against a scout team. All the credit in the world to Doug Pederson, Nick Foles and the skill position players for what they did, but they're not putting up 41 points on Belichick without that quintet playing the like they were the best offensive line in the world (and they truly were). 

5. Corey Clement

For a certain generation of football fans, the "wheel route" has a special place in their hearts due to its unstoppable nature in "Madden." The Birds later had running backs in Brian Westbrook and Darren Sproles who could execute it perfectly, only adding to the juice it brings. 

Hitting on that Bowie "we could be heroes..." theme, Clement performed like he was the second coming of LaDainian Tomlinson in Super Bowl LII. Clement had 4 catches for 100 yards in this game including a mind-blowing "HOW DID THEY FIT THE BALL IN THERE?" 34-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter from Foles. 

On the fifth anniversary of that Super Bowl LII win on Saturday, I wrote about the top plays from that game, specifically Clement's touchdown catch. Here's what I had to say:

"Athletes wait an entire lifetime to play a game as good as he did against the Pats in the Super Bowl. He never came close to reaching those heights later in his career as he bounces around as a journeyman running back, but does that even matter? Think about all the big-time stars, and Hall of Famers at that, that never played in the Super Bowl, never had a chance for every person in America to hear their name on TV as they made a game-changing play. Clement never became starting running back in the NFL, but his best day was better than 99.9 percent of the world's best day ever."

Clement had six touchdowns as an undrafted rookie in 2017 before his big night in Minneapolis. He's had five TDs in the five years since then, split between Philly, Dallas and Arizona. It doesn't matter. LT might be the best running back I've ever seen, but he never played in the Super Bowl, let alone had a game like Clement did on the biggest of stages. 

4. Zach Ertz

If you catch the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, you go down in history. Period. 

Let's discuss an overlooked play on that TD drive late in the fourth quarter for the Birds. 

Trailing by one point with 5:39 remaining in the game, the Eagles faced a fourth and one from their own 45. Some cowardly coaches out there would've punted, but Pederson rolled the dice, as he had done all season and game long, and went for it. He drew this baby up for the ever-reliable Zach Ertz.

This was listed as fourth and one, but watching on TV, it felt like the longest yard in the history of organized football. Foles dropped back to pass and found a wide-open Ertz for a two-yard gain. It was just two yards, but it was all that was needed to give the Eagles a shot to go win this thing: