Vermeil’s drive impacts Eagles’ not-so-Super performance

The Eagles were heading to their first Super Bowl in January of 1981, and since there were no guarantees there would ever be a second, Dick Vermeil would take no chances.

In his fifth season with the Eagles, the 44-year-old coach would manage the team the way he had always managed the team, and that meant long practices, late film sessions and crossed eyes at any Eagle straying from the routine.

“We had just come back after beating Dallas,” quarterback Ron Jaworski would say, referring to the NFC championship game, “and basically we went right back to double-day practices.”

To Vermeil, the Super Bowl was supposed to be fun for the cheerleaders and the fans. As for the players, it would be a grueling, obsessive business trip to New Orleans. The work, he would decide, would be worthwhile. Turned out, it was a disaster for the Eagles.

“Between night meetings and long practices,” linebacker John Bunting has said, “we were worn down.”

So it appeared in a stunning, 27-10 loss to Oakland that had followed a 12-4 regular season and short rampage through the NFC tournament. The Eagles had beaten the Raiders 10-7 in November at the Vet, and had blasted Minnesota and Dallas by a combined 51-23 in two playoff games. They were 3.5-point favorites against a wild card team that had to win three playoff games, including the last two on the road. The Eagles were hot. The Eagles were motivated. But the Eagles were tense, microphones catching Vermeil with this early-game sideline lament: “We look a bit tight. We look exhausted because of nerves. We’ve got to get them to relax a little bit.”

As for the Raiders, they hardly had that problem during the ramp-up week. Though Tom Flores, then the coach, would later insist that the tale was more urban legend than fact, it was widely publicized that while the Eagles were encamped in a hotel all week, plenty of Raiders were enjoying one or two of the charms of Bourbon Street.

Different coaches, different approaches. But after the Eagles were widely seen on TV as appearing nervous during pregame introductions, Jaworski had his first pass intercepted by Rod Martin, and before the end of the first quarter Jim Plunkett would throw touchdown passes to Cliff Branch and Kenny King. A 29-yard TD pass to Branch and a 46-yard Chris Bahr field goal gave Oakland a 24-3 lead in the third quarter, and the only Eagles touchdown — an eight-yard pass from Jaworski to Keith Krepfle with 14:15 left — was too late to help.

Oakland Raiders QB Jim Plunkett (16) throws a pass during his team’s Super Bowl XV victory over the Eagles on Jan. 25, 1981.

Jaworski, who was intercepted three times, completed just 18-of-38 passes. Wilbert Montgomery settled for 44 rushing yards. Harold Carmichael caught five passes for 83 yards. And the Eagles did not create a turnover. Plunkett, who had replaced the injured Dan Pastorini early in the season, won a car for being the game MVP.

“We just didn’t have the intensity we needed,” Eagles linebacker Bill Bergey said afterward. “And Plunkett was doing everything right.”

The Raiders did almost everything right in the Superdome, which that day had been decorated with a massive yellow ribbon to celebrate the release five days earlier of 60 hostages who had been held captive in Iran for 444 days.

“We have a funny bunch,” Raiders owner Al Davis said afterward. “They just played.”

As for the Eagles, who would not return to a Super Bowl until February of 2005, they worked … then worked some more. It just didn’t work against a team that had won 12 of its last 14, the playoffs included, and was peaking when it mattered.

“We didn’t lose the Super Bowl because we worked hard,” Jaworski would later say. “We were there because we worked hard.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE