Special play was from Patriots’ playbook

PHILADELPHIA » As the Eagles were sputtering through their season-opening, 18-12, victory over the Atlanta Falcons Thursday, Doug Pederson had an idea.

He would run that play from the Super Bowl, the one where the ball would be passed to the quarterback. No, not the Philly Special. The other one: The one that Tom Brady dropped.

“That’s where,” Pederson sheepishly admitted early Friday morning, “we got it from.”

The Birds down, 6-3, with 7:41 left in the third, Nick Foles took a third-down snap, flipped the ball to Nelson Agholor, then took off down the right side as a receiver. Agholor completed a pass to Foles, who stepped out of bounds at the Atlanta 26 after a 15-yard gain, giving the Birds a first down and momentum.

Five plays later, Jay Ajayi charged one yard for the first of his two touchdowns. And Pederson, who had made a certain splash for throwing to Foles in the last Super Bowl, had done it again.

“It was the Philly Philly,” he said. “It was a play that we had put in for this week. It was a play that’s in our third-down menu. We were on the right hash mark. And it was the right time of the game.”

The play was only slightly different than the Philly Special, which the Birds ran in the Super Bowl. On that one, the ball was snapped directly to Corey Clement, who fed Trey Burton, who hit Foles in the end zone for a TD.

Both, though, had the same purpose: Invigorate the offense.

“Offensively, we sort of misfired a little bit early in the first half in particular,” Pederson said. “We came out in the second half and were just looking for a big play, somebody to make a play. You kind of look for that from time to time. And again, I just felt it was the right time for that call. And the guys executed it.”

The Patriots ran the same play in the Super Bowl, but failed to score when Brady could not hang onto the pass.

“We just put different people in the game,” Pederson said.

When it worked, the Eagles seemed revived and took an early lead in the NFC at 1-0.

“Again, no panic on the sideline,”

MATT ROURKE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles catches a pass during the second half of the team’s NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in Philadelphia.