Fake field goal least of Birds’ concerns going into Dallas

PHILADELPHIA » Inside the Linc, on display for the tens of thousands heading into every Eagles game, nine feet high, sturdy and unbending, there has been a statue. The most important play in modern franchise history deserved nothing less.

Nicely presented in bronze, it captures Doug Pederson during an ingame discussion with Nick Foles. At the bottom, an inscription reads, “Do you want Philly Philly?” The answer at that moment was, yes. The answer for all time should be the same.

Philly Philly, also known as Philly Special, would unfold to historic success late in the second quarter of Super Bowl LII, a game the Eagles would win by one possession. Successfully executed by Corey Clement, Trey Burton and Foles, the three-ply trickery would stun the New England Patriots when the quarterback would roll unescorted into the end zone to catch a pass destined for sports immortality.

It was a gimmick, a nose-thumb at conventional play-calling. But mostly, it was all Doug Pederson, the coach with a gambler’s instinct to take chances. Already having failed with every other kind of coach, from the work-all-night dedication of Dick Vermeil, to the tough-talking Buddy Ryan, to Chip Kelly, who’d tried to reinvent the sport, the Eagles would not win their first Super Bowl until they had a coach unafraid to test the odds of failure.

That would be Pederson. That would be a coach who would rather take a shot at extending a drive on fourth-and-medium instead of surrendering a possession with a punt. And that would be a coach willing to try a fake field goal the other day in Minnesota.

“It didn’t work,” Pederson would say, a

BRUCE KLUCKHOHN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz (11) hands the ball off during the first half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings, Sunday.