Nick Foles' Touchdown Catch Was Planned for 2nd Half

The play came after Foles’ one blemish of the game. In the second quarter, with the Eagles leading the Patriots, 15-6, Foles was leading his team down the field for another possible score. But his pass to receiver Alshon Jeffery tipped into the arms of Patriots cornerback Duron Harmon.

The Patriots turned the interception into a touchdown to narrow their deficit to 15-12.

But when Foles got to the Eagles deep into New England territory on their next possession, coach Doug Pederson called a trick play — he said it was called the Philly Special — that the Patriots had used against the Eagles several years ago.

With two minutes left in the half, the Eagles raced to the Patriots’ 1-yard line, helped along by a 55-yard catch-and-run by running back Corey Clement. On fourth down, Foles lined up in the shotgun formation, then walked forward, slid to his right and yelled, “Kill, kill.” He tapped right tackle Lane Johnson on the rear end, as if delivering new signals to the offensive line.

The key, Foles said, was to make it “seem like I’m not doing anything.”

The ball was then snapped to Clement, who pitched it to tight end Trey Burton, who rolled to his right. With the New England defense largely fooled, Foles slipped undetected into the right side of the end zone and Burton, who had played quarterback for part of his career at the University of Florida, found him wide open for a touchdown.

“I’m excited, a quarterback going out on a route,” Foles said about his reaction to the play being called. “That’s probably the best it looked. We hit it at the right time.”

The score put the Eagles up, 22-12, at halftime. The Patriots erased that lead and went ahead in the fourth quarter, before the Eagles regained the lead for good.

The play made history. With the reception — the first of his six-year career — Foles became the first player to throw and catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl.

In recent years, the play had been used at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, where Foles starred — though it’s not clear whether that’s where he or Pederson learned of the play.

Frank Reich, the Eagles offensive coordinator, said his team had been working on the play for several weeks. They hoped to use it against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game, but the Eagles did not because the score was so lopsided.

Reich said Pederson wanted to use it in the second half Sunday, but decided to call it instead in the first half.

“We thought it would be the dagger that would put the game out of reach,” he said.

Because there were so many reporters around during Super Bowl week, the team practiced the play in the ballroom of the team hotel.

Burton, who threw the pass, said he had no doubt Foles would catch the ball.

“You don’t realize how athletic Foles is,” he said. “I can start up there and put it anywhere, even if he was covered, and I could probably still throw it up there and have confidence he would get it.”

The Patriots tried a pass play to quarterback Tom Brady earlier in the game, and he failed to reel it in. The botched play also brought to mind Brady’s wife, Gisele Bündchen, who complained after the Patriots lost the Super Bowl in 2012 that her husband could not throw and catch the ball at the same time.

The Patriots ran the same play against the Eagles in 2015, when wide receiver Danny Amendola threw a touchdown pass to Brady.

It should not come as a surprise that Foles looked like natural catching a pass. He was an excellent basketball player in high school, capable of dunking over defenders. His mother said he was a star baseball player and nearly earned a black belt in taekwondo. He was also a standout at ultimate Frisbee.

Of course, Foles ultimately focused on football, playing three years at Arizona before being drafted by the Eagles in 2012 — as a quarterback, who can catch.

Derek Long, who coached Foles in high school and is now retired, said Sunday night that Foles had played tight end as a sophomore and had caught a touchdown pass. And given his skill as a basketball player, Long said of Foles, “he’s got good hands.”

When Foles caught the touchdown pass, Long said, he and his wife, Nancy, began hollering in their living room in Texas and jumping up and down, "doing our happy dance.”

“Give Coach Pederson credit,” Long said. “It’s hard enough to make bold calls during the regular season, but it gets harder and harder the farther you get down the road in the playoffs. He didn’t try to run out the clock or get passive. And Nick executed.”

The New York Times

Nick Foles' Touchdown Catch Was Planned for 2nd Half

Foles threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns in the Eagles 41-33 victory, earning their first title since 1960. But his catch — a bit of trickery for a 1-yard touchdown reception — helped him earn Most Valuable Player honors for the game.

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Nick Foles' Touchdown Catch Was Planned for 2nd Half

Foles threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns in the Eagles 41-33 victory, earning their first title since 1960. But his catch — a bit of trickery for a 1-yard touchdown reception — helped him earn Most Valuable Player honors for the game.

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