Why You Didn’t See the “Philly Special” Against Atlanta

September 13, 2018 Leave a commentNFL Offense, Philadelphia EaglesBy Joel Bishop

The opening game of the NFL season saw the Atlanta Falcons travel to take on the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles. One highlight from the game was the play which everyone dubbed “Philly Special 2.0,” but was it really that same play used in the Super Bowl?

Let’s start by actually looking at the “Philly Special” against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. This play is going to be directly snapped to the running back, who then will run to his left and toss the ball to the receiver. This receiver will look to pass the ball to the wide open quarterback. What makes this play great is the quarterback going up to the line of scrimmage as if he was still giving instructions.

Now how was the play against Atlanta different? Well it’s certainly a very similar play. The Philly Special involves the running back tossing the ball to the receiver who passes the ball to the quarterback. The difference would be that the ball is snapped to the quarterback and not to the running back.

Although it is a slight difference, it cannot be classed as the “Philly Special”. There’s more to it than that though…as many may think to themselves: why is it familiar? It’s because it’s the same play the New England Patriots used against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. The very same game the “Philly Special” was used. Unfortunately for New England, it was a incomplete pass. Here it is:

As you can see, this play is identical to the one against Atlanta.

If you find this interesting, the “Philly Special” has been used before. It was used before in a game between the Patriots and Eagles, in 2015, but it was actually the Patriots who did it. As you see below, Tom Brady walks up to the line of scrimmage, just like you saw with quarterback Nick Foles in the Superbowl.