In Roob's Observations: The greatest Eric Allen play ever wasn't ...

Why Eric Allen was the smartest football player I’ve ever seen, an Eagles backup who offers something unique to the defensive back room and an American Airlines flight with a unique Eagles-centric flight number.

It can only be Day 5 of Roob’s Daily Random Eagles Super Bowl Observations!

1A. Eric Allen is the smartest football player I’ve ever been around. The depth of his preparation blew my mind when I watched film with him back in the day in the basement of the Vet. He was fast and tough and athletic, but what made him truly great was his ability to read quarterbacks and diagnose exactly what they were thinking. My favorite E.A. play wasn’t his winding, spinning 94-yard touchdown off Boomer Esiason in 1993. That was dazzling, but that was a bad team that went on to lose their next six games. A year earlier, the Eagles needed to beat Washington at the Vet in Week 16 to clinch a playoff spot. The Eagles went up 17-13 on a short Roger Ruzek field goal with 3 ½ minutes left, and the defending Super Bowl champs started their next drive on their own 10-yard-line. Seventeen plays later, Washington was on the Eagles’ 5-yard-line with two seconds on the clock. Time for one play for the win. Allen was covering Ricky Sanders and Otis Smith was on Gary Clark, but he knew Washington QB Mark Rypien was going to throw to Clark in that situation: “I played the percentages. I know Rypien likes to throw the ball to him more than anyone. As soon as I saw him, something just said to me, ‘Stick with this guy.’” Allen left his man, broke toward Clark from left to right in the end zone, lunged, reached out his hand and batted down what looked for a moment like the game-winning touchdown pass. Time ran out. The Eagles were in the playoffs. Eric sprinted almost all the way to the other end zone celebrating. It was a Hall of Fame play. 

1B. Eric Allen is the first cornerback to play for the Eagles and make the Hall of Fame.

2. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean are the first defensive backs from the same team to make the top five in voting for AP Defensive Rookie of the Year in 41 years. In 1983, Chargers cornerback Danny Walters finished third and corner Gill Byrd was fifth. Byrd had 42 interceptions and made two Pro Bowls in a 10-year career. Walters had 12 INTs in his first three years but only played 14 more games and never picked off another pass. Mitchell was second and DeJean fourth in this year’s Defensive Rookie of the Year balloting, announced Thursday.

3. Jalen Hurts has started 14 games this year without throwing an interception. No quarterback has ever started 15 games in a season without an interception.

4. Eagles running backs coach Jemal Singleton coached Frank Gore with the Colts in 2016 when he was 33 years old and Marshawn Lynch with the Raiders in 2018 when he was 32. Both great backs were near the end of the line at that point, and both had figured out a lot about the running back position. They were just really too old and broken down physically to benefit much from it. “What I learned from those older backs was that they had learned how to be efficient. They had learned how not to do all that extra stuff that’s not really helping them. They realized the other stuff doesn't matter anymore. It's how to get from point A to point B and what's the best way to do it. I always thought, ‘If I can ever get a young running back to think like an old running back, wow, what would that look like?’” For the answer, take a look at Saquon Barkley’s 2024 season. The wisdom of a veteran and the physical tools of a younger back. And a coach who knows how to get the most out of him.

5. Three different Eagles have at least one 40-yard run from scrimmage this postseason – Saquon of course, Jalen Hurts and Will Shipley. It had been 20 years since a team had two players with a 40-yard run in the same postseason. That was the 2004 Falcons, with Michael Vick and Warrick Dunn. The last team with three different players recording a 40-yard run in the same postseason was the 1940 Chicago Cardinals with Bill Osmanski, Joe Maniaci and Harry Clarke. They all did it in the same game – the Cards’ historic 73-0 win over Washington at Griffith Stadium, the biggest blowout in NFL history.

6. Avonte Maddox got cut during the offseason and then lost his job as the Eagles’ starting slot. So why is he one of defensive backs coach Christian Parker’s favorite players ever? It’s because Maddox has been such a team-first guy despite a challenging season. Maddox, an Eagle since 2018, really exemplifies what this 2024 Eagles team is all about. Fifty-three guys who care more about their teammates than themselves. “He's honestly one of my favorite guys I’ve ever been around,” Parker said Thursday. “He loves the game. He'll do anything for his teammates. He'll do anything for his team. He's extremely humble to go from being the starter, not being a starter, being a starter at dime, not being a starter. He's a backup at three different spot. He's extremely reliable. He's extremely consistent. He's a phenomenal teammate. And if you have a room full of Avante Maddox's, you're gonna have a lot of success. And if you have a team full of them, you're probably gonna win a whole bunch of games. I can't say enough good things about him, and I think that he's been an underrated part of the success of the group, the success of the defense, and also the success of our team. Because you don't have a better example than him in terms of what it means to be a great teammate and be reliable.”

7. Only one running back has rushed for 120 yards in the last 26 Super Bowls. Weird, right? And that one running back was Michael Pittman of the Bucs against the Raiders in 2002. An OK back but certainly not a superstar. Only six other backs have run for 120 yards in a Super Bowl since 1977, which is crazy. That’s John Riggins, Marcus Allen, Timmy Smith, Thurman Thomas, Emmitt Smith and Terrell Davis. I think we’re going to have to re-write the Super Bowl rushing record book Monday morning.

8. One thing the Eagles probably deserve more praise for are the defensive coaching changes that helped reshape that side of the ball. Every one of them was a grand freaking slam. Obviously, it started with Vic Fangio replacing Sean Desai and Matt Patricia, but I’m thinking more about the new position coaches, who have all turned out to be tremendous. Clint Hurtt replaced defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, Bobby King replaced D.J. Eliot coaching the off-ball linebackers and Christian Parker, Roy Anderson and Joe Kasper took over the defensive backs for D.J. McDonald. There were other minor changes, but the sum result was the No. 26 defense in the NFL skyrocketed to No. 1 in the biggest jump to the top spot in NFL history. The only holdover coach in the same position on defense is Jeremiah Washburn, who coaches the edge rushers. Additionally, Ronnell Williams moved from nickel corners to assistant linebackers, and Tyler Scudder went from assistant linebackers to defensive quality control. 

9A. The Eagles have 683 rushing yards in their postseason wins (169, 285, 229) against the Packers, Rams and Commanders and need just 110 to set an NFL record for most rushing yards in a single postseason. John Riggin and Washington ran for 792 yards in the 1982 postseason. The Eagles already have the 5th-most rushing yards in a single postseason and the most since Terrell Davis and the 1997 Broncos had 748.

9B. The Eagles need to score 27 points Sunday to have the most points any team has ever scored in a single postseason. The Eagles scored 105 points in their three playoff wins. The record is 131 by the 1994 49ers (in three games). They scored 44 vs. the Bears in the conference semifinal round, 38 vs. the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game and 49 vs. the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX in Miami.

10. American Airlines added a bunch of extra flights from Philly to New Orleans this week. One of them is flight 126. Why 126? Think Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley. Seriously. That’s why they’re calling it flight 126.

Tune in to Mission 59 specials leading up to Super Bowl LIX on NBC Sports Philadelphia, presented by Toyota.

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