Memorable Game – Eagles

June 15, 2021

By Noonefromtampa

As part of my offseason retrospectives, I will look at the most memorable game against our current division opponents: The Giants, the Eagles and the Cowboys.

This week, let’s delve into some background about the Washington-Philadelphia Eagles rivalry, Washington’s second longest rivalry in the NFC East behind the Giants.

The two teams have met 174 times since 1934, including post-season games. Washington has won 87 games, lost 80 and tied 6 times since the first meeting on October 21, 1934. That’s a 52% winning percentage against their long-time division rival. The Redskins dominated the Eagles early on, only losing twice in the first nine years of playing against the Eagles.

This is a long and enduring rivalry that has produced many memorable games to choose from:

• September 28, 1947: a shootout loss with the Eagles winning 45-42. This game featured a number of memorable players on both sides, including Eagles Hall of Famers Steve Van Buren and Pete Pihos and Redskins Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh and 70 Greatest Redskins player Hugh Taylor. Baugh threw for five touchdowns, three of them to Taylor. Van Buren scored one touchdown on a 95 yard kickoff return and one on short rushing touchdown. Pihos caught two touchdowns passed from Eagles’ quarterback Tommy Thompson.
• October 11, 1964: this game occurred after the Eagles and Redskins had traded their starting quarterback to each other in the offseason. Sonny Jurgensen threw five touchdowns in a revenged-filled 35-20 win. Jurgensen was 22/33 for 385 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. This was portent of the passing offense fans would see from him through the remainder of the 1960s. Norm Snead was 12/35 for 126 yards, one touchdown, one interception and was sacked three times. Hall of Famers Bobby Mitchell and Charley Taylor both caught two touchdown passes while the Eagles Timmy Brown, three-time Pro Bowl player himself, accounted for all three Eagles touchdowns.
• December 3, 1972: this 23-7 win was the last regular season victory for Redskins during their first Super Bowl appearance season. The Eagles managed only one score, a 10 yard pass from John Reaves to Harold Carmichael, while Curt Knight kicked three field goals with Charlie Harraway scoring a rushing touchdown and Charley Taylor scoring touchdown on a pass from Billy Kilmer.
• January 5, 1991: a 20-6 wildcard playoff win in Philadelphia after miserable loss there earlier in the regular season. With Mark Rypien back in the lineup, he hit Art Monk and Gary Clark for touchdowns, while Chip Lohmiller converted two field goals. The Redskins defense held the Eagles to two early field goals and then shut them out in the second half of the game.
• November 15, 2010: the Monday Night Football 50-burger game. New coach Mike Shanahan traded for ex-Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb in the offseason. In the first meeting the Redskins beat the Eagles 17-12 with Kevin Kolb playing quarterback for Philadelphia. In the second meeting, Michael Vick started and passed for four touchdowns and ran for two more. The Eagles led 35-0 just after the start of the second quarter on their way to a 59-28 thrashing of Washington.

Most Memorable Game

Week 10, November 12, 1990: the Eagles and Redskins clashed in Philadelphia in a Monday Night Football game featuring head coaches Buddy Ryan of the Eagles and Joe Gibbs of the Redskins. This game became known as “The Body Bag Game” because of a pregame boast from Ryan, who told reporters his team would inflict a beating on Washington so bad “they’ll have to be carted off in body bags”.

Mark Rypien was out with a knee sprain suffered when tackled by former-Redskin defensive tackle Dean Hamel in week 3. Nine Redskins players were injured during the game, including both active quarterbacks, starter Jeff Rutledge and backup Stan Humphries. Brian Mitchell was the emergency quarterback and finished the game with 40 yards passing and also ran for a short touchdown late in the game. The difference in the game besides all the injuries were two defensive touchdowns by the Eagles, a 30 yard interception return by cornerback William Frizzell and an 18 yard fumble return by defensive tackle Clyde Simmons. The Eagles took the victory by a score of 28 – 14.