Thirteen years ago, there was another Eagles-Falcons playoff game at the Linc, and it produced one of the most unforgettable plays in Eagles history. This is excerpted from The Philadelphia Eagles Playbook by Reuben Frank and Mark Eckel (Triumph Books, 2015).

Somehow, Alge Crumpler held onto the football for a 31-yard gain to set up a Falcons touchdown late in the second quarter of the 2004 NFC Championship Game. It didn't matter a bit. Never before or since has a team hit on a 31-yard-play that gave the opposing team so much momentum.



"They did score there," Brian Dawkins said. "But it didn't matter. We had made a statement. I had delivered a message."

The Falcons trailed the Eagles 14-3 on a freezing evening at the Linc with a Super Bowl berth at stake and had a 1st-and-10 on the Eagles' 41-yard-line when Michael Vick spotted Crumpler, his five-time Pro Bowl tight end, steaming down the middle of the field inside the 20-yard-line. Dawkins, the nine-time Pro Bowl safety, watched this unfold from down near the 10-yard-line.

"Going into the game, we knew Mike doesn't look off guys a lot," Dawkins said several years later. "Who's he looking at, he's going to go there with the ball."

Vick shuffled his feet instead of setting them as he threw to Crumpler, and that put some extra air underneath the pass, giving Dawkins more of a head start. Crumpled caught the ball at the 14-yard-line, and as soon as he secured it, Dawkins arrived from the right, running full speed. Crumpler had no idea he was there.

The collision was ferocious.

Dawkins came in with his right shoulder and blasted Crumpler so violently that he sent the 265-pound Crumpler flying through the air. Crumpler landed motionless in a pile at the 10-yard-line, and Dawkins stomped around triumphantly, looking like some sort of prehistoric warrior celebrating the kill.

Crumpler somehow held onto the ball but had to be helped off the field. Although he did eventually return to the game, he didn't catch another pass.

"Dawk didn't just hit him, he exploded into him," cornerback Lito Sheppard said. "If I hit a guy that size, I'd probably just go backward."

The Falcons scored on the next play when Warrick Dunn ran in from 10 yards out. That made it 14-10. But the tone had been set. The Falcons had a touchdown but the Eagles had command of the game.

"I knew it would be a big hit," Dawkins. "I could see it coming because he never saw it coming. If I hadn't anticipated where he was throwing the football, I never would have been in position to make that play."

The Eagles outscored the Falcons 13-0 the rest of the game and won their first NFC title in 24 years. And Dawkins, one of the greatest players in Eagles history, was on his way to his first Super Bowl.

"I remember thinking, 'That's what time it is right now,'" Dawkins said. "Yes, they got a touchdown, but we all felt the same thing at that moment: 'We're going to win this game.' The Falcons had rushed for over 200 yards this week before (against the Rams), but we were going to show folks what we were all about as a defense."

A few months later, Eagles linebacker Ike Reese signed with the Falcons and became Crumpler's teammate. Reese, now a popular radio host in Philadelphia, didn't waste any time asking Crumpler about the play.

"He said, 'Dude, when Dawk hit me, I thought he had knocked all my teeth out,'" Reese said. "He said his face just went numb."

Crumpler wasn't the only person who was out of it after the play.

"I was woozy after that one," Dawkins said. "If you watch that play, you can see me stumbling around after I hit him. It hurt me, too. I was feeling a little dizzy just from the force of the collision."

Dawkins was known for his massive hits during his 13 remarkable years with the Eagles. It's why he's now one of the most beloved players in franchise history.

"Every football fan loves a big hit," Dawkins said. "But it goes way beyond that in Philly. There's a different mentality. There's a desire among the fans to watch us just demolish somebody, and it's passed down from generation to generation.

"Yes, they loved it when Donovan and T.O. were hooking up on big plays and big touchdowns every week. But when you get right down to it, the fans in Philly would rather see a big hit than a long run or a big touchdown pass.

"When you can deliver a bone-jarring, snot-bubbling lick on somebody, it's almost like there's something inside the fans that feasts on that. That's the kind of football they want.

"To hit somebody, really hit somebody, there has to be something that's not right inside you. Because you're doing something a normal person would not do. It takes a different mindset to go out there and really sacrifice your body and unload on an opposing player. You know it's going to hurt, but you're not thinking about that. You just do it."

Of all Dawkins' massive hits, the one on Crumpler was the biggest. And the most important. It helped send the Eagles to their only Super Bowl in the last 35 years.

The Falcons never recovered. They managed just 69 yards and no points on their six drives after Dawkins' hit on Crumpler, and the Eagles won 27-10.

"You never want to see anybody get hurt," Sheppard said. "But you could tell that wounded them."