Presented by THE JAMES.

This Day In Sports…February 6, 2005, 20 years ago today:

The New England Patriots win their third Super Bowl in four years with a 24-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville. It was the Patriots’ second straight championship—and interestingly enough, the only time during their dynasty that they won back-to-back Super Bowls. The Kansas City Chiefs are the only team to do it since, and they’ll try to become the game’s first three-peat winner when they face the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

There’s one play from that game Patriots fans are probably celebrating today. Four minutes into the third quarter, linebacker Mike Vrabel lined up at tight end on an apparent short-yardage rushing situation at the Philly two-yard line. Vrabel snuck into the end zone and gathered in a short flip from quarterback Tom Brady to give the Pats their first lead of the game at 14-7. It was much like the play the duo connected on during New England’s Super Bowl win over the Carolina Panthers a year earlier. (Vrabel, of course, is now the new head coach of the Patriots after six seasons with the Tennessee Titans.)

Vrabel’s catch gave New England its first lead of the game, but Philadelphia would come back to tie it late in the third quarter. Ten unanswered points in the fourth gave the Patriots separation with less than four minutes left in the game. But the Eagles pulled to within 24-21 on a Donovan McNabb-to-Greg Lewis touchdown pass with 1:48 left—then got the ball back at their own four-yard-line with 46 seconds remaining. The Patriots put it away, though, with Rodney Harrison’s second interception of the game. The MVP of the game was not Harrison, but New England wide receiver Deion Branch, who made 11 catches for 133 yards.

Safety Quintin Mikell became only the third Boise State alumnus to appear in a Super Bowl, playing special teams and goal line defense for Philadelphia. The only two to precede him were Rimrock High School grad Rolly Woolsey with the Dallas Cowboys in 1976 and Markus Koch with the Washington Redskins in 1988. There have been seven former Broncos who have played in the Super Bowl since—but nobody since Jay Ajayi with the Eagles seven years ago.

Side note: it was a year after the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” involving Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson during the halftime show at Super Bowl 38. The NFL decided to go the safe route this time and invited Paul McCartney to perform at halftime. McCartney played three Beatles songs, “Drive My Car,” “Get Back” and “Hey Jude,” and “Live & Let Die” from his Wings years.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.) 

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