Eagles vs. Packers Postseason History: A Championship and 4th & 26

The Green Bay Packers have one of the most storied histories of any franchise in the NFL.

They won the first two Super Bowls, both blowouts, which concluded one of the most impressive dynasties in NFL history: five championships in seven seasons.

They have won 12 league championships, more than any other team in history, and have produced a number of the greatest players in league history, including Don Hutson, Bart Starr, Brett Favre, and Ray Nitschke, as well as Vince Lombardi, who may be the single greatest coach in the history of professional sports.

Yet I am very, very proud to announce that two of the greatest games in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles came against the Green Bay Packers.

Both came in the postseason. And both featured absolutely incredible endings.

The 1960 Eagles were my favorite team of all time. I never saw them play, but I wish I did.

Buck Shaw's powerful Eagles' squad won 10 of 12 games on the season and captured the NFL East championship.

They earned the right to host the Green Bay Packers in the NFL championship. The Packers featured an absolutely awesome lineup, including 10 future Hall of Famers. They were coached by Vince Lombardi, who many consider to be the greatest coach in the history of the National Football League.

The Eagles were underdogs for the championship game, despite winning two more games in the regular season than the Packers, and playing at home.

The Packers outplayed the Eagles for virtually the entire game, until Ted Dean's five-yard touchdown run gave the Eagles a 17-13 lead with five minutes to play.

With eight seconds left, the Packers had the ball on the 25-yard line. Running back Jim Taylor caught a short pass and quickly broke two tackles.

He was promptly leveled by Bednarik, who held Taylor down on the ground as the last few seconds ticked off the clock.

When the clock reached zero, Bednarik stood over Taylor and exclaimed, "You can get up! This f------ game is over!"

The Philadelphia Eagles were the champions of the National Football League.

The 1960 Eagles have been called "a team with nothing but a title."

"The 1960 football season was like a genie that came out of a bottle in City Hall courtyard, and for one year, it granted Philadelphia's football fans their every wish," said Eagles' historian, Ray Didinger.

No Eagles team in history has ever taken its fans on such a thrill ride as the 1960 team.

"It was just a strange, unique group of guys that suddenly decided that the most important thing in the world to them was to win a championship," says tight end Pete Retzlaff.

The Eagles won 12 games and secured home-field advantage throughout the postseason, highlighted by Brian Westbrook's game-winning 84-yard punt return touchdown with just over a minute to play against the New York Giants.

In the postseason, the Eagles fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter. An enormous goal line stand at the end of the first half kept the Eagles in the game. On the first play of the fourth quarter, McNabb eluded several Packers defenders and fired a bullet to Todd Pinkston for the tying touchdown. Cris Collinsworth called it one of the best plays he's ever seen a quarterback make.

A Packer field goal put Green Bay on top 17-14, and the Eagles began a late drive that would ultimately go down as the signature drive of Donovan McNabb's career.

Following an incompletion, a 16-yard sack, and an incompletion, the Eagles faced 4th and 26 with just 1:12 to play. One of the more forgettable aspects of the next play is that the Eagles snapped the ball as the play clock expired, preventing a 4th and 31.

What everybody remembers is Freddie Mitchell's remarkable grab of a McNabb bullet up the middle, extending the Eagles' season.

Completions to Freddie Mitchell and Todd Pinkston, and a brilliant move by McNabb to avoid a potential game-ending sack set up Akers' game-tying 37-yard field goal.

In overtime, Brian Dawkins provided the signature defensive play of the Andy Reid era, intercepting a Brett Favre pass (punt) and returning it 35 yards. The Eagles won on an Akers 31-yard field goal.

4th and 26 is the top (only) play in the career of wide receiver Freddie Mitchell, who preferred to let his mouth do the talking instead of his hands.

Had the Eagles defeated the Carolina Panthers to advance to Super Bowl XXXIX, 4th and 26 would undoubtedly rank as the single greatest play in franchise history.

Even so, it deserves to be top five on anybody's list.