Top 10 Eagles season openers: From pickle juice to a crushing injury to honoring a legend

After coming up agonizingly short last season in Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Eagles enter the 2023 season with high expectations and unfinished business. With an MVP candidate in quarterback Jalen Hurts and a throng of playmakers on both sides of the ball, the Birds have designs, and at least on paper, the talent to win the franchise’s second-ever Super Bowl.

The journey begins on the road Sunday in Foxborough, Mass., where the Eagles will open up their 91st season against the New England Patriots. That got us thinking about some of the most memorable season openers in Eagles history. We polled our resident experts and here’s what we came up with both good and bad:

The 2010 season was supposed to be a transition as the Eagles traded long-time quarterback Donovan McNabb to Washington, and handed the keys over to Kevin Kolb. Wearing kelly green jerseys on the 50th anniversary of the 1960 championship team (more on them later), the Eagles opened the season at home against the Green Bay Packers.

The Kolb era though would only last a few plays as the quarterback was knocked out of the game in the first half with a concussion following a hit from Clay Matthews. In relief, Michael Vick went 16-for-24 for 175 yards and a score, and ran for 103 yards. The Eagles still lost, 27-20, but it was now Vick’s team which soon spelled the end for Kolb in Philadelphia.

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Months after the infamous “Black Sunday” defeat in the NFC championship game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a loss which closed Veterans Stadium as a football venue, the Eagles sought revenge against the Bucs.

A shiny new Lincoln Financial Field did not yield a different result, as the Eagles laid an egg and were shut out, 17-0, on Monday Night Football. How bad was it? Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp had a 14-yard reception.

After two losing seasons to begin his tenure, Buddy Ryan’s Eagles needed to turn the corner in 1988. They did just that going 10-6 and reaching the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

It all began on the road that September, as Ryan’s defense picked off Tampa Bay’s Vinny Testaverde five times en route to a 41-14 Eagles win. The Buddy Ryan era had truly begun.

The 1960 season proved a memorable one for Eagles fans but the season opener was one they’d surely like to erase from memory. That’s because the Birds were thrashed, 41-24, at Franklin Field. Cleveland’s Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell combined for 309 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, and Eagles quarterback Norm Van Brocklin threw three picks.

The Eagles did not lose again at home, finishing the season 10-2 overall, and winning the NFL championship over the Packers, 17-13.

With Chip Kelly making the jump from the University of Oregon to the pro ranks with the Eagles, all eyes were tuned into Monday Night Football during Week 1 of the 2013 season. Many believed Kelly would be in for a rude awakening and that his high-octane and gimmick-filled offense couldn’t succeed at the NFL level.

Kelly’s Eagles responded with a surgical first-half offensive performance, racing out to a 26-7 lead over Washington, with Vick accounting for three touchdowns. The offense cooled down in the second half but the Eagles won, 33-27, and finished 10-6 in Kelly’s first season.

The Eagles entered the 1991 season with great expectations thanks to star Randall Cunningham and the team’s vaunted “Gang Green” defense led by Reggie White, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, and Seth Joyner. After a 10-6 finish the previous season, Rich Kotite took over for Ryan, and was tasked with getting the Birds to that next level.

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The Eagles went on to finish 10-6 again but the season will go down as the ultimate what if. What if Cunningham never tore his ACL in the 1991 season opener against Green Bay? Philadelphia won the game, 20-3, but Bryce Paup’s hit on Cunningham essentially ended the Eagles’ Super Bowl hopes on the opening day of the season.

Terrell Owens and the dramatic have always gone together like peanut butter and jelly. So it was to absolutely no one’s surprise that Owens announced his presence in Philadelphia with a bang. That bang was a three-touchdown debut at the Linc in a 31-17 win over the New York Giants. This came just weeks after Owens scored an 81-yard touchdown on his first preseason play as an Eagle against Baltimore.

The Eagles went on to reach Super Bowl XXXIX, which they lost, 24-21, to the Patriots despite a gutsy nine-catch, 122-yard performance by Owens, who was playing just two months after suffering a fractured fibula. As you all know, there would be more Owens drama to come ...

The Eagles played with heavy hearts during the 1992 season following the offseason death of star defensive tackle Jerome Brown. The 27-year-old Brown, who had been an All-Pro the previous two seasons, was killed alongside his nephew in a car crash in June of 1992.

The Eagles opened the season two and half months later against the New Orleans Saints at the Vet. That Sunday, with Brown’s family in attendance, the Eagles retired Brown’s No. 99 in an emotional pregame ceremony that included words from Brown’s close friend and teammate White. The Eagles won the opener for their fallen teammate, defeating New Orleans, 15-13.

Years before there was Pickleball, there was the “Pickle Juice Game” of 2000. A game that lives on in Eagles lore, the Birds used a secret weapon, pickle juice, to beat the Texas heat and the rival Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 3, 2000.

» READ MORE: The Eagles once used pickle juice to beat the heat — and the Cowboys. Does it work?

With temperatures as high as 109 degrees outside the stadium, and even higher inside, Andy Reid had his players drink pickle juice to help prevent them from cramping. It worked. Duce Staley ran for 201 yards and a touchdown, and the Eagles dominated the Cowboys, 41-17. So much for plain old Gatorade ...

No. 1 on this list could only be one thing, as on Sept. 6, 2018, the Eagles raised their first Super Bowl banner and celebrated the their epic triumph over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII. Meek Mill, Brian Dawkins, and other celebrities were on hand to watch the Eagles raise their title banner, albeit after a 45-minute weather delay.

While the game was rather unspectacular and filled with mistakes, the Eagles found a way to send the fans home happy, with Jay Ajayi scoring a late touchdown to give the Birds an 18-12 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.