Eagles embrace home underdog role, end Vikings’ hopes of hosting Bowl game
PHILADELPHIA— The Season of the Improbable continued Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field when the Eagles won the NFC championship by humiliating a Minnesota defence that was statistically the best in the league and darn proud of it. Put that on the didn’t-see-it-coming list, along with achieving a 13-3 record during the regular season in the first place, surviving multiple injuries to key players including the MVP-candidate quarterback, winning a playoff game against a hot Atlanta team with Nick Foles at the helm, and single-handedly depleting the nation’s supply of rubber dog masks. None of that easy. But it was all child’s play compared to what the Eagles did on Sunday night as they advanced to their third Super Bowl appearance and a chance to win their first NFL championship since the final month of the Eisenhower administration. It was an accepted truth that if the Eagles were to win, it would have to be in rugged, low-scoring fashion. the backup Keenum, what The game they two quarterbacks, into plinked defences could a field-position with about were limited Foles the expected field battle opportunity and and to as Case turn the did probable. the Well, land so of We much the have unexpected, for been the transported expected, where a or large- into the ly that, immobile for sheer backup degree can of have difficulty, a career was day better than the time in 2013 when he threw for seven touchdowns against a disinterested Oakland defence. Add in the notion that the Eagles’ Doug Pederson, discounted as a top contender to be a head coach, has emerged as something of a football savant, earthy enough to reach the players and sharp enough to scheme them into conference champions.
It has been 13 years since the Eagles met New England for the championship in Jacksonville, and a lot of gack has hit the turf between then and now. The Eagles slid, regathered, slid again and have finally arisen despite the difficulties put in front of them. The Patriots, meanwhile, have been to four Super Bowls in the interim and won two more championships.
If there was a tipoff that the Vikings’ defence, which was ranked No. 1 this season, was vulnerable, it should have come in the second half of their previous playoff game when they gave up 24 second-half points at home to the Saints. And when the Eagles —already down 7-0 Sunday —stumbled on their first possession as Foles underthrew a long pass to a wide-open Torrey Smith, there was a grumbling undercurrent that went through the stands.
The Eagles evened up the game on the next possession with Patrick Robinson’s interception return, but after that, it was Foles who did the things he wasn’t supposed to be able to do: 26-of-33, 352 yards.
He led them on 75-yard drive to a touchdown that featured a thirdand-10 conversion. He withstood a rush that brushed across his throwing arm and stepped up and found Alshon Jeffery with a bomb for another touchdown. He went fast on occasion. He stood still and waited on occasion. Almost nothing was the wrong thing and the Eagles led 24-7 at the half with a pass-to-run imbalance of 23-9 that would not have seemed sustainable before the game.
Midway through the final period, the lead was 38-7 and the crowd had gone from nervous to frenzied to exhilarated before settling into a comfortable, if still loud, peace with the outcome of the evening. They didn’t expect this, either, but it was just fine.
So, sure. Make it the Patriots. For Foles, this has somehow become a season in which his career has gone full circle. Why shouldn’t it be a fullcircle season for the franchise as well? The Eagles are back to the Super Bowl, and within sight of a horizon never reached.