Eagles relish reward to host playoff game
The Seattle Seahawks, at times, resembled one of the NFL’S best teams this season. Rarely, if ever, could the same be said about the Philadelphia Eagles.
But when the two teams meet Sunday in the NFC playoffs, it will be the nine-win Eagles hosting the 11-win Seahawks. And the NFL has no problem with that.
The NFL’S postseason format, in which a division-winning team is guaranteed to host a playoff game, even if the wild-card opponent has a better record, can prompt feelings of indignation by some league observers.
But NFL owners believe a division winner should be rewarded with a home playoff game, and they show no signs of budging from that stance.
“This is not the first time this conversation or this situation has occurred,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said recently at an owners’ meeting in Dallas. “Teams go into the season, their first objective is to win the division. That’s what they work on: If we win the division, we get in the playoffs.”
A rule change that would allow a wildcard team with a superior record to host a division winner has been discussed, but the measure has never generated the support necessary to be ratified.
“That is something we’ve considered over the years,” Goodell said. “I don’t anticipate hearing it again. … I don’t see that as an issue now.”
For part of the season, it appeared the NFC East might produce the NFL’S third division winner with a losing record in a 16-game season. The Eagles kept that from happening by winning their final four games to finish 9-7.
“Come playoff time, records don’t matter. They all go out the window,” Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz said after a playoffclinching win over the New York Giants on Sunday. “We’re also grateful we’re going to be playing a home game next week, too.”
The Eagles aren’t apologizing after enduring a series of injuries that made patching together a lineup around Wentz an arduous task for coach Doug Pederson.
“It was excitement,” Pederson said of the Eagles’ postgame locker room. “The music was going, guys are excited; it’s a great feeling. This was obviously one of many of our goals this season. Obviously we can check this box.
“What I love about this football team is how we have stuck together the entire season. Through all the ups and downs, through all the injuries, we’ve battled. But our players are already talking about next week.”
Seattle fell inches shy of hosting a playoff game this weekend when tight end Jacob Hollister was denied a game-winning touchdown in the closing moments of Sunday night’s loss to San Francisco. A victory by the Seahawks would have given them, not the 49ers, the NFC West title.
It’s not all bad for the Seahawks, who went 7-1 on the road during the regular season and 4-4 at home. They won 17-9 at Philadelphia in November.
But they also can find a cautionary tale in their own history. The Seahawks were a 7-9 playoff team in 2010, winning the NFC West. They hosted a firstround playoff game against a New Orleans team that had gone 11-5 in the regular season. The Seahawks won 41-36.
So the Eagles clearly have a chance this weekend. They seem to know it.
“I’m grateful for this opportunity,” Wentz said. “We’re going to make the most of it.”