Eagles look to repeat 2018 postseason run
Take a look at all the good fortune the Philadelphia Eagles have enjoyed ahead of their postseason opener and it’s no wonder they’re feeling great about a Super Bowl run.
Jalen Hurts is healthy (enough) after the Pro Bowl quarterback missed two games late in the year with a sprained right shoulder. All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson was left off the injury report Thursday for the first time since he suffered a torn adductor late last month. The NFC postseason runs through the Linc. The Eagles went 2-0 this season against the New York Giants, their NFC East rivals who will be visiting on Saturday night. And they are the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Life is good in Philly. “We know we put ourselves in this position by what we did all season,” Hurts said.
Just a quick refresher on everything the Eagles did: They started 8-0 and 13-1 as Hurts surged into MVP contention. The Eagles finished 7-2 at home and even beat teams that featured key players in their last Super Bowl win, Doug Pederson and Carson Wentz.
After all the handwringing in Philly for decades over the Eagles (14-3) never having had won a Super Bowl, optimism runs as high that they can make it two championships in five years.
The last No. 1 seed to win a Super Bowl? Yup, the Eagles in 2018 over the New England Patriots.
Comparisons are welcome.
“We’re 17, 18 weeks into this, and we should be playing our best football by now,” coach Nick Sirianni said.
The Giants have gone from a team that posted five straight losing seasons to one that made the playoffs in coach Brian Daboll’s first year. New York is coming off a 31-24 win over Minnesota in the wild-card round.
For QB Daniel Jones and the Giants, the season is already a resounding success. For the Eagles, a postseason-opening loss in Sirianni’s second year — after a dreadful defeat to Tampa Bay in last year’s playoffs — would make this season a resounding bust.
Jaguars at Chiefs
Doug Pederson got to know Andy Reid as a backup quarterback in Green Bay, then as his starter in Philadelphia, before coaching under him with the Eagles and helping him build the Kansas City Chiefs into the juggernaut they are today.
“How many years is that?” asked Pederson, who is just a couple weeks shy of his 55th birthday. “That’s a lot of years. That’s 28 years, almost 30 years. So that’s 30 years of my professional life that I’ve been influenced by him.”
Not surprisingly, the Jaguars’ coach learned a bit about offense — Reid is one of the game’s masterminds. Pederson also learned how to run practices, develop talent, relate to players. But most importantly last week, he learned how to handle adversity, and that came in handy when Jacksonville faced a 27-0 hole in the wild-card round against the Chargers.
With preternatural calm, and an incredible second-half performance by quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Pederson’s Jaguars rallied for a 31-30 victory and a date with Reid’s Chiefs on Saturday.
“The coaches I’ve played for were all very level-headed,” Pederson said this week. “Never got too high, never got too low. Yeah, they can get emotional, but never really coached that way. Stayed level-headed.”
One of those coaches, of course, will be on the opposite sideline Saturday.
“He played, obviously, and he knows the kind of coach he liked and didn’t like,” Reid said of his protege. “Within his own personality, he presents things in a friendly manner, yet he’s demanding of the guys. And I think that’s a positive.”
Pederson and Reid have matched wits plenty of times since going their separate ways, including earlier this season, when the Chiefs rolled to a 27-17 victory over the Jaguars at Arrowhead Stadium.
Much has changed in the past two months. The Chiefs (14-3) may not have lost since Dec. 4, but neither have the Jaguars, whose third-largest comeback in playoff history last week gives them plenty of swagger heading into the rematch.
“They’re a talented team,” Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes said of the Jaguars. “I knew that the first time we played them. They made a few mistakes here and there and that’s why we got the win the first time.”
Bengals at Bills
Joe Mixon and the Cincinnati Bengals feel disrespected. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills have plenty to motivate them — starting with safety Damar Hamlin’s remarkable recovery — in a season of overcoming adversity.
Two teams that bonded three weeks ago in Cincinnati in deciding their since-canceled game could not proceed after Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field have much to prove in an AFC divisional-round playoff showdown in Buffalo on Sunday.
The Bills have weathered two winter storms that disrupted their schedule, mourned the death of tight end Dawson Knox’s younger brother Luke in August, and rallied to their community’s aid in the aftermath of a racist shooting that left 10 Black people dead at a Buffalo supermarket in May.
Hamlin’s collapse and recovery is but the latest — and most personal.
Already annoyed over the Bengals being placed at a disadvantage to finish higher than the AFC’s third seed, Mixon added another chip to his broad shoulders this week once the NFL began selling tickets for a potential BillsKansas City Chiefs matchup in the AFC Championship Game, which would be played in Atlanta.
“To be honest, it’s disrespectful,” Mixon said, after the NFL’s ruling to go to a neutral site kicked in once the Bills (13-3) finished the season a halfgame behind Kansas City (14-3). The Bengals (12-4) were left out of the picture even though they defeated the Chiefs this season, and missed out on their opportunity to pass the Bills in the standings once their game was called off.
One major subplot involves the first meeting between Allen and Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
Since 2021, Allen ranks second in the NFL with 72 touchdown passes, followed by Burrow (69), with both finishing tied for second with 35 each this season. Allen has thrown 16 interceptions, including two in last weekend’s win over Miami, while Burrow has thrown 12 picks.
Burrow finished fifth in the NFL with 4,475 yards passing, while Allen ranked seventh (4,283). Allen had the edge with 762 yards rushing and seven TDs, with Burrow finishing with 257 yards rushing and five touchdowns.