BACK WITH A BANG
Birds book playoff spot with win and help from Bears
LANDOVER, MD. >> Eagles win, Vikings lose — and the Birds are headed back to the playoffs to defend their Super Bowl title.
The Eagles shut out the Redskins, 24-0, while the Vikings fell to the Bears, 24-10, thus opening the door for the Birds to get back to the playoffs.
The Eagles oppose the Bears in the Wild Card round this weekend.
The catalyst for the victory Sunday was Nick Foles. Six years ago, he was blown out here at FedEx Field in his first start for the Eagles.
On this day, Foles returned the favor with another record-setting performance in what could have been his last start for the Eagles.
“It was super exciting,” Foles said. “It hasn’t been an easy ride and we got some help today. We get to keep playing. We get to wear the Eagles’ jersey one more time.”
Foles threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns, completing a club-record 25 passes.
“I’m excited,” Foles said. “The people in the locker room are excited. It will be hard to sleep tonight.”
Donovan McNabb held the previous record of 24 straight completions over two games set during the 2004 seasons.
It was 26 completions in 27 attempts when Foles found Nelson Agholor for a six-yard TD pass and a 17-0 lead with 1:25 to go in the third quarter.
The defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, you may have heard, needed two things to happen to get into the playoffs — a win over the Redskins while the Chicago Bears defeated the Minnesota Vikings.
Both outcomes played out late Sunday afternoon, the Eagles finishing with their first shutout since blanking the Giants in 2014.
Foles exited in the fourth quarter with what the Eagles called a chest injury. It occurred on a sack by Ryan Kerrigan. Nate Sudfeld took over at quarterback because Carson Wentz was scratched with a back injury. Sudfeld threw his first NFL TD to Agholor.
“I’m sore,” Foles said. “We’re going to find out more about what’s going on in the morning. Ribs area. I don’t really have a lot of information right now so tomorrow will be a big day.”
While that was going on, Eagles fans who stuck around to scoreboard watch began chanting “Let’s go Bears!” Minutes later the Bears delivered with another TD and a two-point conversion for a 21-10 advantage.
This day belonged to the Eagles (9-7) and Foles, who connected on 28 of 33 attempts with a 102.1 passer rating.
Agholor tallied two touchdowns for the Eagles, who have five of their last six games.
The Eagles got the lead on a 33-yard field goal by Jake Elliott with 22 seconds left in the first quarter.
Alshon Jeffery’s 16-yard reception was the big play on the 11-play, 64-yard dinkand-dunk march in a sloppy opening frame featuring interceptions of Foles by Deshazor Everett, and Johnson by Rasul Douglas.
Meanwhile the Bears were beating the Vikings, 7-0, while the Los Angeles Rams were handling the San Francisco 49ers, 14-0. The Bears needed a win over the Vikings and a Rams loss to secure a bye.
In the second quarter, the Eagles ripped the hearts out of the Redskins with a 19-play, 87-yard touchdown drive consuming 11-minutes, 49-seconds.
Foles picked up a firstdown on fourth-and-one at the 15-yard line and zipped a two-yard scoring pass to Jeffery to make it 10-0 with