The Philadelphia Eagles are an extremely good football team. They absolutely belong in Super Bowl 57. They have a wonderful chance to bring home the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Let’s get that out of the way right now.
But there’s been something lacking in the Eagles’ playoff run; competition.
Philadelphia earned their way into a well-paved road to the Super Bowl. Its dominant run through the NFC gave Jalen Hurts the chance to rest his sprained shoulder with a bye through the Wild Card round. Getting to face UFL, AAF and XFL veteran Josh Johnson in the NFC Conference Championship was the result of Haason Reddick and a pass rush that tallied 15 more sacks than any other team in the NFL knocking Brock Purdy out of the game.
Getting to face a depleted Purdy in the second half, where he could barely throw the ball? Same thing. That same unit battered Daniel Jones to end the New York Giants’ Cinderella season on a sour note one week earlier.
At the same time, that dominance has left their recent resume lacking. The quarterbacks they’ve beaten since Week 18 are:
- Davis Webb
- Daniel Jones
- Josh Johnson/an injured Brock Purdy/Christian McCaffrey for a little bit, somehow
They’ve got two full weeks to prepare for a massive upgrade — either Joe Burrow or Patrick Mahomes awaits in the Super Bowl. There is no doubt head coach Nick Sirianni will have them ready to go, but in a league where iron sharpens iron Philly has sliced its way through gelatin in the playoffs.
On Sunday, the 49ers did as much damage to their NFL championship hopes as Reddick did. They committed six penalties in the first half alone, including three that helped sustain a 75-yard drive that gave San Francisco a 14-7 lead.
Philly’s first touchdown of the day? It was made possible by an amazing fourth-and-3 catch from DeVonta Smith that, as it turns out, wasn’t a catch at all.
Kyle Shanahan opted not to challenge this and it resulted in an Eagles touchdown pic.twitter.com/9qdqBcXp7e
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) January 29, 2023
The touchdown that put them up 21-7 going into halftime? The result of this on-field vaudeville routine from Johnson on a shotgun snap.
LOOSE BALL. @Haason7Reddick comes down with it!
📺: #SFvsPHI on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/FKUP5TdmfQ pic.twitter.com/xjOWCAogV2— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2023
With Purdy back in the game in the second half, the Niners faced third down near midfield. They dialed up a screen pass that looked destined to spring McCaffrey for big yardage. It did not, because two different San Francisco linemen completely whiffed on the one guy they absolutely had to block.
One drive later, the Eagles sealed the game with a touchdown drive made possible by a roughing the kicker call.
Ah yes roughing the kicker when he was pushed into him lmao pic.twitter.com/bypd3XaEaY
— John (@iam_johnw) January 29, 2023
This added up to a stress-free victory Sunday. While Philly earned two leave-no-doubt wins to win the NFC, one crack remains in their facade. Jalen Hurts hasn’t looked like the player who forced his way into MVP consideration in the regular season. In two playoff games he’s attempted eight passes that traveled more than 15 yards downfield and completed only two — a mark well below his 40 percent completion rate on deep passes in the regular season. On Sunday he left the pocket to throw on the run even as his offensive line held off a typically smothering Niners pass rush.
Is that a symptom of not having to make these throws in blowout wins? Or could it be the lingering effects of the shoulder sprain that limited him at the end of the season?
If injury was a problem, it didn’t affect his approach to the game. Hurts took his share of abuse as the Eagles opted for a run-heavy offense in the third quarter; he ran the ball five times in a six-play span that ended with the touchdown that made the score 28-7.
Still, Hurts’ 55 deep balls this season was 10th-best in the NFL despite missing two games. Being able to hit AJ Brown or DeVonta Smith or hell, Quez Watkins in stride 20-plus yards downfield is a difference-maker that forces opposing defensive coordinators to back off the ball and worry about big throws. If that isn’t working it’s a big deal!
But that may be a moot point. The Eagles aren’t just rolling because they’re facing inferior teams; they’re rolling because their defense is absolutely beating the crap out of opponents, swarming to the ball, and introducing chaos to the pocket seemingly every other down. Maybe Philly’s road to the Super Bowl only seems easy because the Eagles are that dang good.
