NFC Championship: Underdog status suits Eagles

Adrenaline kept players awake until the middle of the night; “I went home and watched it on ESPN and I kept rewinding it about a thousand times”, cornerback Xavier Rhodes said. While the Eagles spread the ball around the offense all season long, the Vikings found success by only passing to four players for the most part this season. The Eagles used some of the run plays that had worked best for them all season and gotten them to their 13-3 record, players said, but they also added new wrinkles. “We have been good on third down and manageable”.

I thought going into the playoffs that they were the strongest team in the NFC and that hasn’t changed, even though they required a miracle to win on Sunday.

Nick Foles is not a bad backup, and he acquitted himself nicely in the Eagles’ 15-10 win over the Falcons last weekend.

The next closest pass catcher for the Vikings this season (aside from Jerick McKinnon who we will get to in a moment) was Laquon Treadwell.

“I’m wrong”, Lombardi said on his podcast afterward. We should celebrate this and enjoy this. When his hurry-up offense went three-and-out, it prevented the Eagles’ defense from catching its breath.

Pederson is popular in the locker room. But it’s just the beginning. We’re going to the dogs this week. Ah, the Vikings. Stefon Diggs’ name has become pretty popular following his miraculous 61-yard touchdown reception to seal a 29-24 win over the Saints, but it was a name Edsall knew well because he played for Edsall at Maryland, too.

But if you want to know just how similar the Eagles and Vikings fan bases are, consider the reaction at the Minnesota Wild hockey game on Sunday when the Canadian national anthem was totally drowned out by the howling crowd as the winning touchdown was scored and most were watching on some sort of video device.

“OK”, Pederson said. “Since that point, no one has given us a chance”.

If the Vikings win Sunday, they will head to Philadelphia.

The 24-hour rule – the mandate that victories and defeats must be forgotten after one day – is nearly sacrosanct in the NFL.

“The way they play defense, those plays are conducive”, Kelce said.

Philadelphia Eagles safety Rodney McLeod watched on television Sunday as the Vikings produced one of the most improbable game-winning plays in National Football League postseason history. It’s repeating itself this coming Sunday, when the Eagles play the Minnesota Vikings.

One year does not provide us with enough evidence to say that defensive teams are dominating the league, but if Brady’s contract befitted his status as one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game then you wonder if the Patriots would still be in this group and what that says about the lack of great passers in the league. Fans can put them on after they go through security, and now there’s a doggone craze sweeping the region that’s made the canine costumes a commodity. And second, the Vikings got a lot more accustomed to playing outside when they spent two full home seasons (2014 and 2015, Zimmer’s first two years) at TCF Bank Stadium while U.S. Bank Stadium was being constructed.

While the circumstances that got both Keenum and Foles to the NFC championship are slightly different, both surprise quarterbacks need just one more good game to get to the Super Bowl.