The Eagles Clinch The Top Seed in The NFC
The Eagles are officially the one seed in the NFC. They will have a bye week for the Wild Card Round, and then have home field for the next two games provided they keep advancing. Was it a pretty win over the Giants? No. But does it really matter? Also no. What is important is they clinched the top seed. And even if that took longer than perhaps we all wanted, it is a reason to celebrate. But for some reason, there is a lot of angst among Eagles fans following the game.
This team has lost one game with Jalen Hurts under center all year. In those games, they average 28.9 pts per game. Only the Chiefs score more points per game. The defense has held the opposing offense under 20 pts in 11 out of 17 games. This is a very good team, on both sides of the field. One may even call them elite.
Did the offense look good today? Not really. But you all do realize they were not running their usual offense right? They took almost all chances of Hurts running out of the game. That means no RPOs or RPRs, no QB draws, and nothing that puts Hurts in harms way. That makes up a lot of what makes this offense special. While he has been amazing throwing the ball this year, he is still not the atypical 3 step-drop and pass QB. His legs are a massive part of the reason this offense works as well as it does.
They were not trying to put up a ton of points today. They were running the most vanilla offense they have run all year. The goal was to win and keep everyone healthy. And they accomplished that goal. Judging them based on this game, and not the overwhelming evidence from the other 14 games Jalen Hurts played in, seems like a massive overreaction.
If they come out in the Divisional Round, and look that flat on offense, then be upset. But we should be nothing but happy right now. This has been among the best regular seasons we have ever seen from an Eagles team. Are there flaws? Of course. But name a single team this season where there are no flaws. This team has as good of a chance as anyone to win it all. And now we know the road to the Super Bowl comes through Philly.
So get excited. Stop panicking that they didn’t look as great as you hoped in today’s game. Focus more on how great this season has been. Is it a guarantee it will carry over into the playoffs? No. We have never seen Jalen Hurts succeed in the playoffs yet. So there are some question marks. But the evidence in front of us tells us this is an elite team. And if you are worried about them backing into the one seed, I direct you back to how poorly they were playing at the end of the regular season in 2017. Played very poorly in the final couple of games. But then even with Nick Foles in, the offense exploded in the playoffs.
This team can win it all. So can we stop panicking and enjoy the ride?
