Earlier today I turned on NFL Network just as it was starting the replay of the 2017 NFC Championship Game between the Minnesota Vikings and the underdog Eagles. Still caught up in the euphoria of that magical Super Bowl run, I completely forgot that the Vikings marched right down the field on their opening drive to take an early 7-0 lead in that game after head coach Doug Pederson decided to defer getting the ball first until the second half.
As a life-long Eagles’ fan, I have been trained to expect the worse and hope for the best. I am sure that deep in the recess of my mind I was thinking ‘here we go again’ even though I picked the Birds to win that game.
You have to keep in mind that I was at the Vet when the Philly blew an early 10-0 lead in sub-zero temperatures against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to lose the 2002 NFC Championship Game. The Bucs came into that game 0 and forever in games played under 40 degrees.
The following season against Carolina at home at the Linc in the 2003 NFC title game, I watched the Panthers’ defense completely dominate Philly in a 14-3 loss. Even after the Eagles beat Atlanta in their fourth-straight trip to the conference championship, I was just waiting for the next shoe to drop against New England in Super Bowl XXXIX and it did.
I fully understood why Philadelphia had gained a reputation for having some of the most angry and inhospitable fans in the NFL even though they were living in the City of Brotherly Love. It is one thing to lose when you are expected to. Losing games on one of the NFL’s biggest stage, such as the conference title game on your home field as clear favorites is a hard pill to swallow.
The 2017 Eagles rallied as underdogs when their leader Carson Wentz was lost for the season in Week 14. In just his second year in the NFL, he was in the midst of a performance that made him a virtual lock to win league MVP.
Taking absolutely nothing away from Nick Foles (who I had previously anointed Philly’s franchise quarterback in his first stint with the team), the big gun from North Dakota State had found a way to quickly instill a winning mentality in this team. This new-found confidence was heavily fed by Pederson as one of the most unassuming, yet highly effective head coaches in this league in just his second year at the helm.
New England may have Belichick and Brady, but moving forward I would rather be a fan of a team that boasts the Pederson/Wentz combo. As my new cohort in crime at Eagles Lincs, KO Kelly would say, “It is time for Eagles’ fans to start embracing the ‘New Norm’.”
No shit the Eagles are favored to win the NFC Championship this season. They should be! You should also know by now that this homer is going ‘all in’ on a successful defense of last season’s NFL title. I have to…it is the New Norm!
No comments:
Post a Comment