The Philadelphia Eagles will win on Saturday. The players believe it because the coach expects for his team to be victorious. Chip Kelly has the demonstrated the ability to coach and lead his team to the playoffs, and has shaped the perspective of the non-believers.
Chip calls plays, doesn’t actually play the game, but the league’s leading rusher, highest rated passer, top 15 wide-receivers , top 3 offensive line, an elite punter and a weekly improving defense are the weapons that he will deploy to get the job done. We have the players, some proven and others improving on a weekly basis. Players continue to step up; others separate themselves into top tier status while others look to put their name on the map for years to come.
This team believes and puts forth the effort to be champions for the game that is being played. No looking ahead, no looking behind, the focus is on the Saints this Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
Home field advantage will come into play. The Saints have it at the SuperDome, although the Linc is not what the Vet was, the atmosphere will be electric, fans are behind this new era of Philadelphia football, and are determined to do everything in their power to help keep this thing going.
I know who the New Orleans Saints are and what they are bringing to Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday. They are a great, established football team. Although a much different team at home than on the road, 0-3 recent playoff track record with Brees under center, they are an elite football team.
Their quarterback is heading into the Hall of Fame. They won the Super Bowl in 2009. They are equipped with offensive weapons in addition to Brees . Sproles and Graham are special players with the mismatches they create. Head coach Sean Payton is one of the best play callers in the NFL. The Saints have an underrated and underappreciated defense that is aggressive in nature, and will look to copy some of the things that worked for the Dallas Cowboys in week 17 of the regular season.
The Saints have proven to be great while the Eagles are doing remarkable and great things this season.
What matters is not what greatness has done to get you to this point; it’s about being great for this game.
Eagles 30 Saints 23
Eagles 31
Saints 26
I wonder what happened to the Eagles fan base? I agree with the Linc not being what the Vet was. Did’nt we have our own Judge and Jail cell? ahahah
Great article Jeff. General Kelly, Foles, and the Eagle squadron will lead us to victory!
E-A-G-L-E-S-EAGLESSSS!!!!!!
Thanks Rocko. I’m in a calm anticipation. I slept, something I did not do in years past the night before a playoff game. Is this Eagles team more talented then the B-Dawk/Westbrook/Trotter years…? Two completely different teams, but I think the head coach is what has me feeling different. Do I hope, expect, want the Eagles to win? All of them of course, but it’s something I actually “feel” happening. Like the team and coaches feel that they have the upper hand, with the mental, emotion and preparation part. My fellow Eagles fans, enjoy tonight, would love to watch the former coach go down in Indy to make an Eagles win even better.
If we are going to win…its going to be because of Shady McCoy running the ball against the Saints porous run defense. We dont need to put this big game on Foles…keep him with some simple pass plays but hang our hats on Shady and the running game to keep Drew Brees off the field.
Drew Brees is the kind of QB that can hurt you bad by making plays…our best defense will be the running game with Shady…
Shady has been clutch all year…lets keep riding the running game and let our defense make just a few plays to get us by…!
run with shady and a few big plays out of the passing game! yeah man–
Put pressure on Bree’s, keep both Sproles and Graham in check (gonna be hard when it comes to Graham’s ability) and win the battle at the line of scrimmage. Eagles 27 – Saints 23
This is why The Eagles will win!
From ESPN
My City.
My Team!
Say what you will about Philadelphia fans, but the Eagles had zero trouble selling out their playoff game against New Orleans, unlike the other three teams hosting games on wild-card weekend.
There was never a concern the game would be blacked out locally. The Eagles didn’t need the NFL to extend the deadline so that they could have their corporate partners jump in and save the day at the last minute.
Nope. Eagles fans bought tickets. All of them. Quickly.
Green Bay, Cincinnati and Indianapolis sold all of their tickets, too. It just took awhile. And it took help.
Blizzard-like conditions? So what. A little snow wasn’t enough to keep Philly fans from showing up to The Linc in Week 14.
Ninety-two percent of Eagles season-ticket holders agreed to buy playoff tickets last Friday, before the Eagles had won the NFC East to qualify for the postseason. On Monday, after Philadelphia beat Dallas to win the division and make the playoffs for the first time since 2010, that number jumped to 96 percent. On Tuesday, the team made the 5,000 remaining tickets available for purchase, half at 10 a.m., the other half at noon. The first 2,500 were gone by 10:05 a.m. and the second batch was gone by 12:05 p.m.
“It’s overwhelming,” Eagles president Don Smolenski said. “I think it speaks to the fan base and it speaks to the sports city that is Philadelphia. Philadelphia and the people of Philadelphia, whether it’s the Flyers, the Phillies, the Sixers, the Eagles, they’re there, and they’ve been there through the good times and through the not-so-good times. All the teams know that. They appreciate it. They respect it. They’re grateful for it. It makes you feel proud.”
The convenient narrative outside of the Delaware Valley is that Eagles fans threw snowballs at Santa Claus and cheered Michael Irvin’s career-ending injury at Veterans Stadium. Philly fans will never escape those moments, no matter how classy of an ovation they gave Andy Reid or Donovan McNabb or Brian Dawkins when each came back wearing another team’s colors.
Yes, the fans are loud. Yes, they can be nasty. Yes, it is unwise to wear another team’s jersey — particularly the Cowboys’ — to Eagles home games. Yes, there is what Smolenski called a “police reception center” in the bowels of the stadium that gets used with regularity. Fifteen fans were arrested at the last home game in Week 16 against Chicago; 68 were ejected.
But Eagles fans show up. Every home game has been sold out since the second game of the 1999 season. There are 40,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets. Nearly 70,000 people were in attendance for the Snow Bowl game in Week 14 against the Lions, when 8 inches of snow fell throughout the game and the wind chill was 20 degrees.
Just about everybody stayed
The weather forecast for Saturday night isn’t as bad as it is for Green Bay, Wis., on Sunday, but it is going to be frigid. The region got blanketed with yet another snowstorm that began Thursday and rolled into Friday morning. The conditions at the Linc will be far from ideal.
And yet the place will be packed.
Philly fans want to see a winner, sure, but they want to see a team that is reflective of them. They want players to work hard, to care, to maximize their potential, whatever that potential is. Philadelphia is a blue-collar city that is proud of and passionate about its professional sports teams. Fans there want nothing more than for the Eagles to have a parade down Broad Street.
One former team employee used to joke during the Reid era that if the Eagles won the Super Bowl, they would have to remain in the Super Bowl city for at least a couple of days because Philadelphia would be on fire. And he was probably right.
First-year coach Chip Kelly has seen it in the short time he has been in Philadelphia.
“Just the memories that you kind of think back and listen to them, the ‘We want Dallas’ chants in the Chicago game or just how loud they were in the Detroit game in the snow,” Kelly said earlier this week. “And there were a couple times that I don’t think we could see the crowd because of how hard it was snowing down there.
“But they have been unbelievable, and I think it’s the fact that we got a chance to win the division and get to come and play a game back at home is huge for us, and we are excited about playing at the Linc. We know it’s going to be rocking on Saturday.”
Against a team like the Saints, playing at home is a huge advantage. After enduring a 10-game home losing streak that stretched back to last season, the Eagles have won four straight at home. New Orleans was undefeated at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome but was just 3-5 away from it and the team was vastly different on the road.
So home field in this one should matter.
If the Eagles win, it will be their first home playoff victory since the 2006 season, when they beat the Giants at home in a wild-card game before losing at New Orleans in the divisional round. Seven years isn’t an eternity — ask Cincinnati, which hasn’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season — but for Eagles fans, it is.
All they want is a ring. Philadelphia has played in two Super Bowls, but lost them both. That lack of a Lombardi trophy is part of what fuels the fans’ desperation. It is the one professional sports void in a city rich with tradition.
Philly fans are tough. Philly fans can be unruly. But there was never a doubt that Philly fans would show up Saturday night. That’s what they do. I know. For the past 14 years, I’ve lived here.
Jeff – who from this board was at xfinity live last Sunday? Was planning to attend before the game was flexed
I think the flex changed plans for many, I did not have the opportunity to meet anyone from the board, the place was packed. They just cut to what XFINITY looks like for today’s game, packed again. The atmosphere is awesome, but last week no traffic, this week the traffic leaving going to be brutal, as is the weather. Enjoy the game tonight. Let it be the first of many Eagles playoff games we discuss this postseason.
Beat Dem Saints!!!
Beat Dem Saints!!!
Yeah Philly gonna Beat Dem Saints!!!!