As you get closer to the top of the mountain the air becomes purer and more exclusive. It is the reward for those who are able to conquer the great challenges, sacrifices and encumbrances of the long journey to the top. It’s a place where there is stillness and internal calmness that makes some feel like they could reach up and touch God, and makes others feel like they are God. If you can stomach the constant scent of death, are able to navigate an occasional avalanche and aren’t terrified of heights, the reward is forever. It’s called rarefied air and the further you advance the rarer the air becomes.
Many years from now when Birds’ fans talk about the Philadelphia Eagles’ 28-22 divisional round playoff victory over the Rams, the fondest and most vivid memories will be of Saquon Barkley dashing through the snow on his way to NFL immortality, Jalen Carter single handedly wrecking a valiant effort by the visitors with a forced fumble and maybe the biggest sack of his career no matter how long he plays, and Jalen Hurts ripping off a 44 yard touchdown run to open the scoring on the Eagles first drive of the game.
The rarefied air the players experience is the same air that the fans breathe as they are in lock step with their team this time of year. But the air at the Linc on Sunday seemed like it had trace amounts of CO2 swirling about as those wonderful memories did not come without a near-death experience for the ages that ensued following Barkley’s apparent game-sealing 78-yard touchdown explosion with a little over four minutes left to give the Birds a 13 point lead. A 13 point lead that was soon reduced to just 13 yards. That’s how close the Rams came from obliterating an Eagles’ season for the history books in a frenetic, horror-filled final four and a half minutes. But as has happened so many times this year, the crisis was averted. The Eagles survived. The Eagles advanced.
Of the four teams left standing in the NFL’s version of March Madness, the Eagles clearly have the most talented roster left. They have the best offensive line in football, one of the greatest running backs of all time, arguably one of the best wide receiving tandems in the league, and the league’s number one defense, led by an elite lineman carved out from the mold of an Aaron Donald.
So it drives me insane when I hear people talk about who the “best team” left in the playoffs is or my personal favorite, “well the best team didn’t win”. I can’t even grasp what that even means. I think we have a big enough sample size to know that the “best team”, from a talent criteria, doesn’t always win. The team that plays the best in the 60 minutes or more that they are allotted does. The best team is the one left standing in February. That’s the beauty of sports. That’s why they play the game.
Which is why if the Eagles don’t win the next two games this season the ending is going to have a little extra sting to it. As the famous 17th century poet John Greenleaf Whittier once said, “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.” Regrets, like championships, can also last a lifetime.
Sunday’s win over the Rams, that punched the Birds’ ticket to the NFC title game next Sunday against the Commanders, was an epic 60 minutes of football that ended with a near collapse that would undoubtedly have been jettisoned immediately into the top three of all-time Philly implosions. But the Birds skirted disaster, barely surviving and advancing to the conference championship game for the second time in the last three years. Since winning cures all, lots of Eagles’ fans will just shove it under the rug and look forward to next Sunday. And that’s O.K. I get it. At this time of year the only thing that matters are wins and losses. A win and you move on, a loss and you go home. Survive and advance. It’s that simple.
Birds Flying Without a Net
Getty ImagesAUBURN HILLS, MI – MARCH 6: Members of the Flying Wallendas tightrope-walking family perform the seven-person Great Pyramid at the Michigan State Fair Grounds in Detroit, MI, 06 March at the Shrine Circus. Two members of the family were killed in the same arena while trying to perform the same act 36-years-ago. (Photo credit should read ANDREW CUTRARO/AFP via Getty Images)
But for many other Birds’ fans, previewing a horror movie with a feel-bad ending, that they’ve already seen before, is just preparing them for a possible crash landing. If last year taught us anything, tight rope acts, while wearing the wrong shoes, usually aren’t sustainable. High wire acts are high risk with occasionally a high price and usually, without a net, end up in chalk outlines. Do you want to know what I was told when I reached out to the original Great Wallenda family for a comment on this article. “I’m sorry but none are available for comment at the moment – or ever.” Oh, uh O.K. well, they have my number but if my phone doesn’t ring I guess I’ll know its them.
But seriously, these last two playoff games are somewhat an extension of what we saw many times in the regular season. This year’s Eagles team, while supremely talented, has had trouble putting teams away at times and ultimately has had to live unnecessarily on the edge on several occasions, until the next hero up, has time and time again, flown in and rescued the day.
Super Saquon
Getty ImagesPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – JANUARY 19: Saquon Barkley #26 of the Philadelphia Eagles runs the ball for a 78-yard touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams during the fourth quarter in the NFC Divisional Playoff at Lincoln Financial Field on January 19, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Philly has gotten away with a lot of sloppy play, missed opportunities and untimely self-inflicted miscues, due in no small part to having Superman in their huddle and one of the great erasures in Eagles’ history in Saquon Barkley on their payroll. He has been a flat-out stone cold killer for this team this year. Alone he amassed 460 rushing yards against the Rams in two games this season including but not limited to, four home run balls of over 60 yards, three of them over 70. Who does that?
If you just looked at team statistics at a glance you’d feel pretty good about the Eagles’ chances of taking home the Lombardi trophy in a couple weeks.
In two playoff games the Birds have given up just 16 points per game, which is less than their season average that ranked number one in the league this year.
They have a turnover margin of +6 which is tied for first of the remaining four teams.
Defensively they are first among the remaining four teams in rushing yards allowed per game with 109 and offensively, of course, they lead everybody in rushing yards with an eye-popping 227 yards per game.
They have racked up seven sacks which is good enough for second among the final four and they’ve beaten their two playoff opponents by an average margin of nine points per victory.
The problem is that these games shouldn’t be as close as they are. Why is that a problem? Because if the Birds keep squandering opportunities and leaving points on the field at some point they will turn costly as the bill almost always comes due. Could they get away with it one or two more times and complete this current Super Bowl run unscathed? It’s possible but I wouldn’t count on it. This time of year the further you advance the less margin for error you have because you’ll be facing at least one or maybe two teams that will invariably make you pay for your sins.
The Eagles left at least 12 points on the field on Sunday in the form of two missed extra points, two sacks that moved them out of field goal range and a botched tush-push at the one inch line. That’s not even counting the dropped touchdown by A.J. Brown or the dropped pick-six by Darius Slay in the first quarter. Guard Mekhi Becton went frolicking downfield well ahead of a screen pass to Dallas Goedert late in the third quarter that would have set up a first-and-goal at the Rams three, for which he was rightfully penalized for.
The Birds are the Joey Chestnut of the NFL’s final four. Nobody seems to be able to beat them but they do tend to leave a lot of meat on the bones.
If you want to be a serious contender for the spoils of a Super Bowl title you just can’t let inferior teams hang around and hang around like the Eagles have done the last two weeks. If you continually do that, at some point, you’re going to find out what the lousy end of a season-ending fantastic finish feels like while having to watch the other guys trot around the field and celebrate wearing your hats and t-shirts and eventually your rings.
What was really alarming about Sunday’s game is that Jalen Hurts was sacked seven times without being blitzed once, which trimmed the Eagles’ net passing yardage down to 65. Head coach Nick Sirianni, at his day after press conference, seems to think that as long as Hurts doesn’t turn the ball over, the Eagles will somehow find a way to win, which makes perfect sense with what we know about the Birds’ formula that they implemented after their bye in early October. Hurts’ workload has decreased significantly but at the same time so did his costly turnovers as he has only thrown one interception and is 12-0 in games he has started and finished since the bye week.
So now I’m starting to buy-in to the theory that Hurts is being coached to be ultra conservative with his throws so as not to make a mistake. Philosophically Sirianni is right. The four teams left who will still be playing on Championship weekend next Sunday have zero giveaways so far in the postseason, which pretty much illustrates, without me having to say it again, how important ball security is in the NFL. The Lions turned the ball over five times, the Ravens three times and the Rams twice last weekend. All three teams were shown the door.
The potential problem with that is that when you go into an ultra conservative mode, you start playing not to lose instead of playing to win and that’s what’s kept both the Packers and the Rams in the last two games despite both teams turning the ball over a combined six times. Of the six takeaways the Birds’ defense recorded in the last two weeks, the Eagles’ offense was only able to produce 13 points from them which is an underwhelming number considering the overwhelming dominance of the most important statistical category on a game sheet other than the final score.
They say the food is better at the top. But its certainly hard to eat while you’re gasping for air. Thus, the message to the team should be crystal clear: Do better.
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Eagles Again Leave Their Fans Gasping in Rarefied Air