It has been 13 years since the Philadelphia Eagles have been to a Super Bowl. The 2004-2005 was a wild success for the franchise, much like this season has been. Ironically enough the Eagles beat the Falcons and the Vikings that postseason en route to the Super Bowl, exactly like this season.
The coincidences keep on rolling because who did they play in the Super Bowl that year you might ask? None other than Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. The Pats won this matchup 24-21 and clinched their second consecutive Super Bowl title and third title in 4 years.
Thirteen years later we are looking at an almost identical situation. After a 13-3 regular season, the Pats find themselves back in the big dance for the second consecutive year with a chance to go back-to-back as well as win their 3rd title in 4 seasons.
This is so similar it kind of reminds me of the Kennedy/Lincoln comparison. You know that crazy Illuminati shit where Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln and Lincoln’s was named Kennedy and before he died Lincoln was in Monroe, Maryland and Kennedy was in Marilyn Monroe, that classic 100 years later same story, different people bullshit.
The Eagles, on the other hand, are going for their first Super Bowl win in franchise history and first championship since 1960. For those of you who aren’t good with math, that’s 58 years. That is a LOOOOOOONG drought, Philly fans are itching for that Lombardi trophy.
Then and now
Let’s face it the only thing that remains the same from that matchup over a decade ago is Bill and Tom. One of the biggest differences is that the Eagles weren’t down a starting QB. Before his devastating ACL tear, Carson Wentz was looking like the favorite for MVP having an absolutely unreal breakout season and leading this team to the best record in the NFL at the time.
Wentz threw for 3,296 yards, 33 TD’s and only 7 INT’s and was rocking a 101.9 passer rating through 13 games. Then the injury happened. The dream of a season being led by Wentz and co. got flipped on its head.
Aside from the 2013 season where Foles started 13 games for the Eagles and threw 27 TD’s and just 2 INT’s, his career has left many scratching their heads. Not exactly the guy Philly wants running the offense. I will give credit where it is due and although it hasn’t been pretty, Foles has managed to get his team to the Super Bowl to face off with the GOAT and the Patriots, who can’t seem to be stopped, no matter the deficit.
Over the next two weeks, we will deal with tons of speculation of whether or not Foles has what it takes to lead Philly past the defending champs. In my opinion, he used up his great playoff performance this weekend against the Vikings who were the heavy favorite in the NFC matchup. This makes two home playoff games where Philly was the underdog and successfully completed the upset, can they make it three upsets in a row? A tall task for journeyman Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles.
As of right now, the line is Pats -5.5 and if anything that will only get larger once there is a better idea if the Pats will be with or without Gronk come the Super Bowl. He could possibly bump the line up to 6.5 possibly even 7, but in my opinion, they will cover that with ease.
Having just faced their toughest opponent in Jacksonville with arguably the best defense in the NFL, I think the Pats will be as prepared as ever when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday. There’s no denying the Eagles are the real deal and could definitely win this game if things go their way. If Wentz was still in the picture we’d be looking at a much different game and I would not be as confident because of his MVP caliber play this season.
But he’s not playing and the Eagles are going to have to take out the best team in the league who seem like they will always find a way to win. I’m going to end this with the highlights from the last time these two met in the big game in 2005.
There’s no doubt these are two drastically different teams from that year, but winners are winners and I am confident come February 4th we will watch Brady and Belichick hoist their record-setting 6th Lombardi trophy.
