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Did the Eagles have the easiest path to a super bowl of all time?


Greene N White

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I've been following the NFL for about 20 years now and honestly off the top of my head can not remember a team that had an easier path to the super bowl than Philly. 

I'll start off by saying that I believe that all of the NFC East teams had inflated records because they played by far the worst division in the AFC (The south) As well as the NFC North which was nothing special. I think the NFC as a whole this year was weaker than the AFC but I'll get to that later.

Let's look at the playoff teams that Philly beat this year in the regular season:

Minnesota and Kirk Cousins on prime time

Jacksonville early in the season

The Cooper Rush Cowboys

The Giants Twice 

These were also all at home except the second giants win.

 

I get that they beat the teams that were put in front of them and I give them credit for that. But are any of these wins really that impressive? Having this easy of a schedule allowed them to secure the one seed.

Then we get to the postseason and they play against the Giants, who not only were lucky to be in the postseason, but drew a great first round matchup in Minnesota.

Then they played San Fran who was on QB3 for the year who gets hurt on the first possession.

 

I'm not trying to take credit away from the Eagles once again. They beat the teams that were placed in front of them. I'm just wondering if anyone can recall any team who had a cake walk like this to a super bowl because I honestly can't.

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Yes, I think so. They got to play most teams before they got hot (Lions, Packers, and Jaguars). They got a slightly overrated Giants team in the Divisional Round, then got the second best team in the NFC without a QB for over 70% of the game. 

They haven't really been tested this year with tough matchups, but with that said, they also absolutely crushed teams. You can say something similar about the Niners, but like the Eagles, they not only beat the teams they should, they destroyed them.

Two things can be true at the same time - The Eagles had a really weak schedule and benefitted greatly and they're the best team in the NFC because they steamrolled just about everyone they played. 

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I'd say the 2009 Colts had an easier run.  The only playoff teams they beat in the regular season were the Ravens, Cardinals (tbf they made the Super Bowl the previous year but they weren't some high-level team) and Patriots (4th and 2).  They played 1st year Mark Sanchez and 2nd year Joe Flacco in the playoffs.  They avoided the Patriots in the postseason as well as the 13-3 Chargers (poor Nate Kaeding), who had knocked them out in 2007 and 2008 and in general seemed to have Peyton's number back in those days.  

Edited by iknowcool
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3 hours ago, Greene N White said:

I get that they beat the teams that were put in front of them and I give them credit for that. But are any of these wins really that impressive? Having this easy of a schedule allowed them to secure the one seed.

The Niners had the worst SOS in the league at .417. Out of the 14 playoff teams this year the Eagles were tied with the Vikings for 8th. The Niners, Chiefs, Jags, Chargers and Seahawks all has worse SOS.

This isn’t me saying we played a great schedule or anything, cause we didn’t and the level of quarterbacks is certainly lower.

If we are going off DVOA and not just normal SOS, then Eagles ranked last (easiest schedule) just barely edging out Niners (5.8 vs 5.9). Chiefs are only a little bit higher with the 4th easiest (29th) schedule according to Football Outsiders.

With that said, this is almost undoubtedly the most talented Eagles team in franchise history and why I felt confident saying 12-13 wins back in May when the schedule dropped. I don’t think throwing a couple more playoff teams on the schedule changes much about our record unless we are starting a back up like we did late in the year. If Jalen Hurts never gets injured then good chance we are sitting at 16-1. That only loss for Hurts came in a game where he likely should’ve led the comeback win, but a screen to Goedert with an obvious face mask before the fumble  wasn’t called and Quez Watkins got stripped after he tried getting up off the ground after a completed deep pass from Jalen that put us well into Washington territory.

Like I said I think the schedule was pretty easy and those aren’t the best group of winning teams like the Cowboys had the highest DVOA and we didn’t even get to see a game of Dak vs. Jalen due to injuries. With that said, it’s still impressive to take care of business against the best teams on your schedule. It’s not easy to do even with a bad schedule.

As you can see from the first tweet entering a Super Bowl with the easiest schedule according to DVOA could go either way. Now, if the Eagles do beat Mahomes and Reid in the Super Bowl I think all this talk becomes moot and if let’s say they lose convincingly it’ll fan the flame for the narrative the Eagles are fraudulent.

We’ll see soon I guess.

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3 hours ago, Greene N White said:

These were also all at home except the second giants win.

We had the best record on the road this year at 7-1 and that only loss came in a divisional game against Dallas which was our 3rd road game in a row late in the season and we still barely lost that game without our starting QB. I had this game penciled in as a loss when the schedule dropped, cause of it being Philly’s 3rd road game in a row was a HUGE advantage for Dallas. The NFL loves giving those kind of advantages to the boys in blue though.

3 hours ago, Greene N White said:

Jacksonville early in the season

The Jags were playing good ball early in the season when they played us and their defense was ranked inside the top 10. 

3 hours ago, Greene N White said:

Minnesota and Kirk Cousins on prime time

So the Vikings would’ve won if they didn’t play in prime time? Didn’t work for them against the Cowboys lol.

 

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This tweet is stolen from Reub and just as I said then... It lacks major context...

Detroit Lions: 9-8 and played against in Week 1. That team was not good at the time starting 1-6.

Minnesota Vikings: No qualms here.

Jacksonville Jaguars: 9-8. Eagles fans were arguing this team was playing good football at the time, but they weren't. Entered the game 1-2. Proceeded to start 3-7.

Dallas Cowboys: Playing with Cooper Rush.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Basically can copy the Jacksonville Jaguars write-up only take away "this team was playing good football" thing.

New York Giants (x3): 9-7-1. I think this team was better than the five previously mentioned (though Dallas is better with Dak) but again... 9-7-1.

San Francisco 49ers: Absolutely amazing team but playing on their 4th Quarterback for 90% of the game/3rd Quarterback literally could not throw.

 

 

 

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25 minutes ago, BlaqOptic said:

Jacksonville Jaguars: 9-8. Eagles fans were arguing this team was playing good football at the time, but they weren't. Entered the game 1-2. Proceeded to start 3-7.

This is wrong. Jags were 2-1 coming into that game against a 3-0 Eagles team. Jacksonville was straight off back to back victories with a 24-0 win over Indy and then a blowout of the Chargers on the road. They easily could’ve been 3-0 entering that game as they were up 22-14 with under 12 mins in the 4th quarter, but they let Washington come back.

That Eagles loss was kind of what spurred the down turn for Jacksonville losing 5 in a row before picking themselves up and having a great second half of the year to make the playoffs kinda like the Eagles in 2021.

Edited by TheRealMcCoy
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