How smart are the Eagles? Smart enough to have gone 12-4 with just the NFL’s 18th-ranked offense and 20th-ranked defense by turning the ball over just 22 times in 16 games.
They might even be more brainy than the Packers, who outlasted the Seahawks Sunday by turning the game’s one turnover, a 52-yard overtime interception touchdown return by Al Harris, into a 33-27 victory that sent Green Bay to Philadelphia Sunday for a best-and-brightest second-round matchup.
Only the dimmest bulbs won’t give Green Bay a good shot, never mind that the Eagles are home and rested and have the run-the-ball-down-your-throat formula for playoff success in cold weather down cold.
Sunday, the Packers took what Seattle gave them, which was Damien Robinson, that old Jet punching bag of a safety. Brett Favre’s 319 passing yards tore Robinson apart, among other members of the Seahawk secondary.
With Ahman Green, who set a Packer season rushing record this year, held to 66 yards, Favre managed perfectly, forcing nothing except people who have watched him to believe that at age 34, he is more efficient than ever.
In the end, the impressive but inexperienced Matt Hasselbeck cracked, not the veteran of Super Bowls whose team is 34-1 in games under 34 degrees, a stat to make a Philadelphia fan’s blood run cold.
The Eagles beat the Packers at Lambeau eight weeks ago, 17-14, on a 6-yard Donovan McNabb touchdown pass to Todd Pinkston with only 27 seconds left, overcoming, thanks to three Green Bay turnovers, a 192-yard pounding by Green.
Thus, the patient died after a relatively-successful operation, but that was then and this was now for a team that has won five straight, was bestowed a playoff life-giving miracle by Arizona, has seen the playing field become the grieving Favre’s refuge from the recent loss of his father, and got an interception touchdown return in overtime Sunday to advance its idea that something special is happening.
The Eagles, whose excellent secondary is intact again, have been soft all season against the run and now are without strong-side linebacker Carlos Emmons. For that matter, they won’t have running back Michael Westbrook, either, but two-legs of their grounded tripod (Duce Staley and Correl Buckhalter) are still screwed on.
As tempting as it will be for coach Andy Reid and McNabb to go after a Green Bay secondary that Hasselbeck fairly took apart, the Eagles, too, figure to first dance with the ones that brung ’em back from an 0-2 start to the playoffs with a less dominating team than a year ago.
Seems like a waste of two perfectly great arms, but neither of these dynamic quarterbacks was born yesterday. And on a grey January day, when playoff tested-teams meet, grey matter is what most matters.