Too Much Concern Over Whom We Play

Dallas, Seattle, Philadelphia. Which team we were going to play doesn't really matter--at least not compared to how well the Saints are going to play.

I understand that each of the three teams we could have played presented somewhat different challenges because each had different strengths and weaknesses. But none of these three teams (though Dallas is overall the most talented of the three) would have been as challenging as, say, the Chargers or Kansas City or even the Rams.

The Eagles are a one-dimensional football team. Two good fronts, very good receivers, and a quarterback who is non-elite but who seems to play his best in big games and is capable of playing like an elite quarterback (though there are 25 other quarterbacks in the league who on a given Sunday can play like an elite quarterback). The Eagles do not have a good running game, and I am not impressed by their back seven on defense, especially their secondary. The Eagles can win on Sunday--at the divisional-playoff round level, every team is good enough to win a divisional playoff game. But the Eagles are not likely to win on Sunday if the Saints play as they can play and like a team that has legitimate Super Bowl expectations.

For me, the question has been not which team we were going to play, but how well the Saints are going to play, which in large part depends on the health of our offensive line. If the offensive line is relatively healthy and we play as we have played, we will win--and the game, though not an easy one, should not come down to a last-minute field goal. If we are missing starters in our offensive line, we are not a Super Bowl team because our offense depends on an offensive line that is proficient at both pass-protection and run-blocking.