Until they actually had to play their own game last night, at Seattle against the Seahawks, the weekend couldn't have gone more awesome for the Eagles.
It all started on Saturday, when the Bengals overcame a 14-point third-quarter deficit to stun the Vikings 27-24 in overtime at Cincinnati's Paycor Stadium.
The loss dropped Minnesota to 23-51-1 in games played at northern, outdoor venues dating back to 1987.
Seven hours later, the Lions thumped the Broncos 42-17, dropping Denver to 22-34 on artificial turf since 2007.
This set up several potential playoff-clinching scenarios for the Eagles on Sunday — one of which came through when the lowly Panthers shocked the Falcons 9-7 on Eddie Pineiro's walk-off field goal, followed three and a half hours later by San Francisco's 45-29 rout of the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
One might figure, with not only a playoff spot clinched and Jalen Hurts playing while Geno Smith wasn't — Drew Lock, who was 8-14 as a starter with a lifetime passer rating of 78.9 entering the game, had to play instead — the Eagles might finally snap their seven-game losing streak against Pete Carroll, and break their 24-year drought against Carroll: the last time they beat him, Bill Clinton was President, a loaf of bread cost 87 cents and a gallon of gas went for $1.17 — and Carroll was the head coach of the Patriots.
But Jalen Hurts threw 2 costly interceptions, wasting fine efforts by both the defense (297 total yards allowed) and the offensive line (no sacks allowed) as they lost to the Seahawks once again, 20-17.
The Eagles could now be headed for one of their biggest folderoos of all time — on a par with the one that their baseball counterparts, the Phillies, pulled off in 1964: holding a 6 1/2-game lead in the National League (no divisions in those days) with 12 games to play, the Phillies lost 10 in a row to fall into third place, 2 1/2 games behind the Cardinals and two back of the second-place Reds, against whom they would play their last two games.
The Phils won both of those games — but since the Cardinals blew out the lowly Mets in their season finale, they won the NL pennant, leaving the Phillies and the Reds tied for second place.
For their part, the Eagles have staged some memorable collapses of their own:
1983: After starting 4-2, will all four victories coming on the road, the Eagles went 1-9 the rest of the way to finish 5-11.
1994: After starting 7-2, the Eagles lost their last seven games for a 7-9 final record. The collapse cost head coach Rich Kotite his job.
2005: The Eagles were 4-2 through their first six games. But then the "T.O.-gate Scandal" happened, and Philadelphia went 2-8 the rest of the way to finish 6-10.
2012: Following a 3-1 start, with the three victories coming by a grand total of four points (sound familiar?), the Eagles went 1-11 from then on and finished 4-12, causing Andy Reid to be fired. The 444 points allowed by the 2012 Eagles is the most in franchise history.
2014: At 9-3 with four games left, the Eagles appeared to be playoff-bound. But three straight losses mathematically eliminated them from the playoffs before they even got to play their last game — which they won, naturally.
Having backed into the playoffs, the Eagles will have a chance to back into the 5 seed in the NFC before they even take the field against the Giants at home on Christmas Day. All that will be necessary to bring that about is a Seattle loss and a Detroit win on Christmas Eve.
Then maybe — just maybe — Eagles fans won't boo Santa Claus on Monday.
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