Philadelphia Eagles advance to NFC Championship, despite being underdogs

Despite being underdogs against the Atlanta Falcons, the Philadelphia Eagles were still able to advance to the NFC Championship.

Believe it or not, the Philadelphia Eagles entered Saturday’s Divisional Round game against the Atlanta Falcons as underdogs when seeing how the team looked towards the end of the regular season with Nick Foles under center since Carson Wentz suffered a torn ACL. Not to mention, the Eagles looked anything but impressive to close out the season when looking at how poorly they played against the Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys, so it was easy to understand why so many football fans expected an early exit from Doug Pederson‘s team.

It wasn’t the best of performances, but when it mattered the most, Philadelphia was able to hang on against Atlanta for the 15-10 victory to advance to the NFC Championship for the first time since 2009. Even though the Falcons were in position to take the lead towards the end of the game, the Eagles deserve plenty of credit for coming through on their goal-line stand by preventing Matt Ryan from connecting with Julio Jones from two yards out to take the lead.

After losing Wentz in Week 14 against the Los Angeles Rams, all hope seemed lost for Philadelphia when Foles was forced to come in as his replacement since the former first-round pick was considered a heavy MVP favorite at the time. And even though Foles didn’t look all that sharp to close out the regular season, the important factor is he helped the Eagles come through when it mattered the most against the Falcons.

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Thanks to Foles doing just enough to get by on offense after completing 23 of 30 passes for 246 yards with no turnovers, Philadelphia was able to prove all of the doubters wrong by hanging on for the tough win against Atlanta to advance to the NFC Championship to face the winner of Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings. Obviously, the Eagles realize that no matter who they end up playing it’s going to be a tough battle, but at least after defeating the Falcons as underdogs, Pederson’s squad was able to make a huge statement about belonging in the postseason and there’s nothing they would love more than to earn a trip to the Super Bowl with one more win.