* it's Tuesday and life begins without Carson Wentz. reality is sinking in. Wentz will have surgery to repair the torn ACL in his left knee and will begin rehab.
I'm glad the Eagles are taking the "next man up" approach. They have come too far to let down now or give up. Coach Pederson is in a good spot now, even without Wentz. Another win or two and the Birds will have a bye and home field advantage. Teams will need to go thru Philadelphia to get to the Super Bowl on the NFC side. If Pederson doesn't have his players' unity- as well as the fans- he never will.
Plus, Pederson has a good excuse if the Eagles don't go far in the playoffs. He coached the team,with Wentz, to an 11-2 record. If the team does falter, Pederson has a way out now. But he has more of an opportunity to bring the team together and surprise football fans everywhere.
The offense may need a little tweaking now. Foles is strictly a pocket-passer. He can't run like Wentz. I wouldn't want him to run anyway. I'm not even sure who is Foles' back-up at this point.
The eagles have three very winnable games coming up prior to the playoffs. With the bye week, they won't start the playoffs for a month. That should be enough time for Foles to get used to the first team offense. If he simply doesn't have the talent, that's one thing. He sure will be prepared.
Interestingly enough, the Eagles only dropped to No.3 in the ESPN Power Ratings.Only Pittsburgh and New England are rated ahead of Philly. So the Eagles- in the eyes of ESPN- are still the favorites to win the NFC.
Let's say Minnesota hangs onto the No. 2 seed in the NFC. And let's say New Orleans wins the NFC South and captures the No. 3 seed. The winner of the West- Seattle or the Rams- will sit at the No.4 seed, and will play a wild card game. Let's say they win the wild card game and play the No. 1 seed (the Eagles). That would mean a rematch with the Seahawks and Russell Wilson, or another encounter with Jared Goff and the Rams.
I would rather play the Rams. Warm weather team, inexperienced in the playoffs. Seattle has Wilson, plus they know what it takes to win in the post-season. Both would need to fly across the country and play in chilly Philly, but I think LA would be the more beatable team.
New Orleans would be scary because of future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees. I'm sure he seen all kinds of defenses and has played in all kinds of weather. Atlanta would be a challenge as well. There were there last night and QB Matt Ryan is a stud.Plus they have a ground game which would be needed in bad weather.
It wasn't going to be easy with Wentz. It's much tougher now. But it's do-able, especially if the Birds hang onto home field advantage all the way to the Super Bowl.
The Philly fans need to latch-on to the underdog attitude. Maybe the res tof America would follow suit.. Wentz got the Eagles to the door of the playoffs. Now it's up to Nick Foles & co. to kick it in.
* The Sixers play in Minnesota tonight. The Timberwoles lead their division with a young, talented squad. The Wolves were a trendy choice to make the playoffs in the West of the NBA and make some noise. It will be interesting to see if Joel Embiid plays.
The 76'ers, after having a decent start against tough teams, sit at 13-13. They were beating clubs they were supposed to beat until last week, when they lost home games to both the Suns and Lakers.
* The Flyers return to action tonight when they begin a five-game home stand vs. the Maple Leafs.
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