By Lewis Gould
The Eagles are headed to New Orleans for next Sunday’s second-round with the Saints after one of the most scintillating endings in NFL history.
Not latest NFL history.
The whole 99-year history of this venerable league.
But check the facts:
The final score was Eagles 16, Bears 15, and that was enough to stun the crowd at Soldier Field.
But on the Eagles side of the field, there was dancing and shouting after Cody Parkey’s 43-yard attempt ricocheted to the ground, ushering the Eagles into a divisional-round matchup next Sunday afternoon at top-seeded New Orleans.
When the Eagles’ locker room opened to the news media, music was blaring and some players were huddled, watching replays of the kick. Chris Long turned to his fellow defensive end Brandon Graham, sitting beside him, and said, “It’s a hard job being a kicker.” Graham said, “I know, boy.”
Above the din, tight end Zach Ertz bellowed, “Club Dub,” referencing the dance party that raged after Bears victories this season, all 12 of them. No strobe lights pulsing in the home locker room Sunday, only the harsh glare of the cameras.
“You can’t make this up,” Parkey said. “I feel terrible.”
As Parkey’s kick sank to the earth, the Bears’ mascot, Staley Da Bear, perched beneath the crossbar, fell over. The camera panned to Chicago Coach Matt Nagy, who did not blink, his mouth agape.
As many have posited, the Bears’ biggest blunder of the season came last week, when they beat the Vikings in the last week of the regular season. By winning in Minnesota — where the Eagles captured their first Super Bowl, it should be noted — the Bears granted the Eagles’ entry into the postseason.
Chicago’s reward, after going 12-4 to capture the NFC North and the conference’s third seed, was to face the reigning champions, who barged into the playoffs by winning five of their final six games — the last three behind Foles, in relief, again, of an injured Carson Wentz.
The Eagles have a quirky, if enviable, quarterback situation — the franchise star in Wentz and the beloved backup in Foles, who merely secured this town’s first football championship since 1960.
Since ascending to the starting job in Week 15 at Los Angeles — where Wentz injured his knee last season — Foles, unlikely to return next season, has approached every game knowing it could be his last in an Eagles uniform. He tamed the Rams, then the Texans and the Redskins, but had not yet encountered a defense as dominant as Chicago’s.
Just how dominant? The Bears were the only team this season with more interceptions (27) than touchdown passes allowed (22).
Even after Chicago added two more interceptions Sunday — after the first 25 minutes, he had been picked off more times than in his previous four playoff games combined — Foles remained at peace.
“What I’ve learned on these stages,” Foles said, “is just how to calm myself in a chaotic moment.”
He simplifies. He gazes at 10 players he trusts in the huddle. He calls the play. With 4 minutes 48 seconds remaining and trailing by 15-10, Philadelphia took over at its 40 and in the huddle Foles simplified, gazed, trusted — and found Alshon Jeffery for 15 yards. He guided the Eagles to the Bears’ 2, converting a third-and-9 to Jeffery, before three straight plays backfired.
Before fourth-and-their-season, Coach Doug Pederson signaled timeout. Expecting the Bears to blitz, Pederson called a play that would move the pocket for Foles, who rolled to his right and sidearmed a toss to Golden Tate, who caught it on the goal line and spun into the end zone with 56 seconds left.
The moment reminded Foles of his first playoff game with the Eagles, at home five years ago against New Orleans back in his first stint in Philly.
He threw a late go-ahead touchdown pass in that game — and then saw Darren Sproles, now his teammate, gash them with a long kickoff return that positioned the Saints for the winning field goal.
And on Sunday, after the Eagles missed the 2-point conversion, Foles, who completed 25 of 40 passes for 266 yards, watched Tarik Cohen ran back the ensuing kickoff 35 yards.
“That definitely came into my mind a little bit,” Foles said of the New Orleans game.
Mitch Trubisky, whose 22-yard touchdown pass to Allen Robinson with 9:04 left had put the Bears ahead by 15-10, directed the Bears to the Eagles’ 25, where Parkey measured his fourth attempt of the day. His travails this season have unnerved Bears fans, who sulked as he missed 10 kicks — seven field goals and three extra points.
He drilled his initial try, but Philadelphia had called timeout before the kick to ice him. The second bounced off the yellow posts and onto the turf.
When it was noted to Pederson at a news conference last week that Foles had not lost the last two Decembers (and beyond), Pederson banged the wooden lectern for, you know, luck. That was superfluous. He oversees a team that trampled favored New England in the Super Bowl, that has coalesced after a 48-7 defeat Nov. 18 in New Orleans, that outclassed the league’s top defense on the road.
The same Eagles group that donned dog masks last postseason — at once lampooning their perceived underdog status and welcoming it — has birthed a new wearable gimmick: ski masks. As if robbers, they started stealing the ball. Then they started stealing wins. Then they stole a playoff berth. Then they stole victory from the Bears.
Ask the Eagles, and they say are not done. They have been down a similar path before, and found a trophy at the end. New Orleans, beware.
