
January 19, 2025
Saquon Barkley after his 78-yard touchdown run in the snow against the Rams in the NFC Divisional Round.
Battling a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and coach duo, and the weather itself, the Eagles had their hands full and frozen at Lincoln Financial Field. The 28-22 victory that lifted the Eagles to the NFC title game for the second time in three years broke the "Cocky vs. Distraught" meter in Philadelphia. After Birds fans both shivering in South Philly and bundled up on the couch went back and forth from believing it was all over to setting up February Google Flights alerts for New Orleans, the football world was left with an instant snowy classic.
The Snow Bowl back in 2013 between the Birds and the Lions featured LeSean McCoy running wild all over Detroit, totaling 217 yards on the ground and multiple touchdowns in the win. The narrative of that game has been rewritten, as it goes with all victors. It was terrible until things started getting a little sloppy late and the Eagles' offensive line paired with the game's best running back set the crowd soaring into a frenzy, frostbite be damned.
The same thing happened.
The Eagles were up 16-15 at the tail end of the quarter after a gimpy Jalen Hurts was brought down for a safety in the end zone. Los Angeles was getting the ball back. It felt over. The stadium was lifeless and I don't begrudge any fan who'd been turning to ice for the last three hours for feeling that way. They had just been kicked in the face and it appeared that the domed, West Coast team just came to big, bad Philly and punched them in the mouth.
That's when things got weird.
Rams' running back Kyren Williams fumbled, which reserve cornerback Isaiah Rodgers scooped up and brought down into the red zone. Jake Elliott, who may have the lowest confidence rating among anyone in the Delaware Valley right now, then nailed a field goal as the snowy and windy conditions worsened. Elliott has had a brutal season, but he does bring those championship bonafides.
On the ensuing Los Angeles drive, Nolan Smith, having a phenomenal breakout sophomore campaign, forced a fumble on Matthew Stafford, who, of course, was Detroit's quarterback way back when on that day at the Linc in 2013. Zack Baun recovered the fumble. The Birds' offense was once again unable to punch it into the end zone, but Elliott did his best 2001 Adam Vinatieri impression and knocked things through the uprights. Elliott had Eagles fans ripping their hair out at times with his two missed extra points on Sunday in what was ultimately a six-point victory. He was ripping victory from the jaws of defeat and vice versa. He was emblematic of the entire tortuous, thrilling matchup.
The original Snow Bowl had its strangeness and early deficits, but McCoy's touchdown scampers defined it. Saquon Barkley, on a season in which he crossed the 2,000-yard mark and brought up legitimate MVP chatter, added himself to Eagles playoff lore, accomplishing something greater than McCoy did in a win-or-go-home game and putting himself shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Wilbert Montgomery. A 78-yard touchdown run from Barkley down the Los Angeles sideline put the Birds up 13 points with a few minutes left. That was on top of his 62-yard TD dash from the first quarter, too. What a player.
Would things go swimmingly from there? No, of course not, this is Philadelphia.
Stafford and the Lions marched down the field. Was it going to be death by a thousand cuts like the 2013 Wild Card Round against New Orleans or the stand of the century like the 2017 Division Round against Atlanta? After a massive, game-wrecking sack by Jalen Carter to force a fourth down, it looked a whole like the latter. An errant Stafford throw on fourth down led to an Eagles kneel-down and a picturesque celebration.
Hold your breath and get ready to do it all over again next Sunday, yet again at the Linc, Birds fans.
Some other choice thoughts:
• Darius Slay was incredible. It was his best game ever in Midnight Green.
• Early congratulations to Mekhi Becton on the massive amount of money he's going to make in free agency this offseason. He's been a true mauler in the run game.
• On the first play from scrimmage, Dallas Goedert hauled in a first-down pass from Jalen Hurts and stiff-armed a Rams defender along the way. You absolutely know he was going to throw that out there as soon as he could after his gigantic touchdown "Angry Run" last week against Green Bay.
• The Eagles clearly missed Nakobe Dean in the run game at times, but, particularly in the fourth quarter, Zack Baun was a real First-Team All-Pro linebacker. He flew around the field. He tipped passes. He scooped up fumbles. He was everywhere. He's such a throwback player. Maybe he lasts just a year in Philadelphia, earning a huge payday for himself as well this offseason, but what a run this is for the Eagles' best linebacker since Jeremiah Trotter Sr.
• Hurts clearly had a lower-body injury that hampered his mobility late in the game. How will he heal up this week ahead of an NFC Championship Game battle with Washington?
• Why have a dome on your football stadium when you could have something you remember for the rest of your life like that?
• Has any Eagles offensive player had a better season from Week 1 onward than Barkley has over the last several months? My recency bias says no. Perhaps how long this Eagles season goes will ultimately tell that tale.
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