A Phillies-style run?

So, for the second time in the past few months the sports gods smiled on Philadelphia. On a glorious October weekend just months ago, we had the good fortune of enjoying a weekend in which the Flyers and Eagles won, Penn St. won at Ohio St. and the Phillies won games 3 and 4 of the World Series. A perfect 5 for 5.



And then there was yesterday. There we were again, with our Eagles oh-so-close to playoffs but needing a seemingly impossible series of circumstances to come to be in order for their late afternoon game to have playoff meaning for the home team. It looked like we were left to look back on another incredibly frustrating, ok-but-not-good-enough season. And then it started to happen. It was around halftime of the early afternoon games, and Chicago, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay were all in close games. It was making things interesting, and sure, maybe Chicago and/or Minnesota would lose, but there was no way Tampa Bay would fall to lowly Oakland, right? Until they did. And suddenly, miraculously, the Eagles were once again in control of their own destiny, despite last week's clunker in Washington, despite all the mis-steps of the season. Beat Dallas and we're in. And boy did they.

We all watched the game, and the Reverend has already touched on the highlights of the game, so I'll spare the details. I have not been a fan of coach Reid, but I will give him credit for calling a real nice game yesterday (how about those two consecutive QB sneaks on the goal line?). And credit to the players for executing, as the Eagles were sound in all facets of the game. They handled their business, thoroughly whooped the Cowboys, and are somehow in the playoffs.



In mid-September, the Phillies trailed in the wild card by four games, with the wild card leading Brewers coming to town for a four-game series. The Phils were left for dead by many, basically needing a sweep of the Brewers to remain relevant in the playoff picture. Well, they got that sweep and we all remember what followed.

Besides the Phillies parallel and the unusually good luck that has been going on around here lately, the Eagles have some NFL recent history on their side as well. The Giants and Steelers both won the Super Bowl from a wild card position, having to win 3 road playoff games after having to fight their asses off just to get in. So it can happen, and it has been happening recently. I'm not saying the Eagles should be the favorite to win the Super Bowl, but maybe it's our time. Either way, January is looking a lot more interesting than it was this time yesterday.