Some Zach Ertz, some Vinny Curry, some Jim Schwartz and lots of Nick Foles in Tuesday's edition of Roob's 10 random Eagles Super Bowl observations!
1. Foles didn't play the last five weeks of 2015. He started one game last year for the Chiefs. He hurt his elbow on the first day of training camp. He didn't play a single snap in the preseason. He threw four passes the first 12 weeks of this season. So when Foles replaced Carson Wentz on Dec. 10 in Los Angeles, he had barely played any football for two years, and he had never practiced or played with Alshon Jeffery, Torrey Smith and Nelson Agholor. Of course it was going to take some time for Foles to develop a comfort level with his receivers and just a comfort level feel for playing quarterback in the NFL again. But what he's done the last two weeks shouldn't be that shocking. We all saw 2013. Different offense but same skill set. It was not a fluke. You don't put up those kind of numbers if you don't have tremendous ability, and Foles historically has been very accurate and thrown very few interceptions. What he's proven these last two weeks is that he can be accurate and secure with the ball under the pressure of the postseason against very good opponents. It just took a while to get there, which is understandable.
2. Curry officially has three tackles and no sacks in the Eagles' two playoff wins, and I think he's playing absolutely the best football of his life. Forget the numbers. Curry has been so disruptive in these wins over the Falcons and Vikings, generating tremendous pressure on the quarterback and holding his own against the run. Curry is listed with four hurries in the postseason, but even that doesn't convey just how relentless he's been. He doesn't get the notoriety of Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox or Tim Jernigan, and I'm sure he's disappointed he had only three sacks during the regular season. But he's playing fantastic football right now.
3. Remember when "Zach Ertz doesn't get yards after the catch" was a thing? Man, he's shut a lot of people up this year, hasn't he? He was massive Sunday. Guy's a beast.
4. Schwartz spent 1992 coaching linebackers at Colgate and that offseason he landed an internship doing research for the Cleveland Browns' coaching staff. The Browns' head coach? Bill Belichick. Schwartz talked about Belichick Tuesday but made it clear his years alongside the Patriots' head coach are irrelevant now: "I owe a lot to Bill Belichick," Schwartz said. "He got my career started. The first three years of my NFL career were with him in Cleveland. But that's the last thing that any of these players [care about]. You think any of our players care that in 1993 I got hired as an unpaid intern? Do you really think that they think that's going to [make a difference?] They are just going out and playing."
5. It blows my mind that Foles has now won more playoff games in an Eagles uniform than Randall Cunningham.
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6. We all tend to think of Tom Brady as being unbeatable in the postseason, and that 27-9 career playoff record is imposing. But keep in mind the Patriots usually have the No. 1 seed and Brady rarely has to play away from the friendly confines of Gillette Stadium. In Foxboro, Brady is 19-3 in the postseason with an eight-game winning streak. Outside Foxboro? Brady has actually played only one postseason road game the last 11 years - he lost in Denver in 2013. And in his career, he's 3-4 in the postseason on the road and 5-2 at neutral sites (also known as Super Bowls). So that means Brady is 19-3 in the playoffs in his career at home but 8-6 outside of Foxboro, which is still very good but definitely not quite as imposing.
7. I was just thinking Mike Trout is from Millville, New Jersey. Wonder if he's an Eagles fan (see story).
8. The more I re-watch Sunday's game, the more I feel like Doug Pederson's play-calling might have been the best I've ever seen. That was one of the most dominating defenses of the past decade that came to South Philly Sunday night, and Pederson had an answer for everything (see story). He kept the Vikings off balance, he was aggressive from the start, he used all the Eagles' weapons and he didn't let up on the gas as the lead kept growing. I really felt like the Vikings weren't all that interested in playing football by the middle of the third quarter. The Eagles took their heart away, and a ton of the credit for that goes to Pederson.
9. The Eagles are 17-3 since their five-game losing streak last year.
10. Let's put Foles' two playoff games completing 77 percent of his passes into perspective: Every Hall of Fame quarterback combined has had four total postseason performances since 1950 completing 77 percent of his passes with no interceptions (minimum of 20 attempts). Foles just did it twice in nine days. Astonishing.
