Philadelphia Eagles: Is This OUR Year?

I probably wouldn't be writing this article if the Phillies had not won the World Series. I know I wouldn't. But the Phillies did win. On Oct. 29 of last year, Brad Lidge struck out Eric Hinske to clinch the first championship for a Philadelphia team in 25 seasons.

This singular moment opened up a new world I had never seen before in my entire life. Winning. I'm not talking about playoff appearances, or even deep playoff berths. I'm talking about the whole thing.

Championships.

The Eagles defeated the NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings 26-14 on Sunday afternoon, advancing to the NFC Divisional round, where they will travel to New York to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Giants.

It was on Sunday that I realized something about the Eagles: We are a championship-caliber team.

I've never had this feeling before, with the obvious exception of the 2004 Super Bowl run. I didn't even have this feeling after we throttled the Dallas Cowboys 44-6 to clinch the final wild-card spot in the NFC.

But I have this feeling now. There is something special about this team. It's something that I have never seen before in any Philadelphia Eagles team in my lifetime, including the 2004 Eagles. It's something that I saw in the 2008 world champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Heart.

Lots of it.

This Eagles team has more heart than any team I've ever seen before. They have as much heart as the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies.

Let's face it, heart might be more important than talent. Just ask the Dallas Cowboys, who possess as much individual talent as any team I have ever seen in my entire life. They finished the season one game above .500 and failed to qualify for the postseason.

Now look at the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies. We were not the best team in baseball. The Cubs were probably better. The Red Sox. Maybe the Angels. But we had as much heart as any team I have ever seen in my life, and it came out at precisely the right time.

The result? The 11 postseason wins needed to call one group of 25 players "world champions."

This year's Eagles are the NFL's version of the Philadelphia Phillies. We didn't have the best record in the NFL—not even close. We needed one of the biggest upsets of the year to even have a chance to make the playoffs.

But when it counts, this team has been amazing.

We throttled the Arizona Cardinals by four touchdowns on Thanksgiving night. We knocked off the Giants in New York. We destroyed the Browns in Cleveland. And after a slip-up in Washington, we turned in arguably the greatest game that any NFL team has played in the past 10 years.

What happened yesterday? We played a C+ game at best, and won by 12 points.

It might be desperation, and not heart, but something is driving this team.

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