Eagles Playoff Schedule: Team To Face Bears In Wild Card Sunday

As recently as three weeks ago, an Eagles playoff appearance seemed highly unlikely.

The team had just fallen to 6-7 following a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys, despite having climbed back into contention with wins the previous two weeks over the Redskins and Giants. They played at the periphery of the playoffs for what felt like the entire season, clawing back at the very moment that everything appeared lost.

And now, after Sunday, the road to defending the 2018 Super Bowl title is one step closer.

>>Eagles Beat Redskins, Advance To Playoffs

The Eagles, of course, dominated the Washington Redskins 24-0, while their Wild Card foes in Minnesota fell to the Bears, clinching the final playoff spot for the Birds.

As recently as two weeks ago, the Birds playoff hopes behind winning the division felt hopelessly convoluted.

What's next? As the sixth and last seed, they'll battle the third seed and NFC North-winning Bears on Sunday, Jan. 6 at 4:40 p.m. The game will be held at the confines of Soldier Field in Chicago.

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The Eagles have not played the Bears this season. The Birds will undoubtedly be heavy underdogs, much more so than they ever were during their championship run last year. For all talk of being underappreciated by analysts around the league, last season's Eagles finished the regular season 13-3, as the first seed in the NFC. Someone who wasn't watching ESPN would probably assume the Birds were the favorites.

That will not be the case this year. The Eagles squeaked into the playoffs at the last possible moment, despite using their backup quarterback and despite suffering a whole host of injuries to that underdog winner from last season. Preliminary odds have the Bears as strong 5.5 point favorites, according to Action Network.

Speaking of injuries, Sunday's game ended on a scary note for Eagles fans. Clutch hero Nick Foles put together another amazing performance, tying the NFL record for consecutive completions in a game and breaking Donovan McNabb's franchise record. However, he appeared to suffer bruised ribs towards the end of the game, and was taken out.

According to sources with NFL Network, there was no break, and the team believes the Philly Special architect will be ready to pull off some more postseason magic next Sunday in Chicago.

Foles' backup, the team's third-stringer, is Nate Sudfeld, who handled the end of the Redskins game Sunday, including a touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor. Sudfeld, 25, was drafted in 2016 and has seen very limited professional action thus far.

Elsewhere in the NFC, the Seahawks will face off against the Cowboys in the other Wild Card game at 8:30 p.m. next Saturday.

Should the Eagles beat the Bears next Sunday, they still face a harrowing road to return to the Super Bowl, which would need to include two more road wins. First, they would head down to New Orleans to face the Saints, the best team in the NFC. The Saints, due to their 13-3 regular season record, have a bye in the first round. That game would be the weekend of Jan. 12-13.

The Eagles infamously were blown out by the Saints, 48-7, back on Nov. 18. Since that game, they finished the season 5-1, with wins over the playoff-bound Rams and Texans.

If they beat the Saints, they'd face the winner of the Rams versus Seahawks/Cowboys the weekend following, Jan. 20, in the NFC Championship.

The Super Bowl is on Feb. 3 in Atlanta.

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