By Liam Andell

The Philadelphia Eagles entered the 2017-2018 NFL season with the expectations to continue building a successful team based on their franchise quarterback Carson Wentz, a first-round draft selection in 2016. After a mediocre 7-9 season under first-year head coach Doug Pederson the Philadelphia Eagles needed to make a few moves in offseason to improve the team in preparation for the upcoming season. Philadelphia Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman knew what had to be done to put the necessary pieces around Carson Wentz to make him a better quarterback. Roseman stepped up to the plate by adding players like star receiver Alshon Jeffery from the Chicago Bears, running back LeGarrette Blount from the New England Patriots, and wide receiver Torrey Smith from the San Francisco 49ers. On the other side of the ball, Howie Roseman was able to acquire defensive end Chris Long from the New England Patriots and defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan from the Baltimore Ravens.

As the season grew closer the Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson received tons of criticism from the media about how good of a head coach he was. One most notably was from former NFL executive Mike Lombardi who dug in deep on Pederson’s lack of head coaching qualifications. Mike Lombardi stated on The Ringer Radio Station about Pederson, “He might be less qualified to coach a team than anyone I’ve seen in my 30-plus years in the NFL.  Pederson was barely a coordinator before he became a head coach!” Doug Pederson didn’t seem to be fazed by the comments saying, “I’m confident in what I do,” and his entire team backed him as their coach.

The Philadelphia Eagles 2017-2018 season began in Landover, Maryland against division rival Washington Redskins. Carson Wentz showed no signs of a sophomore slump in the season opener by throwing for 307 yards and 2 touchdowns. In the end, the Eagles pulled out a 30-17 victory to start the season off at 1-0. The only negative takeaway from this week 1 victory was losing their star kicker Caleb Sturgis for the season with a quad strain.

The Philadelphia Eagles following a week 2 loss to Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs 27-20 went back to Philadelphia for their home opener against division rival New York Giants. After a hard fought battle it would come down to their newly acquired kicker Jake Elliot from the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad. With only a few seconds left in the game, Jake Elliot was brought onto the field in hope of a miracle that a rookie kicker could make a 61-yard field to win a game, and miraculously he was able to send it through the goal post and give the Eagles the 27-24 victory. This kick not only set the record for the longest field goal by a rookie in NFL history but it also helped him win his way into Philadelphia Eagles fans’ hearts. You can argue Elliot’s game-winner was the turning point in the Eagles season and started their amazing run.

From weeks 3 through 12, the Philadelphia Eagles played amazing football. The Eagles went 9-0 and led the league in points per game at 32 points. Huge credit goes to the entire team for joining together as a cohesive unit on offense, defense and special teams. Carson Wentz led the league at the time for the most touchdown passes per game at 2.5 touchdowns.

The Philadelphia Eagles lost some key pieces on both sides of the ball throughout this run. Veteran running back Darren Sproles broke his arm in week 3, Pro Bowl offensive lineman Jason Peters tore both his ACL and MCL in his right knee in week 7, and Jordan Hicks ruptured his Achilles in the same week. With all of the unfortunate injuries several Eagles players had to step up in a big way to take over their roles. Young offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai stepped up in a big way and has been able to fill in some shoes. Once again props to Howie Roseman who was able to acquire second-year star running back Jay Ajayi from the Miami Dolphins in a trade for a fourth-round draft pick in the 2018 NFL draft.

The Eagles were 10-1 and the number 1 seed in the NFC after their week 12 of demolishing of the Chicago Bears 31-3. After a strong 10 week run of outscoring their opponents by an average of 17.1 points it was time for the Eagles to take on their first real test of the season and venture out to the west coast for a 3-game road trip.

Going on the road is difficult. Traveling to the west coast as an east coast team is even harder, especially when you’re playing against an elite team like the Seattle Seahawks, a rising team like the Los Angeles Rams and a division foe like the New York Giants. The red-hot Eagles came back down to earth on that Sunday night in week 13 as they fell to Seattle 24-10. Although they lost some of their games, Philadelphia kept its hopes up as the Eagles headed out to Los Angeles to meet with the Rams powerful offense. The Rams are known for having some of the worst fan support inside stadiums this year and Eagles fans proved that as they flooded the city of Los Angeles to watch this great matchup. The game was close throughout and was definitely living up to the hype.

That was until all of the Philadelphia Eagles fans had their hearts sink. In the third quarter, quarterback Carson Wentz was leading his team down the field when he took a snap pushed it to the right and began run for the end zone. As he was diving, two Rams defenders hit Wentz in his knee causing an injury. Before anyone became aware of the injury not only did Wentz stay in the game he stayed in the pocket and threw a touchdown pass to wide receiver Alshon Jeffery. Wentz was taken into the locker room and evaluated for his injury. Backup quarterback Nick Foles entered the game and helped lead the Eagles to a 43-35 victory.

The next day proved all of the Eagles fans’ worries after it was confirmed that star Wentz had a torn ACL. The loss of the Eagles quarterback put a huge damper on their amazing season and thoughts of winning the Super Bowl. New starting quarterback Nick Foles had big shoes to fill as he entered his first game starting for the Eagles since 2014; he stepped up to the plate in his first start against New York by throwing four touchdowns and leading them to a 34-29 victory.

With his performance, the Philadelphia fans became more confident in Foles but less confident in the defense after looking putrid against the New York Giants team filled with injured players. The whole script flipped the following week on Christmas night when Nick Foles played one of his worst games against the Oakland Raiders but the defense played a great game which ultimately led them to a 13-10 victory.  Week 17 was a meaningless game that we lost 6-0.  After that loss people became even more skeptical of Nick Foles and his abilities.  Now it is time for him and the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles to show what they’re made of in the playoffs.