2013 Seahawks vs 2024 Eagles. Two very comprable teams. Also both have extremely, mobile signal callers. They adds an interesting dynamic. Both great pass rushes, but Carter being on the inside, is the X factor. Nothing disrupts like inside pressure. Tremendous secondaries, though I give the edge to LOB. The blend of ballhawking and brute force(Earl/Cam were heat seeking missile) has rarely been seen in NFL history. The Eagles OLine is certainly more than capapble of containing the LOB's DLine. Chris Jones is a better player than anyone on Seattle's line Seattle would have a tough time dealing with Phillys front. Russell being short, would also be a factor. Get those hands up!! And Philly literally dominates the WRs and TE's.battle. AJ, Devonta and Dallas, with the two headed running attack?!?! What would Philly have to worry about if they shutdown Marshawn? Baldwin, Kearse and Tate arent scaring anyone. Plus Russell hadnt reached his apex as a passer, yet. That is a phenomenal matchup. On paper, I am favoring Philly, ever so slightly. In reality, Seattle did more. Destroying that historic Broncos offense is way more impressive than handling that barely above avg offense for KC. But there is something to be said for defeating a reigning, 2 time champion. History will be very kind to Philly. 18 wins!!! Only teams to have done that is the 84 49ers, 85 Bears and the 2007 Patriots.
In a simulation I think the '13 Hawks win 7 of 10 times. That Hawks front didn't have a Chris Jones and STILL put unbelievable pressure on the quarterback (mostly from outside, sure) because they were an elite unit...
AJ can take himself out of a game, you can get in his head, he's really kinda soft. Sherman will lock up one side of the field so that takes away AJ's or Brown's effectiveness, and then what? The passing game isn't string enough to beat that secondary, and again '24 Jalen isn't '13 Manning or '14 Brady. That pass offense is finito...
Saquon was kept at bay by the '24 Chiefs. The '13 LOB shutting thar run game off too...
This Eagles D is gonna be exaggerated in the short term based off this playoff run. They were nowhere near as physical or dominant as the Hawks were, in an era where offense were throwing up record numbers. Someone has already said they were an "all time great" defense----->an All-Time defense that allowed 31 offensive touchdowns in 17 games, vs '13 Hawks allowing 20 offensive TDs in 16 games...
This isn't the same scale of defense on any level and we can back this up by all the stats. We can talk about how nice individual Eagle defenders are, and they got a good amount of em, but the '24 Eagles are great by 2020s standards and dominated a favorable Super Bowl matchup...
Nothing supports this being an All-Time great defense, the data doesn't support it bit fukk all that, the eye test doesn't either. This clearly wasn't the LOB...
Now this Eagles D, is better than that Hawks O. But that Eagles D having to stay on the field because the Hawks keep getting Philly's O off the field, will eventually take its toll on that defense. And they aren't gonna dominate that Seattle O the way LOB would dominate Philly's O anyway...
'13 Seattle offense is getting shortchanged here because Wilson wasn't yet peaking and they had no stars outside of Lynch. But they were the #8 scoring offense, masters of ball control and a huge knack for the big play, they scored 41 offensive TDs and were masterful in overcoming a mid offensive line...
I don't see any real scenario short of injury that '24 Philly wins more than 3 of 10 in a simulation...
. Only real question for me for the Eagles was how Hurts would perform if the Eagles went down early, but we didn't see that as he played well all game.
