The second season starts now. The first weekend of the NFL playoffs is finally here and will conclude on Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks face off against the Philadelphia Eagles on the road.
Sunday’s showdown between the Seahawks and Eagles will be a rematch of their Week 12 meeting in which Seattle slugged out a 17-9 defensive win over the Birds. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, rematches haven’t exactly been their thing lately.
Over the past two years, the Seahawks are a measly 1-6 when they play in-season rematch games, with their only win coming in Week 17 of last year when they beat the Cardinals on a last-second field goal. Blame attrition, questionable coaching, opposing teams figuring Seattle out, or just bad luck, but whatever it is, the end result is still the Seahawks struggling to beat teams again.
A lot has changed for the Seahawks and their Eagles following their first game this year. Seattle was looking like perhaps the best team in the conference and competing for home-field advantage, while the Eagles appeared to be destined to miss the postseason.
Now the Seahawks enter the playoffs as a wild card, losers of three out of their last four games, including two straight at home. The Eagles, however, have gone 4-1, won a division title, and quarterback Carson Wentz hasn’t thrown an interception since Week 13.
Both these teams overcame significant injuries to limp into the postseason, but they are trending in opposite directions.