For most of the Philadelphia Eagles on the roster, they have been here and done it before after their Super Bowl title run in 2024.
Not everyone on the team got to experience this, as the rookies, like Jihaad Campbell and Darius Cooper, will learn very quickly that playoff football is much different from the games played in the regular season.
That's a lesson that Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean shared with his fellow linebacker, rookie Smael Mondon Jr., who is playing in his first NFL playoff game. Dean has a clear message about what must happen in a playoff game that a team might get away with in the regular season.
“Teams don’t beat themselves in the playoffs," Dean said via NBC Philadelphia's Ashlyn Sullivan. "We have to beat them.”
Eagles veterans know playoff football is a game of centimeters, not inches
The Eagles are facing a tough San Francisco 49ers team that was in the Super Bowl just two years ago. Most of that team is still on the roster, so they understand just as much as the Eagles do that mistakes can't define their season.
Philly had that run last year where they blew out three of their four playoff opponents by 10 or more points, with the only exception being the NFC Divisional round game against the Los Angeles Rams. The Eagles quickly found out that if they can truly beat a team on every level, there is no competition for them.
This season, though, it feels like the Eagles were on training wheels when it came to winning, as there were multiple games where they almost blew a big lead or did blow a big lead in the second half. Games like the Denver Broncos' and the second Dallas Cowboys meeting are examples where 10- or more-point leads evaporated because they didn't finish the game.
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With 17 games under their belts, the training wheels are coming off, and the Eagles must step up in playoff football and dominate.