Eagles Face Commanders With Super Bowl Spot On The Line: Preview, Odds, What To Know

PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Eagles are one win away from their second Super Bowl appearance in the last three years, and all that stands in their way is one of their most hated division rivals, owned by the archvillain of the Philly moment, riding the inertia of a spectacular underdog run.

The Eagles will take on the Washington Commanders this Sunday in south Philadelphia in an NFC Championship game that could define the lore of their rivalry for a generation to come.

It will be no easy task. Going back to their win over the Eagles back in late December, the Commanders have been very hungry dogs indeed, toppling the heavily favored Birds, then beating Tampa Bay in the Wild Card round before their momentous upset over the top seeded Lions in Detroit last week.

These are not the 2018 Eagles. No one is underestimating or betting against the 2025 Birds. But the Commanders, the only team to beat the Eagles in the last four months, owned by Sixers owner Josh Harris, are happy playing the spoiler. Here's what to know.

Details

The NFC Championship will kick off at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 26 at Lincoln Financial Field in south Philadelphia. It will be the third time in the last eight years that the NFC Championship game has been at the Linc, and the second time in the last three years.

The game will be televised on Fox, while 94WIP has the radio broadcast.

The Josh Harris effect

The owner of the Washington Commanders, Josh Harris, is part of a majority ownership group of two other franchises: an NHL team that has historically been the scourge of the Flyers, and an NBA team that has made headlines for all the wrong reasons the past three months.

Harris, along with partner David Blitzer, bought the Sixers in 2011. Two years later they bought the New Jersey Devils, and some people thought it was weird. But it mostly flew under the radar, and for a dozen years Harris and Blitzer were the face of "the Process" alongside Joel Embiid. The Sixers ensuing return to the national stage made the franchise enormously profitable.

But the Sixers still haven't been to an NBA Finals, nevermind won a championship. And perhaps Harris should've waited for postseason success before committing what the Philly faithful could only perceive as treason. In July 2023, he bought the (freshly rebranded) Commanders. It didn't take long for images of the owner of a Philadelphia sports franchise wearing Washington football colors to circulate. The city's other billionaire owners, particularly the Phillies' John Middleton and the Eagles' Jeffrey Lurie, were suddenly lionized.

It didn't help that the Sixers didn't advance further in the postseason in either of the first two years of Harris owning the Commanders. And now, as Washington comes to Philadelphia for the NFC Championship game with the Sixers undergoing one biblical crisis after the next, rancor towards Harris is coming to its inevitable head. The pitchforks have been sharpening for years. The barbarians are at the gates.

The rivalry

The Eagles have won six of their last eight games against Washington, dating back to the end of the 2021 season. Their last matchup against the Commanders was one of their only losses of the entire season, a 36-33 decision down in Washington back on Dec. 22.

Many Eagles fans, and analysts around the league, overlooked that loss as simply the game that Hurts was injured in. The importance of it was also somewhat questionable, as the Eagles already had, at worst, the number two seed in the conference secured.

The meeting of division rivals in a conference championship game is rare. Sunday will mark just the fifth such conference title meeting between two teams in the same division since 2000.

The Eagles have played Washington in the postseason just once before: a 1990 loss in the Wild Card round.

The history of the Eagles-Washington rivalry has, to this point, not been as intense as what the Birds share with other cities. For one, the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants have been far better, on the whole, over the past few decades. But just as importantly, there is just less inter-city animosity between the former and current nation's capitols than there is between, say, Philly and New York or Philly and Boston.

That could all change Sunday.

What to look for

The camera will probably pan to Harris in a club box overlooking the hordes. It will find Jason Kelce, if it can. It will regret its inability to get Taylor Swift, though the broadcast will probably flick over to shots of Arrowhead Stadium and the rest of the interminable Kansas City celebrity braintrust.

When the cameras are on the field, it's hard to imagine a bigger storyline than Saquon Barkley. The Eagles superstar running back has been larger than life all season, channeling the spirit of Walter Payton and Barry Sanders in real time. He ran for 205 yards in the Eagles victory over Los Angeles last weekend, and he is the reason the Eagles are what and where they are this year.

Jalen Hurts was effective as a rusher, too, though the Eagles pass game continued to flounder last week. But that could very well be explained by the near whiteout conditions in the latter half of the game. Look for Hurts to pass much more this week than he did last week, especially if Washington gets on the board early.

As for the Commanders, they are led by Jayden Daniels, who may be putting together one of the greatest seasons for a rookie quarterback in history. He completed 22 of 31 passes for 299 yards in the historic shootout in Detroit last weekend, which included the highest scoring quarter in NFL history (28-14). He also ran for 51 yards. He's not phased by poor conditions and unfriendly environs, though Philadelphians are sure to once again reinvent the term inhospitable on Sunday afternoon.

Tickets

Given the playoff fever that has gripped the Delaware Valley each January and each Red October for the last several years, it should be no surprise that the cost of tickets is outlandish.

• Related: Eagles-Commanders NFC Championship Playoff Tickets Skyrocket In Cost

The cheapest ticket on Stubhub is a standing room only seat for $538. But that's a comparative bargain, as the vast majority seats are on sale for something between $800 and $1,500, with the priciest seats going for as much as $5,250, as of Thursday afternoon.

Odds and predictions

The Birds are heavily favored to win, sitting as 6.5 point favorites on Fanduel Sportsbook. That's up from the 4.5 points they were favored over Green Bay in the Wild Card ground, and the 5.5 points they were favored over Los Angeles last week. The moneyline for the Birds is minus 270.

Nearly all analysts are predicting a win, albeit a close one, for the Eagles. NFL.com is an exception, with analysts calling for both the Bills and Commanders to win upsets, citing the sheer inertia of Daniels this winter.

If the Eagles win, they'll play the winner of the Bills and Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 on Feb. 9 in New Orleans.