Eagles Eye Super Bowl As Playoffs Begin: Weather, Odds, Hurt's Health, And More

PHILADELPHIA, PA — It's a golden era of championship football in south Philadelphia, and the Birds squad that will host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday has nothing less than Super Bowl aspirations in mind.

In the eight years since their Super Bowl win in 2018, the Eagles have now been to the playoffs six times. They've been to the Super Bowl twice. Almost every year, they've believed they can win it all.

After finishing the season 14-3 for the second time in three years, the Birds have the second seed in the NFC and home field advantage in at least the first two rounds. They'll play a tough 11-6 Green Bay team on Sunday that they already beat once this year, months ago in their season opener in Brazil. But nobody should be underestimating the Lambeau legion.

The Birds won that game 34-29. Five of the Packers six losses this year came to the Eagles, Lions, and Vikings, all owners of 14-3 or 15-2 records. All of those losses were close games.

Here's what to keep an eye on the NFL playoffs get underway this weekend.

Details

Kickoff for the Eagles-Packers is at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in south Philadelphia.

The game will be broadcast on FOX.

Weather

A significant winter storm is sweeping across the country this week, and for a time, forecasters believed it had the potential to hit the greater Philadelphia area over the weekend, possibly impacting the game Sunday.

However, the storm's current trajectory seems to indicate minimal impacts in the Delaware Valley.

"The storm will not have enough time to throw heavy snow through the coastal Northeast major cities," Accuweather says. "Instead, precipitation will fall up to a couple of hundred miles at sea, but not before bringing a stripe of up to several inches of snow to the interior Southeast states and the lower part of the mid-Atlantic."

Snow in the greater Philadelphia area looks to be largely intermittent, and will arrive Friday night into Saturday morning, the National Weather Service says.

Forecasters say total accumulation will be less than an inch.

It's probably good news for the Eagles, who thrived in Philly's historically dry and warm autumn. The Packers, meanwhile, play their home games in one of the most notoriously virulent and frigid stadiums in the league, and would probably gain some advantage in the snow.

Status of Jalen Hurts

The Eagles star quarterback missed the final games of the regular season with a concussion, and did not take the field to practice until this past Wednesday.

However, Hurts has since cleared the concussion protocol, and head coach Nick Sirianni said on Friday morning that he will start Sunday's game.

With Hurts injured, the team relied on excellent performances from backup quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee in the regular season's final weeks. But they'll be at full strength Sunday, so the Packers will have to contend with the possibility of both Saquon Barkley and Hurts running, along with Philly's potent receiver corps led by A.J. Brown.

Odds and predictions

The Eagles remain the clear favorites Sunday. The Birds started as 4.5 point favorites, and as the week developed and Hurts was cleared, they sit at 5.5 point favorites, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

They are also minus 130 favorites on moneyline.

Analyst predictions are varied. ESPN's three experts predict a close Eagles victory, while CBS calls for a 24-21 Packers upset. Yahoo, meanwhile, says the Eagles will return to the Super Bowl for a rematch with the Chiefs, but predicts Kansas City will win it all.

Other games

If the Eagles win, they'll advance to the divisional round. Who they play will depend on how the other wild card games turn out this week. The first seeded Detroit Lions, who have a bye, will play the lowest seed that advances. It creates an interesting range of hypotheticals, as the Eagles could wind up playing any of the other four NFC teams in the second round.

This weekend, third seeded Tampa Bay is facing sixth seeded Washington, while the fourth seeded Los Angeles Rams battle fifth seeded Minnesota. The highest of those seeds that advances to the second round will head to Philly (if the Eagles beat Green Bay) while the lowest of those seeds that advances will play Detroit.