This might be the first time I've read/heard a non Eagles fan make this observation...
The Eagles don't play against opponents. They play against themselves. When the Eagles are playing well, particularly on offense, the opponent is almost irrelevant. When the are playing poorly, its usually because of their own dumb mistakes -- short yardage futility, an unwillingness to even pretend to run the ball -- not because the opponent played exceptionally or used some clever scheme to stop them.
I used to think that this was just an Eagles fan's perspective. But after watching the Eagles beat the Giants, get swept by the Redskins, tie the Bengals, and perform other feats of bipolarity this season, I'm convinced that it makes more sense to analyze Eagles Success vs. Eagles Mistakes than to really look at matchups.
The Vikings enter the playoffs with Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback and an offense built around I-formation running with Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor. The Eagles defense, which is as consistent as the offense is frustrating, will have no trouble limiting the Vikings to 17 points or less. It's up to the Eagles offense to play the way it did in the last five weeks (minus the Redskins game). With Brian Westbrook, Correll Buckhalter, and Kevin Curtis all healthy, the Eagles have the weapons to drop 31 points on Sunday. The meeting between Brad Childress and former mentor Andy Reid should be a mismatch, unless the erratic Donovan McNabb shows up, or DeSean Jackson drops three passes, or the third-and-1 hitch pass to a tight end returns to the playbook.
The Eagles are good enough to beat any team in the NFL. They are also bad enough to lose to (or at least tie) anyone. I believe the good Eagles will show up on Sunday, but I won't make any promises after that.
Anyone have any argument with that? I've said this to opposing bloggers all year when I get asked the question "Are the Eagles good enough to beat X team? Are the Eagles good enough to make the playoffs?" Of course they are. They've showed that against playoff teams like Pittsburgh, Arizona, & New York. Like the article says though, inexplicably they can play terribly. You can't tell me the Bengals defense is better than the Giants or that there was some brillant scheme they used and New York didn't. We simply show up some weeks, and others we don't.