The Saints have given the Eagles plenty of bulletin board material for Sunday’s rematch

The Philadelphia Eagles certainly don’t need extra motivation for Sunday’s Divisional Round rematch against the New Orleans Saints.

But the Saints have given it to the reigning Super Bowl champions anyway.

It all started back in August when Saints running back Alvin Kamara said the Saints would have “beat the shit out of” the Eagles if New Orleans made it to last year’s NFC Championship Game. Which, you know, they didn’t ... because they lost to the Vikings.

In any case, Kamara stood by his comments following the Saints’ 48-7 victory over the Eagles in Week 11.

Yeah, because beating the Eagles in a regular season game at the Superdome is definitely the same thing as playing them at Lincoln Financial Field in the NFC Championship Game. And it’s not like the Eagles lost any players or coaches from their 2017 team.

The shade throwing did not stop here. Following the Saints’ Week 16 victory, Kamara donned a ski mask in the New Orleans locker room while Mark Ingram said: “There’s a lot of fraudulents out there, so we gotta let them boys know who the real ski mask shawties is.”

That was a clear shot at the Eagles, whose ski mask gimmick began to gain traction late in the regular season. Nice to see the Saints are letting the Eagles live rent free in their heads.

Even putting the off-field remarks aside, the Saints gave the Eagles ample ammo to be excited for a rematch. New Orleans made an effort to run up the score by drawing up an aggressive shot down the field on 4th-and-7 with 13:15 left in the game despite the Saints being up 31 points. Kamara burned Malcolm Jenkins on that play and the former Saints safety wasn’t happy about it as he flipped off Sean Payton following the New Orleans touchdown.

Add it all up and that’s certainly some extra motivation for the Eagles this week. As if the “nobody believes in us” underdog angle wasn’t enough, this team is going to be even more fired up about getting another chance to rights the wrongs of that embarrassing Week 11 outing.

It’s clear the revenge angle is on the mind of players. Jason Peters’ comments reveal as much:

“They ran up the score. We wanted them again, we got them again. This time, hey, we coming. It’s definitely not going to be the same outcome.”

And just look at the grin on Brandon Graham’s face when Doug Pederson said “I don’t have to tell you where we’re headed next weekend” after the Eagles beat the Bears on Sunday evening.

Maybe the Saints will be able to back up their trash talk and beat the Eagles once again.

But the pressure is on them, not the Eagles.

Philadelphia is playing with nothing to lose. That makes them very dangerous heading into Sunday’s rematch.