Underdogs Without Masks, Unlike 2017 Super Bowl Run
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Go ahead and find the box in your attic or basement with the dog mask in it from 2017.
Feel free to wear it around all you like.
Don’t expect the Eagles to break theirs out, though. Not yet, anyway. Maybe not for however long their playoff run lasts.
Lane Johnson doesn’t even know where his mask is.
“I gotta find it in the basement somewhere,” the right tackle said in the days leading up to the Eagles’ trip to Tampa Bay on Sunday to play the defending Super Bowl champions in the first round of the NFC playoffs.
Johnson and then-Eagles defensive end Chris Long got credit for the dog mask sensation during their run to the world championship. Johnson posted himself wearing a dog mask from those days on one of his social media accounts last week.
“I thought it was funny,” he said. “One of my buddies sent me that, so I thought it was funny.”
The Eagles, though, are not playing on the underdog theme, which is ironic because they are the No. 7 seed, which makes them the ultimate underdog, and it begins against Tampa, which is an 8.5-point favorite in the game.
Lane Johnson wears his dog mask in the locker room back in 2017.
Ed Kracz/SI.com Eagle Maven
Back in 2017, the Eagles were the NFC’s No. 1 seed. That didn’t matter to oddsmakers, though, who installed them as underdogs in each postseason game, including the Super Bowl vs. The New England Patriots.
Much of those odds had to do with Nick Foles at quarterback and not Carson Wentz.
“As far as [the] underdog [theme], no,” said Nick Sirianni when asked on Friday if it was being discussed. “I know that was the theme in 2017, but every team's a little bit different. Every team has their own things to go by. We know who we are. We know what we're about.
"So, we haven't played that underdog role. We're just doing our part to get ready for this football game.”
MORE: Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson All-Pros Once Again
Sirianni is right. Every team is different. So are the very few players who still remain from that Super Bowl season.
Along with Johnson, Jason Kelce is one.
The center was asked how is he a different player from 2017 to the one he is now at age 34.
“I’m certainly slower,” he said. “ It’s really hard to look back and compare years because there are so many things that go into each year and different variables, different players, you’re playing with different coaches, every team is different every year.
“It's something we talk about at the start of every season. This team is going to be it, no matter who comes back next year it’s going to be a different team.
“I still have a certain amount of strengths and skill set that I can do a lot of things that are advantageous for an offense. I really don’t try to think about comparing too much year to year.”
Asked if he is at least a wiser player now compared to then, Kelce said: “I wish. Every hit to the head I don’t know if that’s the case anymore. I think I’m wiser in some regards and slower in others, I’ll say that.”
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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
