In mid-November of last year, the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers were on opposite ends of the NFL spectrum. By the end of the season, they were also on opposite ends, but had swapped positions.
The NFL moves fast and the participants in The historic Friday night match in Brazil He can attest to that. The Eagles started 10-1 last season, then won just once the rest of the season and were blown out in their first playoff game. The Packers started 3-6 but won seven of their final 10 games, including a playoff run that included a rout of the Dallas Cowboys in the playoff opener and a lead over the San Francisco 49ers in the final two minutes of what turned out to be a playoff loss.
When the season begins, both teams will have high hopes. The Packers hope to continue their positive streak from last season, while the Eagles hope an offseason of key changes will return them to Super Bowl contender status.
This is a fascinating matchup, as it’s the first NFL regular-season game ever played in South America. It’s also the first NFL opening-week game played on a Friday since 1970. That history is all well and good, but the only thing both teams are worried about is one of the NFC’s hopeful contenders going home with an 0-1 record.
The Eagles try to recover
The way the Eagles’ season ended was shocking. They went from a 10-1 record, after a Super Bowl appearance the previous season, to being one of the worst teams in the league. They lost six of their final seven games. A 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round was embarrassing. Head coach Nick Sirianni was brought back, but it seemed like the decision was a close one. And he came back in a new role.
Sirianni ceded control of the offense to the team’s next coordinator, who ended up being Kellen Moore. Sirianni said that was his idea. Whether true or not, he enters this season as executive coach. Moore will run the offense and new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will handle that side of the ball.
There was another big piece of news. Center Jason Kelce retired, as did defenseman Fletcher Cox. Kelce is close to being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Cox has a good chance.
Philadelphia added running back Saquon Barkley in free agency. There was a ESPN’s explosive story which detailed the tense relationship between Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts, which will be addressed many more times if the Eagles get off to a slow start.
The Eagles’ roster is still championship-worthy, but we’ll know on Friday if the stench from last season’s finale has passed.
The Packers ride the wave
The Packers weren’t just good at the end of last season. They went on a run with the youngest roster in the NFL and, by some measures, the youngest team to win a playoff game since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
At the center of it all was Jordan Love. He had a slow start to the season and plenty of questions about his ability to be the Packers’ franchise quarterback. He had an incredible performance in the second half of the season, throwing for 16 touchdowns and one interception in Green Bay’s final eight regular-season games. Then he had a near-perfect performance in a playoff win over the Cowboys. The Packers paid up and signed Love to a four-year, $220 million contract.
The Packers also made changes. They changed defensive coordinators and hired Jeff Hafley, who was the head coach at Boston College. Their two big free agent additions were running back Josh Jacobs and safety Xavier McKinney. The Packers finished very well last season and on paper look better this season.
Everything is a mystery until the teams tip off in São Paulo, Brazil. There are always overreactions to anything that happens in Week 1, and given the turn the Packers and Eagles’ seasons took in November of last season, both fan bases will spend the entire weekend hyper-analyzing what happens Friday night.