The Eagles were off to a 10-2 start when star second-year quarterback Carson Wentz suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Nick Foles, who has bounced around the league to three teams and is serving his second-stint with the Eagles, will start at quarterback when they face the Falcons in the NFC divisional round of the playoffs at 4:35 p.m. Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles finished 13-3, won the NFC East division and earned a first-round as the conference’s top-seeded team.
Wentz had just broken the franchise record for touchdown passes in a season when he went down in a game against the Rams on Dec. 10. The Eagles went on to win 43-25 and improve to 11-2.
With Foles in charge, the Eagles won on the road against the New York Giants (34-29), beat the Raiders (19-10) and lost to the Cowboys (6-0).
Foles has completed 57 of 101 passes (56.4 percent) for 537 yards and five touchdowns and two interceptions. He played briefly in the lost to Dallas as the Eagles rested most of the starters.
The Falcons have to study the offense to see what changes were made to better fit Foles’ skill-set.
“Most often the scheme stays the same based on who’s playing quarterback,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “Now, they may feature certain plays more than another based on who that backup quarterback is. That’s what we’ll go to see, what’s the same and what’s different in terms of what they do.”
Wentz had the Eagles passing attack flourishing at a high level. The top three receivers finished the season with a combined 25 touchdown passes.
“Likely there’s not wholesale change unless there was a quarterback that had unbelievable movement or ways to run it more based on who he was,” Quinn said. “But in this case, we’re really consistently watching to see what’s the same. I think there will be more the same than different.”
Tight end Zach Ertz made 74 catches for 824 yards and eight touchdowns, wide receiver Nelson Agholor had 62 catches for 768 yards and eight touchdowns and wide receiver Alshon Jeffery had 57 catches for 789 yards and nine touchdowns.
The Eagles rushing attack is led by LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi, who averaged 5.8 yards per carry after being trading to the Eagles by Miami.
Ajayi is the only back to rush for more than 100 yards against the Falcons this season. He rushed 26 times for 130 yards to help the Dolphins defeat the Falcons, 20-17, on Oct. 15.
At the trading deadline, Ajayi was traded to the Eagles for a fourth-round pick.
The Eagles defense is anchored by three-time Pro Bowler Fletcher Cox, the former Mississippi State standout.
The Eagles finished with 38 sacks on the season. Defensive end Brandon Graham led the team with 9.5 sacks. Cox had 5.5 sacks and Chris Long and rookie defensive end Derek Barnett added five each.
The Eagles ranked fourth in total yards allowed (306.5 per game), first in rushing yards allowed (79.2), 17th in passing yards allowed (227.3) and fourth in points allowed (18.4).
“They’ve played terrifically this year,” Quinn said. “I think if I’m not mistaken, they finished plus-11 in the turnover margin and finished the No. 1 ranked rush defense, good job in scoring, so we’ll have our work cut out for us for sure.”
The Falcons know the Eagles will be stout.
“Each week, as you get into the playoffs, it’s almost like back to the division games,” Quinn said. “In our opinion a lot of times you have to throw some of the stats out and say, ‘What’s the best thing to do to win this game.’ This matchup, how to feature our guys with the matchups that we have the very best, and that’s what we’ll do putting the game plan together.”
The Eagles beat the Falcons last season 24-15 on Nov. 13, 2016 at Lincoln Financial Field. The Falcons might have been caught looking ahead to their bye week.
The Eagles ran the ball for 208 yards and had 146 yards on kickoff returns against the Falcons’ special teams.
“We’ll definitely go back and look at last year’s (game) as well, knowing from a play-caller standpoint on both sides and on special teams as well, look at all the games this year,” Quinn said.
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