On one hand, it all seems pretty unbelievable.
There was Zack Baun on Sunday night, in the Eagles’ locker room, wearing his gray NFC Champions t-shirt and posing with the George Halas Trophy as he gets ready to lead the Eagles’ No. 1 defense to the Super Bowl after an All-Pro and Defensive Player of the Year-caliber season.
When the Eagles signed Baun in the offseason to a one-year deal, most thought he’d be a situational pass rusher, a special teamer. Definitely not the best linebacker in the NFL.
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But that’s the wide-angle perspective. If you zoom in a little bit, none of what happened in Sunday’s 55-23 win over the Commanders is all that surprising. And it’s not surprising that these Eagles have won three home playoff games to punch their ticket to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
“This is crazy, this is wild. Very exciting, obviously,” Baun said. “We worked really hard at this. We worked hard all year, but at the same time, it feels like we’re supposed to be here. With the work we’ve put in, the guys we have, the coaching staff we have, it just feels like we were supposed to do this.”
Baun, 28, did it again on Sunday afternoon at the Linc.
The All-Pro inside linebacker was all over the field. He finished with 12 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Ho hum, just another day at the office for Howie Roseman’s upcoming No. 1 offseason priority.
NFL
The Eagles on Sunday were facing a high-flying Commanders offense that just put up 45 points a week ago to knock off the No. 1-seeded Lions in Detroit. This was a Commanders offense that has the presumed Rookie of the Year and plenty of weapons in a scheme that is built to put a lot of stress on defenses.
But the Eagles were ready. Baun said their confidence was “really high” entering Sunday.
They earned the right to have that type of confidence. The Eagles had the No. 1 defense in the NFL this season; they expected to uphold that standard on Sunday.
And they did.
“We’ve been playing well all year long, all playoffs long and taking the ball away really well,” Baun said. “Our confidence is really high against anyone.”
The Commanders did make some plays on Sunday. Baun had a rare missed tackle on a Terry McLaurin touchdown in the first half and Washington was able to keep the game close for a while. But Vic Fangio’s defense made them work for everything in the NFC Championship Game and they ended up taking the ball away three times.
“How about that defense?” center Cam Jurgens said. “I mean, they get the ball, three, four turnovers. They’re balling out. And when that s— happens, it gives you so much energy, so much juice. It just gives us f—ing energy and we’re going out there and we get to play care-free because we get the ball back and we know they’re going to stand up and do their job.”
In total, including a special teams forced fumble, the Eagles had four takeaways in the NFC Championship Game. They scored four touchdowns off of those takeaways. That's a pretty good recipe for success.
In their three playoff games, the Eagles have a turnover differential of +10. They have 10 takeaways (4 INTs, 6 FFs) and haven’t turned the ball over a single time on offense.
If you include the regular season, the Eagles are now +21 in turnover differential this year. And that’s after being -6 through the first four weeks of the season. They are +27 in the 16 games since their Week 5 bye.
“We’ve been doing it all year,” fellow linebacker Oren Burks said after the win. “Finding ways to win and just coming up big with turnovers and things like that. It’s like, we just gotta play our ball. There’s nothing crazy that you’ve got to draw up, no grand scheme or anything. It’s just find a way to play together.”
Both Baun and Burks forced fumbles on Sunday on defense. Will Shipley had another forced fumble on special teams. And Quinyon Mitchell picked off a pass intended for Terry McLaurin in the fourth quarter.
After the win, Baun went through them one-by-one.
“Mine, just shots on goal,” Baun said. “Punching at the ball and you never know when it’s going to come out or how it’s going to happen. [Burks], same thing. Quinyon made a fantastic play in the end zone. I honestly don’t remember the rest.”
He was reminded about Shipley’s forced fumble on kickoff.
“Special teams!” Baun said. “Coming through again. It’s all phases are clicking right now.”
The Eagles have been a very opportunistic defense and after forcing just two turnovers in their first six games, they have 34 since. They have been getting the ball back for their offense at an exceptionally high rate.
Punching at the football is the expectation.
“We practice it,” Burks said. “Every week, man. It’s a habit.”
In his second straight start in place of an injured Nakobe Dean, Burks again played a fantastic game. For a franchise that hasn't had high-level linebacker play in quite some time, this season has been very refreshing.
The Eagles’ defense will now have two weeks to prepare for the reigning Super Bowl champion Kanas City Chiefs. For Baun, this will be a trip back to New Orleans, where his career began and floundered.
He has the chance to put the finishing touches on his storybook season.
“I don’t know,” Baun said. “It’s pretty crazy that, that’s the case. But I’m excited.”
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