Eagles Will Play Lions "If" They Beat Bucs; Divisional Time Revealed

It's a big if for the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the Bucs given the way they finished the season, but maybe seeing the Dallas Cowboys lose will rejuvenate them.

TAMPA – If, and that is a mighty big if given the way the Philadelphia Eagles played the last six weeks, but … if they beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, they won’t have to fly across the country to play the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers.

That would be the good news.

There is still some bad news.

The Eagles would still have to hit the road if they beat the Bucs. They would have to go to Detroit to play the upstart Lions, who dispatched the No. 6 seed Los Angeles Rams, 24-23, on Saturday night.

The game will be Sunday at 3 p.m. on NBC.

Fletcher Cox said he saw an increase in urgency as the Philadelphia Eagles prepare to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night :: Ed Kracz/SI Eagles Today

Had the Rams found a way to win, the Eagles would have hosted the Divisional round of the playoffs next week, if they were to beat Tampa. L.A. couldn't get it done.

Detroit will come in riding high after winning their first postseason game in 32 years, and it was like they had won the Super Bowl after the win. Can the Lions recapture that kind of emotion and intensity after such a big win?

The Eagles may be the ones to find out. The two teams have some recent history – all of it good for Philly.

The Eagles beat Detroit at Ford Field in last year’s season opener, 38-35, their first step on the road to the Super Bowl. Philadelphia held a 24-14 lead at halftime and then survived a Lions comeback that featured 24 fourth-quarter points.

Two years ago, the Eagles and their then-rookie head coach Nick Sirianni went to Ford Field with a 2-5 record and effectively turned around their season by hammering the Lions, 44-6. That win springboarded the Eagles into wins in six of their next eight games to make the playoffs.

To book their reservations to the Motor City, though, the Eagles must first, of course, beat the Bucs, who would have to go to Detroit if they beat Philly on their home field.

Perhaps the Eagles can find some kind of rejuvenation after watching their NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys get drummed out of the playoffs – yet again. This time the Green Bay Packers took them out, winning a closer than it looked, 48-32, holding a 27-7 lead at halftime.

That’s the seventh-seeded Packers, who became the first team of that distinction to win a playoff game. And they did it by ending the Cowboys' 16-game home winning streak and continuing the Cowboy’s run of futility.

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You know the century turns 25 next year and Dallas still has not sniffed an NFC championship game in that time?

So, maybe the Eagles can find some strength there as well as realize that, hey, we just went to the Super Bowl a year ago.

Maybe even they saw what the Kansas City Chiefs did to the Miami Dolphins on Saturday night. It’s been a struggle for KC this season after it won the Super Bowl, but it certainly looked like they flipped a switch and were their old selves.

Maybe that’s what the Eagles will do.

That’s a lot of “maybes” and one super-sized “if,” but perhaps there is some hope, yet, for a team that lost five of their last six games to close the season.