When the Eagles beat the hell out of the Vikings last night, they didn’t just set up a 2005 Super Bowl rematch with the New England Patriots. They also became the fifth team to beat the Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs and ultimately make it to the Super Bowl while Matt Ryan has been under center. That’s...depressing.
Astute reader DyingLobster on Twitter was the first to point this out to me last night, and it was bracing both to realize the caliber of opponents the Falcons have played during their playoff runs and to realize how maddeningly close they were to being a Super Bowl team more than once pre-2016.