One of these franchises will get the chance to win their first Super Bowl title as they are a combined 0-6 in the Big Game.  The Vikings are 0-4 and seek their first appearance in the Super Bowl since losing to Oakland in Super Bowl 11.  The Eagles have lost their two Super Bowl appearances, the most recent being to New England in Super Bowl 39.  Both teams have better than perceived offenses yet their success this season has been greatly due to the contributions from their defenses.  This is more true in the case of the Vikings as the Eagles were getting an MVP season from QB Carson Wentz before he was injured late in their Week 14 win at the Rams.  Still, the Eagles were 11-2 with Wentz and to fashion that lofty a record more than just great QB play is involved.  Both teams’ offenses and defenses each rank in the top ten as do their scoring offenses and defenses.  Each is deserving of playing for the NFC Championship and are the top seeds.  Each also survived tough Divisional round games.  The Eagles came from behind and then stopped Atlanta in a late potential game winning drive in their 15-10 win on Saturday.  A day later the Vikings were involved in one of the wildest games in NFL history that featured four lead changes in the final three minutes of their 29-24 win over New Orleans.  Defenses figure to be the key in this game as both the Eagles and Vikings will be dropping in class as to the caliber of quarterbacks they will face here than they faced last week.  The Philly defenses faces Case Keenum after facing Matt Ryan while the Vikings will face Nick Foles after being severely tested by Drew Brees.  One question to be considered is whether or not the Eagles deserve to be home underdogs.  As noted above, to finish 13-3 requires more than just outstanding QB play such as the Eagles got from Wentz before his injury.  Since Division realignment in 2002 that restructured the NFL from 6 to 8 Divisions the Eagles are the sixth team to be home underdogs in a conference championship game.  The previous five home dogs went 2-3 both Straight Up and ATS.  One of the upsets was in 2008 when the Eagles were 3.5 point favorites in Arizona and lost 32-25.  3 of the prior 5 home underdogs were number 1 seeds and lost 2 of the 3 games.  And each of the three was an home underdog to the number 2 seed, as is the situation here.  The three quarterbacks who led their teams to road wins as favorites were Tom Brady of the Patriots at Pittsburgh in 2004, Aaron Rodgers of the Packers in 20010 and Colin Kaepernick of Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers in 2012.  Both teams were 13-3 in the regular season and faced 6 common opponents.  The Vikings were 5-1 SU but just 3-2-1 ATS whereas the Eagles were 6-0 both SU and ATS.  Minnesota’s margins were plus 6.5 points per game, plus 68 total yards per game and plus 0.42 yards per play.  The Eagles were plus 11.5 ppg, plus 101 ypg and plus 0.90 yards per play.  The common opponents have been Atlanta, Carolina, Chicago (faced twice by Minnesota), the L A Rams and Washington (faced twice by the Eagles).  There are more similarities than differences between these teams.  The Eagles are 8-1 SU at home (6-3 ATS) with the lone loss in Week 16 to Dallas in a meaningless game in which starters were rested.  The Vikings are 6-2 away from home (5-3 ATS).  While both defenses are facing weaker quarterbacks than they faced last week both offenses are also stepping up in class in the defenses they are facing.  In facing the Vikings the Eagles’ offense is stepping up in class but the defense they faced against Atlanta is a better defense than the Saints’ defense faced by Minnesota.  The Eagles have been the team to beat in the NFC since the first month of the season and this is more than a team that has won just because of strong QB play as referenced previously.  In the absence of the road favorite being a truly dominant team it is harder to justify laying points against a team that has performed so well at home.  The Eagles won last week as a home dog and their tough, defensive win over Atlanta was no less ‘fluky’ than the Vikes win over the Saints.

01/21/2018 9:14 AM