Eagles-Giants: Game time, channel, how to watch and stream NFL playoffs

The Eagles are the NFC’s No. 1 seed, but the team is getting Fox’s No. 2 booth.

The Birds are taking on the No. 6 seed New York Giants in the divisional round of the playoffs Saturday night, but Fox has assigned their top announcing booth — Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen — to Sunday night’s matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.

Calling tonight’s Eagles-Giants game will be Joe Davis, who most Philly sports fans will remember as the voice of the Phillies’ World Series run on Fox. He should sound very familiar to Eagles fans, since he called three of the Birds final five games this season, including their blowout win against the Giants in Week 14.

Davis garnered high praise from Phillies fans, especially for his call of Bryce Harper’s series-changing home run. He drew mostly positive reviews calling his first NFL playoff game last weekend, the 49ers’ blowout win against the Seattle Seahawks.

Alongside Davis in the booth will be veteran broadcaster Daryl Johnston. Reporting from the sidelines at the Linc will be Pam Oliver and Kristina Pink.

Eagles fans can also hear the action on 94.1 WIP, where Merrill Reese — the longest-tenured announcer in the NFL — will call the game alongside former Eagles wide receiver Mike Quick. WIP host Howard Eskin will report from the sideline.

Reese, 79, has been calling Eagles games since 1977, and is in his 25th season working alongside Quick. Earlier this year, Reese signed a new contract that will keep him in the booth through the 2024 season, and the duo have received a few shout-outs from the NFL’s top announcers.

“There’s no false excitement in my voice. What you hear is totally what I feel,” Reese told the Inquirer earlier this season. “I feel like I can do this for a long time to come. I just absolutely love every single second of it.”

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream tonight’s Eagles-Giants divisional round playoff game:

» READ MORE: Eagles-Giants: Live coverage

Ahead of the Birds playoff game against the Giants, the Jacksonville Jaguars will face off against the heavily-favored Kansas City Chiefs, the AFC’s top playoff seed.

Jaguars-Chiefs is scheduled to kickoff at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC, with Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth on the call. Al Michaels only returned to NBC last week to call the Jaguars’ comeback win against the Los Angeles Chargers because NBC had two wild-card games. Tony Dungy, who called the game alongside Michaels, returns to NBC’s pregame show, Football Night in America.

The game features two former Eagles head coaches facing off for the first time in the playoffs — Chiefs coach Andy Reid and Jaguars coach Doug Pederson who Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes thinks should be the NFL’s coach of the year.

“Pederson did it all for the NFL’s worst franchise. He inherited a culture rotted by the brief presence of Urban Meyer and the lingering stench of Doug Marrone,” Hayes wrote. “Pederson won nine games with a team that was 4-29 the past two seasons and hadn’t sniffed the playoffs in four years.”

For Saturday’s Giants game, the Eagles have drawn referee Clete Blakeman.

A quick look at the numbers reveals the Eagles are 13-1 in games where Blakeman has been the head official, including two blowout wins this season against the Steelers on Oct. 30 and the Giants on Dec. 11. But Birds fans should expect a fair amount of yellow flags — Blakeman’s crew has called over 12 penalties per game this season, the third most in the NFL.

Blakeman, 58, is in his 15th season as an NFL official. After serving a few seasons as a field judge, he was promoted to referee during the 2010 season, and has gone on to call several postseason games, including Super Bowl 50. If he seems eerily familiar, it’s because he appears in Madden football as the game’s referee.

But Blakeman might be best known for a bungled penalty announcement during that Eagles-Steelers game, where his attempt at explaining a call against Brandon Graham ended up as a viral word salad.

If the Eagles defeat the Giants, they’ll face the winner of Sunday’s divisional round matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game. Because the Birds are the NFC’s top playoff seed, they’ll host the game at the Linc, with a limited number of playoff tickets going on sale early next week.

The NFC Championship game will take place on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 3 p.m. Eastern.

The Eagles went 1-1 against the Cowboys this season. The Birds defeated Dallas, 26-17, on Oct. 16, but lost, 40-34, on Christmas Eve when Gardner Minshew started for the injured Jalen Hurts. The Eagles did not play the 49ers during the regular season.

The last time the Eagles hosted the NFC Championship game was 2018, when they handily defeated the Minnesota Vikings and went on to win Super Bowl LII against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Inquirer staff writers Jeff McLane, EJ Smith, and Josh Tolentino will be covering the action live Saturday. Smith and Tolentino will discuss the Eagles-Lions game live at 6:45 p.m., prior to kickoff. Notes and observations about the game will be at Inquirer.com/Eagles. Don’t forget to subscribe to our free Sports Daily newsletter.

On the NFL Network, pregame coverage begins at noon with NFL GameDay Morning, hosted by Rich Eisen alongside analysts Michael Irvin, Kurt Warner, and Steve Mariucci. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport will provide live updates throughout the afternoon.

ESPN will air Postseason NFL Countdown at 10 a.m., featuring Sam Ponder, Tedy Bruschi, Matt Hasselbeck, Randy Moss and Rex Ryan. Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter will provide live updates.

At 6:30 p.m., Fox 29 will air Game Day Live, featuring Breland Moore, Garry Cobb, Dave Spadaro, Bill Anderson, and Howard Eskin. Fox NFL Sunday (even though it’s Saturday) airs at 7:30 p.m., featuring Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson, and Jay Glazer.

Coverage begins on NBC at 3 p.m. with a Saturday edition of Football Night in America, featuring Maria Taylor, Tony Dungy, Jason Garrett, Jalen Hurts-hater Chris Simms, Mike Florio (one of the few pundits to pick the Giants to win), Jac Collinsworth, and Rodney Harrison. NBC will also air Eagles Game Plan at noon, featuring John Clark, Mike Quick, and WIP host Ike Reese.