Like LeSean McCoy’s Snow Bowl game, snow on Sunday would give Eagles’ running game a big advantage vs. Rams
The weather forecast for Sunday isn't locked in, but snow is on the table when the Eagles and Rams meet, bringing back memories of the 2013 Snow Bowl between the Lions and Eagles.
Lane Johnson had more on his mind than the weather when the Eagles and Detroit Lions were kicking off on the afternoon of Dec. 8, 2013. Johnson was a wide-eyed rookie getting through his first NFL season and the Lions brought a physical front to Philadelphia that he was preparing to block. Johnson remembered leaving the field after warm-ups and coming back to a winter wonderland of sorts.
A dusting was in the forecast, not the eight inches that would fall throughout the day.
“It was night and day,” Johnson said of the scene he arrived to before kickoff. “It really became almost childlike, like recess football.” It was the kind of game where the film afterward was useless. You could barely see the players on the field, Johnson said. “It was that bad, but it was fun,” he said. “It was a blast.”
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Johnson’s biggest memory from that game? The one that decided the outcome.
“Nobody could grip on the field except LeSean,” he said of the day when LeSean McCoy set a franchise record — one Saquon Barkley broke this year — with 217 yards in a 34-20 Eagles win in a game dubbed the Snow Bowl.
The Eagles host the Rams in Sunday’s divisional-round playoff game, and while the forecast is not quite locked in — and the Snow Bowl showed the forecast doesn’t matter — models are calling for 4 to 6 inches of snow in Philadelphia Sunday afternoon, with some of the heaviest stuff falling around and after the 3 p.m. kickoff at Lincoln Financial Field.
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The Eagles have spent the practice week preparing for whatever the weather throws their way. They practiced at Lincoln Financial Field rather than at the NovaCare Complex and even got light snowfall Thursday afternoon to give themselves a little bit of practice in the slippery conditions.
Snow would seem to tilt the advantage in the direction of the Eagles, not just because they’ve been practicing all week at the stadium and are facing a west coast team that doesn’t typically deal with the elements. The Eagles are better in the trenches, and they have the dominant run game that could be the difference in the event of heavy snowfall.
“I know where I’m going and he usually doesn’t,” Johnson said when asked if offensive linemen have the advantage in the snow.
Barkley, who topped McCoy’s record with 255 yards when the Eagles beat the Rams, 37-20, on Nov. 24, said he wasn’t buying into the weather being a difference maker.
“At the end of the day whether it’s snow, rain, sleet, whatever it is, if we don’t go out there and we don’t execute and we go against good teams you’re going to set yourself up for an outcome you don’t want,” he said. “Whoever comes out there and executes is going to be the team that’s going to win.”
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Barkley plans to set himself up for success, though. He said he planned to call McCoy to get some tips and learn about what made him so good in that 2013 game.
“It don’t make sense how he was able to cut in that snow and you could just see he was on a whole different level,” Barkley said.
Barkley learned his lesson earlier this season in Brazil, where he felt fine in warmups and didn’t feel the need to change cleats like some players did.
“I didn’t want to play in studs,” he said. “I felt good with my footing and cutting, and when it actually got to live bullets, three plays in a row I slipped and fell.”
McCoy may be helpful there. It was a change in cleats that made the difference for him during the Snow Bowl.
Darius Slay remembers that well. He, like Johnson, was a rookie, but he was on the other sideline with the Lions as a spectator after a minor knee surgery kept him off the field during the Snow Bowl.
“He changed his cleats and [stuff] just went AWOL,” Slay said. “[Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland] said, ‘Yeah, we made him switch cleats and we just started running zone read on y’all asses.’”
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Eagles kicker Jake Elliott said footwear has been top of mind for him this week. He said he tried out a few different cleat options for his plant foot throughout the week to make sure he’s comfortable in whatever shoe he needs to wear on game day. The kicking operation will be a team effort, Elliott said, should snow need to be cleared before a kick. He will get the offensive linemen involved to clear a spot for Braden Mann to spot the ball.
“It’s situational stuff that we’ve gone over this week already just in case there is that situation that arises,” Elliott said. “They know that they’re kind of at my service at that moment and we’ll get it taken care of.”
Elliott has had a rocky 2024 season with a career-high eight missed field goals. He said he feels good and will lean on his preparation and experience kicking for fun in the snow back home in Chicago if and when his number is called Sunday.
“Obviously it’s an advantage for us that we’re able to get over there during the week,” Elliott said of practicing at the stadium this week.
Slay wasn’t alone on that other sideline in 2013. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford had a miserable day leading the Lions, completing just 10 of his 25 passes. The Eagles failed to sack him that day, but they have big advantages Sunday along the defensive line, especially with Jalen Carter in the middle. In California in November, the Eagles sacked Stafford five times. They dominated the line of scrimmage and should be able to do the same Sunday, though Barkley and others have mentioned seeing a different defense on film than the one they dominated in Week 12.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “You know when you rush for over 300 yards against a team they’re going to do something, they’re going to have some type of game plan to make sure it don’t happen again.”
Man plans, Mother Nature laughs?
The Eagles play host to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in the divisional round of the playoffs. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lincoln Financial Field.