Will superstitious rituals help the Eagles beat the Giants? These fans say it can’t hurt.

The last time the Eagles played the Giants in a playoff game in the 2008 divisional round, Omar Bowers and his friends watched the Birds win from a sports bar and restaurant on Columbus Boulevard in South Philly. So when the Giants advanced out of Wild Card week for a rematch in Philadelphia, a friend gave him marching orders: Assemble the same crew for a return visit.

Bowers doesn’t consider himself superstitious. But this is the playoffs, and there’s no harm in making sure everything is perfectly aligned for an Eagles win, right?

“It’s got good mojo,” Bowers, a consultant, said of the prophetic bar.

» READ MORE: Eagles fans indulge wild superstitions for NFC Championship game (published 2018)

Reams of research have explored superstitions among athletes and whether such rituals actually improve performance. Fans’ superstitions have been studied less, said Orr Levental, a senior lecturer of geography and sociology in Tel Hai Academic College in Israel, who has studied superstitions among Israeli soccer fans.

Superstitious rituals allow fans to feel that they are helping the team — rather than being the helpless onlookers they are. Rituals also help relieve the stress of watching a game that’s out of their control, Levental said.

“It’s a way to manufacture control within a situation in which fans have no control,” Levental told The Inquirer in an interview that was translated from Hebrew.

Will the outcome of Saturday’s game depend on whether Andrea Squiccimara is watching? The Bucks County freelance writer isn’t taking her chances ― she’ll be monitoring it on social media, instead of watching on TV.

In the run-up to the Eagles’ 2018 Super Bowl win, Squiccimara and her sister used to hit up their favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Doylestown to slurp pho soup and would follow the game on Twitter. Watching the game seemed “too risky,” she said.

And, as evidenced by a parade on Broad Street, it worked.

Squiccimara doesn’t actually believe that her ritual has an impact on how the Eagles play. At the same time, she said, “it’s not hurting anything so why not keep doing it?”

The sisters will be avoiding television screens Saturday evening.

Game day rituals can enhance the game watching experience itself. But when they overtake pleasure or become debilitating that can be a sign of a problem, said Tom Smalley, a lead advocate with the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation.

OCD is a mental health disorder that is defined by a pattern of intrusive thoughts that are accompanied with repeated behavior.

“OCD isn’t fun,” said Smalley, who was diagnosed with the disorder a decade ago. “It’s debilitating and absolutely exhausting.”

To differentiate sport superstitions from OCD, Smalley recommends asking, “what would happen if you don’t do it?”

If the answer is intense anxiety accompanied with compulsions that take more and more time out of your day, it might be worth seeking out help. After all, sports and fandom are supposed to be fun.

Eric Korsh’s game day rituals are all about fun.

“I don’t believe in astrology. I don’t believe in ghosts,” said Korsh, a Brooklyn media executive who grew up in Cheltenham and is a lifelong Eagles fan. “But there is some kind of energy that I’m putting the game at risk if I do not wear an item of clothing that is Philadelphia Eagles.”

His go-to is a Donovan McNabb jersey that he has had for almost 20 years. Sometimes, if the Eagles aren’t playing well, he changes to a different Eagles jersey mid-game — fresh shirt for Korsh, fresh energy for the Birds.

Part of the lure of the superstition for Korsh is the community building aspect of it.

“[On game day] I know that there are a lot of other people out there getting ready the way I’m getting ready,” he said. “You feel like part of that community.”