Yesterday, that defense held the New York Giants without a touchdown at the Meadowlands. It now has not allowed a passing touchdown in five games. The transformation, from inconsistent to solid to dominating, has vaulted the Eagles to the NFC Championship Game for the fifth time in eight seasons. In the process, they have left their fan base simultaneously delighted and open-mouthed.
"People say every once in a while that I like to throw the ball around and coach on the offensive side," coach Andy Reid said. (In the Andy-to-English dictionary, "every once in a while" translates to "every hour of every day.")
"[But] I know that you win games on defense in the National Football League," Reid said. "If you don't play good defense, you're going to struggle.
"I'm partial but I've got the best defensive coordinator in the National Football League. These guys believe in him and the things he does, he's kept it fresh for them. He's kept it fresh for 'em, even though he's 100 years old [Johnson is 67]. You noticed today he was up in the box. The poor guy's in the box. His back's aching a little bit, so he called it from up there.
"Coach Paterno was a good example," Reid said.
Except that, well, USC could have scored half-a-hundred on Joe Paterno's Penn State defense if it had kept trying in the Rose Bowl, and the Giants got only three field goals on Johnson's defense in the Eagles' 23-11 victory.
The Eagles' defense is playing with a swagger that knocks people over at this point - especially on fourth-and-1. The first 2 months of the season are completely forgotten.
"It's a great journey, a very, very intriguing, delightful and pleasant journey right now," safety Brian Dawkins said, and the next stop, stunningly, is the conference championship game against the Arizona Cardinals.
Even Johnson, who thought they were a good team, didn't see all of this coming.
