Eagles Go from Super Bowl Favorites to Underdogs During Preseason

The Philadelphia Eagles were virtually proclaimed as paper champions at the beginning of August. After making all of their free agency pickups, the Eagles became even more of a popular pick than the defending champion Green Bay Packers for a while. But those of us Philadelphia fans who got carried away a month ago saw the Birds fall back into underdog status just as quickly.

Now that the Eagles have faced the "Dream Team" hype and have shown their weaknesses in the preseason, expectations have lowered a bit. When Philadelphia first got Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique-Rodgers Cromartie and more Pro Bowlers, it was easier to forget the line weaknesses, Michael Vick's fragility and the task of bringing these newcomers into the system in just a month's time.

As such, it looks like the Eagles' hype peaked even before the regular season began. This is clear in various Super Bowl predictions, which have favored teams like the Packers, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact out of 12 ESPN experts, only three picked Philadelphia to win the NFC and none of them pegged them to win the Super Bowl.

This is actually more in line with what was expected before all the free agency pickups. After the loss in last year's playoffs-- and the fact that the Packers were still in the NFC-- it was hard to pick the Eagles as a Super Bowl team before the lockout ended. After they became an anointed powerhouse, it was easy to see the hype peaking at some point, but perhaps not this quickly.

But all of this had happened before the Eagles even played a full regular season game with the entire "Dream Team." Even after that, they have to play 15 more games together to show if they are worthy of being overhyped or underrated or not. Perception can change so easily in the NFL, as Philadelphia proved with their rollercoaster journey throughout August and with their collapse at the end of last year.

Few other teams in recent memory can say that they were underdogs, then Super Bowl favorites, then underdogs again before the real season even started. That is the kind of madness that the Eagles set up for themselves, and what they will face in the next four or more months.

After all that has taken place, the Birds are right where we originally thought they would be- as a potential contender with the chance to be great or horrific depending on our health and offensive line. Before they became the "Dream Team" that looked to be enough to go on, and now it looks like a more disappointing prediction. Yet thankfully, there will finally be more to go on than just predictions soon.

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