Divergent Packers-Eagles narratives converge on Brazil in Week 1

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Week 1 is always a fresh start, with newness all around.

That certainly applies to the Packers and Eagles as the 2024 season gets underway Friday night in a new-to-the-NFL venue, Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo.

Green Bay and Philadelphia each hired new defensive coordinators (the Eagles hired a new offensive coordinator as well). They got themselves new bell-cow running backs, too.

Both made the playoffs a year ago, but that’s where in many ways the similarities stop. Because the overarching narratives these teams bring into this season-opening international matchup couldn’t be more distinct.

A year ago at this time, the Eagles were the defending NFC champion coming off a last-second, heartbreaking loss to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. They kicked the “Super Bowl hangover” idea in the teeth, winning five straight games to start the year and then, after one loss, winning five more.

The last of those was a wild and rainy 37-34 walk-off triumph over Buffalo that put the Eagles at 10-1 and on pace to repeat as the NFC’s top playoff seed. The road to the Super Bowl looked as though it would go through Philly once again.

Then it all changed. The Eagles suddenly lost five of their last six regular-season games, starting with blowout defeats by a combined 45 points to the playoff-bound 49ers (42-19) and NFC East rival Cowboys (33-13), from which they seemingly never recovered. A minus-8 turnover margin during that stretch was especially detrimental.

They thought they bottomed out in dropping a 35-31 shootout to the four-win Cardinals in Week 17, which effectively cost them the division to Dallas and relegated them to a wild-card entry, only to get blown out again by a 9-8 Tampa Bay team in the playoffs. The 32-9 final capped a stunning one-and-done and abysmal month and a half.

So for the Eagles, the start of the 2024 season serves as their opportunity to flush it, move on, and get back on track as the contender they’ve routinely been, with six postseason appearances in the last seven years, including two Super Bowl trips.

Contrast that with the Packers, who 12 months ago were coming off a playoff-less season and transitioning from their future Hall of Fame quarterback to just their future. Jordan Love took the reins at quarterback surrounded by a bevy of young talent, and their inexperience was on display in the early going.

A 3-6 start left a lot to be desired but then, just as suddenly as the Eagles hit the skids, the Packers took off. A 6-2 finish, including wins over two division champions (the Lions and Chiefs) helped steal the seventh and final NFC playoff seed, an opportunity they seized by routing the Cowboys at Dallas in the wild-card round.

A series of small regrets conspired to end Green Bay’s run in the divisional playoff in San Francisco, but that disappointment did nothing to blunt the momentum the franchise carried into the offseason and training camp. It’s riding a wave of enthusiasm rooted in the transition producing success sooner than many envisioned.

With that, what’s next has finally arrived. For both teams.

“I think everybody’s excited to see the start of the regular season,” Head Coach Matt LaFleur said. “We always are.

“Certainly I know there’s a lot of expectations, and we’re not going to run from those.”

No reason to. Outside expectations confer that belief isn’t just some internally manufactured self-promotion. They confirm the perspective this team’s got the goods.

Now’s the time to prove it. While the Eagles are out to show the team that finished 2023 isn’t who they really are, the Packers are out to demonstrate the opposite. That contender they were last winter is not a mirage.

No more talk. Time to play.

“I think everybody is very hungry,” Love said. “The message this year is for us to start out fast, and kinda put people on notice for what we’re going to do this year, and what we’re going to be about.”