This was the kind of game you dream about as a sports fan if you have a dog — or a bird — in the hunt. Rare are the days when you get to do little other than savor and celebrate, rarer still when the inner demons of cynicism don’t take over for stretches at a time. 

If you are a sports fan, you are a worrier. 

And for years — for decades — there were no more accomplished worriers than Eagles fans. Something always went wrong. Something always went sideways. Something always got in the way, at the worst possible time. 

That was then.