The Eagles secondary needs to have its Nick Foles moment this postseason | David Murphy

One notable thing about the 373 yards and three touchdowns that Nick Foles threw for in last year’s Super Bowl was that the Eagles needed every single one of them, and very nearly needed more. This is something I keep coming back to as I sit here and try to chart a path to another Lombardi Trophy.

Looking at the roster, it is easy to piece together a list of reasons to believe that the Eagles have already achieved the hardest part of their journey by qualifying for the postseason. They have an offensive line that, when healthy, is among the best in the game. They have a defensive line capable of disrupting even the most efficient of quarterbacks. They have a coaching staff that has a history of knowing which strings on the play sheet to pull when, and a long track record of out-gameplanning opponents. And, of course, they have Foles.

What they don’t have, and what they haven’t had for much of this season, is a secondary with a legitimate playoff-caliber NFL starter outside of Malcolm Jenkins. While it’s true that the Eagles defense has performed better as of late, it’s also true that it has allowed 500-plus yards in each of its two most recent losses, one of them to the team the Eagles would need to beat next weekend to get back to the NFC championship game.

This, more than anything else, is the biggest reason for skepticism about the Eagles’ chances this time around. If they are going to shock the world for the second straight postseason, they are going to need a Herculean effort from defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and the veterans on his unit.

That’s not necessarily the worst situation to be in. There’s a decent possibility that we have yet to see the best of this Eagles defense, which is something that Schwartz alluded to on Tuesday. He was discussing the recent performance of second-year cornerback Rasul Douglas, whose interception of Josh Johnson was one of the highlights in Sunday’s win over the Redskins, in which the Eagles held Washington to 89 yards of total offense, the lowest single-game total of any NFL team since 2010.

“He’s come up big at the right time,” Schwartz said. “I think his journey this year has sort of mimicked the defense as a whole. He’s playing his best football late in the season. He’s overcome some things. He’s put some performances behind him. He’s tackled much better. I think all the things you can say about Rasul you can probably just put the defense right next to him.”

For the Eagles' postseason to last longer than a week, they are going to need more. That goes not only for Douglas and Cre’Von LeBlanc and the rest of the patchwork secondary, but also for — especially for, even — the veterans along the defensive front.

This time of year, it is the quarterbacks who scare you, and while the Eagles will not be at a significant disadvantage in that department against the Bears, awaiting them in the divisional round would be Drew Brees, who, six weeks ago, torched them for 363 yards and four touchdowns on 22-for-30 passing.

The last 13 teams to win on the road in the playoffs did so while holding their opponents to an average of 16.6 points. That’s not a barometer by which we can arrive at many scientific conclusions — there are plenty of shootouts in that sample, including the Jaguars’ 45-42 win in Pittsburgh last January — but it does support a fairly intuitive notion.

It seems beyond dispute that the biggest impact of a home crowd is felt by the visiting team’s offense, via the role that stadium noise can play in disrupting communication at the line of scrimmage. For what it is worth, NFL quarterbacks have a 93.0 rating at home vs. an 88.8 rating on the road this season, a split that holds relatively consistent over the last several seasons. Thus, it would seem that a road team’s defense can serve as a bit of an equalizer.

The Bears should not scare you. They are well-coached, and quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is an excellent athlete with a strong arm and an ability to create with his feet. But the biggest headache from the Eagles' perspective might be the presence of pass-catching running back Tarik Cohen. The Saints have a much better version of Cohen in Alvin Kamara, plus one of the best all-around receivers in the game in Michael Thomas.

The bottom line is that for a second straight Super Bowl to become a reality, the Eagles will need a level of performance from their defense that they simply have not gotten this season. At least, not yet.